Dream Garage Thread

Now that the coupe parts car is outta my garage, I can begin a little demolition inside to remove an un-needed wall and start finishing my dream garage!  I've seen a few posts about muscle car garages here but lets get this thread going with photos of your garages!  I need some ideas, LOL!  Clean or messy, let's see them!

Right now, my garage is a blank slate...it needs some cleaning, painting and lighting.  I am thinking about going with LED shop lights on the roof and above the work benches in the back.  I also need to get the floor fixed.  The previous owner parked his work truck in there and salt dripped off and ate up the concrete.  I hear there are ways to fix it but I bet it isn't cheap!

Cool idea. I hope David adds some of his shop info to this thread. He's got quite the place.

I will be able to update with mine come spring. I building a 40x40 shop with 13' side walls. I have the foundation and floors poured but I need to finish the house first so Shop is waiting until spring.

You should be able to get a concrete guy to look at the floor and give you some ideas. I have seen skim coats done on floors with that type of damage but it usually doesn't last. Ever think of doing a floor over it like racedeck or similar. The block walls are nice, but IBC (International Building Code) any outlets or electrical run will have to be in metal conduit, ask me how I know. My walls are 6' high of poured concrete and rest will be conventional framing, so unless I wanted all my outlets and switches to be over 6' off the floor I am in the same boat. Are you planning to insulate and heat/cool the shop? If you fir out the walls to insulate and drywall you wont need the metal conduit, but you loose some garage space. I am planning on LED shop lights as well. I found a bunch on craigslist that were ordered for a local warehouse that went out of business before they got installed and got them cheap.

You mentioned removing a wall. Does it run between the two doors? If so based on your truss configuration you might want to make sure it is not a load bearing wall that will require a beam and likely posts and footings.

Other than extra outlets, 120 and 240, the thing I find most useful in my shop is that I ran a hard copper air line across the back wall with quick disconnects for hoses every 10 feet. I like being able to plug in an air hose without stretching it all the way across the shop from the air compressor, and I have a permanent hook up for my media blast cabinet.

Steve

Looks like you have CMU block walls. I’d surface mount 3/4” or 1” EMT conduit around the room 42-48” above the floor with deep 4” square steel boxes. Maybe 8-10” between the boxes. That way it is high enough you can get workbenches against the wall. Large conduit affords you the ability to wire anything within reason anywhere you want it.

LED lighting is cool but it can be a crap shoot. Compare Lumen output, seems to be a lot of LED fluorescent bulb replacements out there that actually have a lower Lumen output then a plain Jane fluorescent. Also make sure you buy protected fixtures if your ceiling height is low enough to require it (most of the LED ones are).

Plumb for air.

Paint the inside a light semigloss color for light reflection.

Maybe install a minisplit system for HVAC

Install a urinal