# Garage / Garden Refurbishment



## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

I have read through the many garage posts on this forum over the years looking for inspiration and after nearing completion on my own projects, thought I should share with everyone. So, this post is more of a documentation of the work I've already done (over the past 4 years). I did not take many pictures early on (that I can find anyway). As a result, the garage project sort of starts mid-way, but I'll try to describe the process as best I can remember. Apologies in advance for the dis-jointed nature of the post.

When we moved 4 years ago, we were looking for a house with a decent size garage so that I could have a good workspace for building a kit car (an Ultima GTR - you will spot it in some of the pictures). We ended up with a smaller house but a big garage - ideal! Circumstances have changed over the years and the Ultima is no longer in my garage but there is a replacement…more on that as the post unfolds.

The garage dimensions are approximately 10 m x 3 m, with plenty of off-street parking around it. It had an up and over door, a wooden back door and a window. The inside was empty, with a coat of white paint on the walls and the floor had been painted but it was all peeling off.

Side/front view of the garage (it's an old Google Streetview image, from before we moved in).


 
Back view of the garage/garden.



The earliest picture I can find is below. I had done quite a bit already. When I started, my needs were: bench space for working on the panels and various parts of the kit car, a computer station to reference the build manual and internet and storage space for all the parts and tools.



I don't like to waste anything so most of what I used in the garage (and garden) was second hand, sourced from friends or via gumtree. The cupboard units themselves were all free but I bought extra cupboard doors and handles so they would all match up. The cupboards were a mix of wood colours so I spray painted the units red and blue to match my tool boxes. The counter top was a slightly damaged off cut that I pieced together and covered the damage with a rubber mat.



I made a frame on the wall around the cupboards, covered in mdf and painted. This allowed me to hang tools, etc. easier. The old, draughty wooden door was replaced with a PVC door I found on gumtree for £50. As this door opened the other way, I eventually moved the light switch to the other side. The flooring is G-Floor from Costco. Plenty more white paint was put on the walls (the blockwork really soaks it up!).

Electric Wall heater takes the chill off.





The shelves on the wall are from my old work who were throwing them out. 
The Ultima chassis on its dolly (if anyone is interested in my write up on this project, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Toms-Ultima-GTR-Build-325719380799981/timeline



I tried insulating the door as best I could for winter.



The next step was boarding/insulating the ceiling and installing more lighting. A total of 7 weatherproof doubles with daylight bulbs were installed - plenty bright in there now! Lots of insulation and also boarded the attic area for storage (almost forgot to put the plywood up there before sheeting the ceiling!). I made two access hatches.









































Once I had finished the ceiling, the garage was pretty much to my liking with only the odd tweak here and there. It was a great space to progress with my Ultima build. The picture below shows part of the front part of the garage with the finished ceiling, etc.



All the while that I was doing up the garage and building the Ultima, I was also redecorating the entire house and making a start on the garden, so my focus shifted around quite a bit.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

When we moved into the house, it is fair to say that both the front and back gardens were void of greenery. Apart from the massive, overgrown hedge in the back garden, there was nothing else green. It was about one third block paving and two thirds granite chippings (chuckies). The photo below (from the sellers schedule) shows what the back of the house looked like when we moved in. The block paving did not look like this when we moved though. You could have mowed the paving with the amount of weeds growing up between them.



The first step was getting rid of the chuckies and there were a lot of them! They were offered free to anyone that would come and take them away. The average depth of the chuckies was 6 inches deep throughout and they all had to be moved to the front of the house by wheelbarrow as there was no other access.

The shed you can see in the picture below was rescued from an allotment where it was rotting away. With a few boards replaced and a lick of paint it was good as new. I re-used the granite blocks and large slabs that were already in the garden and started creating a border for the lawn.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

I continued with the irregular shape (didn't want a square lawn).


