We recently moved from our house in the "country" to a townhouse in the burbs. waaayy closer to work and nice schools for the kid. I had a 28x28 garage that I didnt do any improvements on at the old place, there was soo much room, I gathered quite a collection of garage stuff. Now I have downsized to a space smaller than 20x20. Time for a garage build to maximize space and efficiency.
While we were in the process of buying I took some rough measurements and started playing with sketchup
Previous owners took decent enough care of the house, but didnt care too much about the yard or garage. Ended up getting rid of the truck prior to moving in so suddenly I did not need to have plans to fit it in the garage anymore.
When we were getting our old house ready to sell, I moved all my garage stuff out to its own storage unit ahead of time. It kind of worked out perfectly, We were able to move all the house stuff in from storage unit #2 and keep my garage stuff in storage, to buy me some time to prep the garage for a few weeks.
First step was to epoxy the floors. Went with epoxy coat brand with a black base and red white and blue chips.
Downside is we laid the epoxy on a little too thick on the first half, and started running pretty thin on the second half. So half of the garage is thick and glossy and the other is kind of dry looking. Kind of sucks we berkeleyed it up but the concrete definitely absorbed this stuff and its looking like its going to be really durable and not peel off like the rustoleum stuff.
Yeah, I admit that the dark colored floor makes it harder to see small stuff on the floor, but I think it looks cool.
Next up was to paint the walls. But had to prep first. Down came the shelves and spackling and minor sanding ensued. Also had to patch a few areas of the wall. Posted up on our community facebook page looking for drywall scraps and had pieces for free within 24 hours. So glad I didnt have to buy a full sheet for a couple 2 inch strips. This community is alright.
Even though 90% of people on garage journal say you should primer bare drywall (OK I probably agree with that) I took the easy way out and went with valspar paint and primer in a light gray color. It took me 3 gallons to paint the garage but whatever. I laid it on thick so I didnt have to paint it several times. Its not perfect but neither is the floor. Its a garage and its already better looking than the one I was in the past 5 years.
With the floors and walls painted, time to move my garage stuff from storage.
I thought about running some conduit and wire around the garage for extra outlets, then I found that 10 outlet strip I mounted to the wall for $30. That works with my budget and was a lot easier to install.
My Wall O' Shelves design needed to be able to accomodate my drafting table and now also the garbage cans. Since those are all set up and in place my next step is to measure and start framing some things out with 2x3s and 2x4's. Thinking I will go with 24-30 inch depth on the shelves. The top shelf will only be 18 inches deep due to the garage door tracks.
So my original rough draft in sketchup, I was thinking I would build this sweet ass wood workbench extending out into the middle of the garage. While that would have been cool and all it would just eat up a lot of space, all the time. Previous owners left behind 2 folding tables so while they aint pretty, I can fold them up and put them out of the way when I wont need them (95% of the time)
Stay tuned. I am on a tight timeline to get the shelves up so we will see some progress here pretty quickly to get things functional.
I wish I had photos but it was a number of years back...
I had a condo with a 19x19 unfinished, 2 car garage, small.
Floor space was at a premium.
I went with wall shelving system that hung from the top, down. Secured to the header 2x4.
Look at HD, Lowes, Menards. They all have them.
My top shelf was the widest to hold odd, large items like coolers (step ladder needed to reach)
My next shelf was still wide and high (over head), held similar large boxes.
Third shelf less wide, about head height.
Fourth shelf very narrow at mid-chest height. This was only wide enough for bottles of oil, cans, bottles, etc.
The secret here was that you could still walk past the car.
Because the lowest shelves were so narrow, you could get close to the wall.
The second shelf up was just over my shoulder so my shoulder was under the shelf when walking past.
The next two shelves up were wide but over my head.
Sample.
https://www.knapeandvogt.com/fast-mount-hang-traks#
Because of my insistence of using my drafting table in the corner, it kind of eliminates the possibility of using the space to park 2 cars inside. I am ok with that, at the old house the big garage was detached from the house and in the 5 years we lived there we never parked the daily drivers in the garage more than a couple days.
So with more space to play with I am going big and sturdy and cheap with building the shelves out of wood on the left hand side. That and also having a lot of stuff in boxes needing to be stored.
So it will be a big 1 car garage with plenty of room for activities.
shelves were the primary focus this week. went with 2x2s for framing, 2x4s for legs, 1/2" osb for the tops
Next up, I need some brighter lighting. I hear LEDs are all the rage these days. DIY tire rack is also planned.
