Well, this is my first post on here. I came across this forum while searching for floor options for the garage. Anyway, I thought I’d post up the progress so far on my garage overhaul.
This all started on April 28th when we had some baseball size hail damage and I had to get a new roof and new gutters. Well, that led to painting the whole house. Then I got to looking at my original wooden garage door and it was definitely showing signs of disintegration. So I decided to get a new door. While I was at it, I decided to get an insulated unit with some windows in it. But one of the best things I did (I think) was to get a “high lift” option. This puts the door way up near the ceiling so when my car is on jack stands, the hood won’t interfere with the door opener bracket. Here is a picture of it the new door. It looks ten times better than the old one:
Then I started to go a little crazy and decided to clean up the garage a bit. I had junk that I needed to get rid of and I also wanted to get a little more organized. So once I pulled all the stuff away from the walls, I decided to insulate it while I was at it. Here is a pic of some of the progress:
Another one:
One more:
Before I started, I thought I might have a work bench hidden in the corner, lol. I knew I did but sad to say, I could never get to it. I reinforced it, added a decent top on it, added some light on it, painted it, and added this vice. I dug this old vice out of the garage, applied some Rust Reformer (bonds to the rust), and painted it. This thing is HUGE!
So in the midst of going this far with the garage, I decided to add some decent electricity. I’ve never had any outlets. The only outlet was in the ceiling off of a single bulb light hanging down. This was used for the garage door opener to plug into. It was also run to a switch just inside the door leading to the house. So I added 5 florescent lights to that circuit which now are controlled by that switch. So now I had decent lighting after 15 years. Then I added a sub panel to the garage and added two 20A circuits with 4 outlets on the wall and one in the ceiling. Then I went even further and added a 220V/30A circuit for a 19,100 BTU electric heater. I’ve always wanted heat in the garage and now I finally have it.
Random pic of one of the boxes in the attic. Some of the spaces I had to get to were really tight and it was brutally hot:
25A heater:
Oh, here is a pic of the high lift door:
I also made several repairs to the ceiling and wall adjacent to the house and painted them. We also blew insulation into the attic above the garage (about R-36). For the other walls, I added plywood up to the bottom of the shelves and painted it. I also added lots and lots of shelves and a new door leading out the back:
Now it is time to address the floor. I weighed the options and decided on the Race Deck flooring. So as you can see in the pictures, I decided on their “Garage Trac” version because I like the design on the top. I’ve already received it and have played around with it a bit. This stuff is going to be great.
The underside:
I can’t put the floor down yet though until I address the concrete slab. It’s sinking a bit and I have the concrete people coming over in about a month to mud jack it back into place. We drilled some small holes in it and there isn’t much of a void under it. There is about a 5/8” offset so if it doesn’t come all the way back up, I will use some Quikrete Self Leveling stuff to level it out enough to put the floor down. My main objective is at least to stabilize it. The Race Deck product is forgiving enough that it can cover decent size cracks with no problem.
All in all, so far I’m satisfied with how it is turning out. I know it’s not “Garage Mahal” but this garage has to function as a work place to work on my car. It also has to function as a yard tool shed, storage facility, and a place for all the other fun tools. I tried to do everything right using the correct gauge wire, conduit when needed, etc. I’ll post more pictures as I get the floor down and after I do some more finishing touches. Oh, once I get my car back from being tuned, I’ll take a pic of it in the new garage just for fun!
This all started on April 28th when we had some baseball size hail damage and I had to get a new roof and new gutters. Well, that led to painting the whole house. Then I got to looking at my original wooden garage door and it was definitely showing signs of disintegration. So I decided to get a new door. While I was at it, I decided to get an insulated unit with some windows in it. But one of the best things I did (I think) was to get a “high lift” option. This puts the door way up near the ceiling so when my car is on jack stands, the hood won’t interfere with the door opener bracket. Here is a picture of it the new door. It looks ten times better than the old one:
Then I started to go a little crazy and decided to clean up the garage a bit. I had junk that I needed to get rid of and I also wanted to get a little more organized. So once I pulled all the stuff away from the walls, I decided to insulate it while I was at it. Here is a pic of some of the progress:
Another one:
One more:
Before I started, I thought I might have a work bench hidden in the corner, lol. I knew I did but sad to say, I could never get to it. I reinforced it, added a decent top on it, added some light on it, painted it, and added this vice. I dug this old vice out of the garage, applied some Rust Reformer (bonds to the rust), and painted it. This thing is HUGE!
So in the midst of going this far with the garage, I decided to add some decent electricity. I’ve never had any outlets. The only outlet was in the ceiling off of a single bulb light hanging down. This was used for the garage door opener to plug into. It was also run to a switch just inside the door leading to the house. So I added 5 florescent lights to that circuit which now are controlled by that switch. So now I had decent lighting after 15 years. Then I added a sub panel to the garage and added two 20A circuits with 4 outlets on the wall and one in the ceiling. Then I went even further and added a 220V/30A circuit for a 19,100 BTU electric heater. I’ve always wanted heat in the garage and now I finally have it.
Random pic of one of the boxes in the attic. Some of the spaces I had to get to were really tight and it was brutally hot:
25A heater:
Oh, here is a pic of the high lift door:
I also made several repairs to the ceiling and wall adjacent to the house and painted them. We also blew insulation into the attic above the garage (about R-36). For the other walls, I added plywood up to the bottom of the shelves and painted it. I also added lots and lots of shelves and a new door leading out the back:
Now it is time to address the floor. I weighed the options and decided on the Race Deck flooring. So as you can see in the pictures, I decided on their “Garage Trac” version because I like the design on the top. I’ve already received it and have played around with it a bit. This stuff is going to be great.
The underside:
I can’t put the floor down yet though until I address the concrete slab. It’s sinking a bit and I have the concrete people coming over in about a month to mud jack it back into place. We drilled some small holes in it and there isn’t much of a void under it. There is about a 5/8” offset so if it doesn’t come all the way back up, I will use some Quikrete Self Leveling stuff to level it out enough to put the floor down. My main objective is at least to stabilize it. The Race Deck product is forgiving enough that it can cover decent size cracks with no problem.
All in all, so far I’m satisfied with how it is turning out. I know it’s not “Garage Mahal” but this garage has to function as a work place to work on my car. It also has to function as a yard tool shed, storage facility, and a place for all the other fun tools. I tried to do everything right using the correct gauge wire, conduit when needed, etc. I’ll post more pictures as I get the floor down and after I do some more finishing touches. Oh, once I get my car back from being tuned, I’ll take a pic of it in the new garage just for fun!