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## verbarthe (Feb 28, 2009)

A lot of work but so worthwhile doing :thumb:


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## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Welcome to DW. :wave:

I love these kinds of write-ups, keep the updates coming. :thumb:


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Removing lock block as necessary to make the shape. Each individual lock block required the dirt/weeds scraped from it! The blocks were all brought by wheelbarrow to the front of the house to be stored.









Taking shape now...


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Thanks for the comments.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Bringing in the topsoil.





Cementing in between the slabs.









I thought I would need about 4-5 tons of soil but used 8.







Laying the turf.


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## lemansblue92 (Aug 6, 2015)

Looks great much better


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Framing in the patio.





Power cable run to the shed.







Top dog supervising my work.



Using up the chuckies as filler.









Old fence taken down as well.





New fence panels painted and put up.









Using the lock block to make a border.





Side project plumbing the power in to the shed.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Shed lighting.















Shed light with sensor.





Lots of lock block to take up and clean!















Barbecue in its permanent place now.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Almost there...

















Power cable for the hot tub.


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## chr15rey (Jun 17, 2008)

Looking good, My garden wants to be the opposite, get rid of grass & fake it, kids have killed it.
Good BBQ too, we have hooded one the same, also have spare side burner unit for sale, replaces LH slatted shelf, but I'm guessing postage would be a fortune.


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## ikon66 (Jul 23, 2008)

nice job but are you not worried this might lead to water getting into the kitchen in heavy rain?


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Looks Great


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## TimmoUK (Jul 13, 2015)

<deleted>


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## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

Looks great really nice. Did you move the vent near the door? Would b worried about damp if it was covered over.


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

garden looks so much better!

Great work mate


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Looking good, a lot of work there!


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## RAPS3 (Sep 6, 2010)

Looking much better. Block paving looks nice for about 3 month until it grows green stubble ...

I ripped ours up too in our last house.


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## dholdi (Oct 1, 2008)

Nice work, mrs holdi really likes the fence panels.
Can we ask where you got them from ?


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

chr15rey said:


> Looking good, My garden wants to be the opposite, get rid of grass & fake it, kids have killed it.
> Good BBQ too, we have hooded one the same, also have spare side burner unit for sale, replaces LH slatted shelf, but I'm guessing postage would be a fortune.


The fake grass you can get now is very real looking but very expensive. Yes, postage would be expensive - according to the courier companies, anything north of Edinburgh/Glasgow might as well be The Moon...


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

ikon66 said:


> nice job but are you not worried this might lead to water getting into the kitchen in heavy rain?


It's difficult to see in the pictures, but there is a slight slope in the step for water to run away from the house. There has been plenty of heavy rain here in the last few years to test it out and no issues so far.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

dholdi said:


> Nice work, mrs holdi really likes the fence panels.
> Can we ask where you got them from ?


We ordered them from a local builders merchant (GPH), but I can't remember who made them or what the design was called, sorry (It's a couple years ago). Cost was £50-60 per panel. They had a catalogue full of different brands and designs so you should be able to get them from any building supply store.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Here is the after picture of the garden trowel I used to scrape all the weeds off the lock block.



I had been keeping my eyes open for a hot tub and found a local one for sale which also came with a big gazebo (and a pop-up TV!). It was hardly used as the guy was forever abroad with work and after selling his house, needed it gone asap. I hired a local firm that had a flat bed w/picker. As an aside, if I can pass on any advice before I leave this world, DO NOT move a hot tub while heavily hung over!

The picker truck parked on the street and it was able to reach over one garden into the garden in which the hot tub was. We had to slide it over a bit using some old shower panels. The picker was operated with a wireless remote control.







Once we got it home, it needed to be lifted over the garage to be placed in the back garden.





Because of the size of the hot tub, I needed to re-think where it was going to go as I had originally planned for it to go at the side of the patio near the wall. I ended up putting it right in the middle of the patio (which, luckily, turned out to be perfect).





Assembling the gazebo. It is a Sunjoy model - very heavy!



Fully assembled and anchored down.









Re-routed the power cable to the hot tub.







