My new garage.. (need advice)

[calling911]

Well; I have had a nice garage before but this baby is going to be quite something. It's 24'x50'.. and a house came with it! If all goes well I close on the 24th of January.

The current owner did a nice job with lighting, outlets, (220v) and heating and cooling.. but it needs some serious cabinet work. I have had a 4 car in the past and the one thing I learned is you can NEVER have enough closed door shelf space.. NEVER NEVER NEVER.. so I plan to build my own cabinets out of simple 2x2 and plywood and some sort of doors.. new cabinets are just too expensive for me. A few days work and I should be able to fill up the garage with storage.. I also plan to paint as the walls are dingy.. probably a light (super light) grey to cover as much dirt as possible but relfect light.

My question is on the floor.. it looks like it was painted.. but its worn a bit.. I have epoxied before but on new concrete.. Im wondering what I should do here.. is there anyway Id ever pull up enough oil to re-epoxy the floor?

I have to say, I never particulary liked my grey epoxy floor.. I could never really get it clean.. always seemed dirty.. I wonder if adding some of those color flakes I have seen would help detract from stains? What about those snap in wood floors? They are pretty cheap and seem tough?

Although.. this one has a floor drain.. I dont know how he pulled that off.. much easier to clean.. hell I could even wash cars in it.

And no, the muscle cars don't come with.. the vette might be worth more than the house!

Any suggestions.. ?

[Macroni]

Acid etch and clear seal......Minimal maintenance, easy to repair and looks good...... being a four car owner I am envious

[fxeditor]

I put Racedeck flooring down about a year ago when my new garage was finished. I have never regretted that decision! The stuff is virtually indestructible! Stains wash right off and it feels much nicer than hard concrete on your feet. I installed it myself (with a little help from my wife) in about 6 hours and the best part is if I decide to sell my house I can pull up the whole thing and take it with me! Try that with Epoxy! Here are a couple of pics of the garage so you can see it for yourself.

Congrats on the new garage (& house)!

Michael

[azasadny]

Wow! Nice garages, guys!

[trconway]

What do you mean by 'pulling up enough oil'? I put down epoxy on my garage floor with the vinyl flecks and I think it is durable, looks good and is easy to clean. You could put a coat of epoxy over the existing paint, subject to the paint manufacturer's recommendation.

Great sized garage. Good luck with it.

Tom

[gerrygug]

Get good alarm system with a few heat detectors to protect your investment. You may have more money in the garage than you do in the house.

[rfn026]

This is going to be very tricky. It's hard to tell how much oil you have in the floor.

Also, keep in mind that if you can clean your tools with water you haven't got an epoxy paint. True epoxy is a 2-part liquid and very expensive. I've done floors in a dealership that cost over $50,000 and a 2-car garage that cost $5,000. Both were for real epoxy.

Cotsco has Snaplock Motofloor for $109.99 a box in some stores. If you buy it in the store you don't get killed with shipping costs. I would probably do the floor in tile.

Richard Newton

Ultimate Garage Handbook

[calling911]

Originally Posted by gerrygug

Get good alarm system with a few heat detectors to protect your investment. You may have more money in the garage than you do in the house.

Yeah.. I really need to listen to this advice.. That garage is like a target.

[calling911]

Originally Posted by rfn026

This is going to be very tricky. It's hard to tell how much oil you have in the floor.

Also, keep in mind that if you can clean your tools with water you haven't got an epoxy paint. True epoxy is a 2-part liquid and very expensive. I've done floors in a dealership that cost over $50,000 and a 2-car garage that cost $5,000. Both were for real epoxy.

Cotsco has Snaplock Motofloor for $109.99 a box in some stores. If you buy it in the store you don't get killed with shipping costs. I would probably do the floor in tile.

Richard Newton

Ultimate Garage Handbook

Epoxy is not that expensive.. I did my old 4 car for about $350. Im not sure how in the heck you could do a 2 car for $5000.. were diamonds involved?

Anyway.. yeah the oil is my concern.. and I dont get why people use those plastic squares that have the holes in them.. I could not stand looking at all the dirt inbetween the holes.. those are for people who dont really use their garage for repairs..

I do like that racedeck floor. Checking into that now.

[fxeditor]

I forgot to mention you might want to check out http://www.garagejournal.com They have a dedicated flooring forum that helped me out a lot when I was deciding what direction to go with my garage flooring.

[DW SD]

check out www.concretesolutions.com for DIY epoxy options. I had planned to coat my floor with their primer, which is the foundation of their epoxy product. They have many customers choosing this as an alternative to the top coats for cost reasons. I remember it costs on the order or $0.25 per foot as opposed to $1.50 for their epoxy. It is not as durable, but many customers drive forklifts on it and use it in warehouses, so it can't be too bad. I was planning to use the Epoxy 200 primer, which is a two-part product.

