A lot of you have heard me whine for years now, I don't have a garage or a pole barn to house my four wheel toys. The old house had a 4-car garage and a double lot with room to build a pole barn, but the house was too small for the missus, so it was sold and off to the suburbs we went. Got a larger house, smaller garage with room to build a pole barn but the missus said no to that idea too ("it blocks the view of her back yard"). 

Two years ago a place about 10 minutes from the house started building attached garages (I call them garage condos). The price was good but they couldn't tell me anything about property taxes, association fees, etc. They had not sold their first one yet. So I passed simply because they didn't have their act together. Fast forward to June - I see on Facebook Marketplace that one of the units is up for rent. I ask about it and if it is for sale since I am not interesting in leasing. I already rent two storage units to house Lucy and the Roadmonster. I am not interested in another lease. One unit is for sale, $85k for a 30' x 50'. I go take a look at it, sold!

So for $85k all you get is a bare 4 walls and rafters, minimal lighting and a couple of electrical outlets, a power garage door, a walk-in door, and 60 amp electrical service. We took it upon ourselves to insulate the one studded wall. The opposite wall is plywood. A buddy of mine help run power through out the garage, both 110V and 220V. I have since hired a contractor to finish the condo with metal walls and ceiling, finish the electrical, install the lighting, insulate the ceiling and front and back walls, build a parts/storage mezzanine. So here is where I am at.....

 

Main garage door entrance and walk-in door wall. Waiting for foam insulation before this wall can be finished.

Right hand side wall

Left hand side wall

Back wall with mezzanine. Also waiting for foam insulation before it can be finished. 

\

Lighting fixtures installed on both sides, a staircase on the left hand side, and a swing gate in the railing (to allow for large heavy parts to be brought up from the floor) still needs to be built. 

The opening in the ceiling is a crawl space for the blown insulation to go. I may also use it for storage too.

I am also having the 60 amp service upgraded to 100 amp.

Right now we are waiting for the availability of the insulation sub-contractor guy to continue much of the work of the remaining work. I am told he is several weeks out.

Edited August 17, 20214 yr by Frosty

Awesome place to store N work on your toys, quite the mancave!!!!!   BUT, if your gonna spend any amount of time there, your gonna need water for that kinda money.  No bathroom, sink for washin up or a hose to wash car or clean up parts?   Any plans to add this service?  

Wow bro, That's an amazing garage/shop!!! So much protentional and room. Congratulations Frosty! 

2 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Awesome place to store N work on your toys, quite the mancave!!!!!   BUT, if your gonna spend any amount of time there, your gonna need water for that kinda money.  No bathroom, sink for washin up or a hose to wash car or clean up parts?   Any plans to add this service?  

There is a small provision built into each garage for what amounts to a small garden hose for water. It is located in the back left corner of the garage, you can't really see it in the photos.

So no provision for biological breaks. If nature calls, I pee in the bushes behind the facilities or drive 10 minutes and use the toilet at the house.

However, I do plan to able to wash cars outside (so does the kid with his detailing side business) and some limited parts washing. I will have to run the water outlet along the wall once the walls are finished, along with running shop air, and making a place for a 4-post shop lift. 

Congrats on the purchase! Looks like a great place to work and store ‘em. Room for a lift in there?

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

and making a place for a 4-post shop lift. 

nice man cave mate 

and your in for such a treat putting in a hoist !!! life will never be the same again!!! hahaha...

 like JustA said, all you need is a toilet/ basin for washing your hands and your sorted ...... oh and  a fridge !!!!

frosty, does this mean you can put all your toys in this garage and save the cost of the other 2 leases ?

if thats the case .... that is 85 k well spent 👍

Edited August 17, 20214 yr by 64 kiwi boni

Kiwi - I already have the fridge mate! I am stealing the bachelor fridge we bought for the kid when he was at college. It is sitting in the house garage at the moment taking up space and collecting dust. That sucker is mine!

The idea is to stop paying for the two storage space leases once I am done building out the garage mahal. So with luck I should be out of the storage units by October or November. That will save me $500/550 a month.

I have been getting quotes for floor coatings but at 1500 sq. feet, that is like another $8000 and up. That's around $6+/sq. foot. I am now looking at Race Deck and comparable products. Some of their products are listed at $3.49/sq. foot. Anyone have experience with any of these systems?

 

Here is another picture of Jacob playing with the new Milwaukee power stapler putting up the insulation back in early July. You can see that we have already run the 110V but we still needed to run the 220V wire. Hence the slits in the insulation at the lower right.

Edited August 18, 20214 yr by Frosty

oh gotta love the Milwaukee stapler !!! you justA hold the trigger and press it against what you want to attach !! its a brilliant tool 👍

Frosty, with my garage floor i simply did a sprits of salt wash of the floor to etch it and bought proper concrete paint in gray from the hardware shop, its water based and has been down for some 16 years now, and works perfect, one day i will do a refresh, but boy does it make life easy when cleaning up!... only thing is gas spills will melt it  

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

Kiwi - I already have the fridge mate! I am stealing the bachelor fridge we bought for the kid when he was at college. It is sitting in the house garage at the moment taking up space and collecting dust. That sucker is mine!

