My Garage Build

[MiniDave]

A liftmaster style garage door opener gives you all the ceiling height as the lifter is alongside the top shaft instead of in the middle of the ceiling.....

[Willie_B]

A liftmaster style garage door opener gives you all the ceiling height as the lifter is alongside the top shaft instead of in the middle of the ceiling.....

This what I have on both our garage doors. Got them thru Amazon.

[BruceK]

That sounds like a great solution.   Will need to wait until the magic elections are plumbed to the garage however...

[BruceK]

Well the paint crew was a no-show today, rescheduled now for Monday.   It's very windy with a lot of dust in the air today carried from the Sahara Desert (yes, really), so perhaps that is a good thing. 

[tsumini]

A liftmaster style garage door opener gives you all the ceiling height as the lifter is alongside the top shaft instead of in the middle of the ceiling.....

Yeah I had lift masters in my old garage. They're great.
I'll be interested in your inside lighting. I have four florescent lights that i want to change out to LED eventually.

[MiniDave]

The twin 4ft led shop lights Costco sells are terrific, and often can be found on sale for $20.

[BruceK]

It's ready for business!   

A painter spent the last a day and a half caulking and painting, finishing up this morning.   I was watching him and this guy was a perfectionist, spending a good deal of his time just going back over his work looking for any flaws or touch ups needed.    The colors were selected by my wife who is planning on painting our house the same colors.  (Correction: having the house painted...  ;D ). So this was kinda the test to make sure she liked the colors in person.   It passed the test.

[MiniDave]

It's not done till it has some cars in it!

[BruceK]

It's not done till it has some cars in it!

Agreed!   Tune in tomorrow.   The entire fleet should be docked there.

[gr8kornholio]

Nice color options. Worst thing I did was not cough up the money to have the shed painted.  I mean, how hard could it be. Lol.

[BruceK]

Nice color options. Worst thing I did was not cough up the money to have the shed painted.  I mean, how hard could it be. Lol.

Thanks.  After watching a professional spend like 10 hours caulking and painting it I'm so glad I paid to have it done.

[BruceK]

It's not done till it has some cars in it!

Agreed!   Tune in tomorrow.   The entire fleet should be docked there.

I got my Mini, MINI, and Toyota parked in the new garage today. I'm sure I will find a more logical place to park each, but I wanted to see if I could easily fit them in just the back half of the garage.  I can.  4.gif     I was gonna put the Triumph in there too but it's just too hot and humid right now.

I'm going to hold off bringing toolboxes and other stuff to the garage for a while until I figure out what I'm going to do with the floor after it cures for 30 - 45 days.   I don't wanna haul stuff in there only to have to pull it back out to mess with the floor.

[94touring]

Looks like you could fit 3 more in there.

[MiniDave]

So, drywall? Ceiling? Lights?

I really like the 2 bulb LED shop lights that Costco sells, if you watch for it you can find them on sale for $20 each, otherwise they're $30. They just plug in and you can daisy chain them so you only have to run one cord to a receptacle or hardwire at one spot. I think you can chain 10 of them together.....

[BruceK]

I'd love to:

- add electricity
- add lighting
- add garage door opener
- add insulation
- add drywall and paint
- add some decoration
- add a/c
- add some flooring
- add some cabinets

But I spent a lot building it and I need to slow down on spending more for a while.

[94touring]

I think electricity goes to the top of that list. 

[Willie_B]

Something I suggested to Dave was to find a local trade school and see if they do field training/work. My neighbor had all the electrical wiring done in his garage just for the cost of materials and lunch by students from a school. Their teacher was there to follow and check all work done.

https://scitexas.edu/electrical-technician/

[BruceK]

Great idea.  Thanks Brad.

[94touring]

Doing insulation on those walls is an easy job to do as well.  Sheet rock isn't the most fun but a 2nd pair of hands will make it doable.  Portable roll around AC for something the size of your shop would work well too and save cost of a house type hvac.  Or a hotel style unit put on a wall.  Those come with heat too.

[gr8kornholio]

You could press board the walls too if you don't need the finished look of drywall. 

[Jims5543]

Doing insulation on those walls is an easy job to do as well.  Sheet rock isn't the most fun but a 2nd pair of hands will make it doable.  Portable roll around AC for something the size of your shop would work well too and save cost of a house type hvac.  Or a hotel style unit put on a wall.  Those come with heat too.

I agree on the sheetrock, especially since it is a garage.  It is not hard to install and you can do a halfway decent job finishing it as well. Watch a couple of you tube videos on how to apply joint tape and have at it.  Or price out pegboard for the walls and do that. I would put an attic access / pull down ladder in and finish off the ceiling as well.

Its fun spending other peoples money!!

[BruceK]

So about a month ago I hired a contractor to dig a trench to my garage, and also hired an electrician to run cables in a conduit from the house main panel to a sub-panel in the garage.   

The soil here is super rocky and the contractor using an excavator took a whole day to dig the 18" to 24" trench about 90' long, removing many large rocks, with a couple of them roughly the size of a lazyboy recliner. There were larger rocks embedded in the ground that could not be removed and they had to be jackhammered to cut a trench through them – that also took a whole day for a crew of a couple guys. 

The picture doesn't make it look like it's that deep, but it's probably about 20 inches or so there.   

[BruceK]

Then I begin to educate myself on running cables in a new build and installing electrical fixtures. I got a great book on the subject and also spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and doing other searches on the Interwebs gaining knowledge. 

As of right now there are only two measly circuits.  One is for the (possible future) garage door opener as well as for the overhead light fixtures.  The other circuit is for a series of 9 wall outlets.   

The overhead lights are 4 foot led tube lights I got from Costco in the style of old fluorescent lights.  As leds, they only use 42W each and crank out 4000 lumens - that provides good illumination of the garage.  Since the light fixtures came with a standard two prong plug, I accommodated them by installing outlets along the rafters.  They are supposed to last 50,000 hours so that should be permanent permanent solution.   They are on a simple 20 amp breaker with 12 gauge Romax wire.  The outlet circuit is also on a 20 amp breaker using the same wire.  But this breaker is a dual function arc fault and ground fault one.  I also installed a lower hanging light that will sit above my work bench. But that light is not off the wall switch like the others, I will use the pull chain for switching that.

I've got plenty of space in the sub panel for other circuits and the next thing I might handle will probably be outside lighting.  Down the road I may be installing a 240v circuit for a/c.   But that won't make sense and less I insulate the garage first.

[BruceK]

I didn't use any wire nuts during the install.  I always thought they were kind of a real half-assed idea.   Instead I went modern with Wago connectors.   

[MiniDave]

How many amps did you run to the subpanel?

Running electrical is a LOT of work, isn't it?

Having the lights on makes all the difference, doesn't it?

Insulation isn't that hard to do, and it makes such a difference especially in the hot summer months. I still think either a DIY Mini Split or a window A/C like I did would be ideal for your shop.

Did you do a man door, or is the only entrance thru the roll up door? NM, I see it on the side....

Did you run a second pipe in the ditch for your Cat5 or 6?

I have some of those Costco LEDS and I think they're terrific!

Next up after insulation is either drywall or OSB on the walls and ceiling.

Don't forget the 240 socket for the welder, and another for the big ass air compressor to run the blast media cabinet, then you'll be ready for  the scissor lift. 

77.gif