New garage

[Bill Bayard]

Mike,

My slab will be 4" thick, with monolithic forms along the

edges, and heavily reinforced with re-bar and wire. My

concrete guy recommends putting heavy, plastic sheeting

down first, to prevent moisture from wicking back into

the slab, thus reducing humidity and taking the "chill"

off the floor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif


Bill

 

correct on the heavy plastic under under the slab. This vapor barrier is also a MUST if you plan on applying an epoxy on the slab. Remember though, with warmer temperatures in the spring and fall, your slab will get wet as its temperature will be below the dew point - especially on warm, moist days. But then, that's concrete.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Hi Bill,
Lots of electrical outlets, maybe three-phase 240 if you can get it, and I agree strongly with the heated floor. And a vapor barrier under the slab.
NOW, if you want a lift, call my friend Bill Mozingo at 410 507 1533- Chesapeake Service Co. The best lifts are made by Whip, and he sells and installs them. Get this done by a professional- the cost will be the same, and the installation will be safer and work better. The amallest one available will probably be a 7000lb. He also has used take-outs from time to time, and he can maybe find you one if you are not in too much of a hurry. And, he works in DE a lot- he's over there several times a month. Good luck.

 

[Ken Mason]

I would not bother with a foldable engine crane. If you have room go for re-inforced steel joist which you can slide an engine winch-block along. I plan to install one soon as every time I use the foldable crane the legs get in the way...means I can't get an engine near enough the shiny new work stand I bought to actually bolt it on! Very frustrating.

 

[Bill Bayard]

Is there any truth to the rumor that

heated floors tend to "sweat"?


Still no comments on what type of lights I should use.

If anybody has any thoughts, please speak up!


Ken,

Too late! Already have the engine crane.

The boom extends long enough to cover any leg clearance

issues. I shorten the legs and add a counterweight to the

rear end, if I run into a problem. Not a big deal.

Thanks anyway!


Jim,

I appreciate the tip on the lift guy.

BTW, how's your car coming along??

Started working on the Hatteras yet?


A huge thanks to all who have contributed their ideas!!!

My plan has been modified accordingly, and I'm stickin'

with it! Subject to change, of course! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif



Bill

 

[John W]

If your going to go with a heated slab I'd suggest putting 50mm of insulation under it too (on top of the membrane).
This helps to send the heat upwards, and stops the slab cooling so quickly in the winter (I don't have a heated slab in my garage but do in the house).
Also take photos of the pipework before you pour the concrete, and make sure you have a good idea of where the pipes are. If you install any machinery such as the lift that need bolting down the last thing you want to do is hit one of the pipes...

Concrete doesn't sweat as such, but it is cold so does attract condensation when its humid. Painting the floor with a good antislip paint helps to stop that, but you must leave the floor slab to dry out for a few weeks first. I think I was told a week for each inch of concrete for mine.

For the lights I'd use a set of fleurescents as general background light, and some dedicated work lights above benches. Maybe some adjustable angle-poise spots too. I have a couple of these that clamp to the bench so I can move them about if I need to.

Make sure you get fleurescents that are matched/sync'd else
you can get this weird effect where they seem to beat with each other. This can play hell with your eyes.

For work lights I use a 250W clip on arc light which I clip to my roof beams for when the fleurescents aren't good enough (not very often). I also use a lead lamp for when I need light underneath the car (the fleurescent ones of these seem better than the normal bulb types).

Apart from that, wire the lights so you can switch just part of the garage on/off at a time, and do this so you can switch them on from more than one place (it is a big garage after all).

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
John.

 

[Bill Bayard]

Thank you John,

Some great tips, particularly on mapping pipe locations!

With my luck, I'd strike oil (water) on the first hole that I drilled! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

On lighting, overkill seems to be the concencus of opinion,
but I have had issues with fluorescent bulbs lately.
With a 12' ceiling, I don't want to be changing out bulbs on a regular basis. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Anybody have any experience with sodium vapor, mercury vapor, or other lights
that don't spin the electric meter at 1000MPH?


Bill

 

[Kevin L]

I do not like the sodium vapor because they seem to offer a blue light rather than a nice white light like fluorescent lights do.

As to what I would add, if you are considering a lift, I would have lights imbedded in the floor below the lift. This woould allow the underside of the car to be lit and provide easier visability.

Also, I would have a air hose put in the ceiling on some type of retractable cable.

Sounds like a great place to work, post lots of pictures.

