Building a Garage ---- What do you regret not doing?

[skibum69]

This is one design we've looked at for a new house. We saw one earlier where the garage was in the middle and living space was on either side but we haven't been able to find that blueprint again. It will be close to big enough. With 7 bikes my 22'x18' shed is not big enough but I do keep a few bikes in town and a few out here so that's liveable until I lose my spot in town whenever m mother goes.
https://www.architecturaldesigns.co...MIx9v5rsGbjQMVCURHAR3wkhNfEAQYASABEgLaYfD_BwE

 

[kbasa]

Buy a Handy lift, a pneumatic one. Create a recess in the garage floor that allows you to put the lift in it so it's even with the floor. When you don't need it, it's just flush with the floor. When you do need it, you don't have to hook it up or anything because you ran air lines in the floor.

Seriously trick. I've known two folks with garage setups like that. One in Mass., the other in VA.

 

[omega man]

Buy a Handy lift, a pneumatic one. Create a recess in the garage floor that allows you to put the lift in it so it's even with the floor. When you don't need it, it's just flush with the floor. When you do need it, you don't have to hook it up or anything because you ran air lines in the floor.

Seriously trick. I've known two folks with garage setups like that. One in Mass., the other in VA.

Possibly thinking of Mr. Bertalotto?

Now cut a hole in the floor so you can flush mount your lift!

http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/motorcycle/motorcycle-projects/motorcycle-lift-ins/

I needed to do this as I store a cor over the lift and the lift on the floor was to high.

From this thread- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/threads/harbor-freight-motorcycle-lift.41638/

OM

 

[riderr1150gsadv]

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned before but a sink is a must in any garage. Just to be able to rinse of things and wash your hands is bliss. YMMV

 

[adamchandler]

All the walls in my garage are fully insulated as well as the man door and the double garage door. The 13’ ceiling has R60. In the winter, before flicking in the heat, the temperature stays at 50F; it with the heat, low to mid sixties making working pleasant On extremely bitter days the garage with the heat turned off, occasionally drops to 45F but never lower.

I have a sky light which is great in the summer but is a major heat loss source in the winter. This annoyance has become a non-issue as every mid-October the skylight is stuffed full of insulation until the end of April.

I have two air hoses located in the garage, but if I was building from scratch, I’d have more than two air hose outlets available.

I like music while working and occasionally listen to television news. I have a 42” tv and a decent amp with six surround speakers. With our first house we had built, I ran all speaker audio wiring through the studs, running wires behind the walls. Wish I did this before covering and insulation the garage surfaces. (My wife does not share my appreciation for opera, action or fantasy movies such as Lord of the Rings etc, so I also keep a comfortable chair and stool for watching these.

Wish I had the foresight to run my two single use 120 heater lines and the compressor’s 220 line behind the walls. Although they are behind the walls. It was a pain doing it.

My garage came with a loft. Although garage items tend to not be stored there, the deck furniture which definitely could never fit in our decent size garden shed, spend the winter on the loft This is possible since our garage has an abnormally high ceiling height.

I am very grateful to have running water in the garage.

I believe you might have mentioned a vacuum outlet with a hose. Two of my kids have these in their homes. Both find this system a nuisance to use with the long hose. I find that reasonably priced upright vacuum sufficient. Of course having an overhead retractable electrical cord makes vacuuming around equipment easy or a quality battery unit would be better and possibly less expensive than a built in unt.

Some folks have a second garage door which leads to the backyard.

My garage floor is painted grey with various coloured speckles. Paint is good but if I ever paint the floor again, definitely no speckles as small dropped items become more difficult to find. Painting the walls and ceiling white reflects your lighting making the most of your lighting system

Adam, I hope when you have this project completed, there will be photos posted for all to see. I am envious of the garage project that you are planning and constructing.

Cheers!

