What would you include in a new garage!

[Voodoo Chili]

If you had it to do all over again, what would you do or add to your garage. I'm not talking tools, unless they are integral(winch/hoist)... Feel free to criticize or make recommendations of your own. I tried searching for something like this, but didn't seem to find anything.

I know everyone starts planning and builds their perfect garage, and then a year later they are like "I wish I would have done BLAH..."

I'm looking to build a new garage, and I know what has worked in past garages, so I will add a few things.

• Hot and Cold water
• 1-2 feet of concrete block wall around the edge for hosing the garage floor down easier.
• A freight elevator for stuff I want in my loft and not have to carry upstairs. I am thinking 4'x8' plywood size hole in the loft floor. create the 4x8 subfloor and rafters frame such that when the floor of elevator is up in loft, I can put carriage bolts in joists from main floor to use elevator floor as floor in loft.. Hard to explain, hope that makes sense.
• diagonal cut expansion joints?!? Read a couple of people like those.
• 4'-8' florescent lighting vertically in walls. Couple of friends have done this and loved it!
• Floor drains in stalls

I'm new here, so forgive that this is my first post.. I have been reading quite a bit on the garage build threads, and in general.. Just figured I would throw this up and see what everyone else is thinking would be awesome to have.

 

[kwb]

Steel Embedded in floor in a few spots that can have tie points welded on when needed
Poured Footer instead of Monolithic.
Shifted door placement
Sited differently on lot.

 

[Steevo]

Bridge Crane

 

[Ironhorse]

A bathroom

 

[tomshep]

6" thick foundation

Tom

 

[RVDan]

It's all about budget. What would I have done differently if I had to do it over again with the same zero dollar budget? There's not much I could do other than change the dimensions slightly.

If I could do it over again with a big budget, I think there's a dream garage thread somewhere.

 

[lilscorpion]

Bridge Crane

I couldn't agree more.

 

[joshmodelskidoo]

6" thick foundation

Tom

dad went 6 or 8 in his pole barn with no joints snd he parked his flst nose mack dump truck in it when he had it and theres still no cracks and that was 25 years ago he built it. i think he said 4in of sand and 6-8in concrete. i wish he would have sealed the floor for easy sweeping and put the trusses on 2ft spacing so it could be insulated better. i think its 32x50

 

[Bryan Burns]

In addition to garage door windows, high wall windows.

 

[BD1]

If garage is attached, stairway access to basement from garage.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'd have 2x6 walls, hands down.

 

[911mike]

I have 12 x12 doors and there only 30" from the back wall. My original idea was to have 24" storage racks along that back wall. 30" just isn't enough. I wish I went 36-40". Maybe 60" and then I could have 48" industrial storage racks.

I ended up installing a electronic lock on my entrance door too. Now I don't worry about having my keys. If I had dollar for every time I went to the barn and forgot a key I'd be rich.

If you think you have enough lighting add more. Never too much.

Good luck

 

[c7fx]

Things I like about my new garage
I insulated everything R60 in the roof double insulated the walls and doors
Hot and cold with a mop sink. Can't do without
Trench drain along the doors the whole width of garage.
Pitched the floor only in one direction
Epoxy floor
Race deck flooring in areas if high abuse
Custom design cabinets

I wish I would have...
Made each outlet a double outlet
Another 220 plug
Air lines in the walls with connections on all four walls

 

[Voodoo Chili]

I guess I implied it, but didn't specifically state it. please include what works in your garage, and you would definitely keep in the new garage.

Great stuff guys/gals, keep it coming! Some of the ideas are going on my list, and the rest I need to study up on.. Hehe

 

[BMW Rider]

On the what I have now side:

I would never go without my radiant floor heat.
Attic trusses for extra storage.
Sink with hot and cold water supply.

The wish I had side:

Motorcycle lift recessed flush into the floor.
Bigger, space is always valuable (though I all ready went as big as I could bend the rules to allow)
Conduit run through the walls for future electrical upgrades. Never have enough outlets or one where you need it.