PS. Heated floors are the best

 

[David Briggs]

This website is a great place! Who else in the world cares about our workshops! You gotta love it! I just finished mine, because of county restrictions I was limited to 1000 sg ft, but it is gorgeous! It looks like my house on the outside, inside it is all white, 16 flush mounted florescent lights, black and whie tiles on the floor, it is like a surgery center!(which it is), 7 hp Quincy compressor/80 gallon tank , outside in a cool little shed, hard lines,2 50 ft hose reels, numerous outlets on the walls, A bead blaster cabinet a lathe, a Jet 52" shear and a Jet pan break, 3 steel work benches; one rated at 10,000 lbs and free standing with a flat top. 4 post Autolifter, a press, mig, torch etc. Cable and phone. a big sink with a small water heater. I am still getting everything up to speed but will have it all functioning by April 16th. I am the tech inspector for the San Diego Pantera Club and I am hosting a tech day(for a track event in Vegas)that weekend. I believe that 2 other GT 40's will be there as well. I would like to post some pictures but I can never get them on this website. I would love to send pictures of the work shop and my 40 to anyone that is interested.
I do enjoy everybodies comments and take on the car.

 

[Malcolm]

Hi Bill, Sorry I took a while to post here but for once priorities kep me off social things!

As Charles said I have pretty much finished my new garage so my first thing to say is to make it as big as possible as no matter how big it is it will still fill up with junk! My garage is 28 ft wide by 55 ft long or another way to say it is 3 cars wide by 3 cars long. With space to move about them in comfort. The picture below shows it as it is tonight and as you can see there is still some set up work to do.

 

[Malcolm]

The boat is not mine, so if you have a big garage be prepared to be asked to store stuff for family and friends. Or learn to say no. My brother has three weeks to get his boat out! I have also just had a 7.5 ton lorry load of furniture removed as enough is enough! And still the junk piles high!

 

[Malcolm]

Sorry about camera shake on that picture. There is a matching pile of junk the other side of the garage! Between these two piles of stuff that is one third of the garage spoken for.

I am really please I put in my 4 post lift. It is a wheels free 3.5 ton bradbury lift. Bought second hand but professionally serviced and then installed. £1250. I made the dropped floor area 2 inches deeper than required so that the lift reaches full height with a regular car on it without hitting my ceiling. When lowered, the ramp is dead level with the floor so any low ground clearance car can go on the lift. The underside of the ridge is 12 ft 4 from the main floor level and 9 ft at the sides. You look like you have A frames for your roof structure so you may have difficulty getting a lift in. But they are worth their weight in gold as far as I am concerned.

 

[Ron Earp]

ohhhhhhhh! I like that garage, very nice!

 

[Malcolm]

The ramp and the mill are both three phase, as is the rolling road brake testing machine installed but not visible in these pictures. I do not have three phase electricity but a three phase converter. Just plugs into a normal domestic socket. I can only use one machine at a time so one converter is sufficient. Mine is not a new funky digital one as they now can give out better results than the type I have. Transwave made mine and it can cope up to 4.5 HP electric motors. It is the blue box in the back ground in the above picture.

In that picture you can also make out a rail at waist height. That is my metal trunking for all my electrical circuits. Same price as plastic conduit but much tougher. I am installing 25 double sockets around the garage on three separate ring mains. Left, right and machine shop area.

I also have two separate lighting circuits so if one fails I can get to a backup light to find my way out the garage. When I finish installing it that is. My main lights are metal halide 250 watt units. I have 6 units for the whole garage. I plan to have flourescents over the work bench and each machine gets it own regualr work light. I also have two flood lights inside so that when I forget my brain and having turned off the main lights I can go back in without having to wait the ten minutes for the metal halide jobs to strike up again. Outside lights are useful for getting to and from the house if you are any distance away.

The garage is also wired for TV, cable, telpehone and is heavily alarmed. No windows at all.

Have you thought of putting in a loop sensor in your drive way? Cut this into your driveway in front of the garage doors and no one can get a car out without triggering the loop. What you switch on with it is up to you!

This workbench cost me £10. It is 15 ft long by 3ft 8 deep. All came out of a skip except the screws holding it together. Only have one workbench as otherwise you will have one like this that is piled high with overflow junk. The netal frame is a pallet that was made to carry plastic soffit and fascias. It is now upside down and has been shortened to this lenght. The woodwork top is my creation and is designed as strong rather than clinical. If I want a dead flat surface I can put a metal plate on it to suit my needs. As an amateur a 2 ft by 3 ft metal plate 1/2 to 1 inch thick will do as an engineers surface for my skill levels. Bolts in each corner allow level adjustment.

 

[Bill Bayard]

Malc,

The piles of junk will stay in my existing garage, which looks a lot like the junk piled corners of your "concert hall" In total, I will have 5 bays to work with.

Great idea with the level on/off of the lift!!!! Why doesn't everybody do that???? I would have to fill in the area around the lift, or I'd end up with a broken ankle! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

How many and what type and size lights are those. It would appear from the photos, that you have a very well lit workshop! I LIKE it!

