Renovation advice.

[Porkanbeans]

I'm a newbie here. Great site y'all have by the way.

I detail on weekends and use a single car garage for my work. It's pretty deep and wide, but it needs light and there's a bunch of stuff that needs to be brought up to par. So I'm asking all you fellow Autopians: What should I do? I've thought of the epoxy floor coverings, painting everything white, etc. I plan on doing this as a current weekend project when I'm not detailing a car. Here are some pics that might help:

View from outside in:

[Porkanbeans]

From inside out:

[Porkanbeans]

This is a little closet off the back. Not sure what I'll do with this as I have cabinets to store things on the side. Should I relocate the cabinets so they're not in the way?

[PAW]

Boy! There's a log of stuff in the garage. But who am I to talk. You should see my garage!

From a functional point of view you need more light. 2 - 4 flourscent lights. Do a search on light* in the Garage forum. You could also use a set of halegon lights. Sears has a set on sale for $20 this week.

I see you don't have your location listed. If winter heating is an issue, you could tap into those ducts in the ceiling.

Painting everything white would brighten and unify the look.

I'd look at getting rid of things you don't need. What about those bricks in the corner? Get as much up off the floor as possible. I like cabinets with doors so your clutter can be hidden.

Expoy on the floor is an on going debate here. The professionally installed stuff appears to be best but several people have had good luck with U-Coat-It. Another brand has been doing well for others recently. Sorry I don't remember it. A recent thread titled Garage Tiles had a promising looking plastic tile product from Sears. For car's only, I like the BLT mats. They are a rubber ridged mat. Sam's Club carries them and I think have the best price. They're available online for more $. There's a thicker version. Again more $. I don't know what work you do in the garage and what product would be most compatible. A tough, well installed expoy is hard to beat but if it goes bad, it looks to be a headache. You have to test for water vapor seeping UP through the concrete. Do a search on expoy and a LOT of reading.

[Duckman]

my first suggestion is to remove EVERYTHING right off the bat.. start off as if you are just moving in... you've got a great space there, so it shouldn't be too tough to work with. I'd add a lot of flourescent lighting, as well as painting anything you can white (such as those floor joists). it'll reflect the light and make things seem much larger and brighter.

[Porkanbeans]

Thanks for the help guys. I've been reading and reading about floor coatings just in this forum and have found a wealth of information. That rubber grid tile seems like a good choice if I can't afford U-Coat it after all of the improvement costs. Race Deck looks cool too and it seems pretty easy to install.

Thanks again for your advice.

[detailbarn]

Porkanbeans you've got a PM from me.

[Porkanbeans]

Hey guys,
I just wanted to update you on what I've been doing since I posted this thread.

I decided to use the 2 car that's on the other side of our house. It's deeper and wider than a normal 2 car so everything fits in really nicely. Plus there's a closet that's flush with the wall as you'll see in the pics.

For the floor, I put down the Behr garage floor coating system. It included cleaner/degreaser, acid etch, bonding primer, and the epoxy paint. 2 weekends was all it took, but it only took a day to do the cleaner through the primer. The next day I laid down the base coat and came back a week later to put on a 2nd coat. I really like the flooring, but I think the color's just a bit too light .

I've included pics of when the 2nd coat was dry. Since then, I've hung some cool car and truck pictures and reorganized the whole closet. The floor paint is starting to come off where it got a little thin, so what I plan to do is get some sort of a medium gray and repaint the floor, then take the same color code, get some enamel wall paint, and paint right over all that dark and disgusting wood paneling. I fell it'll create a uniform look and will bring the garage into this decade . If I can find good ones, big flourescent lights will take place of the dim globes on either side of the garage door opener. The garage gets a TON of natural light, so that helps too.

So check out the pics, enjoy, feel free to critique, and leave suggestions if you have any!

Thanks

[Porkanbeans]

Here's a shot from the door from the house to outside.

[Spotty-Dog]

You may have a point about the panelling You've got a great start there and with some more light and a decent sound system, you'll be ready for those late night sessions.

[jaybs95]

You have 2 garages... I want 1

Thats a nice big garage to work with, and yeah that paneling definately darkens that area. But thats definately a great start you have there

[lagniappe]

I like the paneling. It will keep the smudges that common on the lower half of a wall from showing up. I would go to a electrical supply house (not Home Depot) and buy several 8' T8 fluorescent fixtures with electronic ballast. Because they have electronic ballasts they are very energy efficient, are instant on like incandescents, and do not hum like the old ballast type. You can get 7 year life bulbs and since you will have 8' foot tubes you will have fewer to change out. I would install lots of them so that you have good, even illumination.

I would be tempted to get some pipe and run air lines around the walls. This would keep you from having to have long air hoses that get in the way. It is much easier to air up tires without having to drag a hose around the wheels. It would also allow you to use several air tools at the same time.

Another thing I would do is run rigid vacuum cleaner tubing around the walls. You would connect your shop vac to this and then not have to wheel the thing from one side of the car to the other.