Biggest Garage regrets

In reply to paranoid_android74:

This x1000. I bought mine already constructed and the PO didn't insulate. I haven't had time to do it either (remodel is pretty extensive on the house) but insulation would make things way nicer.

One of the biggest things on insulation is to put it in the ceiling. If you're staring at the underside of the roof then the sun will heat the roof and it will radiate the heat back down at you as IR. If you ever find out that it's cooler underneath the car than it is next to the car, that's why.

Painted osb works fine, put it shiny side out and it's decent.

Radiant heat floors are great but if you aren't putting it in I wouldn't recommend pouring on top of insulation.

I wish I would have had a spec on concrete finish and level in my building contract.

I also wish I would have epoxied the floor. I went with a sealer product that was recommended by the retailer application guy because I told him I would be welding. It doesn't clean up nearly as nice as epoxy.

as to floor spec. What do I want? I think I want an epoxy floor, without the specs on it. Just a light gray coating. How should the concrete be contracted so that I give myself the best base to apply epoxy to? Do I avoid a sealant. How long should the concrete cure before adding the epoxy. Saw cuts? 6" slab with rebar in Vermont.

As to layout. The intent is the two daily, will be parked side by side. Closest to the overhead doors. Race car in the back perpendicular or angled to allow the room need. Framed for a door in the back on the side, but not installed in initial construction. Agree that the depth isn't quite enough for 2 cars deep, but it's what I have to work with. My daily driver spot is open for putting my car outside....my wife's is not. If you're married, you understand why this is important.

You'll want control joints about every 12 feet or so

sachilles wrote: as to floor spec. What do I want? I think I want an epoxy floor, without the specs on it. Just a light gray coating. How should the concrete be contracted so that I give myself the best base to apply epoxy to? Do I avoid a sealant. How long should the concrete cure before adding the epoxy. Saw cuts? 6" slab with rebar in Vermont.

See garagejournal.com Flooring section for reams of information about epoxy floors. There is a recent thread on GRM on flooring, as well. Bottom line, the only prep that seems to work is grinding. The epoxy folks will tell you to wait 30 days before epoxying. I did a floor at about 45 days and it didn't adhere that well, though I didn't grind it, either. If I did it over again, I'd grind and wait 90 days before epoxying.

No saw cuts in my floor. Concrete WILL crack no matter what you do. Bar and mesh will keep the cracks from spreading. My floor is 24x24, there are cracks, but all are still closed up if that makes sense.

VAPOR BARRIER under the slab! (dont ask me why...)

If I had any choice of floor, I would densify, grind to 400-600 grit (depending how shiny/slippery you want it) and add a sealer. Bullet proof floor.

java230 wrote: No saw cuts in my floor. Concrete WILL crack no matter what you do. Bar and mesh will keep the cracks from spreading. My floor is 24x24, there are cracks, but all are still closed up if that makes sense. VAPOR BARRIER under the slab! (dont ask me why...) If I had any choice of floor, I would densify, grind to 400-600 grit (depending how shiny/slippery you want it) and add a sealer. Bullet proof floor.

True on the cracking but the control joints or saw cuts will look far nicer in the long run. Plus it's a very simple thing to do

Garage Journal is cool, but the flooring section has a lot of noise in there. Tough to sift through what you need with any confidence.

java230 wrote: No saw cuts in my floor. Concrete WILL crack no matter what you do. Bar and mesh will keep the cracks from spreading. My floor is 24x24, there are cracks, but all are still closed up if that makes sense. VAPOR BARRIER under the slab! (dont ask me why...) If I had any choice of floor, I would densify, grind to 400-600 grit (depending how shiny/slippery you want it) and add a sealer. Bullet proof floor.

Fiberglass chop in with the mix and use rebar and mesh.

