What would you do with this garage?

[masraum]

Buying a new house, and this is what I've got to work with. I'd like to maximize storage and space to work. I'd like to find a good solid door to make a wall hung work space ala Jack Olsen's garage. That has always seemed like a genius option.

I'll be leaving the 17.5' x 18' space clear for cars, so have the 2' in front of the cars and 80" on the side to work with. It's got no drywall on the ceiling.

[ckelly78z]

My current garage is only 18'x18' with no room on the side, or front for walking around. My 2004 Mustang GT, and her 2006 Jeep Liberty fit with no problem, but car door opening area against the wall is minimal.

With the space you have, I would build an island workbench on castors that could be rolled around to be near the action, or completely out of the way. I would also utilize hanging things from the ceiling.

Give a thought to making a nice slider "barn style" door to replace the swinging door.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

My current garage is only 18'x18' with no room on the side, or front for walking around. My 2004 Mustang GT, and her 2006 Jeep Liberty fit with no problem, but car door opening area against the wall is minimal.

With the space you have, I would build an island workbench on castors that could be rolled around to be near the action, or completely out of the way. I would also utilize hanging things from the ceiling.

Give a thought to making a nice slider "barn style" door to replace the swinging door.

The garage is detached with a small courtyard between the back of the home and back of the garage, so I think it needs to stay as a swinger, but it does seem like it would be better if it swung out instead of in.

[jwasbury]

I have a ~20x20 garage situated on the rear corner of my 50x100 lot. Single 16’ garage door and a full hip roof above. I searched high and low for door solutions that would allow me height to have a lift. I ended up with a horizontal garage door. Contractor built a false wall where the door “parks” when open, so I still have interior wall space available for hanging storage. Lost about 6” of space for the “door pocket.” Four post lift allows me to stack 2 cars, and still have room for a workbench and my large tool chest along one wall, and a spot to park my motorcycle.

I purchased the horizontal garage door set up from an outfit called Contour Closures.

[gtc]

If the rafters are open and you wont be putting up a ceiling, consider priming everything above the walls with a bright white so that more light is reflected back down.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jwasbury

I have a ~20x20 garage situated on the rear corner of my 50x100 lot. Single 16’ garage door and a full hip roof above. I searched high and low for door solutions that would allow me height to have a lift. I ended up with a horizontal garage door. Contractor built a false wall where the door “parks” when open, so I still have interior wall space available for hanging storage. Lost about 6” of space for the “door pocket.” Four post lift allows me to stack 2 cars, and still have room for a workbench and my large tool chest along one wall, and a spot to park my motorcycle.

I purchased the horizontal garage door set up from an outfit called Contour Closures.

Very cool "outside the box" solution!

Originally Posted by gtc

If the rafters are open and you wont be putting up a ceiling, consider priming everything above the walls with a bright white so that more light is reflected back down.

Good call!

[herr_oberst]

If you are going to try and have a work area, you should do whatever it takes to keep from using your garage for storage of yard tools and such. If there's room to put up a nice shed in the backyard, do it. The mower, rakes, shovels, etc etc take up a ton of room.

Also, if you plan to give those walls and rafters a fresh coat of light reflecting white, do it now, while it's empty. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you'll never get a better chance.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

If you are going to try and have a work area, you should do whatever it takes to keep from using your garage for storage of yard tools and such. If there's room to put up a nice shed in the backyard, do it. The mower, rakes, shovels, etc etc take up a ton of room.

that ^^^^.

ive got a she shed with all my lawn junk and it rules.


are there any windows or skylights you're not showing on the drawing? if there is not natural light other than the man and wide door it could be dark. a ton of good lights would be my call.


don't epoxy coat the floor if not already done. my buddy who paid a ton to do his and mine that the previous owner did that is a two part kit that is unraveling at an alarming rate. I hate them. no matter if good or bad it is slippery as heck when wet. like ice.

can't have enough light and power outlets as far as im concerned.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

If you are going to try and have a work area, you should do whatever it takes to keep from using your garage for storage of yard tools and such. If there's room to put up a nice shed in the backyard, do it. The mower, rakes, shovels, etc etc take up a ton of room.

Also, if you plan to give those walls and rafters a fresh coat of light reflecting white, do it now, while it's empty. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you'll never get a better chance.

The good news? is that we don't really have a yard. We've got about 4' of dirt between the front porch and the sidewalk and it's currently full of plants. In the back, we've got 12.5'x25' feet of space between the house and garage, and most of that space is tile on slab. Anything that's not is for plants, not grass. There won't be any mowing. The most that I'll need to do is weed, mulch and fertilize.

Fortunately, the back patio/yard is like a little oasis complete with tiny 3.5'x5.5' fish-pond.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

that ^^^^.

ive got a she shed with all my lawn junk and it rules.


are there any windows or skylights you're not showing on the drawing? if there is not natural light other than the man and wide door it could be dark. a ton of good lights would be my call.


don't epoxy coat the floor if not already done. my buddy who paid a ton to do his and mine that the previous owner did that is a two part kit that is unraveling at an alarming rate. I hate them. no matter if good or bad it is slippery as heck when wet. like ice.

can't have enough light and power outlets as far as im concerned.

