Garage/workshop build (lots of images)

[franksta]

EDIT: My host decided to not renew his site so the pics are down until I get them re-uploaded and linked. Sorry about that.

This may be appropriate for this section of the forums.

The short story is I wanted more room for my vehicles and tools. I have a 2-car garage with 2 cars inside of it. The problem is I've got an additional 2 cars that sit in the driveway which is where most of the preventive maintenance and repairs occur.

In the beginning:

The lawn mower just barely fits behind the VW.

The plan for the new garage was to have as much square footage as possible with tall walls to accommodate a vehicle lift in the future. I took some measurements of my yard and started doing some rough layouts using Google Sketchup.

The white box in the lower left corner represents my house. The one in the center is my dad's truck which would be the largest vehicle I'd ever want to park inside.

Side view with service door and lawn mower door.


I ended up making some tweaks to the measurements and adding some windows for natural light. The final dimensions are 24'x36' (7.3m x 11m) with 10' (3m) walls. The roof pitch is 8/12 to match the house and will also be finished with the same bricks and shingles.


Enough of that, on to the construction.

As it turns out there's almost a 3 foot (about 0.9m) difference in elevation across my yard. Rather than building up the foundation with blocks I decided to have dirt brought in to make it level.

The first of what would end up being 9 truck loads.

Beginning some of the site prep when the track came off of the skid-steer. You can also see where some high winds associated with the tornadoes in April '11 wrecked my fence to the right of the truck.

2nd load of dirt getting dumped.


And done with the dirt

EDIT: This started around June/July 2011. Updates will be pretty quick until we get to the present then it will drop to a snail's pace since I've got no more money.

 

[vshah]

subscribed, looks like fun!

 

[franksta]

The county requires that the dirt get tested prior to any construction. I came home from work one day and there were several holes in the dirt.

This is in the back right corner which is the thickest area. I put the measuring tape in there for reference/lulz. It took them a couple of weeks to actually come out and test it. I had to hound them on the phone about it.

Here are the forms for the concrete. I did a ton of reading on lifts and decided to go with a 4-post. 2-posts require thicker and stronger concrete to anchor into.

Concrete poured. I spent every evening for 2 weeks hosing it down with water. Didn't make a bit of difference, it still cracked.

During that time the contractor built the walls/trusses. They were delivered on a flat-bed truck. I came home to this.

They are scissor trusses down the middle and storage trusses on each end. The garage door is 8' tall and I did 8' of storage trusses above it since the tracks for the door take up that much room anyway. On the other end there's 4' where I'll put recessed lights above my work area.

Hopefully this is helpful for visualizing the shape of the scissors. It makes it feel much larger inside plus extra height for lift.

 

[SithSolo1]

Looking good so far. My dad did something similar in his back yard but it was more for RV, vehicle, and mower storage than a workshop or working garage.

 

[twinrider1]

Build threads rock. Thanks.

 

[halik]

That is freaking awesome, how much is this gonna run you out of curiosity?

 

[franksta]

Part of the roof getting covered.

From the back corner. The little metal strips are brick ties that secure the masonry to the structure.

The garage doors. The large one is 8' x 16' (2.4m x 4.9m) and the smaller one is a 7' x 7' (2.1m x 2.1m) roll-up.

Entirely covered

and then

Shingles. It's not an exact match to the house but I don't think the casual observer would ever notice.
EDIT: As you see it here it didn't pass the county's inspection. There were 3 complaints. Lack of brick ties to the right of the large garage door, no wrap above the roll-up, and (not visible) one of the windows was missing flashing.

Here's the inside facing the large garage door

There's only a couple of places here that offer bricks. As it turned out the first one I called was the one that supplied them for the house and knew the style and most importantly, still offers them. The house isn't that old, I think it was built around 2004. We've only been here since early 2008.

Here are the bricks

The metal angle iron bits are the lintels to go above the doors and windows. There are 12 of these brick cubes and each had 500+ bricks. This ended up not being enough. I forget what the total ended up being though. Fortunately the mason I hired was able to get them the day they did the brick work.