You would be surprised what happens.

sachilles wrote: my wife's is not. If you're married, you understand why this is important.

my wife understood going into things that she was never going to have an inside parking spot, her words not mine.

i was just going to say put a door on the backside, even if not car width. i have a 5' wide roll up on the back, and in the summer i can open the front and back and get excellent cross ventilation to keep it cool. it's wide enough that i can pull the mower inside to work on it. the best reason though is it keeps the air flowing through and blows the welding smoke right out the back door

Built a big garage in 1995, so I have some long term experience on what I should have done. On the floor, I used a Behr sealer and then a stain, about 2-3 weeks after the pour. The floor was very polished, they spent a long time on that. It held up well for the first 10 years. Still came up under the tires of the daily drivers though. Used to scrub it after every project by hand. It looked great. Tons of spills of brake fluid, grease, gas and all sorts of other stuff. If you wiped it up fast it was fine. Brake fluid left for time is not a good idea.
Insulation probably a good idea, a huge heater is better. In a garage you probably will have something open, so just make more BTUs than you lose. Lighting was my biggest problem. Currently have 4 foot LEDs which are great. Go bigger than you think you will need. Scary how much crap one accumulates over time.

My ex's garage in NJ is about 26 x 28. One solid floor put down some time in the late 70's. It has a bit of chunking from moisture, but there are no cracks.

While other things about that garage are mildly interesting, the floor seems like it was well done.

Flight Service wrote:

java230 wrote: No saw cuts in my floor. Concrete WILL crack no matter what you do. Bar and mesh will keep the cracks from spreading. My floor is 24x24, there are cracks, but all are still closed up if that makes sense. VAPOR BARRIER under the slab! (dont ask me why...) If I had any choice of floor, I would densify, grind to 400-600 grit (depending how shiny/slippery you want it) and add a sealer. Bullet proof floor.

Fiberglass chop in with the mix and use rebar and mesh. You would be surprised what happens.

Fiber mesh is a good idea. If it's a 6 inch slab #5 rebar is a good idea too

^^^^^Wait a tick^^^^. And yes threadjack.

Same Antihero from ADVrider? Ducati around the world guy?

octavious wrote: ^^^^^Wait a tick^^^^. And yes threadjack. Same Antihero from ADVrider? Ducati around the world guy?

No. Although I use the name online a lot

My garage is 26x36. Use engineered beams for the ceiling and you can skip the columns between bays. It is the best feature of my garage. I can squeeze four cars in there.

Also, use wide doors. Mine are 9' wide by 8' high.

Polish your concrete before you put anything inside.

Put a shop sink in there.

Liftmaster 8500 door openers are awesome. Be sure that you use torsion springs on your doors.

I sheet rocked the walls and painted them white. I love it.

Oh, yeah, good point. That slab's gotta be right if you ever hope to put in a 2 post lift. Check the lift manufacturers for requirements.

I have a 60x28.

Things that are a plus: Lots of outlets all the way around (square box of 4 every so many feet) with about 80 outlets total and 3 - 220 outlets. Built in workbench with 1 level of shelf storage and floor storage underneath. Fridge and microwave. Overhead pulley. Toilet and sink. Lots of lights. Heat. Stereo. 28 ft deep means I can fit my 18 foot car hauler in. 2 water hose hookups inside and 1 outside.

Things I still want: portable lift, take out the drywall ceiling and put in a tile with LED lighting. Need a welder and plasma cutter. Hot water heater with a stand up shower. Parts washer or used large restaurant sink. Tire shelf.

The prior owner of my garage had a window A/C unit. I wouldn't want to pay the bill, I used a big barn fan to circulate air from one side to the other.

Don't forget to put an electrical outlet on the outside of the building. You may also want to plumb your compressed air to different locations. Consider barn doors instead of regular overhead doors. When the doors are up, they block your lighting.

I built a 24 foot work bench. Wanted it tall to maximize storage under it, plus bending over sucks. I built it too tall. Do a test bench. An attic style pull-down ladder seemed like the best way to get up and down considering the engineered trusses on 2' centers. I fell off it and cracked some ribs. Maybe I should have done an outdoor spiral, or at least indoor with landings, and a nice guardrail.

Sophies choice.

right now I want a max jack, not a full height lift(regardless of ceiling height).

I can afford a footprint of 26 x 36 with a 12ft ceiling. Or I can afford 26 x 40 with a 10ft ceiling.

What would you do?

In reply to wheelsmithy:

Every bench or shop table I built was 34" high iirc, seems perfect to me and I'm 6'-1".

We put in a 22x44 garage back in 2000 or so.

Engineered truss with storage and all- finished walls, insulation, etc.

Biggest regret is filling up with too much stuff to fast so that it's a PITA to work. Helped drive me to less interest.

(love having a 4 post lift, but other than storage, have never been able to use it.)