Garage - What features would you select?

[Marcus]

I´m currently completely rebuilding and enhancing my garage and the old stable attached to it into a workshop complex.
As for the floor, I´m going to use this:

RaceDeck® - Portable Garage Floors, Commercial Modular Garage Flooring, Auto Car Floor Mat & Pads, Interlocking Floor Tiles, Covering & Coating

Seems like a very good idea to me. Any experiences from others with this stuff?

[John Killgore]

GARAGE: Very Nice, Huh?

[Chuck]

Perhaps I read the posts too quickly, but I did not see the two most important items:
1. Small refrigerator to keep the refreshments cold
2. Cable TV connection so you can watch the Speed Channel while working on the cars.

[Ron Earp]

Well, April and May came and went. Like most things I do that is car related it involves some delays or bad luck as of late.

Ground is SUPPOSED to be broken on this project in three weeks and we'll see how that goes. I'll be using as many of these ideas as I can afford!

John, not sure about that garage there, a bit to showy to use for a working garage to run race cars out of for sure!

[Foowowee]

Wow!!! Diecast18, what a fabulous garage! In my dreams. I'm ashamed to show this photo of my garage which has a combo of Racedeck and epoxy flooring. 2 four post Eagle lifts. It allows me to store 4 cars in a 2 1/2 car garage, and i could probably get 2 more in if I used Quickjacks (lets you slide the car around 360 degrees).
Now I'm looking for lighting, but I'll guess that the large round lights in the photo are extremely $$$, plus they look like they would have to go deep into the ceiling. Anyone have any ideas on specific high output lighting units?

[Gary Kadrmas]

Chuck,

I agree with your two items on your list!

During the winter months, your 2 items would not be an issue. However, during the Summer and hotter months of the year, it would be wise to add a third item to the list of important items in your garage......

Item #3: Bathroom with flush toilet, shower, and a large sink.

This will reduce the unwanted outside odors that will linger at the entrance to your shop, and will keep you from being wacked when you come inside the house tracking oil/grease/and dirt from your latest project out in the shop. It also works well as an area that stays relatively clean, so you can set up your stereo gear. My wife really enjoys listening to my stereo in the shop from the deck outside our house (about 125 ft from the shop) !!!!!

And about the small refrigerator........go full size. Think about it. Bigger is gooder..............,

[diecast18]

Foowowee,

The photo in the link you posted is not my garage. The photo I posted awhile back is not mine either. It was taken from Griot's Garage website to show what can be done. If I had a larger garage, that is how I would set mine up.

[Foowowee]

Diecast, the link to the photo is my humble garage.

Mike

[stu]

Four pages and no one has suggested a "stripper pole" ??

[Gary Kadrmas]

Stu,

Good idea. But too much of a distraction. Would never get any work done. I vote for the 32" TV w/recorder to play back tapes when the guys are over to down a few......and of course, hooked up to that killer stereo for the FULL effects of the audio.

Audio's

[Peter Jankovskis]

Hello Marcus,

I installed RaceDeck in my home garage about 3 years ago and it has held up well. The major disadvantage is that it is plastic. Hot items dropped on the floor will melt it and devices that exert high psi, such as a floor jack with narrow metal wheels, will dig into it. You need to place a piece of 1x12 wood or something similar under a floor jack to spread the load if you want to protect the floor.

Installation is relatively easy though you may find it better to cut the floor tiles with a hand saw rather than a power saw. If you have a power saw with a dull blade, the friction generated will start melting the tile at the point it is being cut.

[Malcolm]

Just put a 32" tv in my garage. Kindly loaned (read future donation!) by my brother as he has sold his house so he had nowhere to look after it for now. Quickly set up for satellite so ready to go! Shame there is so little worth watching on tv nowadays.

WC also plumbed in now but have yet to build the walls around it! Ok if working by yourself I guess!

I have pretty much got all the household junk and other accumulated rubbish that seems to settle in garages out of mine now. To be honest that has been the biggest issue irrespective of other garage toys in there. So much space to play with, its great. Moral of that is to keep your garage a garage/workshop and not a family storage facility!

[Pete.]

Originally Posted by bannedleader

Four pages and no one has suggested a "stripper pole" ??

After the wifey discovered it there would be no money left to build your car.

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Originally Posted by Howard Jones

I think that suggestion about a anchor point is really a good one. I would put a big bolt, 3/4" dia, through a 6 foot X 3 inch pipe and pour the concrete over it. Lots of rebar in this area. Leave the top of the bolt in a recess in the floor so you don't trip over it. I would use a small coffee can for a form. You can fill the void with a piece of wood cut to fit with a hole in it to accommodate the bolt.

If you ever need to tie something down to straighten it with a jack, walla! Some times there just isn't any other way.

Really easy and cheep and it will be there if you need it. This could REALLY be handy someday.

Straighten hell!!! A good friend used to chain his 427 Cobra down to the eye bolt he had set in his garage floor! He didn't trust the locks on the door, and more importantly, he didn't trust his neighbors!

A beer and wine tap direct to the source would be nice, as well as someone to do the real work!

As someone asked me when P1116 was in my garage, "do you work on that car?" "In my dreams, every night I break a sweat."

Rick

[Gary Kadrmas]

Rick,

Is that working on the car, or thinking about the stripper pole option?????

[Ron Earp]

Well, damn, the garage will finally get started!!!!!

Survey team came by today and did some work. Plans will be reviewed this weekend. About as big as it can be is 24x35, I run out of property space with the 15 ft setback rule.

So, I'll review the ideas again and if you have some new ones please pile them on!

R

[Dalton]

Ron, Instead of RaceDeck or flooring, can you just use polished and sealed concrete? This can look very good, and is a lovely solid surface for welding on or taking a point load. Or is it cold in winter such that you need a bit of insulation on the floor? Assuming it isn't heated?

Regards,

Dalton

[David Morton]

Costco here in Reading, England have two types of garage flooring - both inexpensive. One looks like aluminium chequer plate on a plastic roll, and the other is interlocking tiles with a sort of sponge feel to them . Both a bit of a compromise though.

[Ron Earp]

I planned to coat the floor with one of the high end floor coverings like Temic. I used that product on my current floor and it works extremely well. A forum member is involved with the company and turned me on to it, works great. It is the same product that we used on our club hangar floor too and it goes well.