"Two Car" Garage Renovation

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Hey GJ, this project has been almost 8 years in the making. A complete home remodel, a wedding and two kids in between has delayed the process

This remodel is taking place in my attached "two car" garage. I write "two car" in quotation marks because the actual dimensions are 19x19 with a 12 foot ceiling, and I consider a true two car garage to be 24x24.

I'm making this thread to hold myself accountable for keeping the renovation going, and as motivation to keep posting until it's finished. I have a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old, so cheer me on guys!

The renovation kicked off with the purchase of a used Atlas 10,000# two-post lift. The slab on the right side of the garage tapered down to 2.5 inches after we drilled pilot holes to test the depth. In order to fix the issue and have some peace of mind, we sawcut the slab and poured two keyed footings with rebar and chicken wire that were 24x24x18:









Finally, the lift is leveled and installed and I could get my Barracuda up off the floor for the first time:



Next up was lighting. I added nine 4 foot led LED lamps. This was a huge upgrade from the single light bulb base on a pull chain. Here's the garage lit up with my Plymouth and Buick back inside:







Fast forward a few years to upgraded 200A electrical service, tape and spackle, paint (Sherwin Williams "Cyberspace"), and black epoxy floors with urethane clearcoat.













Last thing to do before taking a break for a few days was to hang my 240V electric heater up:

 

[CombatNinja]

Cool cars and garage you've got there. Keep going on it but appreciate how nice it already is at the same time.

One suggestion--something about the balusters/banister of those stairs is not flowing with your aesthetic to me. I don't think it is the fact there they are unfinished but the style seems off in relation to the cars and the colors you picked for the garage. I think it needs a metal and wood combination in something that looks more "jet age".

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Cool cars and garage you've got there. Keep going on it but appreciate how nice it already is at the same time.

One suggestion--something about the balusters/banister of those stairs is not flowing with your aesthetic to me. I don't think it is the fact there they are unfinished but the style seems off in relation to the cars and the colors you picked for the garage. I think it needs a metal and wood combination in something that looks more "jet age".

First, thank you for the compliments. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a large project, you end up missing the big picture. I am very grateful for what I have now and appreciate that some guys have to work under car ports and on gravel driveways.

I’ve been grappling with the staircase issue myself lately. I built it seven years ago, long before the rest of the garage had been dreamt up. It very well may end up getting changed out. I have a pretty large vintage sign collection that I have yet to hang up. Maybe the look of the old signs will tie in the colonial look of the staircase a little better? I guess time will tell.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Informative thread
Thanks for sharing

Thanks for reading! More updates are coming this weekend.

 

[ElCoche]

All I have to add buddy is....

INCREDIBLE work. Keep it going!!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

All I have to add buddy is....

INCREDIBLE work. Keep it going!!

Thank you!

I'll add a few pics of the cars in between updates, in case anyone is interested

https://flic.kr/p/2k1BPv3
https://flic.kr/p/2k1BPvy

 

[CraigStu]

Yep, very nicely done. I am sure glad to see someone who realizes a 2 post lift is fine for storage. Nice big rear tires on the Buick. What engine and trans?

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Yep, very nicely done. I am sure glad to see someone who realizes a 2 post lift is fine for storage. Nice big rear tires on the Buick. What engine and trans?

Thanks very much. The Atlas is an amazing lift, and way overkill for my needs. The price was right, however.

The Buick is currently a 350/350 but I'm building a 396 BBC from a '69 Chevelle for it right now. The car was originally a 6 cylinder, column shifted, grandma church and grocery getter with highway gears in the back. Those tires in the back are 275/60R15 M/T ET Streets

 

[VT Tool Man]

Very nice garage. And nice Buick. My mom had a '69 Buick Skylark Custom from about 1979 to 1984. My dad had fixed the rotten quarters and had it painted. It was just a grocery-getter Buick 350 under in the hood.