Yeah, I think you and a few others have dissuaded me from mounting a vacuum and instead just find a way to mount up my dry vac so it's hanging from the wall but I can just drag that around the floor like I do now. I was already thinking how long I'd have to make the hose and my wet/dry vac works just fine as is. We are doing some audio cables in the basement so maybe I'll do a few more in the garage too.

Are you planning to park what appears to be a full size pickup in that garage? If so, have you considered how much clearance you have including mirrors through the garage door and then to be able to get in/out of the truck once inside? Or, that the vehicle will be in the way anytime you want to take a motorbike out for a spin? Me thinks that is not an overly workable space and the truck will end up living outside.

And with a side mounted door opener, you will lose some opening height (perhaps 6" with standard track, and perhaps a bit more for low profile tracks) unless you have the ceiling height to use taller than normal door track. Side mounted door openers rely on gravity for the door to start lowering, and if the door is raised too high, the cables come off the pullies when you close the door. There is a spring kludge to sorta overcome this issue, but it has issues and is not recommended by door opener manufacturers.

I did not know that about side openers. More research needed then on my part. My wife used my truck as reference but frankly, it'll be my E46 BMW convertible that lives in the garage which is much smaller. I just wanted to know the truck could fit for winter oil changes and luckily it has those "auto close mirrors" and air suspension with a entry / exit mode so it sits low to the ground if I want it. I'm hoping for 9.5 foot ceilings. we'll see!

As for getting bikes in and out of the garage, it's going to suck. there's really no way around it. my lot is tiny, I already roll motorcycles out of the walk out basement and if I want to dive the convertible, I have to move the truck to my neighbor's then move the convertible and Tiguan and then pull the truck in and do everything in reverse. Zero fun and having a garage won't solve that problem for me nor will it be easy to get bikes out without moving cars. One of those parts of living on a 0.1 acre lot on a lake. Sigh. The convertible is driven about 3,000 miles a year so I may get good at parking it in the garage along the wall so I can get the bikes in and out.

But thanks for the opener tips.

Buy a Handy lift, a pneumatic one. Create a recess in the garage floor that allows you to put the lift in it so it's even with the floor. When you don't need it, it's just flush with the floor. When you do need it, you don't have to hook it up or anything because you ran air lines in the floor.

Seriously trick. I've known two folks with garage setups like that. One in Mass., the other in VA.

I was very seriously considering that but I think I'm going to save it for our forever home. I'm trying to enhance resale as much as I can and not do anything permanent the next owner will hate or have to maintain. So I'm going to go 220V quick jack system that I can hang on the wall and they have a motorcycle adapter.

You'll see in the next photo, having the ability to put a lift anywhere will be huge. I can put one at the front of the garage with the door open in the summer and pull the convertible to the back of the garage OR move the quick jack to the middle of the garage closer to the cabinets for larger projects in the winter then I can use move the quick jack under the convertible or my wife's Tiguan for oil changes and swapping our winter / summer tires over. rolling it anywhere will be a big win to keep things flexible.

at least that's what I am thinking.

 

[adamchandler]

My wife mocked up what a Harbor Freight Icon 73" roller + 2 side cabinets would look like along with the Quick Jack lift dimensions and those of my BMW convertible.

Other than a deep sink and gun safe, that's really it for "floor items" the rest will be anchored into concrete like my tire racks, storage bins, Television, speakers and one other mechanic's roller + a roller chair.

 

[adamchandler]

Oh and we received the approval from the town and have a building permit in hand so all I have to do now is close on my loan which will be in about 2 weeks!

 

[omega man]

Any chance of a 42” steel man-door at the rear? If there is a slope on the rear, a little extra grading for leveling and drainage may help.
I think that the garage floor needs to be 4” lower than the existing basement floor for code.
Probably going to be a lot to keep track of as this project takes shape.
OM

 

[scott9999]

Garages are never big enough. I can recommend laying out the actual size on the ground with a bag or two of garden lime and having a chance to really visualize the end construction size. 10” foundation walls sorta creep in.

