STL 3.75 Car Garage Makeover

[tolken4]

Well it has been a long time coming but I finally have enough done, I feel, to being my garage make over thread. I have posted over the last year a couple times on the forum with individual questions and gotten a lot of help on the forum.

Below are some pics of the garage when I started back in 2007. It has been a long time in the making The garage is an attached 39*19 750 sqft with vaulted ceilings and is dry-walled. Concrete was good, but had some stains. Paint is peeling from having the heater on in the winter. No insulation or vapor barrier up above and on the back and outer wall.

The plan, I use that term loosely, was to epoxy the floor, put in steel cabinets with countertops, add a subpanel, lighting, paint the walls and possibly redo the drywall. I may have questions about that going forward.

The plan also was to do all this myself spending as little money as possible... It has gone really well so far. But the money saving has = SLOOOOOOOOW. I told my wife you can have cheap or fast, but you can have both. Lots of craigslist specials ended up helping.

So here is the thing when it started. Nice and clean!

The metal cabinets are GE. They were my first "deal" in the long journey to get this thing put together. Got a complete set from a house demo for $75.00. Ended up selling another smaller set which was given to me for 200 dollars. Total cost for cabinets -$125.00

 

[tolken4]

Where to begin...

My first thought was

First thing I did was to rip down the loft in the back. It was nice to be able to store things up out of the way, but it took up too much floor space.

Before

After

Wood from the loft

Kept the wood for 2 years planning on using it for a bench. Wife finally talked me into trashing it. Sold it for 25.00 bucks.

 

[tolken4]

More pics to come when I get home tonight.

 

[clutch93]

Man that place has a lot of potential! 39' deep in a residential? That's awesome! you can call me jealous. Good luck with the build, sounds like a great plan you have. Looking forward to the pictures!

 

[texasguy]

So far, you're making money on the remodel. I expect that has changed.

 

[tolken4]

Next up general clean up, prep and epoxy of the garage floor.

Hardest part about the epoxy floor was cleaning up the darn garage After I cleaned it out, I removed all the cabinets. Next was to have a local guy come in and professionally diamond grind the floor. This was nice because it removed an concerns I had about oil on the ground and he took a little extra time to even out some high spots.

Here is the floor after it was ground.

Then I power washed the heck out of it. No soap, just water. Seemed like everytime I thought I had it cleaned, I would go back to the beginning and end up with grey water being washed out again At some point I finally stopped. Got to the point I wasn't sure that the power washer itself wasn't kicking up some of the concrete

After that I ground out all the cracks with my new 4.5" grinder. Add that to the cost column. I used all cheap blades. couple of the really thin ones and two of the thicker ones. No diamond steel type. Blades were all like 2-3 dollars and worked great.

Here are the cracks to be filled, had some pics of them post grinding but can't find them now.

Wife and I applied Integraflex to fill all cracks. Used the poor from a small cup method. Worked real well. Can certainly say I was better at the end of this than when I started. Think I could have done this more efficiently if I had more skill at it, but the end result was nice.

Here is a pic of the bondtite all down. Nice and shiny already. This part was real easy. Just premixed a and b and then mixed the stuff together real well. Poored it out, squeegeed and then rolled out. I used a flat, no grooves, 24" squeegee and the 1/4" 18" epoxy glide roller for this step and the Liquitile.

Here is the floor with the liquitile and flak all done. Below is a video which really shows off the shine. This is dried! I am amazed at the shine on this thing. When I show the video alot of people are actually disoriented at first because of the reflection.

Here are some close ups of the flake pattern or disbursement I ended up with after the Endura-Shield was down. Used very little flake. Probably 2 lbs total of the moody granite for the 750sq ft at most. I should mention I had some extra black flake laying around and mixed a little in to punch it up a bit. Had much more, but kinda decided I wanted it light. Ended up just doing it on the fly and throwing down what looked right. I think the flake "evenness" and look is one of the things I am most happy with and surprised about. I expected this to be much tougher.

Link to Small video of floor.http://www.flickr.com/photos/93949774@N00/5786934749/

 

[tolken4]

Next up... Waiting to put the cabinets and counter tops back in. Should be this weekend. Can't say enough how happy I am with the way the floor turned out. After I finished the final night at 12 I actually couldn't sleep. I woke up several times with a recurring nightmare where my wife pointed out something on the floor, then I walked onto the floor and ruined it leaving foot prints because it was wet. Weird dream!