But as an owner of a '67 Barracuda Formula S fastback, I want to talk about that Mopar. Like yours, mine no longer has its original engine. It was a 273 four-barrel, but is now a mildly cammed 318 with a four-barrel. The previous owner fixed it up and kept the 273 air cleaner and finned rocker covers, so it looks like the 273.

I've always been a fan of the Mopar A-bodies and I like the small-block engines.

Let's see some pics under the hood. I love the color, the stripe and the wheels on your car. Very nicely done.

 

[crackerjack9]

you could try a high gloss black or space gray paint on those balusters, and it might make them fall in line with the space a bit more

 

[Cougar]

Good job on the lift install.
The floor is awesome.
Cool Cuda, friend had one just like that back in the day.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Very nice garage. And nice Buick. My mom had a '69 Buick Skylark Custom from about 1979 to 1984. My dad had fixed the rotten quarters and had it painted. It was just a grocery-getter Buick 350 under in the hood.

But as an owner of a '67 Barracuda Formula S fastback, I want to talk about that Mopar. Like yours, mine no longer has its original engine. It was a 273 four-barrel, but is now a mildly cammed 318 with a four-barrel. The previous owner fixed it up and kept the 273 air cleaner and finned rocker covers, so it looks like the 273.

I've always been a fan of the Mopar A-bodies and I like the small-block engines.

Let's see some pics under the hood. I love the color, the stripe and the wheels on your car. Very nicely done.

Thank you for the compliments. Your car is very nice as well. I've always loved the Formula cars. My car was highly optioned from the factory: 273 Commando car, buckets/console, 8-3/4" rear with a 3.23:1 gear ratio open diff, power steering, power disk brakes, 904 automatic trans and "AirTemp" factory air conditioning. It's now a 360 with a 904 auto built for road racing, full mechanical restoration. Here's a pretty terrible under hood photo I snapped during the garage build:

you could try a high gloss black or space gray paint on those balusters, and it might make them fall in line with the space a bit more

I think I'm going to try a black/gray theme on the stairs and see how it looks after that.

Good job on the lift install.
The floor is awesome.
Cool Cuda, friend had one just like that back in the day.

Thank you!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

I was able to find some time to work on the garage this past weekend. I didn't get as much done as I had planned, but isn't that always how it goes?

I was able to add a short whip for the control wiring and mount the thermostat for the electric heater. I may end up shortening the whip. It's extremely stiff.





Then I started painting the concrete foundation wall. The color is "Slate Grey"





I was then able to get my workbenches built and moved into place, along with my Craftsman tool chest (stainless steel w/clearcoat). I was able to get two wall cabinets built also before I had to stop for the day. I'm sure you're all familiar with the Sam's Club Seville Classics UltraHD line.





I'm hoping to get the rest of the cabinets built this week and hung this weekend. Stay tuned!

 

[smackey05]

Clean cars and a great garage build. I like the idea of starting a thread to hold yourself accountable for progress!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Clean cars and a great garage build. I like the idea of starting a thread to hold yourself accountable for progress!

Thanks so much. I’m doing my best to keep progress steady and this thread is helping keep me on track.

 

[joey1320]

Great space and cool cars. The high ceilings make such a difference.

I've seen other members cut into their concrete in order to dig deeper for the lift baseplates, like you did, but one thing I believe they have all done was drill into the old concrete and hammer in rebar to tie into the new concrete. Was this not an option for you or you did you not think it was necessary?

 

[LX-Markham]

Made me look with the “Two Car” garage title. I have the exact same 19x19 footprint.

Excellent progress, real nice work. And love the old ‘cuda.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Great space and cool cars. The high ceilings make such a difference.

I've seen other members cut into their concrete in order to dig deeper for the lift baseplates, like you did, but one thing I believe they have all done was drill into the old concrete and hammer in rebar to tie into the new concrete. Was this not an option for you or you did you not think it was necessary?