 

[CNGsaves]

My wish list includes:
a) Conduit with telco, CATV, & internet from house
b) Electrical panel wiring for interlock or transfer switch to easily add generator power during outages
c) Air lines installed either in wall or surface mounted (copper or black pipe)
d) Insulate every wall and minimize losses (ie garage door, windows, etc)
e) Radiant floor heat (when building from scratch)
f) In-floor exhaust port (routed to outside) by putting pvc pipe into floor with strategic locations for access that are capped when not needed (again when building from scratch)
g) Appropriate access to finished attic storage (crane lift at peak of garage with loft doors outside to back up pickup to garage) - - idea is to have sliding I-beam akin to old barns that had hay door in peak with "crane"
h) Bridge crane with moveable chain hoist inside with steel I-beam
i) Both heating and A/C [if no radiant heat in (e) then instead have thermostatically controlled natural gas hanging heater]
j) Bathroom w/ urinal, toilet & sink
k) Parts washer "sink"
l) Sand blasting booth
m) Concrete poured appropriate strength for lift, WITH epoxy finish!
n) Portion of garage with tall ceiling and lift
o) Skin lower portion of walls with sheet steel or aluminum (ie kick panel that also has waterproof edge so powerwashing of garage is easy)
p) In-wall installation of pvc pipe for vacuum system/dust collection system
q) If money no object, then separate enclosed area with woodworking tools
r) If money no object, then separate paint booth
s) If money no object, then outside sound deadening structure to house dust collection system
t) If money no object, then outside sound deadening concrete bunker with hi-flow 240v 2-stage air compressor

Don't ask what this would cost . . this is just my wish list!

 

[Johnny Wishbone]

What I like in my garage is the floor is 6-7 inches thick and I have fiberglass in it. The glass makes it fuzzy at first but the floor is 8 years old now and no little spider cracks. I also made an area on the wall where I put a shelf with a row of outlets, very handy to plug in rechargeable stuff and not have a power strip to deal with. Hang more lights. I put outlets close to the corners between the garage doors and the house wall (my garage is small) but I have them up high because corners like that are good for parking things like a welder or torches and I can still get to the outlets. Also, hang more lights.

 

[Kevin C]

I'd have 2x6 walls, hands down.

I went with 2x4 walls that are 10' in total height. The concrete is the first 6".

The down side is your more likely to get a bit of bowing from a 2x4. Also when closing the side door I got a bit of bounce in the wall. By sistering in an extra 2x4 and adding a couple of braces to the next 2x4 it ended up pretty stiff.

So why did I go with 2x4's instead of 2. x6's? My idea was to limit the wall wall thickness to the same as I would get with a 2x6 but use 2" thick R-tech foam as a final layer of insulation. I'm still going to insulating between the studs with fiberglass.

From what i have seen by using the rigid sheet insulation and eliminating all thermal bridging is a signifigant advantage in how well the insulation performs. I'm putting R15 in the walls and about R8 of foam on top.

http://www.engr.psu.edu/phrc/training/Building%20with%20Exterior%20Rigid%20Foam.pdf

Page 6 has an interesting comparison of a 2x4 wall with 1" of foam vs a 2x6 with just bat insulation. The effective R value of the 2x6 wall assembly with R21 bats is 16.1.

Using 2x4's, R13 bats and 1" of foam has an effective R value of 18.1.

I plan on using 2" foam and R 15 bats. That should give me an effective value better than R22.

My reasoning is that energy will only get more expensive and costs a lot more to try and add insulation later.

The top layer will be sheet rock.

I also think that the sound control should be a lot better with the 2" of foam. I have a cranky neighbor and I figured some extra sound deadening cant hurt.

Kevin

 

[fflintstone]

An 18 year old hottie that owns her own liquor store.

 

[maddawg308]

Wet bar, lounge, kegerator, and at least 6 beers on tap.

 

[camarotoolman]

I wish I would have put the strair way to the up stairs ( its a finished apartment) out side, it takes up alot of good space. I did put in double outlets about 4 ft. apart which is very handy. more windows. Thicker floor, higher ceiling in 1 bay for lift. ( I wasn't into old cars when I built my garage.)

 

[timbitca]

No one said make it bigger?

Because I know that's what I'd do