Might as well throw this up here. I guess I can’t really call it a build but it’s more of a personalization, outfitting with utilities/tools, etc. I copied and pasted most things from my thread over on GJ.
October 2013
[quote=“nsogiba”"]
Just closed on my first home, 4BR, 2.5BA, with attached 2 car garage.
The garage’s existing specs, and my thoughts on what I want (mostly for reference, because I know I’ll forget everything)
Electrical:
1 electrical socket at the front. Would like to install a strip of sockets for my workbench and have a hanging extension cord reel as well. The house has 220V power which is from a now defunct hot tub, and will be perfect should I ever decide to upgrade welders from my 115V MIG.
Lighting:
2 naked overhead bulbs. I have about 4 or 5 fluorescent strip fixtures from my old place that can go up, but I’d also like some track lighting/LEDs that will accent the workbench area and possibly the walls.
Aesthetics:
The garage is currently fully drywalled and (I assume) insulated, which is a huge plus, much less work that I have to do. It will need some mudding to cover up some trouble areas on the walls, and definitely primer+paint. The idea is to have a stripe theme like many of the garages on here, but with a few personal touches centered around our type of cars. I’m a big German car fan, hence the name.
Floor: Concrete in excellent physical condition. Some staining from water and rusty shovels is present but overall it’s smooth and crack free, which is most important to me (I spend most of my time laying on my back on the ground). Sloped to a center drain which will be a huge plus for washing/rinsing the floor. Although Racedeck looks fantastic I beat my floors up, and I need something that won’t look like crap after a few years of my abuse. The floor will regularly see fluid spills, welding, grinding, and heavy equipment rolling around (floor jack, jackstands, engine cranes), so I think some sort of polyurethane coating will be best. My best friend is a project manager for a great little flooring company and will advise me when the time comes. The driveway itself has an extra row to the right of the garage, continuing all the way to the street. I probably could fit 9 cars in the driveway/garage without blocking the sidewalk. It’s handy as I drive an old Subaru in the wintertime and will store it on that pad during the summertime.
Work area: In front of one of the bays is a recessed portion in the wall which I’m sure was used to store garbage cans and lawnmowers by the previous owner. Luckily, we have a sizeable shed in the backyard, so I’ll be able to put all the lawn equipment, bikes, and all other crap back there to keep my space free. The recessed area is split by a vertical drywalled beam which makes fitting existing equipment in there a bit more tricky, but I will work around that. The plan is to have my rolling toolbox, air compressor, and welder on one side, with the work bench on the other. In the past I used to have to bring down my laptop for quick reference while working on cars, which was clumsy and awkward. I’d like to incorporate a small, maybe 20" display mounted on the wall, with a desktop tower tucked away under the workbench. A wireless mouse and keyboard will go with the setup and can be stowed away in the toolbox when not in use, since everything that stays on the bench somehow attracts a layer of dust and grease. A couple of speakers mounted up in the corners of the room will provide tunes, controlled by the computer.
And what everyone came for, pics:
Just a few days after closing:
The rear of the car is about a foot forward of the minimum distance from the rear door, and I still have a lot of room in front of it. This will come in handy if/when I pull the motor out of the BMW for service. Pardon the piles of crap as we’re just moving in.
Garage floor is in good shape.
Insulated garage door, with opener
General views:
Whew, long first post! We are in the process of moving, so updates will be slow, but I’m very motivated to get going and get functional in there. I will leave you with our mascot Finn, who is 15lbs (more to love) and doesn’t want to go.
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[quote=“nsogiba”"]
making slow progress, busy with overall house duties.
these are from the day we moved in, around the end of October. we got poured on all day while moving; the cherry on top was the flat tire on my fiancee’s A4. luckily it held enough air to get (to the new) home, where i swapped the wheels for another set i have for her car. Impromptu first “auto job” in the new place.
we got tired of organizing (and needed to return the truck) so everything remaining went into the garage.
end of first day after moving in. UGH
Today I hit it hard again and started to take everything unnecessary in the garage down into the basement. I left off here for the evening. Finally got a cover on the BMW, and it was kind of ironic since we got our first snow this evening.
