Well, the end is in sight, finally. I have been able to overcome all of the obstacles I ran into. I'll try to hit the high points and solutions I found, hopefully they will help other members.
Gutting/demolition was the easy part. I just rented a trailer, filled it up, and they took it to the dump. It probably wasn't the cheapest way, but it was the easiest. We cleaned out the garage and put all of the tile and concrete we broke out and filled the trailer totally.
Once everything was removed, I prepped the walls. I used spackling compound on the small holes and concrete on the larger holes. The spackle worked good. It filled the holes and sanded down really well prior to painting.
Some of you may remember the problem I was having removing the control head for the shower. It really ended up not being too bad at all. I just broke out enough of the concrete blocks around the water pipes/control head. Then I hauled out the SawzAll and cut the pipes right below the control head. Once it was out, I just soldered copper pipe caps on the pipes and that was it. Lastly, I filled the hole in with concrete and that was that. For the shower head, I just left it in the wall and concreted over the holes.
I installed 3 new 48" flourescent light strips on the ceiling. I wired them into the current light switch and wired them all together. It was a pretty easy job. The hardest part was swqueezing my way around in the narrow spots in the attic.
I installed 4 new outlets. Once I figured out what needed to go where, and how to do it, it was really pretty easy. I put 2 outlets on each side of the garage, each side is on it's own circuit to keep the load down on any one circuit. I had done minor wiring stuff before, but never run full circuits. Once I was told what needed to be done and saw the panel, it was very easy. I also had to reroute some of the other wiring. I used juntion boxes to relocate wiring, and that worked quite well. I used the wire clamps instead of wire nuts in the junction boxes.
On the far wall, there was a concrete opening for ventilation. This was bad for letting dirt, dust, etc inside and getting everything all dirty, not to mention insects. So enclosing this was on the list. After looking at different options, all I ended up doing was framing the opening in with 1x4's, putting a layer of 3/8" plywood over that, then a sheet of aluminum mesh over the plywood. Lastly, I covered it all with fiberglass reinforced stucco. It finished up pretty good. One tip here, mix the stucco carefully and don't use too much water. Adding extra water will make it apply easier and get into the mesh easier, BUT, it will settle and sag towards the bottom. When I go the outside section, I will mix it a bit dryer.
I also installed 2 new doors. One from the outside into the garage and the other from garage into the house. This was a little bit of a pain. I got the doors from Lowe's. When I went to install the inner door, I found the bottom of the frame was messed up from being dropped. So I had to load it up and exchange it. I had never done doors before, so it was a laern as you go project. Like most things on my house, the door openings were not standard sizes, so I had to add some wood on both sides of the doors. One of the doors ended up being slightly off center in the opening, but once I get the trim installed, it will look fine. I haven't installed trim around either one yet since I needed to get a bulk of the work done and get the garage organized again. Note here....make sure to caulk around the doors, between the doors and the walls. This will keep out rain, moisture, bugs, etc. Also, double, triple check the square and plum of the frames when installing the door. I found it MUCH easier to take the doors off and install it with just the frame.
After all of the electric and wall work was done, I repainted the entire thing (walls and ceiling). I started out using satin, and got 1 full coat on everything. After looking at the walls, I didn't find the satin to be much better than the flat that was on there originally. So all of the walls ended up with semi gloss on them. I figured it is a garage, the walls will get stuff on them, so it will be easier to clean with semi gloss.
Once the painting was done, I had to move the water heater. This was one of the biggest pains of the whole project. I learned that you have to **** ALL of the water out of the pipes in order to sweat the pipes adequately. When you are sweating water supply pipes, open several faucets, etc in the house. This gives the heat somewhere to expand to. If you don't, as the heat moves around in the pipes, it just pushes the water back towards you and the joint won't get hot enough.
Next came the floor. Once all the painting and messy stuff was done, I finally got to the floor. I ended up going with Race Deck tiles. I decided on graphite (dark gray) with a red border. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The installation was pretty easy. Be very careful when cutting these tiles. I was using my miter saw which cut it easily. Pieces can, and do, fly off when cutting certain areas of the tiles. I caught a small piece of hot plastic in the corner of my eye. Needless to say, eye protection was worn for the rest of the cutting. Set out some tiles when you first start to make sure it all will work and to get an idea for your set up. I like the look of the tile, but don't like the sound of it when you walk on it. There is NO doubt you are walking on plastic. To me, it sounds kinda cheap. Depending on the application, I'd consider adding some foam floor mat underneath it. I'm hoping once the floor settles and bit and gets some wear on it, the noise will decrease.
