Home garage must-haves

[Eldorado2k]

Flat driveway - No way was I buying any house with a driveway that was like a hill. I hate working on slopes. When the weather is nice, you may want to do "car stuff" in your driveway. Where I live now there is a slope; and my buckets, vacuum, work stool, and Master Blaster always want to roll away.

This is a great point.👆🏽Can you imagine overlooking this detail and suffering with these annoying problems later? That would suck! Lol.

[BrutalNoodle]

Totally Agree!

And that Photo is a Great visual. Thanks for posting that. This just gave me an ideal to look at. I also like all the White to reflect all the light from the actual lights!


Ray

Anytime, Ray.

I truly hate working in low light conditions. Scrounging around for dropped nuts & bolts (there's always that one tiny part that loves to play hide & seek), not to mention the occasional tripping/kicking of tools is annoying. Really throws you off your game & flow.

A clean, well-lit work area is priority one for me. Worth the setup, plus LED bars/strips aren't crazy expensive like they used to be.

[Mfour]

yes lots of light is a must

[pilotpip]

Some great ideas, thanks everyone.

Light is good. I live in St. Louis so we see cold winters, and hot summers. It will be insulated regardless of how big we go. I insulated the outer wall and door of my current 1-car and it was amazing how much it helped. Adding a pair of T-5 light fixtures was a huge improvement too.

[BillE]

Another "atta boy" for a flat driveway!

My drive has just a small gentle slope, but add the damn'd freezing drizzle (or similar, which is common here) like we had this morning, even that is a night mare. Yea, I just about went a** over tea kettle.

Bill

[willowcat11]

Anytime, Ray.

I truly hate working in low light conditions. Scrounging around for dropped nuts & bolts (there's always that one tiny part that loves to play hide & seek), not to mention the occasional tripping/kicking of tools is annoying. Really throws you off your game & flow.

A clean, well-lit work area is priority one for me. Worth the setup, plus LED bars/strips aren't crazy expensive like they used to be.

You right man! Gotta have enough light. When I'm detailing someone else's car, or my car, I have got to SEE EVERYTHING!

I had a Guitar Teacher once teach me to practice LOUD. Because if I can practice sounding Great LOUD, then there is nothing to hide, and no matter at what volume I would play it, it will end up sounding Great. Practicing Quiet allows me to veer into hiding some flaws in my performing. And then when I really wanted to come out to play loud they would be Glaring mistakes out there for everyone to see.

To translate that into detailing and lighting is that, I want it to be LIT UP as bright as it can possibly be, allowing me to see the car from every single angle, and nook and cranny on that car in the clearest detail. So that when my customer see's it in normal outside conditions, I KNOW that I have covered all my bases and everything is totally taken care of.

If I did it in low light conditions, or did not have adequate light for the job, then something is always hidden. There is always another angle that I can't see and can possibly miss.

So I like to Practice LOUD, and also Detail in the BEST light possible.

[RaskyR1]

I'm in the process of building my dream garage now, an addition to our existing home. These are all my must have features, some I'm incorporating right away, some will have to wait a bit. My wife and I are doing most the work ourselves but we did pay for the excavation, concrete work, and hanging the trusses/roofing.

24' x 40' with a 16' x 14' service room of the back side.


-In-floor radiant Heat
-Separate room for 60 gal compressor, hydronic floor plumbing/boiler, washer/dryer, laundry sink, 1/2 bath, and storage
-In-floor lift (BendPak SP-7X)
-11' ceilings
-Separate electrical panel in storage room
-Floor drain in the front stalls
-Hot/Cold Spigot with Deionized water crossover valve
-Wall mounted pressure washer
-Wall mount Master Blaster
-Mini split a/c unit
-2, maybe 3 220v/50amp charging points for electric cars
-Plenty of electrical outlets (still working on layout)
-Epoxy Floors
-Ample lighting, likely using custom T8 florescent fixtures or LED to get close to 100 ft candles of lighting. (MUST READ THREAD ON LIGHTING)
-Very well insulated.
-Pre-wired for TV, sound, and internet.
-TV mounted on back wall with cameras to help line cars up on lift
-Security system
-Multiple air connection points. Still working on where I want them. Looking at getting the Prevost piping & Fittings from Kevin Brown.
-Plenty of work bench space

Hope to be done by late spring.

[cardaddy]

Good ideas all around.

Keep in mind though, that what you *want* and what county code, and EVEN WORSE your local busy bodies, aka Home Owners Association will sign off on are drastically different things.

A buddy of mine (spoken of him before, big car collector) bought a new home down in Newnan, in the Lake Redwine subdivision. The original owner of the home had a 3 car garage (side entry) on the house. Then built directly across from it another single, double, single 4 car garage. Then when my buddy bought the house he built a third garage that faces the street, 50w x 30d with two double doors.

Basically the house is on the left, new garage straight ahead, and old free standing garage on the right.

They sit like this.
left - middle- right
H - garage - G
xxxxxxxxx
x x
x x
x x
x x


He *wanted* heat and air, NOPE... couldn't have it.
He *wanted* running water inside the garage, with a wash bay, NOPE... couldn't have it.
He *wanted* 220v/240v, you guessed it... NOPE couldn't have it.
Of course he also wanted to put at least 3, if not 6 post lifts so he could double stack his cars in there. (It easily parks 6 wide, 2 deep.)
Guess the answer to that?????

Why?

Because both the HOA and the county code enforcement said he could use it for a business if it had all those. (Remember, it's not attached to the house.) I told him I'd STILL have at least put a wash bay, and ran 240v inside, but the inspector kept showing up at each stage of construction, and wouldn't allow it to happen! Heck... they didn't even let him put a side entry door on it! When the power is out he can't even get into his own garage!!! Of course the other free-standing garage doesn't have a side entry door either.

Friggin' nosy HOA.

Mine is an oversized 3-car, enough room for SUV's in all three. Keep my Caddy and CarMomma's SUV in the big one, and my car in the right. When doing paint correction CarMomma has to park outside. Can't imagine how I ever did without it truth be told.

OTOH, there's an L shaped garage downstairs too. (Well backwards L actually). It's full of tools, mowers, saws, etc. It's big enough to make a detailing shop for sure, but then I'd have to build another shop outside to put all that stuff in.

[Garagehack]

Rasky, that is incredible! I can't wait to hear how the BendPak SP-7X works out. I have seen a couple of them installed in builds at the garagejournal.com forum and if I was pouring a new garage floor I would go with the in-floor lift. They look so clean.

[larry33]

Rasky..what epoxy flooring would u be looking at?