Here's a brick I snuck out of one of the cubes sitting on my back patio for comparison purposes. Nailed it.

 

[franksta]

That is freaking awesome, how much is this gonna run you out of curiosity?

I'm not sure. The structure itself finished with bricks and shingles was in the high 20 thousand (USD) range. I've done a lot of electrical inside already and I'm going to do more as well as insulation and sheetrock. I figure I'll be done under 40 large.

EDIT: I contracted all of the work. It could be done for way less if you were willing to do it yourself. I don't have the spare time or knowledge so I'm on the "Pay to play" strategy.

 

[halik]

I'm not sure. The structure itself finished with bricks and shingles was in the high 20 thousand (USD) range. I've done a lot of electrical inside already and I'm going to do more as well as insulation and sheetrock. I figure I'll be done under 40 large.

EDIT: I contracted all of the work. It could be done for way less if you were willing to do it yourself. I don't have the spare time or knowledge so I'm on the "Pay to play" strategy.

Oustanding, what state are you in? My g/f's father has really nice overhead infrared heat set up in his garage, excellent in the winters there (Michigan). I highly recommend that if you're planning on working in the winter.

 

[franksta]

Oustanding, what state are you in? My g/f's father has really nice overhead infrared heat set up in his garage, excellent in the winters there (Michigan). I highly recommend that if you're planning on working in the winter.

Alabama. I don't think I'll need heat so much as just a place to get out of the wind.

 

[franksta]

I think 7 cars rolled up to my house as I was leaving for work. No idea what the final count of masons was but they killed it in one day.

I talked to an electrician about getting power. The house has 200A service so why not Zoidberg? No go, the utility company won't run a separate service. To get 200A at the garage I'd need to upgrade the service at the house which would be horrendously expensive. The decision was to run a 100A sub-panel. Oh well. I read enough about the stuff I intend to run to feel satisfied that 100A should be good.

The trencher was a big gnarly chainsaw but for dirt instead of trees. I had used one that looked like a big circle saw previously and knew enough about it to know I was glad I wasn't wrestling the stupid thing.

I was hoping I'd get all Jed Clampett during the dig. No such luck.

Found the in-ground sprinkler lines. Got them fixed with a few unions and we're good to go. The grey conduit at the bottom of the trench is for the power. I don't have a picture of it but they slapped in another pipe for phone and network.

 

[franksta]

To get an electrical inspection I think they require one light and one outlet.

Here's my panel. It's a Square D Homeline, the same as my house uses. I think it's a cellphone pic with only the single light they installed to illuminate it.

Let there be light

The color temperature on these bulbs is horrendous. There are four 4' T8 bulbs in it.

Here are the LBs in the garage.

Power on the right. Phone/network on the left but I'm running the lines for those.

I put my shop-vac on the end and fed a kite string through.

I'll tie this to my ethernet cable and pull it through.

And the more light

My father-in-law scored these from a school in TN that was getting new stuff. I paid $10 per fixture which included the bulbs. A smoking hot deal. I only had to replace 2 of the bulbs out of the 32. All wired into the same switch as the original. These are 6500K bulbs. My mother said "I didn't know you put in skylights". Just out of the corner of your eye you'd think it was daylight.

And beginning to put in some receptacle boxes.

They're dirt cheap so I went wild. Some are doubles and some are singles. I did a mix of 120V and 240V circuits. I did the 240Vs in each of the corners as that's the most likely location for any equipment requiring it (read: air compressor). They are all 20A except for my welding plug which is a 50A 240V. The air compressor I'm wanting to upgrade to is 30A so I'll end up changing one of them. Not until I get the compressor though, which is a bit down the road.

 

[waggy]

Fuck im jealous. i have been thinking of having a woodworking shop built. but the kids keep wanting shit like food and shelter

 

[franksta]

Fuck im jealous. i have been thinking of having a woodworking shop built. but the kids keep wanting shit like food and shelter

Been there, still doing that. Without question, it slows down progress.

 

[franksta]

And the first thing I moved in?

