New Garage soon!

Dean,

I re-did my garage.



I have six T8's, epoxied the floor by a professional, workbench, air compressor, tool storage. But it's only a two car garage but I would say it's the cleanest and most organized in my city. As soon as I buy a digital camera, I will take pics for you. But if I were you and what I will do with my next home is buy a house with a three car garage or build a home with a four car garage. Six T8's per two car area, A belt drive opener for quietness, build wall indentions for your air compressor, tool box, TV, etc. AC/heat duct into the garages but I would not do a drain in the floor. Very important- wait at least six months or even one year before you epoxy your garage floor and make sure that job is done by an EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL FLOOR PAINTER. Your concrete floor will move and crack during the first year. Lots of good sturdy shelving and you want high ceilings too. I even have a skeet'r beat'r. With the push of a button and a remote, it's a roll up white screen that keeps out bugs, leaves and makes your garage appear stealthy, like your garage door is closed and keeps the garage fresh in the summer. Here in Florida with the summer humidity and bugs, this works good for me. Here's the link.............



http://www.screenamerica.com/



Then click garage, however, I'm having some contact problems with my installer. He promised to come back and give me a tune up but he has not returned my calls. I've phoned him twice now and it's been a week.



Now I have a question.......



Is a TV a good idea for a garage in a high humidity state like Florida? I want to put directv in my garage but I'm concerned about the wetness in the air and what it could do to the inside circuitry of the TV and receiver. My garage in July is like a sauna. PLEASE ADVISE.



Thanks
 
I regularly travel to see some very spectacular garages. Unforunately, because they're owned by my clients, there are big confidentiality issues which mean I can't post photos BUT the neatest one I've seen recently was as follows.



Collector who owns 40 plus cars (from Alfa Spider to an Enzo - I kid you not!) owns a large estate and refurbished the 400 year old farmhouse. Outbuildings converted into car storage - nothing fancy really.



He just completed work on a steel framed building which externally looks like an old English barn (complete with wobbly ridge tiles!). This is his Ferrari garage which will house the Enzo & 8 other Ferraris. There are two 4 post ramps, full compressed air and 3 phase electrics. He also has an office suite so he can run his various businesses surrounded by his cars.



Cost - around £250,000.



Best garage I've ever seen and I visit about 200 commercial workshops and private garages annually. Gives me plenty of ideas for the dream garage but all I have is a single car garage full of house move junk (summer 04 project once my 03 bonus has allowed me to buy a toy!)



If you're building from scratch I'd go for the following.



Steel frame allowing minimum 12' ceiling height and space for 1st floor storage/games room



External stonework to compliment surroundings



Agree drainage a must as is air and proper electrics



I'd order custom build cabinets friom the same guys who build the F1 trucks but I'd actually have a separate storage/work area away from the car storage area - apart from anything else you need to consider the flammable nature of what you keep around your cars. In a prefect world, Id have the cars in their own storage bay with all cleaning equipment in a separate & lockable fireproof room, leaving cars in an almost showroom type garage.



Working area away from storage area - this is where you'd have your ramps etc.



First floor for the cinema TV screen, PS2, pool table, bar....hey, we said money no object, right!



I gues after all that you'd also need a big hungry dog by the door (which means you'd need a separate lobby area to keep dog away from freshly prepared cars....)



This could go on all night so I'll leave it there for now!
 
Jeez, this has really got me hooked! Some of this stuff is UK orientated so apologies if some of it makes no sense!



Heating - most commercial premises tend to use fixed & ducted heating, fired either by gas, electricity or waste oil (which is tightly controlled for pollution reasons)



Private car collectors and car storage companies either incorporate A/C or use a dehumidifier to keep temparatuure constant to avoid build up of moisture from garage being either too cold or too warm



Fire extinguishers? Smoke/fire detectors linked to alarm (presumably linked to central station/police/fire)



Key security? We're having a major problem with keys being stolen from houses - i.e. the burglars aren't after the antiques or artwork, just the SL55 or 996 Turbo!



IMO ceramic floor tiles work best in car store with an epoxy paint for your work area.



What about safety? anti slip surfaces & no smoking signs around your cars (or is that the workshop risk assessor talking, not the novice Autopian!?)



Check out places like Symbolic's showroom or the workshops of The Aston Workshop in the UK - we even have a client with a WWII Spitfire sat in their showroom!



There's another guy who's a Star Wars fanatic and has life sized stormtroopers/Darth Vader etc mixing it with Astons and Ferraris.



Sorry if I've bored anyone with this but, hey, I get paid to go and talk to people about incredible cars all day - might help explain the obsession!
 
dunno if i am intruding here, but i got really interested in those books and had a look around the net....amazon have both books for less than $22 dollars each, which is half the price of the other site....don't intend to be mean or ruin anyones business, just lettin u know of a better deal :)
 
Look, I checked out that "ultimate garage book" at Barnes and it ain't that great. It just looked to plasticky,( like Zaino)commercialized. Those garages looked like that had a fulltime maid! Not reality!



No pics of the owners themsleves. $40 for that book. No thanks!
 
Update:



The house plans have now been finalized. I've chosen a custom home builder and the lot has been purchased. Now all I need to do is saved enough $$$ for the downpayment! I hope interest rates stay low. :)



Hopefully my "mega-garage with a house attached" will pass the local architectural committee in the golf course community I'm in.



Please refer to my epoxy floor post about updates on my garage floor dilemma.



Thanks to all for their advice.



Dean



HouseplanX2bweb.jpg
 
What's in the little rooms behind the 4 car garage? Is there a passage way from the 2 car into the 4 car? A passage way or door into the 4 car from the house? Just curious. ;)
 
Might want to label one of those garages as "Fitness/ Gym Room" on the plans to help sneek those plans through. I think they might complain about having 4! garage doors visible from the street.
 
PAW,



The 2 rooms in the back of the 4 car garage will be a storage/workshop area and a home office room. I wanted a separate area to keep bikes, lawn mowers, shovels, etc. Hopefully it'll keep the car section less cluttered.





LouisanaJeeper,



I think you're right. I'll label the 4 car garage as a "oversized" activity room. There's even another local golf course community that bans any garage door that faces the street. All the garages in that neighborhood must have a side entry.



Luckily, no such rule on my street. It took a long time to figure out the least intrusive way of having 4 garage doors. At least they're not lined up like a self-storage place. :)



Dean
 
I'm suprised no one has mentioned this yet, I think an air filtration system is pretty important in a dream garage.
 
bet993 said:
Detailbarn,







2. Floor slop/angle. With the scissor lift this may not be such a problem but I have realized that the slop of the floor towards the one center drain causes some problems with putting a car on jack stands. The car must be precise position, otherwise when I get the car onto four jack stands one corner does not rest on one stand completely (this one stand must be a notch higher than the rest). Two floor drains would probably solve the problem also.
Click to expand...



Depending on how mechanically inclined you are you might want to have at least one surface that is level in both direction in order to do alignments



Also get one of those large air filters so you dont have dust landing on your freshly detailed cars...might need to filters for each side of the garage
 
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