Due to recent house move, I now have a garage to play in (but bikes no longer allowed in house 🙁 )

Standard single car garage, middle of block of three, no windows, not attached to house. Pitched roof, with skinny looking rafters (I assume strong enough to hold up roof, not sure how strong if hanging stuff/boarding). Up and over door. No power/light. My old VW camper won’t fit due to height, so I can do what I want with the garage…

Needs

storage for bikes (I have a few, and the wife and kids bikes)
storage for gardening stuff (mower/strimmer/blower/spades/rakes etc)
storage for coolboxes, BBQ, old tat etc etc

want

Turbo area
Workbench

So I plan to

Get power somehow for lights/power sockets (how many?)
Security (reinforce door/alarm?)
Paint walls
Seal back half of floor
Hang decent bikes on walls, spare wheels on rafters
Set up turbo somewhere
Keep daily bike, dirty gardening kit at front
Kettle on workbench

Any suggestions on

work bench (for bikes and general tinkering)
how to hang tools etc on walls (and what tools out and what put away)
heating
general layout

Most importantly, will my Mint Sauce posters go mouldy?!

What do I need, that I will kick myself for forgetting when I am done?

All help much appreciated…

Electric sockets. How many do you think? Pick a number, double it.

Seal and epoxy the whole floor. Do it first before you move any clutter in.

Lock all tools away. If you get broken into then it’s out of sight. You only really need a set of Allen keys out for most jobs anyway.

Ground anchor, reinforced roof and door. Work bench along back wall. Bikes hung of side wall from front wheel.

Room for an old arm chair?

Radio

Can’t believe I forgot radio…

So how to seal the floor? Do I need to use epoxy? It seems to be 2 pack, more of a PITA to use than just something I can paint on when I have an hour to spare.

Floor anchor – on to do list.

Locking tools away – if not out, it’ll be obvious where they are (esp if I buy the Halfords style tool storage). But away is neater.

Def want to squeeze in armchair, not sure I can permission for the woodburner to go with it.

I use these locks for security on my up and over door. Quite effective but not too obvious. All you see is two keyholes on the front door

If you’re going to be on your feet for any length f time, then seriously consider some anti-fatigue matting, as standing on solid concrete floor all day can get very tiring and even painful. And you need to work out what you want to do in there, so you can start to plan a proper layout.

Does it back onto your garden or driveway? My up and over door isn’t visible so it’s barricaded from the inside and have put a steel security door from garden

Set of patio doors behind the garage door so you can have some natural light without a draught. May add a little more security too.

Got a small solar 12v set up on my shed, dad has a slightly larger setup on his with 240v.

MTB-idle – those locks look great, that’ll be the first step. And maybe reinforce the door too…

Only access is via the main door, no other way to access or add a door.

I quite like the extra patio door idea, but limited budget, and I guess up & over door would be in the way (unless I divide the garage in 2 and then I’ll lose some work space….).

You will be amazed what you can find for peanuts on Gumtree in terms of doors etc… Also, Mountain Bike Action had a good article this month about making a rack from PVC pipe.

I’ve seen them quite close to the front of a garage, second hand builder rip out patio doors and the gap will fit gardening crap and daily bike?

Heating will be very important unless you live somewhere warm or are very hardy. Portable heating solutions can be quite costly over time. Oil-filled heaters are good, but take time to heat up, and aren’t great at heating larger spaces. Fan type heaters heat the air quickly, but can cost a fortune to run. Is your garage phiyiscally connected to your house? Maybe a central heating extension is possible.

The Leyland floor paint from screwfix worked nicely for me. Two coats, nice and easy. If you’re not keeping a car or motorbike in there (warm tyres can lift paint) then the fancier coatings seem overkill. Cheap emulsion or masonry paint for the walls.

Power/light is a problem if it’s not wired up. You can get good bright LEDs now that don’t use much power, run it off a car battery (power pack if you want a neater solution) that you charge at home or from a solar panel on the roof. Likewise you can get 12v inverters powerful enough to run a lot of tools – or go for cordless ones in the first place.

