# New Garage Project



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

I thought it was about time I made my own Garage thread, I've read so many on here over the years!

I bought my house in 2009, and a big attraction was the 6x7m garage, although it was really a 1/2 finished project by the previous owner.










There was a water pipe and electric cable run through the slab but it was never connected. When I moved in I epoxy painted the floor but there was little else done.


















The year of the heavy snow (2011?!) the roof nearly collapsed. I had it supported internally with timber, the main structural beam of the garage was twisted and it pushed the walls slightly out of alignment. The ridge of the roof dropped 180mm in the middle :doublesho

I bought a new car last year and had to shuffle things around to make space for a car, which seems crazy in such a big garage, it seemed to become a storage location for friends stuff......so in February this year I decided to start 'Project Garage'.

Starting point - electric currently run from the house with an extension cable.


















First task was grinding back the floor to a smooth surface, removing the wooden staves from the slab and cementing up the gap, there should be no reason a 6x7m slab needs expansion joints.

Original rough painted surface




























Wooden staves out and cemented up, and starting the grinding/polishing


















Final patching and grinding / polishing - 30hours and about 15 buckets of cement dust later.....


















Next step was replacing the main roof structural beams that were damaged

Wood to make temporary supports....proper roof jacks far too expensive:lol:









Roof jacked up 180mm and temporary supports in place, by design there was no horizontal ties at the top of the uprights, this picture shows the 10mm threaded rod I've put in to stop them being pushed out with snow.









Offending 1.5mm thick beam / plate









Drilling new 3mm thick beams to match teh bolt pattern of the removed beams









New gusset plate, also 3mm thick.









New beams and gusset plate installed


















Metal profile roofs are not the best for sealing, so next task was plastic lining....hopefully it will not cause condensation issues, but it will be the lessor of two evils anyway.









More roof plastic images, initially i'd though of using super strong magnets to hold it in place.....but after some testing realised battens would be required.









Next was time to plastic sheet around the walls and make and install stud frames



















Consumer unit installed - 1 thing I'm not doing myself









Corner pieces installed to screw plywood to.









This Sunday was mostly spent tidying and clearing things out to make more space for work to continue. All the rigid insulation in the garage is for between the floor joists in the house, this week will mostly be spent fitting that to clear further space.










Yesterday I got the waste pipe installed - pics to follow.


----------



## Paul JC (Apr 15, 2007)

Awesome project


----------



## chummy325 (Jun 27, 2012)

looking good


----------



## J306TD (May 19, 2008)

Wow what a great size man cave. I can't wait for more. As I enjoy reading these threads


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

A little update with progress this week.

Most of the time has been spent getting the rigid insulation out of the garage and under the house.

Part installed - it's a mess under the house and will be tidied up, cables clipped and pipes insulated at a later date.









Test fitted prior to final fixing









Plumbing by the garage door installed last night and connected to the mains, note to self, make sure you screw a tap into the tap thread BEFORE switching on the water for the 1st time....lets attribute all the water on the floor to 'flushing the lines' :lol:









Plumbing at the far corner of the garage, there will be a sink going in later, 1st time i've used Speedfit pipe.....it's AWESOME!









Testing the tap height











J306TD said:


> Wow what a great size man cave. I can't wait for more. As I enjoy reading these threads


I've enjoyed many build threads on DW over the years, and taken ideas and inspiration from a lot of them, this is just me giving back.....and to encourage me to get it finished. Target completion is end of Sept.


----------



## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Looking great so far.... not a small job!!!










Is this under your house? Scary!!! Id except some little girl with black eye to jump out of the dark if i was down there!!!!!


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

PaulN said:


> Looking great so far.... not a small job!!!
> 
> Is this under your house? Scary!!! Id except some little girl with black eye to jump out of the dark if i was down there!!!!!


I think the secret is to do something every night....it does not matter how small, just keep things moving forward.

Haha and the little girl comment...I make it as homely as possible though. Picture includes some of the plumbing parts used under the house last night...and a refreshment.









And my torch could almost be used as a light sabre if needed to fend off demons :lol:


----------



## MurphysLaw (May 14, 2011)

looking good buddy big job but I am sure it will be lovely when done !


----------



## Del-GTi (Mar 31, 2007)

MurphysLaw said:


> looking good buddy big job but I am sure it will be lovely when done !