There's a door that's got a window, but that's it for natural light with all of the doors closed. Good call on adding light. I did that in my old garage and it helped.

The floor is already epoxied.

[Tobra]

How tall is it? I have bikes hanging up out in mine.

Yes, you want a shed, no, I don't know where you would put it.


Maybe some fans out in the garage. If I still lived on Lake Conroe, I would have a ghetto air conditioner. Ice chest, coil of copper tubing, aquarium pump with some plastic/rubber tubing to connect it to the copper, and a box fan. Zip tie the copper tubing onto the box fan, circulate ice water through the tubing. Requires some holes in the ice chest, you can mount the box fan on the lid of the ice chest. Surprising how well it works. If you freeze gallon milk jugs so you have blocks of ice, it stays cold a long time.

[Evans, Marv]

Costco has some pretty neat overhead storage racks you can put up whether the ceiling is finished or not. Type in "over head storage" in their search box.

[look 171]

Milt, you're starting to get artsy on me. Izdat Purple heart and Maple with Walnut panels? Looks great

[look 171]

I worked out of my father's garage for a number of years when I got starting as a cabinet maker during college. One thing I use a lot was a solid workbench. It was on wheels that got moved when needed. I made it extra heavy, not only heavy duty but heavy so the damn thing wouldn't move when the wheels locked. It is 4'6"x5'6" with a 24" folding leaf on one end with heavy duty brackets that folds up flush with the top. It served as my outfeed table for the table saw. I have since removed the leaf.

I am a big fan of folding away table tops attached to studs. There's always a need for extra bench space. Other then that, I have no suggestions because yours will be mixed use.

[unclebilly]

Building code likely prevents a swing out door. Look into this.

In the event of a fire, a swing out door could result in you being trapped inside the garage (I know there is a big door at the other end).

[drcoastline]

First- great looking court yard.

I can think of several garage door options. You could use bi-folds or slide by doors. But the option I like best is an awning door like an airplane hanger. The main reason is when it is open it functions as an awning extending your work space. It provides shade from the sun or protection from weather. In the event you need to temporarily extend your space you could quickly erect false walls cover in plastic and you have a temporary enclosure.







Its hard to tell from your diagram how the garage orients to the house but for storage I would build a lean-to style shed off the building. Assuming the entrance door is in the back and not into entertainment space I would build one on either side of the door. If you had a slab back there you could very easily put a drill press in there that would easily roll in and out of the entrance door. Tools you want quick access to but don't need to be in the actual garage such as bottle jacks, maybe a welder, your air compressor could be in there and plumbed through the wall, parts storage, oil, filters, etc.

After looking at the court yard again I assume the entrance door is the door in pic? so another wall may be needed for the lean-to sheds.

[masraum]

Lots of good stuff guys. Thanks!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Swing out man door for sure. 80" by 20' seems like ample space for a workshop. The key is how you design your bench or benches. With lots of cabinets on the wall and below at work height, you should have a great shop. One tip: don't make anything too permanent until you really settle in. I've rearranged my garage several times. The one thing you won't be sorry you did is placing outlets at 4' all along any potential work wall. One month there might be a toolbox there and the next a drill press and a bench grinder. Make lighting easy to move as well. Some 4' LED twin tube fixtures on chains with plugs to ceiling outlets lets you move them both horizontally and vertically should you need to. In my garage there are only 2 of these centrally located over the cars that haven't been moved since first installed. They are my general lighting when I walk in. The rest are task lights used for work areas or over machines. Those have changed from time to time.

I could go on about listing all of your items that will take up floor space and all your items that would like to have a place on a shelf, drawer or cabinet. If you do this you will begin to see the big picture. One very easy way is too make a scale drawing of your total space and cut outs for all things using floor space so you can move them around. Easy to do with a computer but I prefer doing it like playing dominoes. You can make cut outs for things that will sit on a bench too.

Lots of great ideas there, sir. thanks.

You might think I'm crazy but when I did my mas bath remodel demoing to the bare studs, I got some large cardboard pieces and built the whole thing up out of that cardboard and I caught quite a few problems before they were a real problem.

That's a pretty good job for a beginner such as yourself. Keep at it and you've got a future doing this stuff. Wow, very nice. I showed it to the missus and she loves it. Thanks for posting.

Steve--cool project. Really like the back-yard and the overall feel of the place.

For the garage, I'd recommend a scissor lift. It's remarkable how much you can do on one of those. I have a Bend Pak and I can do about 90% of what I need to do to a car on it--oil changes, brakes, tires, suspension, etc. About the only thing I can't do with it is remove engines and transmissions from front-engined cars. I had a 4-post lift for years and find I don't regret changing out. Now, if storage is an issue, a four poster is great. Depends on your needs.

Originally Posted by Zeke

You might think I'm crazy but when I did my mas bath remodel demoing to the bare studs, I got some large cardboard pieces and built the whole thing up out of that cardboard and I caught quite a few problems before they were a real problem.

Man, that is beautiful, Milt.