You don’t need a heater, ever, for turbo use. I just wear more layers and bring a coffee in a travel mug for winter tinkering.

A plug-in shoe dryer is worth the space it takes up.

Carpet tiles for the floor, cheap, easy, replaceable, etc.

I bought a new workbench this week which is just awesome. 20 mins to build and install. Folowed by a bit of time with some Danish Oil making it nice. Lastly, followed by installing a vice last night.

What does your insurance T&C say about minimum security ? will they class a garage block as away from the home ?

You need a lowering kit for the vee dub. If not it’ll just dissolve by itself on the drive.

Weeksy – that’s the kind of bench I was after. Any more details? Kit build or your own design?

PS looks like fun in your garage – three motorbikes, or are there more hiding? Kind of workshop I’m aiming for.

Lesgrandepotato – looked hard for a garage that will fit the van when we moved. To get a bigger/taller garage was well out of budget 😥 van is already a bit lowered, and I don’t want to slam it!

Van has lived outside for years, covered when not in use, not much rot and it’ll be cheaper to fix the body work than buy a bigger garage.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272015985716?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=570831415084&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

madeupname – Member

Weeksy – that’s the kind of bench I was after. Any more details? Kit build or your own design?

PS looks like fun in your garage – three motorbikes, or are there more hiding? Kind of workshop I’m aiming for.

Just the 3 mate, Guzzi, Yamaha R1 and KTM690. 4 pushbikes of which 2 are mine and nice carpet tiled floor 🙂

the Guzzi is a temporary thing i’m flogging for some mate. I won’t be there for long i hope. When it’s not there there’s a much bigger pathway to the pushbikes.

Good thread…
Is there any point painting the floor if you intend to cover it with carpet tiles?
And are carpet tiles better than those interlocking rubber floor tiles?

packer – Member

Good thread…
Is there any point painting the floor if you intend to cover it with carpet tiles?
And are carpet tiles better than those interlocking rubber floor tiles?

I painted mine first, but then decided not to keep it as it was honestly crap for me. I do a lot of motorbike stuff sitting/lying on the floor and the carpet tiles are miles better for that.

Some of the interlocking tiles are better… but consideing they come in about £400 for a garage and carpet tiles at £50 or so, it was a no-brainer for me.

How high’s the ceiling? I have a standard single with an up and over door, and after realising the space above it is essentially wasted as you can’t really hang stuff there, I made some simple racking to store long stuff – roof bars, bike carriers, lengths of wood that I may or may not ever use.

Ceiling not high enough to use the space as a more than storage, and up and over door blocks almost half the roof space.

But rafters are convieniently spaces to hold road/29er wheels. The accessible rafters will support roof bars, cycle carrier, spare wood, and other long things, and I will probably board out over the door to store boxes and other stuff.

Leaning towards carpeting the floor, but may still need to level with epoxy where I am planning on putting the bench, so might still do the back half…

Now looking out an old armchair, and considering a shed to keep the dirty gardening stuff in!

Paint your floor, even if you are carpeting/covering, ditto paint walls. the amount of dust they will generate if you don’t is astonishing. Also, white walls make the space much brighter.

I gave the floor two coats of cheap garage floor paint, and even after having acid etched the concrete properly it’s lifted all over. V dusty. Didn’t bother doing the walls, regretting it.

I also use those pacri up and over door locks, they’re awesome. I also rivetted some angle iron into each corner to prevent the corners of the door being bent round. Extra frame fixings into the block wall, as the garage doors are often only held in by 4 fixings and frame sealant. Didn’t want a ‘garage defender’ – too obvious.

Wireless extension to your house alarm if you’re within range.

Solar power works well: I have a small panel to a leisure battery via a cheap controller off eBay. Also trickle charges the car. LED replacement fluoro tubes.

My workbench folds flat to the wall to make extra space when required.

Pitched roof? Putting a floor in overhead can free up tonnes of space. Also putting iron grid up hard against the rafters means if thieves lift roof tiles they still have to angle grind the grid out.

Sounds like you need another garage!

Beer fridge !!

Can’t underline enough the advice to paint the floors and walls .

