# Garage Project



## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

Hi all,

I'm about to start on my garage project,

My current garage:





I aim to get it looking something like DW member paranoid73's:



I'm waiting quotes back for having a ceiling put in which will also give me some loft space storage to clear the floor space.

My current plans are:

*Ceiling / loft installation*

*Loft ladder* - I've had a look online for these but I don't want to purchase anything that feel flimsy when carrying loads up into the loft space but some ladders I've found are £500+! Any recommendations please?

*Lighting *- I thought about LED strip lights, again any recommendations please?

*Flooring -* I saw some people on here use floor tiles (can't remember the trader on here that did the group buy), but I've also considered self leveling compound or epoxy resin, again, any recommendations please?

*Wall cupboards -* I believe paranoid73 used B&Q units, I was also going to consider Ikea. Any other suggestions please?

*Other electrics -* Wall sockets

*Worktop - *will be needed to go over the tumble drier and freezer. I may also try and squeeze in a small floor standing cupboard by the back door. Any recommendations on these please?

I will also fit the weather strips to the bottom and top of the garage door to reduce dust and leaves getting blown in.

Is there anything I've missed?

Thanks!


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## wlmoate (Nov 29, 2014)

Hi,

What about trying to get a hot water supply into the garage? Does the garage run along side the kitchen?

If you want to create a loft storage area, then chipboard loft panels on top to start with and don't fit the plaster board or plywood underneath to save money. You could always fit plaster board afterwards.

With regards sockets you will be surprised how many you can quickly use. Fit metal clad type if your budget allows and use 20mm round conduit to connect them rather than surface clipping the cable.

Ensure you fit a two lay lighting circuit so you can turn on the lights regardless of which door you enter by.

Wayne


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Yep as above. Loft board on top of the rafters. Consider getting a wooden loft ladder as they are quite sturdy and not too expensive. You can either insulate between the loft boards and a plasterboard ceiling (attached to the underside of the rafters) or on the inside of the roof. Don't forget to insulate your up and over door. I used silver thermal wrap from Wickes to cover mine.

Either metal clad or plastic 20mm round conduit looks the best IMO. Does your garage have a ring main or spur?

I'm going with kitchen cupboards from IKEA in mine. Ordered the first cupboards yesterday.

I went with a rubber threshold weather strip glued to the floor rather than on the bottom of the door.

Lighting I went for 36W led battens from Amazon that give a lot of light.










My garage is still WIP.

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## Radish293 (Mar 16, 2012)

*Garage project - advise needed*

Pretty much done exactly what you want to do

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Fitted a Youngman wooden loft ladder £100 from various places on the web.
I've now boarded it out with B&Q loft boards and insulated it with Cellux. A really useful space to have


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

Thanks for the advice so far guys, I have found this Youngman loft ladder on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Ladders/...ef=sr_1_5?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1494792538&sr=1-5

I think I'm going to have the ceiling as high as possible so the loft floor will touch the underside of the current rafters, if that's the correct term? This means my ceiling will be 3m high so I'll need the extension piece for that loft kit. It also means I'm restricted to storing items that can fit in between my current trusses, but the last thing I want to have is a lower oppressive ceiling.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

You can't have the loft floor under the rafters. There's no support, except the screws holding the boards up. They need to go above the rafters so the rafters are supporting the boards. 


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

Puntoboy said:


> You can't have the loft floor under the rafters. There's no support, except the screws holding the boards up. They need to go above the rafters so the rafters are supporting the boards.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I'm putting new joists in as the current rafters aren't suitable for weight bearing of storage or myself


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Your joists look no different to mine. So I'm confused, where are the new joists going?


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## AndyN01 (Feb 16, 2016)

Sounds an interesting project.

An idea for cupboards/worktop - do you have a kitchen fitting company or shop fitting company nearby? You might be able to get "slightly damaged/miss measured" units or worktop "off cuts" for little to no cash.

Watching with interest to see how you get on.

Good Luck.

Andy.


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## Sean15 (Jan 13, 2016)

That's a very narrow garage. You planning on putting a car in there?