Thank you! The 12’ ceiling was what sold me on the space originally. The finished height of the Atlas lift is 11’10”, so it was a tight install. The footings for the lift are 24x24x18 and they are “keyed” into the old slab with 1/2” rebar and chicken wire. I never got any photos of that, but it’s in there. It’s a little nerve wracking trying to place the rebar where it won’t hit the mounting bolts, but it all worked out in the end. Bare in mind I chose to pour these footings 18” deep when the instructions called for 4” depth. I think I’m safe

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Made me look with the “Two Car” garage title. I have the exact same 19x19 footprint.

Excellent progress, real nice work. And love the old ‘cuda.

Thanks for the kind words. Nice to see another happy member of the 19x19 club! Bigger is pretty much always better, but we’re making the best of it, right?

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Made me look with the “Two Car” garage title. I have the exact same 19x19 footprint.

Excellent progress, real nice work. And love the old ‘cuda.

Agree on all the compliments. You're doing nice work. Maybe I missed it: Do you plan to finish the drywall and paint it?

My former "two car" garage in Pasadena was only 18x18! A prior owner added behind it ON the 4 ft yard wall - it was grandfathered in when I bought it and that added 5 ft by 18 ft but only had a 8 ft wide opening. I later took almost the entire rear wall out and installed a structural steel frame to carry the structure.

 

[CombatNinja]

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Uh, he painted it already. The majority of the pictures show it unfinished so you might've missed it.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Uh, he painted it already. The majority of the pictures show it unfinished so you might've missed it.

Ah....so I did. Looks good. I wonder why he didn't paint the lower concrete? Personally i’d Have painted it black but it still looks great as is

 

[CombatNinja]

Then I started painting the concrete foundation wall. The color is "Slate Grey"

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He is on that too. Funny, I kind of liked it bare concrete. I felt it gave the place a little industrial vibe that works with the lift, the exposed conduit for the lights and the '60s cars. Those cars seem too hairy-chested to be in a space that is too 'precious' if you know what I mean. It should feel like you're hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks when you are looking at them in the garage. I would want to sit out there on a cool evening drinking bourbon and using language my mother would never approve of.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Agree on all the compliments. You're doing nice work. Maybe I missed it: Do you plan to finish the drywall and paint it?

My former "two car" garage in Pasadena was only 18x18! A prior owner added behind it ON the 4 ft yard wall - it was grandfathered in when I bought it and that added 5 ft by 18 ft but only had a 8 ft wide opening. I later took almost the entire rear wall out and installed a structural steel frame to carry the structure.

Ah....so I did. Looks good. I wonder why he didn't paint the lower concrete? Personally i’d Have painted it black but it still looks great as is

He is on that too. Funny, I kind of liked it bare concrete. I felt it gave the place a little industrial vibe that works with the lift, the exposed conduit for the lights and the '60s cars. Those cars seem too hairy-chested to be in a space that is too 'precious' if you know what I mean. It should feel like you're hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks when you are looking at them in the garage. I would want to sit out there on a cool evening drinking bourbon and using language my mother would never approve of.

Thank you guys! My main reason for painting the concrete foundation wall is to eliminate concrete dust in the garage. All bare concrete will "exfoliate" if left unsealed. The paint color I chose for the concrete is a dark grey called "Slate Grey." I wrestled with the idea of just sealing the concrete foundation wall to maintain that bare concrete look, but in the end I like how the grey turned out. My garage cabinets are a light grey/stainless combo and I'm adding a stainless steel/black beverage fridge also. Hopefully it all ties together.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

First week of December Covid-19 hit us pretty hard. Myself, my wife, the four year old and one year old all tested positive. We've been in quarantine serving our jail sentence. Luckily, we're all fine now.

Anyway guys, as you can imagine there's not much to add to this aside from getting a matching rolling tool cabinet built and setting up my beverage fridge on top. I like the way it fits and the stainless matches the cabinets and toolbox.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Starting this thread to "hold myself accountable for progress" has come back around to bite me in the *** with this crazy weather here in the Northeast. I'm hoping to make some progress this weekend.

