Garage Remodeling/Upgrading Feedback.

[TDinDC]

I’m about to remodel my garage, and I wanted to hear from others about things that you have done to your garage that you really like, things that you have done that you regret, and things that you wish you could or would have done.

I’m thinking flooring types, wall types, car door protection, charging, accessories, storage options, lighting.

For example, one change I am contemplating is removing the current parking stops that are anchored into concrete and using a scale painted on floor near back wall that you could see from rear view/front view parking cameras. On the one hand, the parking stop is foolproof, but it does create an obstacle on floor for when the car is not there or cleaning (or rolling jacks/lifts). Thoughts?



Having studied architecture, I’ve always thought it a little odd that many people focus solely on the front entrance to their home while neglecting the entrance that many homeowners use the most: the garage/side entrance.

As a result of other remodeling, I no longer need so much storage space in the garage, so I want to make it a much cleaner, calm space, but I still want it to be practical.

In any event, any advice based on your experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

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[Skier]

Check out GarageTek for walls and floors along with their accesories. Installed last year and really love it. Garagetek.com

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Excellent topic, I haven't seen (m)any threads on this. Will watch with interest.

I’m about to remodel my garage, and I wanted to hear from others about things that you have done to your garage that you really like, things that you have done that you regret, and things that you wish you could or would have done.

I’m thinking flooring types, wall types, car door protection, charging, accessories, storage options, lighting.

Prepare for a salvo from Cpt Obvious, but it (really) depends on your scenarios/intended use. That is, a garage optimized for detailing will look a bit different than one where you rebuild engines (of either kind ;-)). Having said that, while I've never done a one-shot remodeling of the garage, I've taken a lot of passes at it over the years, and this is what I've learned:

- paint it - bright white, satin or glossier (glossy for ceiling, not as much for walls; but again, if you brush/grind/work with stuff that splatters, it may be worth trading off some glare for the ability to clean the walls)
- assign "zones" - your spouse's/kids'/yours, and set strict and harsh penalties for trespassing or misappropriating stuff. I find that the farther away my zone is from the house entrance/high-traffic couloirs - the less likely it is for my stuff to be meddled with.
- invest in sturdy, use-appropriate shelving and storage, and then do it wall to wall - on the width at least (perpendicular to the car direction). Your specific layout will of course differ, but that's what worked for me. Specifically:
* closed cabinets for pantry-like storage
* open shelves spaced appropriately for different heights of storage boxes
* (obviously) tool chests - but this gets its own chapter
- save some room for things like a freezer, tire rack, bikes etc.
- you can never have enough light: for detailing you'd want as many elements as you can cram on the ceiling, and ideally with different orientations. For normal usage I like those multi-arm screw-in LED appliances, and individually-controllable light bars. For task work have some lower-powered lamps placed right above the working surface. Lots of hand lights - magnetic and rechargeable spread throughout. Lastly, I do like some under-cabinet lights that stay on during daytime in the winter - for passing by etc. (A motion-sensing, solar-powered light runs out of juice pretty quickly.)
- (my biggest regret) if you replace the garage doors, go for side-mounted motors - at least for one of the bays. There's just so much headroom wasted with conventional tracks and motor. Once you add a lift, even a low-rise one, it feels like a wasted opportunity.
- flooring: professionally-done epoxy or tiles (the SwissTrax/RaceDeck kind). The one epoxy floor I've seen last more than, say, 5 min was in my technician's garage - he rebuilds engines and works on cars for a living. (The floor is white for visibility, has traction, is easy to clean etc.) For the rest of us, I think floor tiles are just so much more convenient.

For example, one change I am contemplating is removing the current parking stops that are anchored into concrete and using a scale painted on floor near back wall that you could see from rear view/front view parking cameras. On the one hand, the parking stop is foolproof, but it does create an obstacle on floor for when the car is not there or cleaning (or rolling jacks/lifts). Thoughts?

Maybe that's me, but i prefer "lateral" visual alignment. Judging space using mirrors (especially with different geometries on the two sides of the car) seems a bit tricky. Nevermind that you get a 'perspective' view of the scale, but focusing your view between reading the fine details in the mirror and normal scanning one does when reversing is not immediate. A side glance to a point of reference is quick and takes no special preparation. I'd definitely not want anything fastened to the floor - can trip over it in the dark or when walking backwards, and just not worth the hassle.

Having studied architecture, I’ve always thought it a little odd that many people focus solely on the front entrance to their home while neglecting the entrance that many homeowners use the most: the garage/side entrance.

Absolutely. But then again, if it just works, what else is there? In my case, I found that it helps to:
- have a light switch (usually they're by the house-to-garage door), so a 3-way or something motion-activated above the outside garage door
- have a way of knowing whether the door is locked - from either inside or outside.

As a result of other remodeling, I no longer need so much storage space in the garage, so I want to make it a much cleaner, calm space, but I still want it to be practical.

In any event, any advice based on your experience would be appreciated.

Once again, it all depends on what you do in the garage. My priorities/needs have shifted over time as I tackled different kinds of projects. As a few examples:
- I had a phase when I was cleaning/detailing a project car: tall shelf with good visibility and easy access to various cleaning products, rags, tools etc. was essential. When the same project moved to the mechanical/engine aspects, I found that I needed more desk/working surface, with lots of bin storage, room for a bench grinder, a vacuum cleaner and a computer for looking up parts and diagrams.
- organizing tools is, let's face it, why we spend more time in the garage than anywhere else. After many attempts at the right way to organize tools, I find that having a rolling, smallish tool chest with the essentials is the best. It's bad enough to crawl out from under the car to grab the one socket I didn't bring with me, but it's a lot worse to walk across all 3 bays to the opposite wall where my tools are neatly organized in a stationary chest. Get one that has power, so you can plug in different implements as needed.