VERY NICE! Welll lit, tons of room, well organized, and not too messy. I'd have to wonder about your sexual orientation, if it weren't just a bit trashed! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Your wife's Lotus is nearly identical to one that I very nearly bought, years ago. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif Still wish I had!

Thanks for the photos!

Best of luck in getting rid of the boat!

Can you spell Y-A-R-D S-A-L-E? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif



Bill

 

[Malcolm]

The floor to the garage is power floated and then evil two pack painted. It was done after acid etching. No drains for the garage floor. I wash my car (when I do!) outside and no car liquids go down the drain for enviromental reasons. On country drains here.

The floor is insulated by 4 inches of insulation on top of a damp proof membrane. Conveniently the foundations are good enough for a two storey house.

I do have a loo and sink so that dirty hand prints stay out the house. I will be running a Sadia type water heater until I install heating via a boiler adn radiator system. Gas heaters/burners (flame thrower type) are no-no's as they kick out massive quantities of moisture.

The building steel work frame is not strong enough to hang an engine hoist off so I plan to use a floor standing crane.

I hope to get a replacement compressor with a bigger tank. I do not think it necessary to have airlines all over the place but a reel with a suitable lenght will suffice for me. Wheel nuts and tyre pressures are mainly my use of airlines.

I do have a beer fridge, coffee making station and sofa and arm chair area for chilling out. Tv and hi fi too.

My only other garage feature is a good quality de-humidifier. I only have one for the whole garage and it rotates 500 cubic metres of air per hour. It is directly connected into the drains. Runs 24/7 and keeps the garage between 50 & 60% relative humidity. I also have a humidity meter to measure it with to check. I beleive their is a de-humidifier article in the forthcoming GTD club mag. This concrete garage is not ideal at all for moisture! Bill, yours should be much better being timber based construction.

Friends imposed on me a method of escape in case of fire so the only other door in the building is a fire escape door. Think about where to go if one end of your garage goes up. Can you always get out?

I hope this is of use.

 

[Bill Bayard]

Malc,

Everything mentioned in this thread can be put to good use!

A lounge area and a coffee maker....hmmm, those are winners!

What does your lighting consist of????



Bill

 

[Malcolm]

Gee, guys reading my verbiage as I write it. On the wrong side of the planet too! Now that is cool.

Ron, get your ars* over here!

Bill, I really plan to remove the piles of junk. I am planning on getting more shelving in. Current shelving is only 10ft by 8ft by 2 ft deep. 4 shelves. Bottom one strong enough for gearboxes and the top one designed as a tyre rack. I want to extend this to 35 ft long. If you ask really nicely supermarket home food delivery chaps are not always keen to take away the delivery containers and these make excellent storage bins. But it is going to get worse before it gets better on junk. I have three other garages here, all full of junk. One is to be converted in to a habitable room and the other (double) is to be demolished to build my new home office. I have other storage that once re positioned will hopefully become a dry junk store leaving my garage free for metal and petrol related things. But in the meantime guess where it will end up? YARDSALE? Funny you say that as today I was at auction selling all that furniture. Did you know that the bottom has dropped out of the old furniture market? All proceeds spent already on new tyres for Wendy's Saab and 92 copper beech trees for a garden hedge. Dang it!

The lights are Fitzgerald low bay warehouse units. Full retail price is £154 but I talked them into letting me have them for £65 each. Julian is planning on getting me some diffusers for them as used in the movie trade so that they really throw light about. Six light source points can sometimes leave you with a shadow (rear deck on a 40 when opened up is one place!) but are much easier to wire up than a row of 30 flourescents. Thats why they invented lead lamps.

As to the dropped floor area, thinking like you Bill, I actually enlarged the area that was lower so that I had more space to be/fall in without getting near the sides. I think it has worked but I do need to get the yellow/black warning floor tape stuck down to show the edge up better. I also left the wooden former in so that if I did fall onto the edge it would hurt a little less. You do need extra foundations under the actual posts to support the point loadings.

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Hi all -

Bill - Malc's idea of sinking the 4-post lift make for easy loading, although it makes it less easy to store an 'extra' vehicle below another on the lift. (portable ramps to lower area?)

Also - Malc, beware using a florry light as a primary light source for your mill or lathe. It can give the effect of a stationary work-piece at certain rpm and is not generally recommended. A good 60-100watt adjustable 'soft spot' works well.

finally - what to connect the detection loop in the drive to? 20mm mini-gun or claymore would be my favourite. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Malcolm]

Agreed about strobing machine lights. I meant regular lights in my post as non flourescents. My mill has a 50w three phase bulb fitted to it and my lathe an old angle poise lamp with 100 watt bulb in it.

Storing extra cars? I don't have that picture on this computer Paul! But it is actually quite easy. It is the third car that will be the fun one to get on. I think it can be done but.... Maybe when Ron and Brian come over to be beaten at the Brighton Speed Trials we can try it with their cars?