Can anyone recommend a good, articulating wall or ceiling mounted shop fan? The electric heater is working great, but the 12' ceilings are keeping all of the heat up high. I need to circulate some air down to where I'm working.

 

[TylerRNEMT]

First, thank you for the compliments. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a large project, you end up missing the big picture. I am very grateful for what I have now and appreciate that some guys have to work under car ports and on gravel driveways.

I’ve been grappling with the staircase issue myself lately. I built it seven years ago, long before the rest of the garage had been dreamt up. It very well may end up getting changed out. I have a pretty large vintage sign collection that I have yet to hang up. Maybe the look of the old signs will tie in the colonial look of the staircase a little better? I guess time will tell.

Maybe "box in" the banister and finish it as a half wall kind of look and then hang the signs on on this half wall/banister.

Garage looks awesome by the way!! Good job!

Everytime I see someone finishing, painting, and putting in a nice floor it makes me crazy! I want to get mine done sooooo bad but first I have to get the funds to heat the darn thing... Indiana winters ****! I have the same heater as you..... It does a decent job of heating my 28x32 to the point I can function with overalls..... but I hate being cold and it would cost an absolute fortune to keep the garage a constant 60. I have to turn it on about an hour before I need to work out there. Not really feasible to keep the garage heated even at a low temp full time.

 

[Slednut]

Really nice renovation and cool cars.

 

[joey1320]

Coming back to this thread now that I have decided to work with what I have which is a 20'x20'. I hope to be able to vault the ceilings in the garage and turn it into a one car workshop. This thread gives me inspiration.

How are you liking the UltraHD cabinets? I like the stainless and think it will work good with my white/gray-green color combination I'm envisioning.

For the heater, does it make any sense to bring the heater down to the ground? Since hot air rises, wouldn't that make the hot air spend more time flowing through the garage? The 220v heater I have looks the same as yours but not in red, it works good but my ceiling is 8' tall so not much is lost.

 

[z28lsc]

cool.

 

[z168]

Glad you and your family are ok.

Cool wall color. Might consider dark now

 

[CombatNinja]

Can anyone recommend a good, articulating wall or ceiling mounted shop fan? The electric heater is working great, but the 12' ceilings are keeping all of the heat up high. I need to circulate some air down to where I'm working.

I have this 24" Strongway mounted up between my two garage door openers on tsome angle iron that I tied into the existing track supports. Works well and has been running almost constantly for 5 years.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Maybe "box in" the banister and finish it as a half wall kind of look and then hang the signs on on this half wall/banister.

Garage looks awesome by the way!! Good job!

Everytime I see someone finishing, painting, and putting in a nice floor it makes me crazy! I want to get mine done sooooo bad but first I have to get the funds to heat the darn thing... Indiana winters ****! I have the same heater as you..... It does a decent job of heating my 28x32 to the point I can function with overalls..... but I hate being cold and it would cost an absolute fortune to keep the garage a constant 60. I have to turn it on about an hour before I need to work out there. Not really feasible to keep the garage heated even at a low temp full time.

Thanks very much. I'm still debating what I'll do with the banisters. They're sticking out like a sore thumb right now. I may just paint them for the sake of seeing how it looks and then make my decision. As far as renovating your own garage, just take it one step at a time. I've been in this house since 2013 and I've been chipping away at it here and there while doing dozens of other projects, both big and small. Just keep at it!

Really nice renovation and cool cars.

Thank you!

Coming back to this thread now that I have decided to work with what I have which is a 20'x20'. I hope to be able to vault the ceilings in the garage and turn it into a one car workshop. This thread gives me inspiration.

How are you liking the UltraHD cabinets? I like the stainless and think it will work good with my white/gray-green color combination I'm envisioning.

For the heater, does it make any sense to bring the heater down to the ground? Since hot air rises, wouldn't that make the hot air spend more time flowing through the garage? The 220v heater I have looks the same as yours but not in red, it works good but my ceiling is 8' tall so not much is lost.

