The (Sort-Of) Great Garage Project

[CJFusco]

Hey all -- I just wanted to share the transformation of my fairly mundane garage into a kind of Porsche sanctuary. It might not yet be at "dream garage status," but I'm pretty happy with... well, just having a clean, organized, well-lit workspace.

After living with a cramped, dingy, and dirty one-bay garage with an asphalt floor for my 944 Turbo for a number of years, one of the selling points I looked for in a new house was a nice, big garage to call my own. The dirty little garage was literally impossible to keep clean, as the roof frequently leaked brown runoff right onto my car and left a coat of slime over everything. I tried to make the most of it, but after a few years, I was ready to move on.



When I bought my new-to-me house last October, it came with a lot of pluses: 2 acres, a screened-in back porch, a nice big shed... but being the car nut that I am, I was perhaps the most excited about finally having a real garage to work with. This is the view of my new garage when I started moving in during early October, with my Volvo wagon standing in for my Cayman S while it was being repaired:



As this nice little 356 Speedster (my cousin's; she let me borrow it to drive over my wedding weekend) shows, one bad thing about the garage is that its placement at the top of a hill means that leaves are constantly being blown onto the floor. I would have to do something about that...





In any case, after awhile, I started to set up the garage and make the most of that pegboard and those benches.







Still, I knew that I had a lot of work to do, and paint for the ceiling would be first.

There's plenty more to come. Next up: incremental improvement.

[CJFusco]

The painting commences! It would be easy to do the ceiling as well as the back and front walls, but those side walls are a different story.

I also put up a bit of extra lighting and decided to remove the center cabinet doors from each set of cabinets to have an exposed bookshelf for all of my car books, copies of Excellence and Panorama, and some model cars.



In the meantime, my Cayman S returned to active duty, complete with an upgraded Fabspeed MaxFlo exhaust system



And I also made some aesthetic improvements to the car. Note the model cars on the shelves as well as the fresh paint on the ceiling.



The garage was slowly turning into such a welcoming place that sometimes friends come to visit:







Still, I wasn't totally satisfied with a fairly plain garage with a cement floor and bare, cement walls... so the biggest change was right around the corner.

Next up: FLOOR EPOXY!

[CJFusco]

The ultimate accent to any garage project is a nice upgrade in flooring. After weighing several options, I decided to go with a 2-part professional-grade epoxy for a variety of reasons. Of course, this approach can be very labor intensive. I decided to wait until my wife was away with her mother, aunt, and cousin on a "girls' weekend" and I got to work. First, I washed the floor, using oil remover on the (very few) oil spots in the cement. I then etched the whole floor with muriatic acid:



After allowing the etching to dry, I applied a primer to the bare cement:



That had to dry for several hours, after which it was safe to start applying the epoxy, for which I had a fairly short window to apply after mixing (and even shorter time to decorate the surface with color flakes). I think the results speak for themselves.



It can be tough to tell from a photograph what it really looks like, so here's a close-up of the surface after applying epoxy and color flakes (but before applying clear-coat):



After applying the flakes, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they glow in the dark! There is a mini star-field right on my garage floor!

In any case, after waiting a day or so, I applied the clear coat and then waited an additional 7 days or so before I could park our cars in there. Once I could, though, I couldn't be more pleased with the result.

I wasn't done yet, though, because I wanted to do SOMETHING about that ugly concrete wall...

[CJFusco]

I wanted to at least have a usable, decorative space on one of the garage walls, and considered putting up actual drywall, but decided, for now, to make use of the pegboard that I had hanging in my dingy one-bay garage at my previous house.

In order to use the pegboard, though, I would at least need a rough frame to hang it from. If I wanted to, later on, I could also add to the frame in order to prep it for insulation and drywall.

While building the frame, I also installed garage door barriers to cut down on the water, snow, slush, bugs, and LEAVES that tend to wander into the garage. They make a difference, but I think SOME degree of leaf invasion is going to be inevitable.





Once I got the frame completed, I was able to hang the pegboard and make the whole wall look a bit more customized.





And that's basically where we stand today! All in all, it's an absolute pleasure to have a clean, organized, well-lit, workshop in which to spend time. Just today I did an oil change and tune up on my John Deere lawn tractor (which lives in the shed), and the job was, I know, substantially more enjoyable than if I was working in a space that I hadn't made decidedly my own.

Down the line, I might add real insulated walls to the garage, and I'm open to any suggestions of what other improvements you might suggest to further enhance the space. Overall, though, I'm ecstatic to know that I've gone from this:



to this:

[Oh Haha]

Nice job!

[masraum]

Outstanding! I'm envy!

[CJFusco]

Thanks, guys!

[Noah930]

Nice job!

[MMiller]

Very nice.. Car and garage look great.

[Scott Douglas]

I can see why you're happy. Nice job!

[DonDavis]

Looking good. You're well on your way. You're just a hop skip and a jump from having an in-floor scissor lift!


I just replaced my garage door and opener. I opted for the base level insulated door ( 16x7, $950 )
Then I installed the Liftmaster 8500 Opener ( $295 ). It's a jack shaft style and VERY quiet.
My garage faces south so I have constant sunshine....in Arizona. Needless to say, my garage can get downright unbearable. The insulation made a huge difference. It was 120° outside and it was surprising how much lower the temp was inside my garage. Granted, it was still hot inside, but reasonable. And that was during the hottest part of our summer. I continue to be impressed with how well the door manages the heat. And it was the base level insulation. Something like R-6 or 8.

[CJFusco]

Thanks again for the kind words.

Sure enough, as soon as I posted this, one of the extension springs on the other garage door (where my wife usually parks) snapped as though the universe was punishing me for my hubris.

I would love to put in some kind of lift, but the ceiling is only about 7.5' tall. Oh well; gotta rock what you got.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Turned out nice! You could consider going full 4x8 sheets of pegboard on your wall, that's what I did along one entire side of my garage and it would give you the opportunity to insulate behind.

[CJFusco]

Good idea, Matt. Maybe that's something I'll consider for the winter. One of the nice things about my garage is that 3/4 of the walls are underground, so it stays fairly warm in the winter and fairly cool in the summer.

[onewhippedpuppy]

It's also a good a way to finish a wall without Sheetrock or mud. Because I hate all things drywall.

[slow&rusty]

Looks great! I'm in the process of a major garage makeover myself so love these threads.

[StevoRocket]

Inspiring!

I've only replaced the old wooden doors so far!

[CJFusco]

Nice, Stevo -- what does the inside look like?

[StevoRocket]

Scruffy - I'll take a picture!

[porsche4life]

Looks good CJ! And even with a low ceiling, a small lift is handy. I love my little mid rise!!!