I looked at several different brands of cabinets over the past few days. In the end, I decided on Gladiator. They seemed to be the highest quality, and priced, out of them all. I had narrowed it down to Stack On and Gladiator. Once I saw the 2 side by side at Sears, it was a hnads down decision. The Gladiators have a very solid feel to them. Of course, no Sears in my area had more than 1 or so of them in stock, so I just ordered them all today. I got 4 of the 30" cabinets and 2 of the tall floor cabinets. They should be here on 9/10. I won't have time to install them before then anyway, so it worked out well.
Things left to do....
decide on a new work bench
install trim around 2 doors
final trim painting over the garage door
install some vinyl border on the bottom of the walls
set up new tool box and compressor
install cabinets
organize the entire thing
Overall, the project has gone pretty well. I've only been able to work on it a few days week, so it's taken longer than I wanted. I also had to keep moving things around and in and out. It would have been easier to empty it, but I just didn't have space anywhere else to put everything. Recommendation....break the project down into smaller projects. Plan the project as fully as you can. Try to estimate what you'll need as far as tools and materials to complete the job. This will save lots of headaches. You'll be able to drive to Lowe's or HD blindfolded anyway. But it will save a few unscheduled trips. Also, try to plan the smaller projects in logical order. It will save the frustration of spilling paint on new floor, or having to undo something you just did to complete your next project.
In the beginning, it will seem like and endless project. But once you get going and start crossing off a bunch of the little items, you notice you're getting somewhere and things start to come together. If you set a budget, allow for some flexibility. Unexpected things will pop up, and it is very easy to go over budget. Luckily, I didn't have a set budget, but definately wasn't spending alot. I have already spent more than I planned, but I got alot more than I planned too. The Race Deck tiles alone were $1800, Gladiator cabinets $1300. I'd guess I'm probably around $4000 total. It was a good excuse to buy some new handtools and replace some others.
I will definately post some pix once I'm done. I hope to have it totally done in a couple weeks.
I hope this helps anyone starting the projects. I'll answer any questions I can, but I'm no professional. I can share what worked for me.
Thanks to everyone who answered my questions along the way.
Gutting/demolition was the easy part. I just rented a trailer, filled it up, and they took it to the dump. It probably wasn't the cheapest way, but it was the easiest. We cleaned out the garage and put all of the tile and concrete we broke out and filled the trailer totally.
Once everything was removed, I prepped the walls. I used spackling compound on the small holes and concrete on the larger holes. The spackle worked good. It filled the holes and sanded down really well prior to painting.
Some of you may remember the problem I was having removing the control head for the shower. It really ended up not being too bad at all. I just broke out enough of the concrete blocks around the water pipes/control head. Then I hauled out the SawzAll and cut the pipes right below the control head. Once it was out, I just soldered copper pipe caps on the pipes and that was it. Lastly, I filled the hole in with concrete and that was that. For the shower head, I just left it in the wall and concreted over the holes.
I installed 3 new 48" flourescent light strips on the ceiling. I wired them into the current light switch and wired them all together. It was a pretty easy job. The hardest part was swqueezing my way around in the narrow spots in the attic.
I installed 4 new outlets. Once I figured out what needed to go where, and how to do it, it was really pretty easy. I put 2 outlets on each side of the garage, each side is on it's own circuit to keep the load down on any one circuit. I had done minor wiring stuff before, but never run full circuits. Once I was told what needed to be done and saw the panel, it was very easy. I also had to reroute some of the other wiring. I used juntion boxes to relocate wiring, and that worked quite well. I used the wire clamps instead of wire nuts in the junction boxes.
On the far wall, there was a concrete opening for ventilation. This was bad for letting dirt, dust, etc inside and getting everything all dirty, not to mention insects. So enclosing this was on the list. After looking at different options, all I ended up doing was framing the opening in with 1x4's, putting a layer of 3/8" plywood over that, then a sheet of aluminum mesh over the plywood. Lastly, I covered it all with fiberglass reinforced stucco. It finished up pretty good. One tip here, mix the stucco carefully and don't use too much water. Adding extra water will make it apply easier and get into the mesh easier, BUT, it will settle and sag towards the bottom. When I go the outside section, I will mix it a bit dryer.