Thanks! The UltraHD line is pretty amazing. Are they on par with Lista or Moduline? Not even close, but they're super high quality for the price point. I recommend them highly to anyone on a working man's budget.

I tried the heater on the floor, it made no difference. The 12' ceilings are just too high. All the heat goes up and stays there.

cool.

Glad you and your family are ok.

Cool wall color. Might consider dark now

Thanks! Go for it! As long as you have adequate lighting, a dark wall color is fine.

I have this 24" Strongway mounted up between my two garage door openers on tsome angle iron that I tied into the existing track supports. Works well and has been running almost constantly for 5 years.

I think I'm going to go this route, pointing straight down. Thank you!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

I finally had some time to work on the garage this past week. I'm having some work done on the house, including a portico and new siding. While the old siding was off, I had an insulation contractor come in and blow dense packed cellulose insulation in the three exterior walls of the garage that were uninsulated. The difference this made was unbelievable. Highly recommended!












While the work was going on outside, I had to make myself available to the contractors to reset tripped circuit breakers and answer their questions. I spent that time in the garage working on a few things. I changed out one GFCI outlet to a switch and sent power up to a receptacle at the ceiling for the new 18" shop fan. This made a huge difference in sending the warm air down to the floor where I'm working. The garage went from 45 degrees to 65 degrees in an hour with the new insulation and fan.





When the fan was installed and powered up, I hung two of the wall cabinets. I'm hoping to get the rest of them hung this weekend.

 

[BeeOtch]

what floor coating did you use. garage looks great!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

what floor coating did you use. garage looks great!

Thank you for the compliment! The concrete floor was ground and then coated in black epoxy. A local, veteran-owned company called Mission Epoxy did the work.

 

[JustFixIt]

Excellent job Quarter Life Crisis. What a fantastic job utilizing every inch of space available. Very impressive!

Nice vehicles you have there as well! I had a '69 Mach 1 with 428 Cobra Jet for several years before moving to the place we have now, sold it to a gentleman in Australia - wish I had kept it.

 

[joey1320]

When the fan was installed and powered up, I hung two of the wall cabinets. I'm hoping to get the rest of them hung this weekend.

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I looked into the UltraHD cabinets and workbench but didn't like the fact you have to put the work bench together, so I decided on a white Husky 46" tool chest and matching workbench with drawers.

I do like the wall cabinets so maybe I'll use those as a combo with the white.

Shop looks great

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Excellent job Quarter Life Crisis. What a fantastic job utilizing every inch of space available. Very impressive!

Nice vehicles you have there as well! I had a '69 Mach 1 with 428 Cobra Jet for several years before moving to the place we have now, sold it to a gentleman in Australia - wish I had kept it.

Thank you! I've had quite a few cars that I've sold and wish I had kept. Unfortunately, with limited space and funds we are mostly all in the same boat. I have the room for two cars, so I have two. I think if I had room for 20 cars I'd find a way to have 20 though.

I looked into the UltraHD cabinets and workbench but didn't like the fact you have to put the work bench together, so I decided on a white Husky 46" tool chest and matching workbench with drawers.

I do like the wall cabinets so maybe I'll use those as a combo with the white.

Shop looks great

Thank you! The assembly of the workbench took about 10 minutes with the most basic of hand tools. If you're in the garage building cars, I'm sure you can handle it easily. It's worth it. The only complaint I have so far is that the butcher block work top is extremely soft. It scratches really easily. It's going to get destroyed doing mechanic's work, but that's to be expected.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Some progress was made this past weekend. I was able to hang the rest of the cabinets over the workbenches and I mounted the TV and sound bar, centered over the toolbox. I mounted a cheap Harbor Freight vice to one of the benches as a temporary solution. My plan is to find a Wilton Bullet at some point, but the prices are outrageous for them now. I'm going to work on the staircase and paint touch up next.