Started grouting the slabs now that everything was in place. Used a product called Geofix which was easy to work with. It is much like a thick sand which hardens after about 4-5hrs so you need to work fairly quickly.







Installing weather proof speakers and extra rope lighting in the gazebo.





Running cable for the gazebo lighting.



Switch for the lights.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Garden bench got a makeover.





Adding additional insulation around hot tub.







Fast forward a few years, this is what the garden looks like as of this morning.


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

looking great mate,

Furniture needs another lick of paint though  haha


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

So that was the garden completed, back to the garage now.

As mentioned at the start of this post, a change in circumstances, meant that the Ultima was sold part built. My wife and I had adopted a wee boy and the time spent on the Ultima (and everything else!) was heavily curtailed. It was fairly easy to sell with lots of interest in it. I would estimate I had finished about 40% of it. Perhaps I'll attempt to build another one in the future.

To take the place of the Ultima I purchased another car (fully built!) that I had always wanted. It is no Ultima but close enough as it has the same engine I was going to put in the Ultima.

I got the new car home and it was too wide for the garage!! I figured it would be close but there was just no way you could safely put it in and out without worrying about scraping the sides of it.

I ended up hiring a Stihl saw and chopping 15 cm off each side. The garage door that was on there had a wooden frame around it as well, so there was another 10 cm gained. I ordered a 2.5 m wide Hormann insulated roller door.

Old door.



Old door from the inside. I had also removed all the shelves that were on the walls as I did not want anything potentially falling on the car.



Added another socket to power the electric door opener.



15 cm cut from each side.







New door installed.







Car fits in nicely.



Glued a foam pad on the wall to protect the car door.


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## carrera2s (Jun 28, 2009)

Great write up and read mate. Well done. You will of inspired many! :thumb:


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

I needed to move the water hose reel nearer the front of the garage, so ran a short hose behind some conduit to tidy it up.





Built a frame on the wall, covered in MDF and painted it so that I could mount the shelves / rails on it for my car wash products.















All the rails / shelves were bought from ikea.



I had a few bits of black g-floor patched together that didn't look right, but managed to get a 3 m wide offcut from a friend which looks a lot better.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Here is the garage as of today.


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Garage and garden look awesome!


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Thanks for all the nice comments regarding the garage and garden. 

Is there a 'Thanks' button somewhere - I can't see it?


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## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

mctdog said:


> Thanks for all the nice comments regarding the garage and garden.
> 
> Is there a 'Thanks' button somewhere - I can't see it?


Near the 'quote' button, bottom right corner but it does have a habit of disappearing for some.


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

mctdog said:


> Thanks for all the nice comments regarding the garage and garden.
> 
> Is there a 'Thanks' button somewhere - I can't see it?


Depends how many posts you have too.


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## mctdog (Sep 14, 2015)

Kiashuma said:


> Looks great really nice. Did you move the vent near the door? Would b worried about damp if it was covered over.


Thanks. No the vent near the door is not covered - there is a clear couple inches in front of it.


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

What a read!

Really impressed! 

PS the Vette is looking awesome!


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## turbosnoop (Apr 14, 2015)

Very nice. We have the IKEA shelving in our kitchen. Prefer how you've used it though!


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## Bryman (Oct 1, 2006)

great read  love what you've done


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## Stu Mac (Aug 18, 2014)

Just went through the full thread mate, absolutely stunning. All credit it to you , all your hard work has certainly been worth it. Top job


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## Cy-Zuki (Feb 9, 2015)

Fantastico! Great work, both in the garden and the garage - the cleaning station looks ace!


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## dubb (Aug 27, 2009)

Speechless at the result. Loving those pics a page back.


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## salsheikh (Jul 5, 2010)

wow, what a great and inspiring thread. fancy coming round to mine and doing it all over again!


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

Nice work in both the garden and the garage.


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Great work.... more so on the garden... that must have taken some time.... The garage looks great too... the softfocus pics makes my eyes go funny.... lol Im giving you 9-10 for the garden and garage and 4-10 for the photos 

Paul


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