Garage interior advice

[DrKai]

OK so garage going up Friday. I've spent too many hours now agonising over what to do with the interior and thought I'd ask for some advice. 

11x7m timber construction with 1 window, 1 personal and 3 garage doors along the front. 

Floor: Had it floated but the finish is less than desirable ( areas so uneven a rollcab wouldnt pass) thinking grind flat and epoxy but £1600 i could spend on the gt6

Walls: Welding/ grinding all manner of things will occur all potential fire hazards so would like to protect the walls. Have considered intumescent paint, sheet metal lining, welding curtains etc any other suggestions?

Storage: part of it will be used to store the usual fishing, camping etc gear which will get warehouse style racking but for the area ill work on the car I'd like something a bit more organised looked at most things from dedicated garage storage ££££ to office furniture and cheap kitchen cabinets or just a big workbench and halfords tool chest i can add to later. 

Basically I cant decide what level to go to. I'm not worried about it being tarty but would like it to be done right the first time and nice, neat and practical. I don't have a particular budget as I'll just pay for it with overtime but all the time I put money in to the garage it doesn't go in to the car and hence delays me.

million dollar question what would you do?

 

[Paul H]

Flat or pitched roof ?

Paul

[DrKai]

pitched as near as makes no difference to this:

[mishmosh]

Hi. I am a builder. 

Floor. Either Hire a concrete floor sander. Prob £100. Take of worst and seal with floor paint. 

Or. Prime with SBR. Use self levelling compound. Seal with floor paint or tiles. 

Walls. To be honest they won’t be very inflammable. Linecwith 12 or 18 mm ply. Gives a good fix for everything. 

Racking. 

Buy the best. Big dug stuff is ok but not the budgetvstuff. Go to auctions / eBay. Get proper commercial stuff or make your own from 3 x 2 And ply. Have cover sheets to pull over when you grind / spray / cut wood. 

Used Kitchen units are a good budget alternative and usually free 

[Paul H]

Best thing I did with my new brick built garage ,low pitched roof , 6 x 3 metres was to line the walls with 9mm ply . This hid all the electrics and painting the walls with cheap emulsion worked well. I put in a ceiling with ply . This reduces the dust and I can store some items eg spare petrol tank, seats etc . Lining the walls and ceiling took some time but it was worth it 

Paul 

[JohnD]

What do you have for lighting?     Think how many fluorescent strips and double it.

Floor, definitely paint.  Concrete sheds dust forever.

Burglar alarms, AND stout padlocks on the doors AND on interior storage.  Your lovely garage is a banner marked "Lots of portable items in here! Steal them!".  External PIR lights are a convneience for you, they come on as you go out or arrive in the dark, and a deterrence.   My tool chest is in a brick alcove, with a steel bar across it, and another is chained to the wall.  Can you guess I've been burgled?

Small tool storage: I use one of these: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cwr45-wall-storage-rack/?da=1&TC=GS-070114091&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkNfSBRCSARIsAL-u3X9XclVSxCo3eUTPuxZIJGCwy6AL1bQ2lCrYt1kAKheN59_Hlgp3ZK0aAsE5EALw_wcB  Can't lock it up, but losing a pair of pliers isn't a disaster

Workbench,  I use a wooden bench that I bought as flatpack from B&Q. They don't go them anymore, but something like this:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/152194261289?chn=ps&adgroupid=48716125379&rlsatarget=pla-381910302461&abcId=1129946&adtype=pla&merchantid=115102494&poi=&googleloc=1006854&device=c&campaignid=974960635&crdt=0

 I've since extended it with plain wood planks.   Somehow a stout wood bench feels more secure than a metal one.    It's bolted to the wall, and I've faced the front with a sheet of 6mm alloy plate, as eventually hammering etc, wore the wood.  Add a decent engineer's vice, an anglepoise light, and another fluorescent light on the wall behind

JOhn

 

 

[Colin Lindsay]

Seal the floor but don't paint unless it's been sealed first - any kind of sealant that penetrates the concrete and keeps dust down (John is right) is excellent but paint, unless it's properly prepared, simply lifts off again and car tyres will stick to it. Sheets of ply will protect the walls, it won't light from grinding sparks.