I think it just shows how much I stressed about doing the floor right. But, with reading the heck out of this forum and by using the great support from Fred over at Alpha Garage it came out alright.

Couple of things I would do differently/ more efficiently next time, but I am very happy over all. Most of all I feel a sense of relief that it is done.

Key learnings:

• 
  Buy lots of buckets of all sizes. Clear with markings for measuring. Lowes carries a nice selection.

• 
  An 18 inch roller really made the job go quickly. Can't compare it because it is the only job I have done, but I get the sense it is a nice thing to have.

• 
  Have help. At least one person, actually two is nice.

• 
  Get extra spikes if you intend on anyone helping you with the flake or some of the rolling. Otherwise the other folks end up watching the spike wearer do all the work.

• 
  If you are doing endurashield or a similar product make sure you have someone else with a powerful directional light checking your work. Man it is tough to tell what you have done and what you have not done!!!

 

[Red Leader]

This is going to be a great thread. It reminds me a lot of my remodel - a small budget, big dreams, and fun ideas...and slow going

There are a ton of learning experiences in doing it all yourself and finding the good deals when they come along. Keep it up brother, I'm right there with you out in my garage.

By the way your floor came out great. Wish mine was like that...need to tackle all the cracks first

 

[tolken4]

Thanks Red Leader! It has been fun for me so far. To be honest the effort is almost a hobby for me. I enjoy the process. Now my wife on the other hand... She has been great, but not quite as happy at times. Like when the entire garage contents were in our sunroom for a few months

She did read this and point out that I forgot to mention the floor grinding was a barter for services so it goes in the free column

 

[JMURiz]

Wow, you're moving fast, great looking floor!

 

[spy604]

whats the plan for the notchback?

 

[rocketmac]

Floor looks sweet !!!

 

[Chloe Taylor]

Some of the great pictures of cars posted, enjoyed watching them all. Hope one day i can have a garage and a car like that as well.....

 

[Kebrock]

I'm assuming you're in St. Louis? What kind of price did they charge you to diamond grind the floor?

 

[tolken4]

I'm assuming you're in St. Louis? What kind of price did they charge you to diamond grind the floor?

Actually, that was free... The gentleman who ground it for me does commercial stuff only. However, he needed work on his website, so I bartered for the floor.

By the way, if anyone needs a website made or designed, logo work, HTML newsletters, security on existing sites give me a chat. Shameless plug

 

[tolken4]

whats the plan for the notchback?

Buy the perfect mustang when 19. Drive, cherish, and almost kill yourself in it several times until about 28 years of age. Let sit after getting married in the garage.

Sell it about year ago in an attempt to move on from such childish endeavors. Cry a few times about selling it. Find it on Craigslist a year later. Discuss with wife buying it back. Get laughed at and shot down. Expect her to see the incredible opportunity to buy it secretly and suprise you there by having a life long get out of jail free card and the ultimate remember when story. Cry a little more when you realize that is not happening. Call guy to inquire about it anyway and get told it is sold.

Cry a little more.

Went perfectly to plan too!!!

 

[tolken4]

Thanks for all the compliments! More pics coming tonight... Cabinets and tops are in.

 

[Kebrock]

Actually, that was free... The gentleman who ground it for me does commercial stuff only. However, he needed work on his website, so I bartered for the floor.

By the way, if anyone needs a website made or designed, logo work, HTML newsletters, security on existing sites give me a chat. Shameless plug

Ah, I see. :thumbs:

 

[tolken4]

Cabinets and counter tops are in.

Here is the hardware I went with for the cabinets. Even though I did some of this a while back, I thought I would mention it as this is the cabinet part of the show

Small nuts and bolts are for bolting the cabinets to one another. Got all these at ACE. They had a nice selection and buying by the box saved a ton of money. Large ones on left are used 4 per cabinet to bolt uppers to Drywall. See below

They say they hold up to 80lbs. I got the 1/4" short ones. They were the laragest that would fit the stock GE metal cab holes. Short ones were just the right length to get thru the cabs, washers, and drywall.

So far so good. Bonus for these are they go into the drywall. No need to find studs and so no need to drill new holes into your cabs. Used with the large washers for extra distribution on the cabinet backings. All I can say is using these plus locking all the uppers and lowers together... These things aren't coming off the wall.

