mickpiston
mickpiston New Reader
1/14/22 4:22 p.m.

I'm hoping I can get some help here to plan out my garage rebuild. I've been in my house for almost 5 years, and always planned on making it really nice, clean, and functional, but never got around to it. It always worked so I just kept on going.  I think it's finally time. 

It's about 18x32 feet, a deep attached 2 car garage. It's already been the scene of countless motorcycle and car builds as I buy fix, modify, rebuild, and flip whatever catches my eye. It definitely needs the 2 exterior walls insulated and drywalled, as well as the rafters so I can actually heat it in the winter, and maybe cool it or at least regulate temp in the summer. I'm in Northern Colorado, and have temps from 0F in the winter to 100F in the summer, and I'd like it to be more comfortable to use year round. 

My son is now almost 2.5, and loves cars and motorcycles. I want it to be cleaner and safer for him to hang out in here, and be a great space for our projects as he gets older. I'd like to make a dedicated workbench and area for him to hang out here when I'm working as well.

He's gone from this dude:

To this guy:

And I want to keep encouraging his interest!

Here's some of the past projects and configurations:

But at the moment it is fairly empty and clean, and it's time to upgrade. Next post is what I'm starting with and details the floor condition and some goals.

mickpiston
mickpiston New Reader
1/14/22 4:35 p.m.

OK here is where I'm currently at:

Like I mentioned before, about 18x32 ft.

 

mickpiston
mickpiston New Reader
1/14/22 4:41 p.m.

I was originally planning on having the concrete floor coated to have a much nicer and easier to clean work surface. This old concrete is already pretty messy, and it holds dirt and oil pretty bad. I had a couple local companies come out for a coating estimate, and unfortunately nobody will do it. The slabs are fairly uneven and cracked, and they were doubtful they could be leveled. The recommendation was to have the slab demoed and repoured. That is just not going to happen.

Nothing has changed in the 5 years I've owned the house, so I doubt it will in the future. However it's just not worth blowing the budget on the floor, so I have some other ideas I'll get to.

I know nothing about concrete however, and would love any input you might have on making this better?

I do plan on adding a QuickJack system this year, and I'm a little worried about the uneven floor.

Here is the worst of the cracking and height difference where the floor settled. 

You can also see up here in the center that the floor slopes away a bit from the center line.

Any ideas to improve this? I think I'm giving up on coating the floor.

My current idea is to use something like these MotorDeck tiles to do the whole floor:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/MotorDeck-12-in-x-12-in-Diamond-Red-Modular-Tile-Garage-Flooring-24-Pack-G90024BRED/303420061

Will they stay firmly locked together even over the uneven floor areas? I'd love any feedback from somebody with experience with them.

 

mickpiston
mickpiston New Reader
1/14/22 4:46 p.m.

First up will be gutting the garage and crappy built in cabinet/workbench in the corner, and insulating and drywalling the 2 exterior walls. I may hire someone to do the rafters insulation/drywall as that is outside of my experience. Should this be pretty good for temperature control? Anything else I need to do?

Then next is some serious toolbox and workbench upgrades. I have really liked my US General rolling box from Harbor Freight for home use, will likely go with a much larger HF toolbox. I need to get rid of the decrepit old POS Craftsman that is in those pics, it is complete trash.

For more workbenches I'm thinking the Husky benches from Home Depot, I used them for my desks in my basement office and they are excellent.

Any recommendations on toolboxes and workbenches? Any feedback or tips in general for someone who's built a nice interior in their garage?

I think my key constraint is flexibility.

In the winter my wife needs to park here car in there, so it is warm and not covered in snow, ready to take the kid to daycare.

The rest of the year it is all mine, and needs to be reconfigurable with my motorcycle lift(s), car parking and quickjack/work areas. 

I already have good LED lighting bars everywhere that will be mounted closer up to the new ceiling, so that should be sufficient.

I will need to figure out lots of wall mounted cabinets and storage as well, as I want to conserve as much floor space as possible.

Thanks for reading, and would love any feedback or experience you may have to contribute!

dculberson
dculberson MegaDork
1/14/22 5:23 p.m.

If you wanted to work on fixing the off level seams you could rent or buy a 7" grinder and a diamond cup grinding wheel and it would make short work of the seams. It's about $50 for the diamond wheel and about $40 for the guard that hooks to your shop vac for dust collection. The grinder is $100-500 depending on how nice you go. I had to level out a 13' wide doorway and it took me about an hour to do it. It was awesome as the alternative was much worse and so much more time consuming. 

mickpiston
mickpiston New Reader
1/14/22 5:47 p.m.

In reply to dculberson :

With a good grinder and wheel I could even out the slope where the cracks are? That would be a pretty good solution to get rid of the big abrupt height difference. The worst spot is probably almost 1".

Thanks that's a good idea.

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
1/14/22 6:33 p.m.

You can free up some space by sending the Guzzi to my house..

mickpiston
mickpiston Reader
1/15/22 12:59 a.m.

In reply to ShawnG :

Sorry sold the sidecar to fund the complete rebuild that poor old bike needed. It turned out great, but already sold it on to a dude in Texas.

bgkast
bgkast GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
1/15/22 12:25 p.m.

1 inch is about the maximum height lip I would grind. If you can grind off all of the lips that could cause the tiles to rock it seems like they would be a good solution for the floor.

I just picked up a husky rolling tool box with a wood top. I also looked at and priced the Lowes and Harbor freight equivalent. Without discounts the harbor freight box was the most expensive (by $2), but had the cheapest feeling drawers and sliders.

mickpiston
mickpiston Reader
1/17/22 12:15 p.m.

In reply to bgkast :

I think I'm going to try to grind that lip as smooth as I can so I can use the floor tiles over it. That is the most cost effective solution I see.

Good to know about the tool boxes, thanks!

MiniDave
MiniDave New Reader
4/26/22 10:35 p.m.

Are you on Garage Journal? They have literally pages of shop organizations and re-do's. Might get some Ideas there....

hybridmomentspass
hybridmomentspass Dork
6/25/22 8:52 a.m.

Did I see a S3 Thunderbolt in there?????

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