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

Puntoboy said:


> Your joists look no different to mine. So I'm confused, where are the new joists going?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The new joists are going across the garage the opposite direction, wood will be bolted to the walls and joists hangers attached to that.



> Sounds an interesting project.
> 
> An idea for cupboards/worktop - do you have a kitchen fitting company or shop fitting company nearby? You might be able to get "slightly damaged/miss measured" units or worktop "off cuts" for little to no cash.
> 
> ...


Great tip, thanks



> That's a very narrow garage. You planning on putting a car in there?


Yes, it's going to be tight, it'll require some accurate parking and foam adding to the one wall for the drivers door.


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

So yesterday things started moving with the garage project, I got everything cleared out and my builder Derek started work:



















Wiring routed for new lighting and additional wall sockets













































On Monday this will be installed into the hatch:










I wont need the extension ladder piece now as the ceiling is below the maximum 2.81m for the loft ladder.

Lighting wise I have gone for LAP 6ft twin LED battens from Screwfix which will be mounted across the width of the garage, one either side of the loft hatch. Then I'm having 4x metal clad MK double gang sockets fitted along with a light switch either end of the room.

Still to do


Remove all shelving ect
Paint ceiling white (including initial mist coat)
Paint walls white
Level floor with self levelling compound and paint light grey with 2 pack epoxy
Fit white IKEA kitchen cupboards to end wall.


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## rob267 (Nov 27, 2015)

Looking great mate. Wish i had a garage😣

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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

wlmoate said:


> Hi,
> 
> What about trying to get a hot water supply into the garage? Does the garage run along side the kitchen?
> 
> ...


Some good ideas here, some I had already thought of but others I hadn't. Thanks Wayne :thumb:


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## c87reed (Dec 9, 2015)

Great to see how these things progress. I only acquired a house with a garage about a year ago, before then I was struggling doing everything outside and having to store things all over too.

I've painted my walls with 3 coats of white emulsion and the floor is painted grey, it looks so much better even after to doing that.

Sockets all over are a welcome addition, if nothing else to save cables trailing, I am forever having cables in my way.

I too have a dryer in my garage on the far wall, although I don't have a personnel door along the far wall. One idea that I'd thought about for mine to create more floor and thus parking space was to have a type of steel frame/worktop so that I could elevate the dryer. If you imagine having a worktop with nothing below, but with the dryer on top - that's what I mean; maybe not as beneficial in your case though.


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## AndyN01 (Feb 16, 2016)

Be careful with the "self leveling" compound.

I used some and had to rip it all off again because it didn't do what it said on the bag.

Apparently the self leveling stuff is better if mixed rather "runnier" than than the instructions say and it does need working to pretty level before being left to "self level" itself.

Unless the level is only a very small amount out you'll need loads which will cost ££££££.

I ended up using a simple screed mix with the level set by using wooden battens and packers screwed into the existing floor. These were then removed and the gap back filled.

Just my experience.

Good luck.

Andy.


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## c87reed (Dec 9, 2015)

AndyN01 said:


> Be careful with the "self leveling" compound.
> 
> I used some and had to rip it all off again because it didn't do what it said on the bag.
> 
> ...


My new build garage has an intentional 'fall' gradient in the floor towards the door, also something to consider if the OP's garage is the same.


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

More progress made:

Got the hole cut for the tumble drier hose:










Then cracked on with the painting, I used Santex ultra smooth pure brilliant white with a masonry paint brush and roller, not easy going but after many hours and 30 litres of paint I'm almost there:


















During the painting the loft ladder got fitted:










These are the walls after two coats, you can see the dark of the blocks/bricks still showing through the paint slightly. The wall on the left is still wet.



















The loft gives me plenty of room to store everything I wanted to store out of the garage, plus more, exactly what I wanted. It would be easier without the roof trusses there but it was always the plan to leave them as it just didn't warrant the cost to change them.


















On Saturday a friend of mine whos' an electrician came over to finish fitting my new sockets and LED battens. I'm so happy with how this turned out, the battens give off more than enough light.


