Floor drains are, and have become something that is not approved, at least around here. Floor drains can be possible but usually require an elaborate “septic” kind of deal complete with an oil/water separator. I had to weld a steel plate over one to seal it when the owner didn’t realize the problem.

I would have to guess that you have “city” sewer? Adding bathrooms usually means upgrading septic.

I didn’t see mention of electrical service currently serving your home. Sometimes it is a factor as where the service entrance cable attaches to the home.

Did I mention that garages are never big enough?

Good luck, be ready for unexpected surprises and try, try, try to be onsite and supervise all you can.

OM

Yes.
Garage.
Bigger.

No, MUCH bigger.

And, if either land/space or budget constrains you, try to at least make it wider, or a bit longer, for workbenches, storage cabinets, and so forth.
As far as floor drains are concerned, that's something I would have added, had I been present to break ground. (I bought a house build which was abandoned at the studs, more or less dried in, then revamped it to code, and finished it.)

The County (driven by EPA consent degrees, I believe) requires a "grassy swale" to trap run off from driveways or parking lots. That was kind of nuts in our case, seeing that there was no real drainage in the (lakeside, mountain) neighborhood, no gutters, etc., and most of the run off settled right about at my property. It was a constant mud pit, drawing flies and mosquitoes. I could "swale" with grass all I wanted to, but the only thing that would remain there, was what was already there, i.e. a mud hole six months out of the year, and a dusty hole along the road at other times. Short story long, I installed a drywell to sink the water runoff, surrounded it with gravel, and planted a few blades of grass around it to get pass inspection. It cost maybe an extra $4000 back in 2016, but there are no mud puddles, and we made the swale a feature, appearing like a dry lake bed (.. ah.. with the plastic sewer grate in the middle, but at least it's GREEN plastic ). Ours is a 3 story home/garage on a somewhat steep hillside, so I installed a French drain (i.e. 4' v-ditch with perp pipe wrapped in drain cloth) in back of the house to trap anything (i.e. potential flood) uphill, and drain pipes running 100' down each side of the house to catch gutter run off, routing all of that to the swale at the street. So, in short, since my swale is already engineered to handle driveway runoff (mine and every one else's, I guess), I should have no problem putting a floor drain in the garage. For 4-season climates like Northern Idaho, it's almost a necessity. Every time you park a vehicle in the heated garage, you'll have 20 gallons of melted snow spread an inch thick all over the garage by morning. I squeegee it out every morning, but there really should be a U-drain or channel drain type system in the garage to trap most of that and route it to the swale.

So, bottom line, route your garage drain the same place your route your driveway runoff, depending on your county's code rules. If you need to have a swale, it goes there. If your driveway runoff goes to a city type curb, well ... the driveway is connected to the garage, right?

 

[kbasa]

The Quickjack wall hanger brackets work great, btw. I think I’m going to put casters on mine to make positioning them easier. I got the 7000 pound capacity version. Solid love.

 

[kbasa]

Possibly thinking of Mr. Bertalotto?

Now cut a hole in the floor so you can flush mount your lift!

http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/motorcycle/motorcycle-projects/motorcycle-lift-ins/

I needed to do this as I store a cor over the lift and the lift on the floor was to high.

From this thread- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/threads/harbor-freight-motorcycle-lift.41638/

OM

Gary VV, if you know him, had a second garage for bikes that had a setup like that.

 

[phil002]

I regret not installing a heated floor..winter temps reach -40c here…our garage is basically unusable as a work space for most of the winter.

I did install a heated floor, but almost didn't... It uses a gas fired condensing boiler... winter temps to -25, but its already on and keeping everything warm and condensation free as Fall OAT swings from 20 to -2 overnight.

 

[adamchandler]

Kbasa, did you to the 120 or 240V version? I was considering 240 because maybe it’s a bit faster? Looks great and thanks for sharing the photo.

The Quickjack wall hanger brackets work great, btw. I think I’m going to put casters on mine to make positioning them easier. I got the 7000 pound capacity version. Solid love.View attachment 107080

 

[omega man]

Kbasa, did you to the 120 or 240V version? I was considering 240 because maybe it’s a bit faster? Looks great and thanks for sharing the photo.

