The Apartment Garage

[Yosho]

Hello everyone,

Let me start off by thanking each of you. The garages posted here have been a source of inspiration over the years and the product advice/reviews have been invaluable. I'd also like to thank my wife for supporting my garage goals and helping layout our garage.

This garage is a little different than the norm on GJ. It's a small 1 car garage in an apartment complex - so it's a rental. It's only 10ft 7in x 19ft 4in (with the back 3ft 7in raised 3in higher than the parking pad). My goal for it is to provide a well lit and useable working space for car detailing and wood working projects.

So why build up a rental 1 car you ask? My answer is you only live once! We actually own (and now rent out) a nice 2400sq ft ranch house with attached 2 car garage, but my work forces us to move every 3-4 years (USAF). I'm not willing to wait until I'm retired to enjoy a nice garage again and I'm not happy to pay others to do work I know I can do myself. Our old garage was a do it all - wrenching, detailing, and general household maintenance. In the time I used it, I put in a full size fridge, water cooler, 7ft workbench, 3 tool boxes/cabs, about 200ft of adjustable shelving, 5 florescent lights (12x T8) and 5 new electrical circuits with 20 quad outlets. All it was really missing was A/C and a floor treatment. The apartment garage sheds most of that multi-use role. Downsizing from a medium sized 2 car to a smallish 1 car is the main challenge. Thankfully I have a great long time friend and wrenching buddy who just built a large detached 2 car garage (and home) about an hour away from me. Since I have a garage full of automotive tools in storage and he's just starting down this path, I always wind up bringing a car load of tools each time we tackle a project. Instead of having to guess what we'll need each time and often "making due" when I know I have "the right tool for the right job" back at my place, we're just going to move my automotive stuff over there. We'll both get the benefit of using them whenever either of us wants and I'll get the benefit of not have to pay for storage space. A Win-Win!

My cars that'll see some time in the garage...

'04 Mazdaspeed Miata

'04VW R32

The DD's
'96 Nissan 200SX SE-R

'94 Honda Accord Wagon

 

[Yosho]

So here's what we started with...

It's ugly, dirty, damp, and poorly lit. It'll fit your stuff, but it's hardly a place to get any work done or one you'd want to spend more than a few minutes in.

 

[Yosho]

As this is a rental complex, and the garages are generally used and abused by the past renters, there's a bit of variation between the condition of each of them. After looking at several that we're available, I selected what I thought was the best. It has good exposure which blocks it from most of the rain, as well as a good slope away from it so rain won't pool at the door. The door itself is in good condition and is a tight fit compared with the norm. Having said all that, the door wasn't perfect. So I started by sealing the door properly... I bought and installed a new rubber bottom seal to replace the torn and brittle one. The wooden frame around the door actually had about an inch gap where it didn't touch the ground, so my solution was to install some stiff a/c foam insulation into the gap on either side. My goal was to keep spiders and other bugs out. The foam does a great job of this and can retain a bit of bug poison as an added bonus. Over the course of a week though, I was still getting some bugs into the garage. Getting down on my hands and knees, I was surprised to see some daylight coming through between the sill and the stud walls. I bought a can of Great Stuff expanding foam and filled in the worst of it. This cut down the vast majority of the bugs. I'm still finding the occasional dead spider or dead bug, so I'm planning on using the Great Stuff around the entire perimeter of the garage. Between the Great Stuff and a few other ideas, I think I can achieve a bug/spider free garage.

 

[Yosho]

Paint!

Painting unpainted and old drywall *****. We've never had the misfortune of having to do this before. After 3 coats of Bullseye 1,2,3 and 2 coats of Valspar Semi-Gloss Brilliant White, the wife and I were finally able to have some clean walls that reflect a bit of light. I also changed out the 65 watt flood light with a 32 watt (150 watt equivalent) CFL bulb. The combination is a good start for getting some usable light. The bulb is rated to put out a little over 2000 lumens.

The next big limitation is electrical since I can't add outlets or circuits, and these garages were never really intended for work, so all they have is the one outlet on the ceiling for the garage door opener. Not a very convenient place. I solved this as best I can by installing an electrical cord reel from the ceiling as well as a 6 outlet surge protector. The surge protector has 2 outlets that are always on and 4 that can be turned on and off with a little key fob remote. I plan to hook up the main lighting to this so I can turn them on/off easily.

Progress so far...

 

[dubber]

Good luck with your single. I can vouch for the fact that they are certainly a challenge. Love seeing an R32 calling that space home.

 

[SuburbanRuss]

i am tackling the same job right now. My Single is 12 wide by 22 long. I can put holes into the walls and such, however was told I couldn't paint. So I am trying my hardest to figure out ways of improving the usability of the space while leaving the smallest amount of change for when we move out. Getting a Tool Cart or Box that has a usable work surface and some sort of shelving has helped me the most. Getting stuff vertical is the key

 

[dubber]

i am tackling the same job right now. My Single is 12 wide by 22 long. I can put holes into the walls and such, however was told I couldn't paint. So I am trying my hardest to figure out ways of improving the usability of the space while leaving the smallest amount of change for when we move out. Getting a Tool Cart or Box that has a usable work surface and some sort of shelving has helped me the most. Getting stuff vertical is the key

This makes no sense, if anything i would think the opposite. Some landlords, jeez. Yes the key is bulky things at the end of the garage, load up that wall and then high up on the sides.