This image shows the amount of light given off by the battens



























New sockets at each end and the middle of the garage:



























And a light in the loft.










I even started attacking the garage door with some Cif to get rid of the marks, the left hand side was before and the right hand side is after:










Whilst looking into the self leveling floor screed I noticed the data sheet refers to the floor moisture content and whether a DPM is present. Due to the age of the house it will have a DPM, but I have noticed some damp coming through one corner:










The opposite side of this wall is a raised step to my front door, so I lifted this slab and dug it out:


















This is has now been filled with concrete and the slab will be relaid and pointed. This may not stop all the damp but it will certainly help. Before I lay the floor screed I will also treat the floor with some Stopgap F77 DPM to fully damp proof it. This has been ordered along with the floor screed and Watco 2 pack epoxy floor paint, updates to follow.

Still to do:

Lay floor screed
Paint floor
Paint garage door frame
Paint rear entry door and frame
Finish painting (95% done)
Fit kitchen cabinets on back wall
Fit garage door top, side and base seals
Box in rear of electricity meter
Take hot & cold water feed from toilet next to the garage and fit two cold oulets (one linked two an auto hose reel) and one hot


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

AndyN01 said:


> Be careful with the "self leveling" compound.
> 
> I used some and had to rip it all off again because it didn't do what it said on the bag.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the advice, my builder has quoted £120 to lay the floor for me once I have primed it so I'm going to have him do it. I'd like to have a go myself but would rather him do it as I know it'll be perfect. :thumb:

I am going to use Stopgap 300HD self leveling screed as SKY used on his floor:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=342048

I think it's worth mentioning, from what I've read, for a garage floor a heavy duty floor screed should be used, not your normal floor screed.


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## AndyN01 (Feb 16, 2016)

For that price I reckon you'd be daft not to let the man that can do it :thumb:

When it's all done can we rent it out at an hourly rate????? 

It's going to be fab.

Enjoy.

Andy.


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## Mart987 (Apr 13, 2017)

I swear this is my old house. Is it a Westbury Home?


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## George3G (Jun 3, 2009)

Mart987 said:


> I swear this is my old house. Is it a Westbury Home?


No sorry, this wasn't a Westbury home!

Thought it was about time I updated this thread, back in august I got the floor cleared ready to start laying the new two pack epoxy coating.










Because of the damp coming through in one corner (as previously mentioned in this thread), I opted to coat the flooring in Stopgaps F77 two pack epoxy DPM to protect the self leveling screed from any potential moisture seeping through.










I then applied neat P131 as recommended by Stopgap.










Next my builder came in and laid the Stopgap 300HD self leveling screed leaving me with a beautifully flat floor.










This was ready to walk on by the next day, but I decided to give it a few weeks to fully dry, I could then finally apply the Watco epoxicote paint, which is an industrial strength paint with excellent chemical and wear resistance.



















Next addition was a Karcher auto reel, this will eventually be permanently plumbed in to a cold tap along with additional cold and hot taps for filling buckets, all fed from my boiler through my new loft space and down the right hand wall.










I also put my freezer and tumble drier back in and added an external vent for the tumble drier (available from Screwfix).



















And this is how it stands today, the dutsheets, roll of carpet and radiator cover will eventually go and the bike will be stored on the wall once I buy a car worth putting in here. The garage does look small in pictures but when it's clear it will easily fit my E46 coupe with plenty of room to easily get out with room at the back for my freezer and tumble drier.


















*
Still to do:*

Add two cold taps (one for auto hose reel) and one hot
Finish cleaning copper gas pipes of paint
Fit Seals around top, sides and bottom of garage door
Paint rear access door and frame
Tidy up where the floor meets the wall (may add some small skirting here)

*Long term plans*

Gloss white kitchen cupboards over and next to freezer and tumble drier with worktop.
Roller garage door


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## RedUntilDead (Feb 10, 2009)

Looks really good:thumb:
Not sure what the copper pipe is feeding but it would look neater with some lagging on. This would offer some mechanical protection too.:thumb: Could it have been run at high level? I find runs like that get in the way, are prone to knocks and gather dust.


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