FWIW, I would stay with 110v for ease and versatility of supplying power with any outlet, and any (12ga) extension cord. Seems like it’s a 1hp motor so 240v will just cause extra effort on your part.
OM

 

[kbasa]

Kbasa, did you to the 120 or 240V version? I was considering 240 because maybe it’s a bit faster? Looks great and thanks for sharing the photo.

120 is sufficient. Save your money if you’re wiring. You don’t need it. If it takes 15 seconds to lift the car, I’d be surprised.

My neighbor at our old house used the same ones I have, as does a friend. 120 is fine and more flexible. 240 is unnecessary complication and expense for no advantage, imho.

For your car, you might need to buy lifting blocks with a slot in them. The Boxster has a flat spot for lifting, but our Audi has a standing seam in the lifting locations so I had to buy lifting blocks with a groove in them. The QJ ones are $100! I bought some Amazon one for $15.

 

[riderr1150gsadv]

With the standing seam cars, we use pieces of 2x4 as the rubber blocks have a tendency to split..... DAMHIK

 

[scott9999]

The Quickjack wall hanger brackets work great, btw. I think I’m going to put casters on mine to make positioning them easier. I got the 7000 pound capacity version. Solid love.

I love the idea. I'm screwing around with my F-150 trying to get under it to work, right now. I STILL can't use a crawler underneath it. (I feel stupid for having bought it a couple of years ago - I mean, what can I even use it for?) My dream is a full life on a 3 .... no, make that FOUR CAR garage (or pole barn). Next house.

However, I'd still have to have jackstands under mine. Could never trust a hydraulic jack to ... um ... UN-hydraulic at the most embarrassing moment.

 

[kbasa]

I love the idea. I'm screwing around with my F-150 trying to get under it to work, right now. I STILL can't use a crawler underneath it. (I feel stupid for having bought it a couple of years ago - I mean, what can I even use it for?) My dream is a full life on a 3 .... no, make that FOUR CAR garage (or pole barn). Next house.

However, I'd still have to have jackstands under mine. Could never trust a hydraulic jack to ... um ... UN-hydraulic at the most embarrassing moment.

Agreed. The QJs have a locking frame so when you get them to your height, you back them off a smidge and some pawls drop into place to lock it. That takes all the hydraulics out of the equation. A buddy is building a race car and used to have a four post lift in his garage, a regular residential two car. He got ride of the lift and installed QJs. Once in position, he disconnected the hydraulic lines and it's been sitting there on the frame for a year or so now.

Alternatively, I have some decent jack stands, but then you get to go through jacking up all four corners and installing jack stands.

For my F150, I expect I'll have to get some kind of extension blocks to lift it with the QJ. It's a 2000, which is when they started making everything "4WD ride height". Why? It makes using this truck for bikes like twice as difficult.

 

[scott9999]

For my F150, I expect I'll have to get some kind of extension blocks to lift it with the QJ. It's a 2000, which is when they started making everything "4WD ride height". Why? It makes using this truck for bikes like twice as difficult.

Here ya go. 6"x6" laid across the rail. Easy-peasy. You can thank me with a beer someday.

 

[adamchandler]

120 is sufficient. Save your money if you’re wiring. You don’t need it. If it takes 15 seconds to lift the car, I’d be surprised.

My neighbor at our old house used the same ones I have, as does a friend. 120 is fine and more flexible. 240 is unnecessary complication and expense for no advantage, imho.

For your car, you might need to buy lifting blocks with a slot in them. The Boxster has a flat spot for lifting, but our Audi has a standing seam in the lifting locations so I had to buy lifting blocks with a groove in them. The QJ ones are $100! I bought some Amazon one for $15.

You definitely just saved me some money. Thank you. I'll do 240 at the back of the garage for an electrician heater if we can't get the mini-split head installed in the basement but that's cheaper than running 2 of those plus the EV charger.