I'm still learning (mostly from my own mistakes, and which at first appeared to be brilliant ideas); looking forward to see other perspectives being shared here. What I won't do, though, is watch one more YT video of an operation-room-like garage - it makes me look like a deeply flawed and disorganized person.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Garagejournal.com

 

[TDinDC]

Thank you all. Another goal that I have is to move all of my spare tires and rims from above the garage doors to just above the floors so that I no longer have to climb a ladder and lift them up and down. Each year I get older and each vehicle seemingly has heavier rims and tires. They ones for the Taycan CT are enormous and heavy. I can still do it but no longer want to.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Thank you all. Another goal that I have is to move all of my spare tires and rims from above the garage doors to just above the floors so that I no longer have to climb a ladder and lift them up and down. Each year I get older and each vehicle seemingly has heavier rims and tires. They ones for the Taycan CT are enormous and heavy. I can still do it but no longer want to.

I got me one of these: Tire Rack Rolling Tire Storage Rack - it's a bit bulky, and still presents the challenge of lifting wheels for the upper shelf but it's a great product.

 

[007]

I have racedeck flooring and I highly recommend.

 

[LonePalmBJ]

I'm a big fan of torsion bar garage door openers instead of traditional mount if your garage will support it. It's much cleaner and allows for a higher garage door retraction height and much more usable height in the parking area, which may better allow for lifts or stacking car storage.

My garage is relatively small compared to some here, so I prefer to keep it bright and uncluttered, and the extra airspace afforded by the torsion opener really helps.

 

[STLLTH]

Something to consider if you want to have an area for detailing (wall mounted pressure washer, pressure hose, vacuum, etc.). On both sides of the garage door maybe add plywood behind the sheetrock to allow easy mounting of the pressure washer similar to the Obsessed Garage setup and also maybe add an outlet for water to directly connect to the pressure washer inside the garage.

Also consider installing a separate 20 amp outlet next to where you plan to mount the pressure washer as they tend to pull high amps under use and will prevent an overload. As a matter of fact, I would install individual 20amp outlets through out the garage for the various other items you might use simultaneously as a safe guard.

 

[JRNJTAYCAN]

I’m about to remodel my garage, and I wanted to hear from others about things that you have done to your garage that you really like, things that you have done that you regret, and things that you wish you could or would have done.

I’m thinking flooring types, wall types, car door protection, charging, accessories, storage options, lighting.

For example, one change I am contemplating is removing the current parking stops that are anchored into concrete and using a scale painted on floor near back wall that you could see from rear view/front view parking cameras. On the one hand, the parking stop is foolproof, but it does create an obstacle on floor for when the car is not there or cleaning (or rolling jacks/lifts). Thoughts?



Having studied architecture, I’ve always thought it a little odd that many people focus solely on the front entrance to their home while neglecting the entrance that many homeowners use the most: the garage/side entrance.

As a result of other remodeling, I no longer need so much storage space in the garage, so I want to make it a much cleaner, calm space, but I still want it to be practical.

In any event, any advice based on your experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

I went for a very simple clean look and feel as you will see in the video clip.
Charger and wall vacuum on one side, small storage closet in back left corner, basic tools on back wall and fridge for beer! What more do you need.
I had a good pitch added to the floor and extra wide lines cut into the floor to drain water and snow. Rather than adding a floor drain.

 

[TDinDC]

I went for a very simple clean look and feel as you will see in the video clip.
Charger and wall vacuum on one side, small storage closet in back left corner, basic tools on back wall and fridge for beer! What more do you need.
I had a good pitch added to the floor and extra wide lines cut into the floor to drain water and snow. Rather than adding a floor drain.

Haha. No more alcohol in the garage for me!

when I used to race, I would rebuild motors in my garage over the winter. One night I was working away and had a few glasses of wine. At the end of the night when I sought to use Brake Kleen to help clean up the slime on the floor under the engine stand, the floor kept getting slicker no matter how much Brake Kleen I used. I finally just gave up. Next morning, I realized that I had been using silicon spray grease instead of Brake Kleen because the cans look the same! I swore off drinking anything while working in the garage since then!

 

[TXAG]

If you have a pillar between your overhead garage doors (like the pillar shown at the very end of @JRNJTAYCAN 's video), consider putting a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the pillar for your EVSE so that cars parked on either side of the pillar can charge.

If you're installing tall garage cabinets along the side walls, I suggest not getting them any deeper than 18" because you may not be able to open those cabinet doors with cars parked in the garage.

 

[TDinDC]

If you have a pillar between your overhead garage doors (like the pillar shown at the very end of @JRNJTAYCAN 's video), consider putting a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the pillar for your EVSE so that cars parked on either side of the pillar can charge.

If you're installing tall garage cabinets along the side walls, I suggest not getting them any deeper than 18" because you may not be able to open those cabinet doors with cars parked in the garage.

Currently, I have open storage on both sides of the garage, which means you have to back/pull out of the garage before passengers can enter.

One goal of remodeling is to remove everything from sides of the garage so that passengers can easily open doors while the car is still in the garage. I have thought about getting some sort of padding to put on wall near door area in case of enthusiastic passengers.

Also, I do have two garage doors and my chargers are currently installed right between them!

 

[Pivotaltrader]

https://www.obsessedgarage.com/, this is not a cheap solution. But he has vetted and figured out what actually works well and what does not work well. He has a youtube channel too. So you can checkout his channel. He is a huge Porsche fan and has had multiple Gt 911 variants. Hence how i found him myself.

 

[mocsman]

@racedeck