 

[Yosho]

Good luck with your single. I can vouch for the fact that they are certainly a challenge. Love seeing an R32 calling that space home.

Thx dubber, your 1 car inspired me to post my own garage build.

 

[Yosho]

i am tackling the same job right now. My Single is 12 wide by 22 long. I can put holes into the walls and such, however was told I couldn't paint. So I am trying my hardest to figure out ways of improving the usability of the space while leaving the smallest amount of change for when we move out. Getting a Tool Cart or Box that has a usable work surface and some sort of shelving has helped me the most. Getting stuff vertical is the key

I agree with dubber, that makes absolutely no sense! The next guy that gets my garage is getting hundreds of dollars in free upgrades and hours of my labor. I suppose you could panel the walls which would be removable and you could then have them painted without actually painting the walls. 1 cars are so narrow, that they really need some paint for light reflection.

 

[taumac]

When I had my single my landlord didn't care but if not wrecking the place than what's the issue In the end usually if you leave it how you received it I see no issue.

5 Stitches Garage
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899
Florida GJ Group
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=117

 

[dubber]

Thx dubber, your 1 car inspired me to post my own garage build.

May the force be with you!

 

[Yosho]

I made some more progress on the garage today. I used a can of Great Stuff expanding foam on the perimeter of the garage walls to seal them up tight. Hopefully this stops any further spiders/bugs from getting in. I found several dead spiders today and one rather large one still alive. They all seemed to be of the harmless type, but still...

My wife and I also installed some 4 in black rubber cove wall base and indoor/outdoor carpet on the raised portion of the garage. The carpet still needs a little trimming, but I'll wait until I do the main floor treatment. Eventually the main parking pad will also get 6 in cove wall base to tie the look together and help seal the garage up.

Finally, I reinstalled the foil based garage door insulation. I had originally installed it with a spray adhesive, but even after a liberal amount in both the door and the foil, it still didn't stick. This time I used liquid nails, which is what I probably should have just used from the begining. I don't really have a big problem with heat on the garage door, but the foil helps if it does get some sun. The main reason I installed it is for light reflection. It does a great job of that.

 

[dubber]

Some nice progress. I like the idea of the 4" rubber baseboard on the ledge and then going with a 6" to tie it in. I spy with my little eye a Race Deck sample

 

[0150carmac]

its looking good keep up the good work

 

[Yosho]

Thanks dubber and carmac. Sealing the garage base with the great stuff foam seems to have done the trick in keeping out most of the bugs and spiders. With my schedule right now, I usually only can work on the garage 1 day a week at best, so it stays shut up for days and weeks at a time. Each time I would go down to work, I'd have to sweep the garage out of dirt and dead bugs (killed by the bug spray). The last time I went down to it, it was still clean.

Here's the latest progress pic. We put up shelving above the garage door tract, installed a 2 bulb fluorescent light, and hung 3 tracts from Lowes Kobalt wall system along with some accessories. We've only completed one side and now need to mirror it on the other side of the garage.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Amortized over several years your investment will most likely work out to the equivalent of one or two machine vended cans of soda.

 

[FireTurtle]

Looks good! I love that Blue R32. Good body style. I'm a VW fan. Mostly old VW's though. Only v-dub I have right now though is a dune buggy project. Subscribing so I can see how the progress goes.

 

[ajohno]

Looking good.

 

[Dibbs]

Nice start you have here. Im USAF too, getting out in December, moving back home to an apartment. I've been looking for a build thread like yours.

 

[69bigblok]

Keep up the great work! I found that moving can be fun when you get to keep perfecting your space each time. Thanks for your service!

 

[Essnowyt]

Looking good!

Snowy.

 

[Yosho]

Thanks guys.

Minor update, got the other side of shelving in, light hung, and took a pick of the quad bulb light at the back of the garage. Here are the updated pics.

I still need to apply another coat or two of paint to the shelves, but figured it was just easier with my time constraints to put em up and apply the final coats once up. I have another single garage unit I'm planning to get rid of, and these shelves will mainly be holding empty stereo equipment boxes (so it'll be easy to take down the boxes later for additional painting).

I still have a long laundry list of "to do" items. Future plans include: installing two shelving racks at the back of the garage that will basically take up most of the raised platform, more of the cobalt track system on the other side of the garage - near the door, 2 more lights over the middle of the garage, 2 cabinets on both sides of the garage (4 total), LED under-cabinet lighting, some pegboard for common tools, and building a bookshelf style rack for automotive detailing products. Eventually I also plan to put in some plastic tiles (probably Race Deck TuffShield).

Sigh, still a long way to go. . It's been fun so far though...

 

[dubber]

That upper shelving is perfect and what a difference one of those 4 tube lights can make, BAM!