My Garage upgrade project

[GH85Carrera]

When my wife told me 10 years ago that we need to move my only demand was a three car garage. I knew I was home as soon as I saw the garage. It is a oversized three car garage with a workshop and a bathroom. I assumed there was a bedroom and kitchen attached to my garage. I love my garage but this summer has been HOT, it was 105 yesterday.

I looked at how to air condition my garage and decided that the most cost effective way was a window unit. I framed up a piece of plywood with 2x4s and added some supports for the unit. My wife insisted that I paint it to match the house so I primed it and painted the same color as the trim on the house.



This shows the door where the unit goes. I had just finished painting the wood in this photo.

I built a shelf that is the same height as the opening for the unit. That way I can remove the unit by myself for the winter. It is at the height where my palms are when my elbows are braced against my body.




As I finished the paint job it was a bit warm.




Here is the unit in place and running. It is a 10,100 BTU unit designed to cool about 900 square feet. It was 105 degrees yesterday and I had two cars with hot engines parked in there. I went out at 6:00 and turned on the A/C and it was 98 degrees in the garage. I went back out 30 minutes later and it was 84 degrees. That sounds hot but with the two ceiling fans running and the A/C blowing right on my work area in was not bad at all. By 8:00 it was the same temp as the house. You can see my 1st cordless drill on the wall.

I can just shut the door and the and the garage and the house is secure. The A/C unit just sits right outside the door. My plan is to just pull the A/C unit out and store it on the shelf for the winter. I can then store the wood frame against the ceiling in the garage. I have figured out a slot the foot of the frame will slide into and a lever that will swing over and secure the frame to the ceiling. The only draw back to this setup is I have to go through the house to get to the back yard.

In the end I spent a little over $500.00 for the A/C the wood and paint. I was able to wax my car on Sunday afternoon and I was cool and comfortable. It was a lot of work but it was wort the effort.





The wood door is the door to the bathroom.

[carnutzzz]

Nice work- been thinking about how to do this in mine.

I do have to ask though since this describes the route I was going to take- why not just drop a stand alone unit on the shelf, route the exhuast into the attic and out one of the eave vents?

You would then free-up your door and never have to move anything. Just flip the switch when you want cool.

Enjoy the breeze...

[GH85Carrera]

I thought about that and other options like a through the wall mount. The fan would have a tough time pumping the hot air up and out the eave. I thought about some of the portable A/C systems but none of them had the cooling capacity I wanted. In the end I wanted something secure for the garage, and easy to put away for the winter. I could just leave it in place if I get lazy. I am guessing I can get the unit on the shelf and the frame hung on the ceiling in 20 minutes.

[Jagshund]

You can keep yer fancy air-conditioning machine; I'll just keep my doors down and consider myself lucky for having a home with a sauna. Mitsubishi has a fairly narrow unit that mounts in the wall, although I'm not sure about the reliability factor. It may be worth checking out through CR or some other group.

[charleskieffner]

its 112 FREEKING DEGREES HERE TODAY in my garage/shop/stable-tack room/work and its 112 FREEKING DEGREES OUTSIDE!


I HATE YOU!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by charleskieffner

its 112 FREEKING DEGREES HERE TODAY in my garage/shop/stable-tack room/work and its 112 FREEKING DEGREES OUTSIDE!


I HATE YOU!

Sorry dude. It was only 105 here yesterday.

For about 500 bucks you can have some relief. I looked at the Mitsubishi unit and it was a LOT more money. Half a grand was not a budget buster. To work in comfort it was worth it for me. My wife is pouting that she may never see me in the house again. At least she knows where I am.

[GeorgeM]

I've been looking at a split-wall system. They run about $900 for ~14000 BTU with heat. It's a decent option if you don't have place for a hole in the wall.

Just put some RaceDeck down, so we're getting there....

[Benny771]

Originally Posted by GeorgeM

I've been looking at a split-wall system. They run about $900 for ~14000 BTU with heat. It's a decent option if you don't have place for a hole in the wall.

Just put some RaceDeck down, so we're getting there....

Whats that race-deck worth?
Looks great.

[GH85Carrera]

Wow, nice floor. I want to do something to my floor but I just have not figured out what I really want to do. Right now I am leaning more to the individual tile squares. I am waiting on someone close to me do that so I can go see it and see how a floor jack moves around. Your garage is way to clean

[TexasPete2720]

very nice

[crustychief]

I am thinking of doing something similar. your garage looks pretty nice! I wish I had a bigger garage.

[equality72521]

Just make sure to use a 220v unit and not a 110v unit.

[GeorgeM]

Thanks.

This is their Diamond tile, which are one foot square with a Diamond tread pattern. They also have 18" square XL tiles. All the details are at their site: http://www.racedeck.com. They're super strong plastic 1/2 inch thick interlocking tiles. They just snap together and float... no glue.

I got them straight from RaceDeck. They offer discounts for certain club members (not sure which clubs other than garagejournal.com members) and quantity discounts as well. Recommend checking out http://www.garagejournal.com in the flooring section.

I got over 1000sf and it ran me about $3 per/sf delivered. Not cheap, but at least you can lift it up and take it with you if you move.

You can save about 25% and get a similar product from Costco called MotoFloor, also manufactured by Snaplock Inc, makers of RaceDeck. MotoFloor is on sale now until 3 Aug on the Costco website. It's a less beefy tile with more limited color choices, but plenty adequate for most residential applications. They're also Made in USA, so that's a plus as well.

Hmmm, I sound like a salesman... just a satisfied customer I guess.

[dfink]

Well as long as posting garage pics - Central air with heat pump

[crustychief]

here's mine. Not nearly as nice as GeorgeM, dfink or gh85's though.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=422542

[GeorgeM]

Nice work. I have an unfinished one-car detached that's going to get a bump out and some sheetrock in the next month or so.

Central air... now that's the way to do business.

[briancoates]

Very nice.... but where do you do the grinding, cutting, drilling and welding. You know all the fun stuff.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by GeorgeM

Nice work. I have an unfinished one-car detached that's going to get a bump out and some sheetrock in the next month or so.

Central air... now that's the way to do business.

I knew installing Central Air was beyond my ability. I had a company quote a system and it was going to be a LOT more money. I want to do the tile floor but that three grand price keeps me on concrete. Ah well it's only money.

[dfink]

Originally Posted by briancoates

Very nice.... but where do you do the grinding, cutting, drilling and welding. You know all the fun stuff.

That does become a problem. Lots of cardboard and I have a welding blanket. If possible it goes outside to get welded. The garage actually belongs to a friend but I use it and keep my car there. Several of the shop tools are mine. Togeather now we have 4 porsches to keep going. We replace the metal wheels on tools with good rubber ones. One nice thing about the epoxy floor is brake fluid doesn't hurt it much and oil just wipes right up.

We just pulled the engine out of my new project car this morning.

By the way the window air thing works great also. If you get a hotel type unit they will also put out heat.

[jh225]

Originally Posted by GeorgeM

Thanks.

You can save about 25% and get a similar product from Costco called MotoFloor, also manufactured by Snaplock Inc, makers of RaceDeck. MotoFloor is on sale now until 3 Aug on the Costco website. It's a less beefy tile with more limited color choices, but plenty adequate for most residential applications. They're also Made in USA, so that's a plus as well.

Can you use a floor jack with this product or will it crush under the weight of the car pushing on the floor jack wheels?