Thoughts turn to fixtures/fittings. Having had a strip light in a previous cave I’m aware that I need moar light.

Do I go for more strips or spots? I need to see what I’m doing! Furthermore, my old cave had one socket at the door. I need moar sockets. I was thinking a bank of them along the back wall, above a bench.

Your thoughts/feedback are most welcome. I shan’t have the opportunity to spec a garage build again anytime soon.

The sky’s deffo not the limit budget wise. Just want to do the best I can for as little as poss and thought it prudent to benefit from your knowledge/experience.

Ta.

A good few Strips for general lighting and localised spots at work areas – ie over bench/workstand and over tool box.

How ever that may just be me , but my eye sight is shit in the dark.

What you wanting to use the garage for mainly ?

Where you at Merak?
I’ve got some quality 4ft strips I removed from a school.

I prefer strip lights, you can often find yourself working in your own shadow with spots, put one directly above the bench.

Sockets above the bench, I’d go for at least 2 sets if it was me, at some point you will stand something in front of the sockets and separate smaller banks is more versatile. Don’t forget to put some by the front of the garage too though.

I’ll be working mostly on bikes. Although it’ll be a bolt hole from my Mrs too.

I’ve gone for a side access door too thought it best to have that nearer the front rather than the rear of the garage.

I didn’t think about a socket near the front. Makes sense though maybe best to have that beside the circuit breaker/board near the access door.

Wrightyson; I’m in Glasgow. I’m genuinely interested in those strips of yours.

Shelf above the workbench with a small light stuck underneath to brighten up greasy crevices.
Shelf underneath the workbench for stuff and enough gap underneath that for stuff on the floor aswell.

You cant have enough sockets, Im often charging three lights & phone up with oil heater plugged in and music thing on.

Also interested in your strip lights wrightyson (if Merak doesn’t want them or you have loads)
Desparate for decent lighting in my cave.

From my experience, 6 spotlights on a single fitting don’t cut it in a man cave!

I put 3 x 5ft strip lights in my 11′ x 14′ garage and that seems a decent amount of light. Painted the walls and ceiling white, which makes a big difference.

Also went for plenty of sockets, 7 doubles and one single near the side door where there wasn’t enought space for a double.

A good few Strips for general lighting and localised spots at work areas – ie over bench/workstand and over tool box.

This works for me, too. Also have a head torch to hand for particularly fiddly bits.

Free for collection in Cambridge…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/q6HGVm]120 W of Fluorescent tubes[/url] by brf, on Flickr

More sockets than you can use, and in every location plus an outside one at each door.

And as I’d moved the washing machine into the garage I also installed an outside tap at the main door for washing my bike. Although one of my neighbours was concerned that folk might ‘steal’ my water…

Sockets under the bench are possibly useful too, for when you have a floor standing fan for turbo workouts, dehumidifier, heater, compressor etc that go under the bench or bench covered in crap. Possibly even with a riser switch so you can turn on and off from above the bench. Plan for every eventuality now!

All sockets switched, so you can turn devices off without unplugging.

Strips for overall diffuse light for general working, one each side and possibly one down the middle like an ‘H’ to remove shadows – use spots for task specific.

Lots of strips. I picked some up from toolstation for less than £20 each if I remember correctly.

+1 for painting the walls white – this will make a huge difference to the levels of light. Also consider painting the floor with an epoxy resin type paint if you can – look on ebay for this.

When it comes to storage, its good to have big shelves etc, but also consider where you are going to put smaller items/bits and bobs. Some kind of drawer/parts bin type system will help keep the place neat and tidy.

When I built my bench, I built a large drawer (which runs on ball bearing runners from screwfix ~£10), that is about 1m wide, which now holds a variety of tools, and is very handy. This is much cheaper than buying tool storage chests from the likes of Halfords, although it is less portable.

Don’t forget a shelf for jars full of screws and a special stick for stirring paint.

All good stuff this. I fancy a wood burner in there too but feel the budget may not stretch 🙁

Need pics

I will update with pics as it progresses. Old ramshackle timber structure comes down tomorrow then a twin walled block built mancave will take its place.

Build should take about 2 weeks, weather permitting. 🙂

block built mancave will take its place

…think footflaps knew of a cheap brickie for blockwork if you need one. Its a pretty fair bet he’ll be available….. 😆

( ducks and leaves quickly)

Further agreement here on extra strip lights + painting walls & ceiling white.

I really don’t like spotlights. The light is too localised unless you have dozens of them and then the heat they produce is ridiculous. Very inefficient.

Hmmm!

I too am anticipating my arrival in a mancave at the at the end of the month. Integral garage in new house currently chopped into “storage” and utility room.

There will be white paint on walls and ceilings, light grey on floor and striplights.

Everything else tbd when I’ve had a proper look at how much space is left when the bikes and stuff are in. Negotiations are underway with mrsrapier regarding pulling the partition down and combining the rooms…

the heat they produce is ridiculous. Very inefficient.

I assume you mean halogens – how quaint.

Sorry for the delay. The strips I’ve got were fitted in a school refurb about 5/6 years ago, good quality with tubes and at the time they met the latest lux levels needed in that environment? I’ve sold a few on eBay previously with good results. Come with tubes. As its fellow stw’ers I’m happy to let a few go free if you can pick up.

Wrightyson; my email is seemyk at gmail dot com

Cheers.

wrightyson – could you drop me a line too, please? Very interested, hopefully you’re not too far away!

edn8 at hotmail dotcom.

Cheers!

You need a proper tool board too, not some 4×2 bit of left over ply the brickie mixed his motar on!
Be proud of your mancave!

I have one of those;

So the old shack before it came down on Friday.

The beginnings of the new/improved man cave.

I do love a decent work-in-progress thread! Top stuff!

I wanted to see a video of the General Lee/a 70s US cop car driving through both ends of the old shed- at speed!

Man, it’s a proper one with bricks an’ all.
Decent size too, good luck with the build.

I’m in mid Derbyshire if that’s any good.

Aye, its double skinned to give it an air of insulation.

Weather is foul for tomorrow so will see what transpires.

In other news…..was on that e bay and treated the man cave to this;

Its turns out Mrs M does not share my enthusiasm for garages or indeed wood burners for garages. Updates to follow…(may include divorce content)

£?
The stove I mean, not the divorce settlement 🙂

Is that an old gas bottle turned into a stove?

Don’t forget, you’ll need a compressor and a Record vice.

Watching this as ive got my own garage build soon and was looking to build the same way bit a little bit bigger 🙂

Briliant.I love a good shed thread. Been needing to itch the scratch since WCA’s sauna thread. 😀

Merak, I assume you’ve got a builder in? Do you mind me asking what the basic build cost is expected to be?

I’ve a singleskin brick job but it needs a complete new roof including the timbers, new main and side door, two windows bricking up plus the front corner rebuilding, and it leaks from underneath too!

I’m tempted to lay a new concrete base and plop a half decent timber job there, would also sort out issues with very low eaves from the house restricting the height of the current roof.

This is reminding me I need to get one with building a workbench for my man cave. Once that’s complete I could do with some better lighting and then it’s complete.

This end is quite busy.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/nuz2mf]2014-05-19 19.41.53[/url] by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

I’ll be building the bench in the bottom right corner. Been collecting wood, almost got enough now I reckon.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/fQQTFC]man cave[/url] by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

Also watching this as I’m just starting to man-cave my garage.

May do another in progress thread once it gets going