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November 2013
[quote=“nsogiba”"]
After cleaning up quite a bit, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then I saw this:
It has been pouring the last few days so it is weather related, but I have no idea where to start looking for the leak. That wall is not an outside wall (it actually backs up to the family room), so the leak must be up inside, towards the roof.
I’m 99% sure the pipe is b-vent coming from the hot water heater in the basement. Does it make sense that the penetration from the exhaust is leaking through the roof, and letting rain drip in? Or, is the hot water heater vent leaking and allowing moisture/condensation to drip? It is dripping about every 5-7 seconds.
I would hate to rip down the drywall right there since it’s already partially mudded but if it has to be done, so be it.
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more early November
[quote=“nsogiba”"]
I’m taking a lot of inspiration from the other 2 cars on here that I like:
Copyright Infringement
Hoosier Audi
I am thinking a dark charcoal bottom, stripe in middle, and white up top.
Stripe will probably be red throughout but will have Audi Motorsport and BMW ///M accents thrown in on the respective side where that car will sit.
There is a bit of foundation showing at the bottoms of the walls that I will most likely paint black.
Floor is still a ways ago, but I am thinking polyurethane/epoxy coating (gray or cream) with ///M colored flakes in it. Or, red and black (Audi). Racedeck looks exotic but wouldn’t last a year in my garage with the amount of heavy mechanical and fab work I do (heavy parts, sharp, greasy, flames, sparks, etc)
Dream is to toss in a lift but not sure if the ceiling heights will allow for it. It is drywall so there may be some hope in the way of making room!
My next few days will be spent finishing up the cleanup of the garage and helping out my best friend at his place. He’s also a recent new homeowner and unlike me, has a lot of work to do remodeling the inside of his place. Paint, tile, etc. I will see if I can get him to post up his progress on here (big gearhead as well).
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[quote=“nsogiba”"]
I’m taking a lot of inspiration from the other 2 cars on here that I like:
Copyright Infringement
Hoosier Audi
I am thinking a dark charcoal bottom, stripe in middle, and white up top.
Stripe will probably be red throughout but will have Audi Motorsport and BMW ///M accents thrown in on the respective side where that car will sit.
There is a bit of foundation showing at the bottoms of the walls that I will most likely paint black.
Floor is still a ways ago, but I am thinking polyurethane/epoxy coating (gray or cream) with ///M colored flakes in it. Or, red and black (Audi). Racedeck looks exotic but wouldn’t last a year in my garage with the amount of heavy mechanical and fab work I do (heavy parts, sharp, greasy, flames, sparks, etc)
Dream is to toss in a lift but not sure if the ceiling heights will allow for it. It is drywall so there may be some hope in the way of making room!
My next few days will be spent finishing up the cleanup of the garage and helping out my best friend at his place. He’s also a recent new homeowner and unlike me, has a lot of work to do remodeling the inside of his place. Paint, tile, etc. I will see if I can get him to post up his progress on here (big gearhead as well).
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[quote=“nsogiba”"]
I had a chance last night to finally buy a ladder and inspect some of the spaces above the garage. I will note that coming from strictly automotive work, I’ve been spoiled by having all the tools needed for a job right at my fingertips. Needing home-specific tools is a pain since the nearest Home Depot is 15 mins away (1 way).
The space above the “front” half of the garage (closer to the door) is accessible by a hole cut in the drywall by the previous owners. The crawl space ends at the midpoint of the garage, at which point the upstairs hallway/bedrooms begin. Unfortunately I have no access from that end, so I cut a small access hole in the ceiling on the “rear” end of the garage, just to the right of the vertical hot water vent riser. The riser is unfortunately covered with 2x6 all the way up, and I have the upstairs hallway floor resting on the 2x6s to which the garage ceiling drywall is nailed. As much as I want to get in there and see what’s going on, I just am not sure how to access that area without starting to tear out the vertical plywood and drywall on the face of that vent column.
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mid November
[quote=“nsogiba”"]
We had a severe storm last night (50+mph winds) with some rain, so I’ll have to check if the leak came back.