This.

Massive task but will be worth it in the end. :thumb:


----------



## Steve_6R (Jun 9, 2014)

Great work so far, looking forward to seeing how this pans out


----------



## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

This looks great mate! Keep it up :thumb:


----------



## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

PaulN said:


> Looking great so far.... not a small job!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


looks like Mary Kings Close :lol::lol::lol:


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

It has been slow progress recently with stag doos and weddings...and cleaning the car for the friends wedding.










Main stud work has been completed - back right of the photo was the last piece to be done. I also made a wheeled cart that all this wood is sitting on....hopefully i'll be able to push it about rather than lifting all the ply around when it needs moved!









Boxing in the structural beams nearly done









Ceiling joists were delivered today









9x2" x 6m!


----------



## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

You are progressing well, looks very good. The C63 is very nice too.


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

After working late many nights in September and seeing little real progress and changes in work circumstances I've had a bit of a hiatus....until last week, into the more statisfliying stages where you see things coming together!

Complete range of tools to cover everything but the electrical work.....









Ceiling Joists complete









Installing 2" x 4" between the joists to screw ceiling ply edges into









Started to Ply the ceiling and wires all but complete









Lots of Plying left to do









Should nearly get the ceiling complete tonight; then onto insulating and plying the walls and getting the electrics installed. The heaters for the garage have also been ordered. Two of these: -


----------



## AdamC (Jan 31, 2013)

As you said your at the part where you really begin to see it coming together.
The ceiling is looking good. Nice job.


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

AdamC said:


> As you said your at the part where you really begin to see it coming together.
> The ceiling is looking good. Nice job.


Totally, and as you use up more of the materials lying in the garage you spend less time moving things around to let you work on the area you need.

Still lots to do, but the end is in sight! :thumb:


----------



## euge07 (Jan 15, 2011)

garage is looking really good! whats the details on the garage heaters? still haven't decided on how I will heat mine, cheers


----------



## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

Just going back over the thread a little, did you notice much difference by insulating under your floorboards in the house? Its something I've always thought of doing


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

euge07 said:


> garage is looking really good! whats the details on the garage heaters? still haven't decided on how I will heat mine, cheers


Here's a link that includes PDF of fitting instructions/specs etc.

There are a few online calculators that use volume of space, how well it's insulated, what temperature increase you would like and power of the heaters. These 2 x 3Kw heaters should give an easy 10decC increase in temperature, more than enough to take the chill off even in the middle of winter.

I liked the remote panels, so they can be situated by the door and at a handy height, while the heaters are where you want them. You could just wall mount a couple cheap fan heaters for the same heating effect.



Will_G said:


> Just going back over the thread a little, did you notice much difference by insulating under your floorboards in the house? Its something I've always thought of doing


Yes a fair bit. Below my house has air vents all round, so cold air blows in under the house/floorboards. I've fitted all the insulation boards but not fitted/sealed them all yet. In my living room you can tell when when you're standing above one that's a tight friction fit or one that's not secured as well.

It was fitted primarily to get it out of the garage, I'll do the finishing touches once the garage is finished.

Will it save any money while I'm in the house? Possibly not, but it will definitely make the downstairs floor more comfortable, and make it better for my toddler.

I have plenty access room, and would do it again, it's only a few evenings work.


----------



## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

Thanks for the reply, my house is the same with air vents etc and I've got access under from two different hatches. I know the payback time would be long but fancy doing it as the wooden floor can be quite cold and hope it makes a bit of difference to retain the heat.


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

So...update time.

Ceiling sheeting completed, and walls insulated and wall sheeting finished.




























Electrics all run 









Fittings terminated and sparky called to do the testing and sign off









6.5 years ago I unrolled an extension cable from the house to the garage and last week I finally I rolled it up! Everything I've done in the garage has been from this extension cable, and one light fitting wired to a plug. This is a step change better!

Garage door opener set up.

http://vid796.photobucket.com/albums/yy243/brianmarr1/F3FE7A3F-A511-4EEE-9052-9C87C5954FF4.mp4

Just painting ceiling and walls and epoxy the garage floor to do....and buy and fit some kitchen units.....Oh.....and sort out my workbench lights and make some feature wall lights.....oh and fix the guttering....and build the little outside shed my compressor and air receiver will stay.