Make your own benches to your own requirements . A very satisfying job .

Garage Floor tiles

Easier than painting, lasts longer, looks better, might keep the garage a bit warmer if you’re in there, keeps the dust away, won’t need repainting every couple of years.

Dura Ltd

These guys do very top end stuff…however they also normally have bits and bobs (returns and so on) at cheaper prices. They also do a range of tiles, and pretty much always have stock -end, colour mismatched and so on that they’re always happy to get rid off. On the other hand the Cabinets themselves are pretty drool worthy…

So it’s a single garage in a block of three away from the house, with no power.

I’d work on the principle that it’s got no security and if you’re not in a 100% safe area then the best thing to do is to install a cage, as in walls and ceiling and bolted to the floor with a door in.

Or good insurance.

definitely get a shed big enough for :

– gardening stuff (mower/strimmer/blower/spades/rakes etc)
coolboxes, BBQ,

house loft?garage loft?
– old tat etc etc

then you’re left with a garage for you, and your bikes 🙂

security /power / alarm mostly covered

i’m lucky enough to have access to the rear door of the garage from our conservatory without having to go outside and have converted 4/5ths of our single car garage into what is basically a room.. studded and plasterboarded.. run all electrics on top, and as lucky enough to have a loft big enough to stand in. boarded that and use for storage. stud wall separates from front area, which houses the mrs bike (which i bought her and she never uses) and various bits. its gone full man cave though, i’ve got guitars/surround/pc’s/sofa etc.. i also raised the floor a bit to insulate that. (just some moisture layer, beams and tongue n groove).

our garage is the end of a block of three, the side on the end has the conversatory all down one side. so only the front&back walls are “exposed”. its a single skin wall though. because of that, even in my fully insulated “box” i have to use a small oil filled radiator to heat it til easter and in the dead of winter use that, and a 4 bar heater. if you plan to be in there a lot, especially on the turbo in winter, i’d put some effort into insulation or you’re lose than in the amount of heat you’ll have to generate (or not use the room…)

our conservatory is more of a utility than a dining room style one.
i got a foldable full size maintenance stand, and one of those knee high jobbers for quicker tune ups. when using the big stand i put down a a set of those interlocking rubber mats halfords sell for the floor (15 quid a pack, and one pack was enough) and nice to kneel on. etc.

i’d say:

– put thick rubber down on the floor, and carpet(tile), or rug over. as mentioned above, paint the walls white to help maximize the limited light sources you’ll have. if possible make a ceiling to limit heat loss.

– big ass cheap/ curtains so when you go in people can’t see what lies beyond? – also help stop drafts around the edge of the big door.

– focus on the bench/stand/park tools porn wall/turbo area with priorities so you can turbo even if a bike is on the stand/in bits. nothing worse than wanting to do one thing, and other jobs getting in the way.

– install some floor/wall ‘hasp’ style anchors to secure the bikes to, even when you’re not around at least there is an extra layer of physical security.

Most importantly, will my Mint Sauce posters go mouldy?!

Mine was in the garage over winter but didn’t get it hung up.i just did it this week – the mdf frame is a bit mouldy, the poster seems fine!

How old is the up and over door? We had an old with a single, central locking mechanism that turned out to be very easy to break into. With the door lock, the thieves were able to move / flex the door enough in the frame to get to the locking pin and open it. In a matter of minutes they managed to take six bikes – they left the spare / tools etc so seemed to know what they were after.

Since then, I have replaced the door with doors that open outwards, split 1/3 2/3 with much better locking mechanisms, fitted a ground anchor and an alarm. It sounds daft, but I’d never really thought about how secure the garage was. Our is set back from the road too, behind the house. Might be worth considering.

Our garage is single brick thick and it gets bloody cold in the winter – I need to look at some form of insulation for the roof. I am looking into infrared heaters which are supposed to be better in this sort of environment.

The Leyland paint is good – easy to apply but takes a while to harden properly.

I made my own workbench which seems solid enough.

Favourite thing I made was a frame to hang spare tyres on which is attached to the roof trusses and gets them out of the way.