As for cabinets.....
You can also look up 35mm european frameless cabinetry. I use a pockethole jig (screws) to build cabinet boxes (carcasses) which do not require dados, rabbet cuts or gluing. They go together quick, but the holes are hidden. Depending upon the wood you select, they can be beautiful and / or cheap. I use 3/4" plywood and make them 23" deep. That allows two sides from one 4' x 8' sheet. Cherry would cost you about $80 to $90 a sheet and Birch or Poplar might cost as low as $30. 4 sheets would make up each 4'x8' x 23" bank of cabinets. The Poplar could be clear coated or used as paint-grade.

A host of door options are available from custom euro-hinged to even using off the shelf closet doors (36" x 6'6" interior doors) and making a series of long sliding doors in front of the cabinets. Picture a normal sliding closet door in a bedroom hung from the ceiling in front of the cabinet. In that case, you may want to build different height cabinets.

[calling911]

Home Depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100594267&N=10000003+90401+525161&marketID=401&locStoreNum=8125

Pretty pricey

[fritzgator]

i did my 24X32, with 2 part epoxy for under $500.that was enough for 2 coats and anti skid additive. Just went in to my local benjamin moore dealer and told them what S.F. i need to cover. They even custom colored it to match the house/ garage ext. trim color. On the downside, i lost it in the divorce. Still have the hogand it was pre 911
The B Moore stuff is top quality at 1/2 the cost of the U-Coat it kits.

[boxster03]

I think a fridge and big flat screen will be on you christmas list next yr. Great space make it your own.

[walt]

Nice Vette!

[calling911]

Originally Posted by fritzgator

i did my 24X32, with 2 part epoxy for under $500.that was enough for 2 coats and anti skid additive. Just went in to my local benjamin moore dealer and told them what S.F. i need to cover. They even custom colored it to match the house/ garage ext. trim color. On the downside, i lost it in the divorce. Still have the hogand it was pre 911
The B Moore stuff is top quality at 1/2 the cost of the U-Coat it kits.

Sorry about the divorce.. been there done that.. unfortunately I partially blame my garage for my divorce.. you have to keep balance in your life I think.. I spent too much time working on my race cars rather than with the wife.. this time I have a girlfriend and plan to keep things in check..

I did the same thing, went to a local store and bought the epoxy.. I had a 4 car (2 car deep) and it could not have been more than $350 or so.. I dont know how you could spend $5k.. I'd love to know what kind of floor you'd get for $5k! WOW.. I acid etched and never really had problems with the epoxy coming off the floor.

I have pretty much decided to either A) leave it alone as is (pics dont look too bad, but I think in person it looked kinda beat up or B) Vinyl tile.. I did a search on pelican and lots of folks are having luck with it for well under $1.00 per 12" square (I think I'd try and find 24"x24" to make the install quicker.. 1200 sq feet could take some time!)..

I think my money would be better spent on cabinetry.. Im thinking I could do the cabinets cheap by making very long one piece cabinets so as to not have to use as much wood.. Probably 2x2"/2x4" construction with sliding front doors so as to reduce hardware costs. I'm thinking ceiling to maybe 4ft above the floor which will probably mean 4' tall cabinets on most of the walls.. and then some extra large cabinets to the floor for larger items.. I really HATE clutter.. it just doesn't feel good.. and I want it to feel good to be in the garage..

Another possibility... 1" angle iron! I love to weld! I could build a steel skeleton and lag it to the garage.. then use an inexpensive product to enclose the skeleton.. the shelves themselves I am not sure of.. hmmm steel is getting expensive though (thanks China).

One interesting characteristic of this garage is if you look close its really 2 garages put together.. and the original full size door is still closeable in the center. Which is cool because if you want to heat or cool half of it you can.. I'm thinking the back half will be my shop for the most part and the front part will hold cabinets and cars.. My girlfriend will kill me if she doesnt get a garage for her diesel VW..

Now, the REAL beauty to this garage is that there is another outbuilding for all the lawn equipment and miscellaneous non car "stuff"... so this baby is going to be dedicated to whatever I want to work on.

I still can't believe I found this within the city of Charlotte (15 min. to downtown).

[unclebilly]

Geez, you are goona need some kinda industrial grade disinfectant in there to clean out the Corvette infection before you put your Porsche in there...

My Corvette is sitting out at the farm, no where near my German iron...

[sscates]

Looks like a really nice 62'.

[cowfly911]

I thought this was a quick and easy solution. It is a floor mat for your garage...

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=330061

[abrumley]

I do alot of epoxy floors. You should consider sandblasting the ol material off. When you reapply look for a company called Aerocoat. They are a bit pricey but well worth it. It's designed for airplane hangers and guarenteed for 15 years against hot tire pick up "when a big jet lands the tires get extremely hot!" My garage has had it for seven very hard years and still looks brand new!