I did some organization over the weekend and can finally fit both cars in the garage. I assembled a 42"x28" workbench out of old aluminum extrusions I had at work. Still need to have a fellow BMWer locally bend me up a tabletop (thinking 3/16") with a 4" rear backsplash. I want it to be steel so that I can weld on it easily.
Electrical - I hung my new Craftsman hose reel in the ceiling and set the retraction length on the cord so that I don’t have to leap to grab it. The bad news is that the only outlet on the wall in the garage has no power to it, and all the breakers are untripped. Not sure how to investigate that, perhaps the outlet itself needs to be replaced? It was working when we moved in because I remember that my compressor ran for a while on it.
In the meantime, I did some renderings in Solidworks to show what things could look like. I still need to add features like the man door for the house, the windows, the overhead beam, etc.
As it is now (more or less).
Work area.
Possible paint scheme.
The FR wheel bearing in my Subaru is howling so I’ll be tackling that this evening and spending some time out there. Excited to get my hands dirty.
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[quote=“nsogiba”"]
Some ups and downs last night. I finished up the wheel bearing on my Subaru after some running around for parts and press service, only to find that it didn’t cure the howl I have. So the diagnosis continues on that thing.
On the upside I did fix the only wall mounted outlet in the garage. It was working when we moved in, and just quit one day. None of the breakers were tripped, and switching them off/on to reseat them didn’t fix it. I disassembled the outlet and checked connections and all were fine. Still no power on the multimeter. Finally started to trace the wiring back through the basement to the panel, and found that it is fed (along with 2 other outlets down there) by a GFI outlet not far from the panel. The GFI wasn’t tripped, but there was a CO detector plugged in there that could have been rubbing on the buttons of the GFI. I moved the CO detector to another outlet in the basement, cycled the GFI a few times, and sure enough the power comes back to that outlet. Now I finally have a place to plug in my phone charger and speakers while I work.
This evening I’ll convert the overhead naked bulb fixtures to outlets so that I can hang my fluorescent fixtures and get some REAL light in there.
We have already had one small snowfall, and it’s getting frosty nearly every morning, so next on the list is HEAT! I have an idea for a portable but powerful heater that I’ve been thinking about for a while.
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[quote=“nsogiba”"]
I have been working on some projects to make all my tools more easily available and accessible. My work area (bench) is the biggest priority since I have no real place to put parts yet - also have no way to bolt down my vise, and you all know how useless you can feel without one. A friend of mine that works for a structural steel company is bending up a sheet of 3/16" for me for use as a benchtop, and it will cover the whole surface of the aluminum extrusions. It features a power strip and some storage underneath - also picks the fridge up off the floor, and makes for an overall cleaner look. I have been taking pics along the way and will get those posted up once I’ve made significant progress, but in the meantime, here are some quick ones to hold you over:
I hung 3 out of my 6 light fixtures - they are 48" long dual T12 fluorescents. They are hung end to end with equidistant spacing between, right over the main work area (engine bay of each car). They replaced the 2 CFL curlies that had their own receptacles on the ceiling. On Jim Von Baden’s recommendation I replaced the bulb fixtures with electrical outlets to free up some much needed power in the ceiling. I definitely plan on hanging more over the workbench and toolbox since when a vehicle’s hood is raised, it blocks the light from the ones directly overhead anyways. I also replaced the dim incandescent bulbs on the garage door opener itself with the same big CFL curlies that came out of the front area. I may not keep those as I’d like to put in some “warmer” style halogens that are angled towards the vehicles in more of a “spotlight” display.
The other 3 fluorescent 48" fixtures either need new bulbs or a ballast as they are flickering and/or don’t work, so I will have to look at those.
New light output after installation.
Spending a lot of time here after work and on weekends with the winter beater
I also picked up an industrial duty black rubber hose (2x 25’ lengths) along with 3 nozzles for garage duties. A friend of mine works for a flooring contractor and raves about this hose since it is used by his guys daily and still works great. Having that on the wall plus floor drain means I can now wash the cars inside the garage. Gotta say it’s nice being able to do that while it’s snowing and freezing outside!
Once the day is done I relax by the fire. It’s a gas insert and really puts out some heat.
And my buddy helping out.
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