The idea is to stop paying for the two storage space leases once I am done building out the garage mahal. So with luck I should be out of the storage units by October or November. That will save me $500/550 a month.

I have been getting quotes for floor coatings but at 1500 sq. feet, that is like another $8000 and up. That's around $6+/sq. foot. I am now looking at Race Deck and comparable products. Some of their products are listed at $3.49/sq. foot. Anyone have experience with any of these systems?

 

Here is another picture of Jacob playing with the new Milwaukee power stapler putting up the insulation back in early July. You can see that we have already run the 110V but we still needed to run the 220V wire. Hence the slits in the insulation at the lower right.

Frosty I have a few thoughts if you want? I’m a little pressed right now, but I’ll post this weekend if you want?!

11 hours ago, Last Indian said:

Frosty I have a few thoughts if you want? I’m a little pressed right now, but I’ll post this weekend if you want?!

I'm always up for advice Last Indian. 

Sweeeeet! Looking forward to checking it out! I'll pick something off my wall to donate to the garage art!

23 minutes ago, indymanjoe said:

Sweeeeet! Looking forward to checking it out! I'll pick something off my wall to donate to the garage art!

thats a great idea Joe!.

 frosty would you be keen on something from nz for your wall in the new  garage ? 

Frosty, First of all congratulations on the huge cool garage, drool! 

Everybody has different needs, expectations, budget restraints, etc. So what worked for me may not be good or practical for someone else. So this is what I found that worked for me! Take from it what you will.

I have done and seen many floor coating! Stains, paints, epoxy, nature stone and the like! Ceramic tile, regular floor tile and linoleum! None had much longevity if you are actually going to do mechanical work! Like floor jacks, jack stands. Things to do suspension work, tranny work, etc… These floor applications are not rugged enough! The biggest headache with all of these applications is the cleanup to replacing them! All are pretty ugly and labor intensive.

So what I finally arrived at, that has work for about 10 years now and show no sign of failing, was a blended floor of carpet and Gflooring! I park the Indian on the carpet. These are self stick indoor outdoor carpet tile, relatively inexpensive. Here I can do some moderate work and if I have an accident I can replace the damage tiles very easily, as I bought excess. Because this carpet has some slippage to it, when I jack up the car it doesn’t grab and pull the carpet. The carpet also gives a level of comfort to the feel of the garage, I.E. acts as a thermal barrier over the concrete and sound absorption. Also when I’m on the floor working it’s not cold because of the carpet! Now I see you plan on installing a lift so those issues may not be relevant for you.

The main part of the garage is done in Gflooring! I looked at all the different types of garage flooring tiles & rolls including Race Deck! All of them are going to need some form of protection when you use a floor jack, jack stands etc. if you don’t you will gouge, cut & dent these materials, but driving on them daily is no problem or just sitting there. Yet if you try to jack up a car that’s a problem! First off the floor jack will leave divots in the PVC tiles and sheet  PVC and jack stands do the same. Also because the adhesion between the tires and the PVC material is so good that as the car rises up the wheel pull inward! This pulls the material with the tires and when you set the car back down it pushes the material out. This will cause tiles to break tabs or unhook. Roll PVC flooring will end up puckering. Again this may not be a concern if you only use a lift, but the best form of car storage is jacked up, wheels hanging, I.E. no spring compression! 

So the Gflooring I glued down, which takes some patience! When I got to the walls I rolled the sheet of Gflooring 4” up the walls and glued it there as well! Then put cove molding over it! This gives not only a clean look, but keep any water or liquid in on the floor where I can clean it up. It keeps debris in and it keep insects out! There is also a transition molding between the carpet and Gflooring. The Gflooring does offer some minimal insulation from the concrete, as will the tiles.

 

I presume you plan to heat the garage when you’re there working in the winter?! If so you might consider insulating and weather proof the garage door, as this will be a huge heat loss! So I will tell you what I did which made a huge impact on the comfort of the garage, both in hot and cold weather!

I bought 2” thick R-tech foam board insulation. This is a 7.7 r value board. This I cut and glued to each panel of the garage door, allowing for just enough clearance of each panels angle as articulates through its opening cycle! I also cover the ends of the exposed foam with a high quality tape to protect it! I than encased the side rails of the garage door in the foam as well attaching it to the rails with 3” wide Gorilla tape. The foam attachment to the rails runs from the wall to be even with the side rail. The outside of the garage door should have flexible seals that overlap onto the door, as this helps prevent wind and blowing from pushing into the gap around the door. I also used these seal on the inside of the door between the side rails and the side edge of the garage door. This all made for a very weather tight garage door! In my shop I also used a R-tech on my man door which made a big difference on temperature intrusion! 