414 days since I started project garage! But I've done everything myself except a couple hours of the electrical work where you really need a qualified sparky. And fitting the door opener and sheeting the ceiling which would be impossible without 2 people.


----------



## robertdon777 (Nov 3, 2005)

Looking good, will be excellent when done. A proper cave there.


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

robertdon777 said:


> Looking good, will be excellent when done. A proper cave there.


Thanks - must have nearly 300hrs on it now......definitely looking forward to having it finished!


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Was searching the forum for something else and stumbled across this from August 2009: -



Bero said:


> Ok things are moving on (slowly!) my moving in date is at the end of September, i decided to go for an epoxy floor paint. I will need to get it down on day1/2 as i'm sure swimbo has plans of filling the garrage with house stuff untill it gets unpacked!
> 
> I went for this as they have a good reputation...and i know someone with a trade account, cornflour blue garage floor coming soon!
> 
> Just need to sort out storage now, any suggestions? I fancy kitchen style cabinets but open to suggestions? *I've got an electrician arranged too (there is a cable run into the garage but it's not terminated at ether end), need to decide on sockets, heating etc.*


That damn sparky took his time! :lol: I guess Rome was not built in a day.....


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

More progress this week

Made these high level brackets from some spare joists and started painting









3 coats done









Four sheets still look like this after 3 coats









six coats on the darker sheets now









Just the ceiling to do, and the floor.

Nice weather this weekend so hopefully get the floor done. I have a New Nissan Leaf arriving tomorrow, so I need garage space for 2 cars.


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

This weekend I did the epoxy floor.

I needed, the free time and a Weather window to have everything on the drive over night, but I had my son this weekend, so I had to do it at odd hours, worked through to 5am Friday morning clearing the garage and doing the 1st coat, then a couple hours sleep before getting up to pick him up.

At 11pm Sat night it was ready for the 2nd coat.

And Sunday evening it was ready to have everything moved back in.

The epoxy is a 2 part, with a hardener, once you mix the two there is no going back. I had a mild heart attack after mixing the paint at 1am and finding the new 12" roller frame and the rollers I bought are not compatible! I hunted round and found some old 9" rollers but they never fitted ether.

I hunted round some more and found the original roller frames that I epoxyd the floor with the 1st time (6 years ago!), a giant relief!

Cleared out









Cutting in









1st coat done









2nd coat complete and skirting going on.









It's now a proper functional garage....462 days after I started doing it up! Still a few small things to do, and kitchen units to install but otherwise it's complete!


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Great floor chum, not to mention the rest of the garage. It looks absolutely fantastic. Does the epoxy last well? I haven't had great results with floor paint in the past. Funnily enough, they don't do exactly what they say on the tin lol. 

Cooks



Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Cookies said:


> Great floor chum, not to mention the rest of the garage. It looks absolutely fantastic. Does the epoxy last well? I haven't had great results with floor paint in the past. Funnily enough, they don't do exactly what they say on the tin lol.
> 
> Cooks
> 
> Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk


Thanks.

The epoxy is really good! I've seen too many floor paints fail to use anything else.

This is the same brand that I put down 6 years ago, and it had trolley jacks dragged over it, axle stands used etc and it refused to be damaged: -









This is the stuff I used.

They're an industrial company who sell coatings for pipelines, oil rigs, tanks etc, not a 'DIY' company. You can buy much cheaper epoxy online, it's possibly just as good....but for the time and effort involved, and past experience of Spencers I didn't risk it.


----------



## WO-WO (Jun 29, 2015)

Looks great and those wall mounted fans are a great idea!


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

WO-WO said:


> Looks great and those wall mounted fans are a great idea!


Yes, the heaters/fans are pretty good. The controls for them are by the door for adjusting mode or temperature.


----------



## AdamC (Jan 31, 2013)

Nice updates. Looking really good now with the floor sorted.
Do you have a link to the skirting you used?


----------



## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

AdamC said:


> Nice updates. Looking really good now with the floor sorted.
> Do you have a link to the skirting you used?


Yes, the floor makes a big difference.

I don't actually have a link to the skirting, I got it for nothing from someone.

Google 'industrial skirting' and it shows many similar products. For applying you just paint contact adhesive on the back and the wall, wait 5-10 minutes minutes and affix. Dead simple.


----------