The speakers are hideous old school Jensens, I've replaced the drivers in them. The are the ones my dad bought when he got his first job out of college. The Kenwood KR9400 is identical to dad's but I got it on ebay. It's seen some rough use but is perfect for garage listening. The ipod seems out of place.

In the background are the atrocious ivory cover on white outlet and the ugly metal switch box. Both have been replaced.

Close up of some of receptacle wiring.

And checking them.

Rather than check every single one I began at the end of the chain and worked my way back to the breaker panel. If the last one is good then the others would be too.

I only found 2 with problems.

This cheap checker was worth it for the 120V stuff. I used my multimeter to check the 240V circuits.

 

[Imported]

I'm jealous. I wish I even had a garage right now.

 

[compman25]

http://www.garagejournal.com would like to see the build also!

 

[Zivic]

awesome build. I really want to put up a decent size garage by my house.... the two stall isn't cutting it when you have a mower and kids toys. I have a 40'x60' shop at my farm, but I need some space closer to my actual house.

I think I would have gone with the twin post. I have a 4 post and a rotary brand rising table style lifts. While each is great for their given jobs, a twin post would still be nice.

even contracted out, under 40k doesn't seem too bad, especially considering you bricked it.

I want a 4 car wide, 1.5 stall deep unit, with a 20-25' overhang out front. Seeing your pics has me motivated to get on it...

congrats on the new space

 

[franksta]

I got this spool of cat6 on ebay for super cheap. I'd never done network cables or phone stuff before. I bought other parts and tools to make receptacles on both ends. I ran two out there from my office. One for phone and one for network. It wasn't horrible, a lot of laying down on the ground in the crawlspace of my house but worth it.

I put a wireless access point in the garage so I can stream music.

Crap picture of my laptop with wired connection. Wireless works too of course, just disabled here for the test.

On some of the other forums I visit this sort of information is widely discussed. Lots of people upgrading from the less efficient T12 bulbs to T8s (like mine) and even T5s.

That's the current draw on my fluorescent lights. 8.3A at 120V. The 32 bulbs in the fixtures I installed are 32W. I don't know what the 4 in the fixture the electrician installed are rated at.

The stereo and access point only draw 0.2A. I didn't take a picture.

Here's a pic maybe around half-way through the electrical. Network all the way on the left, yellow is the 20A stuff, and the black is #6 for my welding plug.

The welder when it was brand new. Lincoln Precision TIG 225, almost a color match to the VW. VW is actually GM Torch Red, same color as the Corvettes in 1995-ish.

 

[franksta]

http://www.garagejournal.com would like to see the build also!

It's there already but I post under a different name. I don't visit ATTG that frequently but figured it could be appreciated here.

 

[franksta]

My wife wanted me to get cabinets. I think the phrase she used was "Get something nice"

Here's the base ones and the wall mounts still in the boxes. There are lights in the plastic on top of the 2nd one. They go beneath the wall mounts to illuminate the work desk. Wardrobe sized one's not pictured. Scaffolding used for installing the lights and my lawn mower also visible.

My retractable light peeking in. I ran some outlets in the trusses for it and my party lights. Still undecided about putting in the party lights though.

I am going to put in insulation and drywall so can't mount the cabinets until that's done. I've never done drywall before so it will be an adventure. It was next on my list of "to buy" and "to do".

However, my wife wanted me to get gravel down to drive on instead of the grass.

Two trucks of gravel. It was delivered Monday morning and still looks just like this. My father-in-law is going to let me borrow his tractor to help spread it.

That's it so far. I'll try to keep this updated with the progress.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

This... is... AWESOME!

Should provide plenty'o'room for workin.

Those are some nice tool cabinets too.

 

[SSSnail]

Have you thought about putting skylights in on the roof? Just an idea.

 

[RKS]

I am jealous. How much more would it have been to run plumbing/water?

 

[franksta]

I am jealous. How much more would it have been to run plumbing/water?

I don't know. Probably not too bad though. The water service enters my house next to the attached garage. I could probably T into it by the driveway and run it under the fence if I really wanted to. There is a spigot on the back of the house that I wash my hands with after working outside, so I didn't think I'd want water at the structure.