Here is the corner with the lowers and uppers back in place. These are circa 50s GE metal cabinets. One nice thing about these over some others are the metal grates can be moved. All these in the corner are this style and were from my 75 dollar craigslist deal. I have two others that are another company and the shelves don't move. This makes them almost useless for storage since a lot of my items are too tall. Something you may want to look at if you are looking at old cabinets.

After bolting them all together, it was time for the counter tops. Ah the countertops. These are one of my favorite items in this whole odyssey. I picked up 6 slabs total of these epoxy counter tops from craigslist add for a total cost of my brothers gas money, a stiff back (things are unbelievably heavy), and a lunch for my brother. They were out of the old Wash U labs and lab grade stuff.

Kept the 3 pieces you see below and sold the rest to a guy starting up a dental lab for 550.00. Total cost for the counter tops -550.00. That is right, I actually made 550 dollars on the counter tops. Last part added as reminder in case my wife reads this

Nod to my good neighbor on the left there. Did I mention they are heavy!

A little wipe down with some "Counter top Magic" and voila

Need to shim this corner a little better.

Here is the finish after a wipe down and a little buffing out of the scratches. These things are rock hard. Takes a lot to scratch them. Most of the buffing is needed for sun damage. Being epoxy, they don't do too well sitting outside.

Tool chest and my flammables cabinet back in there spot. Tool chest is from SAMs. Got a decent deal a while back. Actually think it was a heads up on this site about some clearance going on.

Sticking with the craigslist theme the flammables cabinet came out of a Target liquidation I found on craigslist. Got this and a LARGE red one for 150.00. Sold the red one the next week for 600.00 and kept the little one.
Yellow is a Just-Rite 22 Gallon - Gas and Oil
Red is an Eagle 60 Gallon - Paint

Old pic of the larger cabinet.

Here is a pic of all cabinets/toolchest/flammables cabinet in. Junk on top has to go. Some of it is fans and lighting for the garage build.

 

[tolken4]

Here are the lights I am putting in. I have 12 4ft x 2 T8 lights. Plus three more that are a little different and the lights sit closer together. Not sure how I am going to use these yet. Thinking 3-2-3-2-3 alternating from front of the garage to back?

Home Depot special. Actually have some fears about these. They were 10 and 5 dollars each so can't get hurt too bad, but I think I read some complaints about interference or noise or something? Anyone have any experience with these? HomeDepot was selling them about a year ago.

Here are the fans I am going put in the ceiling to try and move some of the air around. Heat in the winter really likes to sit up in the loft while I am freezing on my back on the ground. Hopefully these help out.

Fans and more lights.

 

[tolken4]

Bikes hung from the ceiling with care Not sure what else to do with these. Man these things just take up so much space. Really need a storage shed in back. Been thinking about building one for a while now. It would be nice to get the bikes, lawn equipment and chemicals out of the garage.

 

[tolken4]

200 amp subpanel dedicated just to the garage. Overkill, yes, but why not. I paid a licensed electrician and the extra for the SER and panel was pennies compared to the labor. I got lucky and did this a while ago when copper crashed for a few months. Original quote was for alluminum. I know it would have been fine, but it was still eating away at me. By the time they were ready to come out the guy was nice enough to point out that copper had gone down dramatically and the dif was only 40 or 60 bucks. I told him to do the copper.

Again this was done a while ago. How do you like that drywall work from the electrician? Easy enough to fix, should have already, but I am not sure what I will be pulling to wire the garage yet so I just left it.

 

[tolken4]

Last couple of small items I added are two fire extinguishers at the front and back of garage and a small whiteboard. By the way is it bad for to do multiple post on these? Should I be putting everything in one long post?

Front of garage

Back of garage by door to house.

That is all for now. Next is the wiring and paint after I figuring out what I am going to do with the pealing paint and drywall. All new drywall, tear out run wire and put up new. Or pull the wire and paint over the pealing paint. (bad Idea I think). Pull wire and go over drywall with 1/4" new drywall leaving the old. Wouldn't be able to address insulation and moisture barrier issues but it would be easier.

I know this part might seem a bit backwards, but I needed to get the cabinets out of the sunroom If I end up doing the drywall complete, I can just move em into the center of the garage and put plastic over them.

Input welcomed.