For shelving / furniture - remember the important rule that any object will use the help of gravity to land on your car, no matter how far away it falls, so be careful what you store higher up. If possible make some kind of internal partition that you can use to separate cars and stored items before they mix with a bang.

I bought excellent black plastic shelves from B&Q recently, five very solid shelves standing over six feet high on four supports for £14.99. For a bench, raid your local kitchen manufacturer for old worktop that's out of style; it makes a great bench on a stout wooden frame.

Don't forget your local charity shop for good storage units - I have three old wooden wardrobes / office storage units that have lockable doors and tons of storage space which were en-route to the dump until I saved them.

[Paul H]

Re lighting check out led fluorescents . About £25 each from EBay , . My 6 x 3 metres garage has 2 fluorescents though 3 would be better. If you need an eBay link let me know 

Paul

[DrKai]

Thanks for quick replies 

Mishmosh- does self leveler hold up well to garage abuse in your experience? heard differing opninons

I'll be going fully overboard on security. There will be sturdy locks, security lights, cameras and an alarm at a minimum. 

Lining with ply seems a good compromise and I can paint it to lighten things up. 

Cheers 

Kai

[ShaunW]

Don't forget a smoke alarm. You can make it easy to remove and take outside if you've got any jobs it doesn't like. And/or a heat alarm. 

[DrKai]

29 minutes ago, ShaunW said:

Don't forget a smoke alarm. You can make it easy to remove and take outside if you've got any jobs it doesn't like. And/or a heat alarm. 

that one I hadn't thought of 

thank you

[Guest]

Adding to the list, I also have a first aid kit and 2x fire extinguishers - foam & CO2; these are located towards the garage door and have their own area meaning nothing else gets put there. In addition there is a water container, albeit its usefulness is limited apart from cooling off burns.

Having a pal in the fire brigade is very useful for extinguisher change over !! 

Regards.

Richard.

[sulzerman]

You could line the walls in plasterboard, but insulate first with rockwool or cellotex.. Plasterboard is cheaper than ply

[AidanT]

Hi

 

Very relevant to this thread, has anyone found the best priced way to carpet their garage floor with a rubber mat from a roll or with the tiles you can get?

I've been looking at this for a while now but am always thinking of there is a better way or a cheaper supplier

 

Aidan 

 

[JohnD]

I bought a pack of those floor tilesat Halfords a while ago - they were so cheap!

But then I couldn't find a place to use them.    In front of my work bench?  I'd have to remove them to sweep up the filings and dust.     Under the car?  I'd have to put a drip tray on top.    And I don't have enough to cover the whole floor, so they'd have to be fixed down in some way.   Bolt gun into solid concrete?

Floor paint and frequent sweeping, that's my recipe!    A drip tray if heavy, otherwise a sheet of cardboard absorbs the drips, can't spill and can be disposed of when necessary, at no cost.

John

[Pete Lewis]

i got a roll of vynil chequer plate from costco   3mt by 6 or there abouts for £80 

makes the trolly jack a bit bumpy but its thick , best stuck down it does pucker up if the wheels tuckin on jacking 

but so far its done a good few years and its quick and easy

and for spanners etc  a big board with a sillouette , you can see what you want , no rumaging in a drawer 

or box, makes easy,  but not secure .

Pete

pete

 

[JohnD]

While a board for miscelleneous tools is great, there's nothing like a propeley organised spanner drawer!

John

 

[Anglefire]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

I bought a pack of those floor tilesat Halfords a while ago - they were so cheap!

But then I couldn't find a place to use them.    In front of my work bench?  I'd have to remove them to sweep up the filings and dust.     Under the car?  I'd have to put a drip tray on top.    And I don't have enough to cover the whole floor, so they'd have to be fixed down in some way.   Bolt gun into solid concrete?