I also installed 2 new doors. One from the outside into the garage and the other from garage into the house. This was a little bit of a pain. I got the doors from Lowe's. When I went to install the inner door, I found the bottom of the frame was messed up from being dropped. So I had to load it up and exchange it. I had never done doors before, so it was a laern as you go project. Like most things on my house, the door openings were not standard sizes, so I had to add some wood on both sides of the doors. One of the doors ended up being slightly off center in the opening, but once I get the trim installed, it will look fine. I haven't installed trim around either one yet since I needed to get a bulk of the work done and get the garage organized again. Note here....make sure to caulk around the doors, between the doors and the walls. This will keep out rain, moisture, bugs, etc. Also, double, triple check the square and plum of the frames when installing the door. I found it MUCH easier to take the doors off and install it with just the frame.
After all of the electric and wall work was done, I repainted the entire thing (walls and ceiling). I started out using satin, and got 1 full coat on everything. After looking at the walls, I didn't find the satin to be much better than the flat that was on there originally. So all of the walls ended up with semi gloss on them. I figured it is a garage, the walls will get stuff on them, so it will be easier to clean with semi gloss.
Once the painting was done, I had to move the water heater. This was one of the biggest pains of the whole project. I learned that you have to **** ALL of the water out of the pipes in order to sweat the pipes adequately. When you are sweating water supply pipes, open several faucets, etc in the house. This gives the heat somewhere to expand to. If you don't, as the heat moves around in the pipes, it just pushes the water back towards you and the joint won't get hot enough.
Next came the floor. Once all the painting and messy stuff was done, I finally got to the floor. I ended up going with Race Deck tiles. I decided on graphite (dark gray) with a red border. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The installation was pretty easy. Be very careful when cutting these tiles. I was using my miter saw which cut it easily. Pieces can, and do, fly off when cutting certain areas of the tiles. I caught a small piece of hot plastic in the corner of my eye. Needless to say, eye protection was worn for the rest of the cutting. Set out some tiles when you first start to make sure it all will work and to get an idea for your set up. I like the look of the tile, but don't like the sound of it when you walk on it. There is NO doubt you are walking on plastic. To me, it sounds kinda cheap. Depending on the application, I'd consider adding some foam floor mat underneath it. I'm hoping once the floor settles and bit and gets some wear on it, the noise will decrease.
I looked at several different brands of cabinets over the past few days. In the end, I decided on Gladiator. They seemed to be the highest quality, and priced, out of them all. I had narrowed it down to Stack On and Gladiator. Once I saw the 2 side by side at Sears, it was a hnads down decision. The Gladiators have a very solid feel to them. Of course, no Sears in my area had more than 1 or so of them in stock, so I just ordered them all today. I got 4 of the 30" cabinets and 2 of the tall floor cabinets. They should be here on 9/10. I won't have time to install them before then anyway, so it worked out well.
Things left to do....
decide on a new work bench
install trim around 2 doors
final trim painting over the garage door
install some vinyl border on the bottom of the walls
set up new tool box and compressor
install cabinets
organize the entire thing
Overall, the project has gone pretty well. I've only been able to work on it a few days week, so it's taken longer than I wanted. I also had to keep moving things around and in and out. It would have been easier to empty it, but I just didn't have space anywhere else to put everything. Recommendation....break the project down into smaller projects. Plan the project as fully as you can. Try to estimate what you'll need as far as tools and materials to complete the job. This will save lots of headaches. You'll be able to drive to Lowe's or HD blindfolded anyway. But it will save a few unscheduled trips. Also, try to plan the smaller projects in logical order. It will save the frustration of spilling paint on new floor, or having to undo something you just did to complete your next project.
In the beginning, it will seem like and endless project. But once you get going and start crossing off a bunch of the little items, you notice you're getting somewhere and things start to come together. If you set a budget, allow for some flexibility. Unexpected things will pop up, and it is very easy to go over budget. Luckily, I didn't have a set budget, but definately wasn't spending alot. I have already spent more than I planned, but I got alot more than I planned too. The Race Deck tiles alone were $1800, Gladiator cabinets $1300. I'd guess I'm probably around $4000 total. It was a good excuse to buy some new handtools and replace some others.
I will definately post some pix once I'm done. I hope to have it totally done in a couple weeks.
I hope this helps anyone starting the projects. I'll answer any questions I can, but I'm no professional. I can share what worked for me.
Thanks to everyone who answered my questions along the way.
