Garage Shenanigans

I'm trying to whip my garage into shape. The original builder was into woodworking and closed off part/insulated/wired. The rest was bare studs and not even a light. This will not do. I have already insulated everything, because it was too damn cold to be in the space without it. Now it's time to get wiring.

I have two options. Maintain the two separate spaces, or take the wall down and make it one larger space. The wall isn't load bearing.

Here's what things look like now. I've positioned the outlets in the garage to get a sense of how things will work, but no wiring has been done. The workshop is, as said, completely finished. Option 1 with wall remaining.

Option 2 with no wall.

This is not a casual park the car in the garage space. The only vehicle that will reside here on a regular basis is the RX7. I'll be considering it a shop rather than a garage. I may even remove the garage door next to the work benches and build a wall with a nice window since that's southern facing and natural light would be appreciated.

Thoughts?

You'll end up cursing that wall if you leave it in. If you eventually want storage in the back portion, there's no reason why you can't put up shelves at that time, without having a wall there. More open room is always better. The thing with storage is if you have it, it'll always be filled. If you don't have it, it forces you to rationalise and minimise clutter. If you MUST have storage, is there room above for an attic?

I think you should start a build thread so we can all enjoy seeing another garage being put together

It's all engineered trusses, so no attic space. I Already have enough metal cabinets to run the length of the garage, but I know I'll want more.

Option two. I hope one of those little squares is a fridge.

Band saw, table saw, planer, fridge. I'll have to set up a table for my metal cutoff saw and compound miter saw. Most of the tools are mounted on rolling cabinets.

I'm assuming that the home is new to you. While I'm all in favor of as much garage space as possible, if you have as much space around the car as the drawing illustrates, I'd leave the wall in place for a while and see what it's like to live with.The enclosed workshop might be nice. If you tear down the wall, you'll never rebuild it.

As far as insulating a garage goes: When I built my house, I insulated and sheetrocked the garage and bought the doors with the highest R-value available. With 10.5' ceilings, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. I've had a new MaxJax sitting in the corner for a month and it's still too berkeleying cold to set it up.

What are you using for heat? I'm craigslist hunting for a woodstove.

I have a propane torpedo, but it's hardly worth the trouble of setting up.

Hmmm. I'm not looking for sauna levels, but warm enough to bash my hand and have it bleed without instantly freezing would be good.

As for room around the car, there's plenty. When I pull my truck in for an oil change I can't shut the garage door. Fine in the summer. Sucked this winter.

I would keep the shop. There are plenty of times having a closed off area for working on small parts of the car comes in very handy. Plus if you are working on things were cleanliness is important, it is easier to keep that "shop" cleaner than the garage itself

I wouldn't mind having a closed off shop, that's where welding, grinding, painting, and general hiding from life's responsibilities. Is that drawing/car to scale? If so, I'd keep the shop. If this is a 24'X24' (or close) garage I'd loose the shop.

If keeping the wall does not allow you to pull a motor out of a car with a cherry-picker and plunk it down in front of the car, still with room to finagle the cherry picker and get around the back of the car, take the wall down.

If your woodworking tools are going to go in the small room, do you still have enough room in there to swing a sheet of plywood?

SkinnyG wrote: If keeping the wall does not allow you to pull a motor out of a car with a cherry-picker and plunk it down in front of the car, still with room to finagle the cherry picker and get around the back of the car, take the wall down. If your woodworking tools are going to go in the small room, do you still have enough room in there to swing a sheet of plywood?

The answer is no and no. Which is why this just happened.

The other half of the wall has a full wood rack on it that I need to relocate before bringing it down.I'm not a big woodworker, I just do small jobs when I need to, like building a cold frame for plants or workshop tables. Most of the time the woodworking tools will be tucked out of the way for car things.

I saved all the wood to recycle it into other projects.

Garage is 36x24. With workshop it was 24x24.

option 2

Might be worth adding a 12x12 closed off clean space. Somewhere to break open engines or transmissions. Or paint, or whatever else you might want to do without emptying the rest of the garage.

Wow, it sure looks a lot brighter in there!

MUCH brighter. Can't wait for the other wall to come down.

I think I'm going to go with floor-to-ceiling welding curtains to cordon things off when I need an extra-clean space.

http://www.grainger.com/product/4EE13?cm_sp=HIO--HIDP--BTM_V2V&cm_vc=IDPBVZ12