Floor paint and frequent sweeping, that's my recipe!    A drip tray if heavy, otherwise a sheet of cardboard absorbs the drips, can't spill and can be disposed of when necessary, at no cost.

John

I bought a set too - they are great for me as I have to do a lot of work on the drive as my garage isn't big enough to properly work on it - so I put them down - either one or two loose, or join more together to make a bigger mat - I can then lie on it and keep warmer and stop bits off the drive poking in my knees etc. 

[JohnD]

Ah! Knees!  The achilles heel of the senior garagiste!  I fear those hard mats would be of little comfort.

I now buy only overalls that take knee pads, which seem to cause the overalls to wear qucker, no doubt as I can spend more time on my knees.  They are a boon and a blessing, as they say.

It's good for the soul, too, I'm told.

I also have a pair of work trousers with knee pad pockets, for situations where fuill overalls aren't indicated, but kneeling is.

John

[Pete Lewis]

ive got some memory foam knee  pads  very comfortable  , still cant remember why Im on me Knee's 

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

Get some memory foam insoles, they help you remember where you live when you're out walking. My back's the problem, it hurts all the time but eases if I lie flat, so since I bought the lift I'm going to put the Triumph up on it, lie on the floor and lower the car down to where I can reach things from flat on the floor... 

Re the OP - find some good local Buy and sell ads, like Gumtree - I've got rid of tons of old carpets from last year's house move (for free) but kept two long pieces of heavy duty carpet to keep the Triumphs parked on. You can advertise in the 'Stuff Wanted' section for any old carpet that people just want removed; the 'Stuff for Free' section is full of things that people just want removed at no cost to themselves. 

I'll agree with PaulH that led fluorescents are excellent - lots of clean white light but little power usage. 

 

[DrKai]

The walls have a vapor barrier sandwiched between the cladding and ply. Always thought the barrier should be the warm side of the insulation otherwise it's just going to get damp and rot the frame. That and given that it won't be climate control I was avoiding insulation. Happy to be corrected tho

How about this for lighting https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-twin-led-batten-43w-4400lm-4ft/6481v sayyy 8 of em? 

[Adrian Cooper]

Plenty of sound advice on here. I echo John D's point about thinking of the lighting you need and then doubling it. Those screwfix led battens are excellent and I have just fitted one above my son's workbench.  While you are planning the floor finish, how about putting some lighting in the floor too to illuminate the underside of the car? I have fitted led strips into a couple of aluminium channels and set these into my Halfords floor tiles and they give bright, shadowless lighting when I'm working under the Spitfire. Much better than a leadlight that always seems to be shining in your face or casting a shadow on the bit your are trying to work on.

Good heating, a vacuum cleaner, a decent sound system and effective sealing around the garage door all make the garage a pleasant place to be.  

I would like to pretend that my garage is usually tidier than this but, I'm ashamed to say, it isn't.

Adrian

[mpbarrett]

When I built my garage I insulated the walls and roof. Best thing I did, I have a single 1kW electric oil heater (thermostatically  controlled) and it keeps the garage dry and warm and means I can use it all year round. 

My only regret is not to dig a pit while it was being built and should have made it bigger...

mike

[Colin Lindsay]

Pits in domestic garages went out of fashion due to instances of  people being trapped under cars that went on fire, and couldn't get out. You need quite a size of pit nowadays, so you can get away from the car without having to wriggle out from in under it, so it takes a lot of space. 

I had one in my first house that used to fill up with water, and the plastic liner used to move about, so that I could pull myself along under the car like Gollum on his raft... but you had to squeeze down into it and out of it again so it was never a pleasant experience. One of the wife's uncles has a very long pit in a shed that he uses for tractors, and it's a real joy to use... clean and well lit, but it's about fifteen feet long with concrete stairs at either end.

And yes, that's the regrette that Edith Piaf WOULD have had... Je ne regrette rien.. except that I didn't make the garage bigger..!