testify's One Car Garage Remodel

[testify]

I'm remodeling my attached one car garage. I had my house on the market for the last year, and it di dnt sell, so I've decided to stay and make the best of it.

And we all know making the best of anything starts with an awesome garage!

Its tight and I want to do a few extensive car projects in here, so I plan to maximize floor space by installing a Proslat Slatwall for the household stuff.

To start, plans are:

Epoxy the Concrete
Paint the walls
Paint the wood platform
Install Proslat 4'x8'
New cheap toolbox
Tire shelves
Throw out as much junk as possible
Organize

 

[Bessy]

Any chance the "household stuff" could be relocated to a small shed to make some more room? I always look forward to these single car builds, they are definitely the most interesting in terms of ingenuity!

Cheers!

 

[testify]

I started by removing all the junk from the garage and putting it in various rooms of the house. What a total mess.

Once that was done, I spent an hour really cleaning the floor with a broom and compressed air.

Removing the shelving was interesting. Every single screw and nail holding every single shelf in that garage was only through the drywall, not the studs. Needless to say yanking everything down took minutes.

After that, I washed the floor with some Rustoleum concrete cleaner etcher. My cement had some stains, so it was bubbling like a witch's cauldron.

While that was drying, I spent some time patching and painting the bulk of the walls, but did not finish as I wanted to move to the floor. I didn't get too crazy about making them perfect. There were a few areas of the drywall that needed attention due to holes or needing retaping.

 

[testify]

Any chance the "household stuff" could be relocated to a small shed to make some more room? I always look forward to these single car builds, they are definitely the most interesting in terms of ingenuity!

Cheers!

Not immediately, but definitely in the future. My brother is moving back in here with me, and he paints houses, so he needs a place to put his stuff, and there is no way he's keeping his nasty painting **** in here.

 

[testify]

I decided to use Behr products since they were reasonably priced and easy to access at my local Home Depot, and because it allows me to know that all products will be compatible.

I started with their concrete primer, which is a very watery mixture, sort of purple in color, and is VERY sticky. I rolled it on with a 3/8" nap roller, but it didn't seem like the best method.

After that had time to dry, I put down the first coat of Behr Concrete Epoxy in Slate Gray. It rolled on very easy. I am really impressed by how easy this stuff is to work with.

 

[testify]

The next morning I applied an extra thick second coat of epoxy and added some gray flakes.

I was pleased with the results, despite running out of flakes in the final 2×2 section.

If I could do it over again, I would use a shaker for the flakes, maybe a parmesan cheese type bottle or something to keep things more even. I just tossed them with my hand, and you can get a pretty even coverage that way, but went you drop too many in one spot accidentally, and you will, you'll be wishing for more control.

Pictures are with and without the flash on the camera

 

[bczygan]

Nice clean slate!

What are the uses going to be?

Don't store anything.

Everything should be tools to do tasks with.

Everything else goes elsewhere.

What's your location?

Bill

 

[testify]

My use will be almost exclusively car work.

I will share my car projects with you gu6s as I do them. First up is an extensive rebuild of my 96 BMW 328i. I'm going to rework the suspension and give it a new paint job. I've owned the car 19 years and the paint is getting a little tired.


I got the Proslat up today. It's really easy to work with. I had considered going with an 8x8 section, but the 4x8 seems like more than enough.

 

[testify]

Old Glory is watching over my garage!

 

[testify]

......woops double post

 

[CombatNinja]

What is that wooden "stage" looking thing at the back of your garage? It looks like it is some weird solution to the problem of adding stairs in front of the door. Did you consider removing that, it looks like it eats up precious floor space.

 

[-Brent-]

That slat wall looks nice. I was wondering how they were mounted. What's your opinion of it, so far?

What's curious to me is why would they put the electric meter inside the garage?

 

[testify]

What is that wooden "stage" looking thing at the back of your garage? It looks like it is some weird solution to the problem of adding stairs in front of the door. Did you consider removing that, it looks like it eats up precious floor space.

Your guess is as good as mine. It was there when I moved in 20 years ago. I had assumed it was for a washer and dryer or something, although there are no water connections there, so in hindsight, that's probably not it. I had a big freezer there for a while.

I've definitely considered removing it, and it definitely eats up a ton of floor space. I was even considering just removing the section where it steps down a few inches and leaving the section that is in front of the door. Just t9 get a little extra room length wise for the cars. Luckily I'm hooked on lighter is faster philosophy, so all my cars are pretty small.

In the end I just decided to leave it to make the job quick and easy. It would have required installing new drywall where it was removed, etc.

That slat wall looks nice. I was wondering how they were mounted. What's your opinion of it, so far?

What's curious to me is why would they put the electric meter inside the garage?

I like the Slatwall a lot so far. I don't think it's ideal for a lot of tool, regular pegboard is still more versatile for that, but for the household stuff it's great. Definitely very strong.

Your guess is as good as mine with the meter. I'm considering it a blessing though because I want to install a 240v electric heater in that corner shortly, so that should make the job super easy.

 

[testify]

I bought thus TV on sale for $99 today. With the wall mount and tax I was out of there for under $130. Not bad!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a shelf for the cable box. The one that's there is just something I quickly zipped together with scrap.

I'm planning to add a Hunsky 46" 9 drawer next to the compressor, and a 12 outlet power strip bolted to the wall behind it. That should clean up the mess of wires and keep outlets available.

 

[testify]

The 46" Husky toolbox I ordered arrived today.

Unfortunately it was dented (from the inside), and the key only unlocks half of the drawers. I could probably mess with it and get it open and working, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to return it and think about getting something else.

So, yeah, stay away from the Husky toolboxes.

 

[dubber]

Thats a very generously sized single. Tons of potential and you have done a great job thus far.

 

[testify]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I returned the Husky toolbox that was defective and got a functioning one. I weighed my options since these things are really cheaply built, but I really wanted black, I really like the wood top, the optional pegboard, and you just can't beat the price.

I think I'm done in here for now.

Time to start building cars!

And I have started cleaning out my basement in order to give it a matching treatment, so there will surely be more to come.

 

[testify]

Finished my first car project in my new garage.

Nice little refresh on the BMW!

 

[testify]

 

[testify]

Makeshift body shop...