 

Here’s how the impact of those improvements effected garage temps. My garage, 2x4 construction. R-13 wall insulation, attic R-30, garage door is R-.9! On a 90 degree day, door never opened, no cars driven. The garage temperature would by mid afternoon reach 84-85 degrees! Same conditions in the winter with single digit temps the garage never when below 40 degrees, but the deeper we went into winter the less the day time temperature recovery would occur! This is because of the direct impact of the ground temperatures declining as we go deeper into winter. Because as you reduce the impact of above ground outside temperatures the more ground temperatures effect the air space of the garage, I.E. geothermal energy!

 

Now after insulating and weatherproofing the garage door! On a 95 degree day, yes 95 not 90, no door open no cars driven, 77 degrees is the hottest and that’s not till late afternoon. Winter, the coldest it ever has gotten in the garage period is 49 degrees! Most of the time it is in the 50’s and up until late December, or longer some years, lower 60’s! Most of the time I can keep the garage a 72 degrees when working in it, with just a 1500 watt electric heater after bringing it up to temperature with my big electric wall heater!
 

On 8/20/2021 at 4:41 PM, indymanjoe said:

Sweeeeet! Looking forward to checking it out! I'll pick something off my wall to donate to the garage art!

Thanks Joe.

On 8/20/2021 at 5:06 PM, 64 kiwi boni said:

thats a great idea Joe!.

 frosty would you be keen on something from nz for your wall in the new  garage ? 

Certainly my friend.

33 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Thanks Joe.

Certainly my friend.

Wow I'll throw in an old coolrides banner......

5 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Wow I'll throw in an old coolrides banner......

Ohhhhh........ahhhhhhh!!!! 

Would Marcel approve? BTW - he has a new job, Director of Digital Marketing at Cosmedent, Inc.

7 hours ago, Frosty said:

Thanks Joe.

Certainly my friend.

sweet as 👍 i will pm you

You know Frosty, once you install the beer fridge, you'll be "just popping down to the shed, dear" 85 times a week on the pretence of fiddling with some repair. Once you crack a beer and put some tunes on, you'll end up moving in there, so be careful!

It's a great looking shed and you are gonna be in your element. I wish I could think of a piece of Australiana that you might like to chuck on the wall. Let me think about that one.

4 hours ago, Fitzy said:

You know Frosty, once you install the beer fridge, you'll be "just popping down to the shed, dear" 85 times a week on the pretence of fiddling with some repair. Once you crack a beer and put some tunes on, you'll end up moving in there, so be careful!

You make it sound like this could be a bad thing Fitzy. That sounds like a GREAT thing! Should I turn off the cell phone too? 

Cracking a beer is the second greatest sound in the world.

22 minutes ago, Frosty said:

You make it sound like this could be a bad thing Fitzy. That sounds like a GREAT thing! Should I turn off the cell phone too? 

Cracking a beer is the second greatest sound in the world.

Round up the kid and make him swear the cell phone doesn't work there right from the start!!!!

6 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

Round up the kid and make him swear the cell phone doesn't work there right from the start!!!!

Change the lock so he can't get in the first place and it becomes a moot point.

6 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Change the lock so he can't get in the first place and it becomes a moot point.

Justa stay on the same page the phones do NOT work there.   Did you see Asprin in my dream cruise photo's??  I've always smiled about that, but even Mike brought it up.  Awesome vid of Indy  thankz.  You gonna be around for Labor day?   Golling and Sellers are the last 3 shows. for me.

I am screwed for Golling and Sellers this year with the wife and I going back to Hilton Head Island on Sept 17th and returning on the 26th. My last show will be Charleston WV unless the Widetrackers have their Fall Color Tour after that.

I will be around Labor Day. Not sure 100% what is going on that weekend. I have UM football plus my brother's birthday on Saturday. Sunday and Monday are currently open. I'd like to spend some time wrenching on Lucy, weather permitting or garage available.

7 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Round up the kid and make him swear the cell phone doesn't work there right from the start!!!!

oh nice plan!!!

8 hours ago, Frosty said:

I am screwed for Golling and Sellers this year with the wife and I going back to Hilton Head Island on Sept 17th and returning on the 26th. My last show will be Charleston WV unless the Widetrackers have their Fall Color Tour after that.

I will be around Labor Day. Not sure 100% what is going on that weekend. I have UM football plus my brother's birthday on Saturday. Sunday and Monday are currently open. I'd like to spend some time wrenching on Lucy, weather permitting or garage available.

We Have been itching for a road trip...Was kinda maybe thinking about jumping in one of the Firebirds and rolling up toward Charleston West Virginia...In October Ourselves..We haven't been up that way in couple years...Plus it's fairly close only about 4 hours... More or less  away...Depending on which route we take...

Edited August 24, 20214 yr by TWO LANE BLACK TOP