Building my garage / workshop (56k death)

[ceo012384]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I figured I would bring it on over.

[ceo012384]

So I thought I would share what I've been spending around 1 day a week average working on since the summer: Building my own garage/workshop. I'll be adding to this thread as I make more progress.

My folks' office building has some parts of the basement that are separate due to the building having had a couple additions over its lifetime. One portion is about 15x18, and consists of a dirt floor, and very old plaster covering the walls and ceiling (the type of plaster with a mesh screen nailed up and the plaster attached to the screen). It's been full of a bunch of useless crap we have to shove in there about 7-8 years ago in a hurry (long story) and haven't done anything with since. Also, through a small wall there is another small portion separated from the main basement that is about 5x15 which also has a dirt floor and had crap in it as well.

Upon starting the project I decided it would be well worth it to break down the wall and connect the two sections into one workshop... the smaller room will end up with lots of shelving mounted to the walls. Due to the age of it all, I decided to frame new walls inside the room in most places, in order to be able to insulate easily, hang drywall, and mount light fixtures, outlets, etc. There are some walls in the smaller room up which I will just mount insulation and sheetrock directly, though.

Just getting all the stuff out and making all the dump runs, as well as ripping out all of the old plaster and insulation took me the first few months (only one day a week, roughly).





So, here is what I started with:

Main room full of crap:




Here is part of the smaller room:


After I knocked down the wall between the two and cleared out the main room, here is a view looking from the main room into the smaller room:






So, essentially, here is a schematic of the space I will be working with:


Here is the whole place stripped out,dirt floor, ready for concrete:




In this one you can see the main garage door as well as the smaller door in the small room.

[ceo012384]

The concrete needed not only to be laid inside the building in the two rooms, but there are severe drainage issues right outside the building, so there is now also a concrete 'apron' that runs around the whole back of the building and up the side a little bit. This makes sure all the rain goes away from the building. I don't have pics of the outside right now, I'll add some later. Also, all of the walls that border the outside world, I sprayed using a paint sprayer with a heavy duty sealing primer called 'Kilz'... seals in moisture, etc. Also, I caulked any cracks or holes both on the inside and outside.
Here's some shots with the floor in, walls sealed,(I've also insulated the walls in the small room that I won't be building another wall inside of) ready to start getting some real work done:










I framed walls on most of the remaining walls. There are a couple where I will use the existing frame. To attach the bottom 2x4 to the floors, I used one of those powder-actuated nailers that use little bullets and you hit them with a hammer. I've used them before, they work great, made by Remington. After that it's just standard pain in the ass wall framing.

Then, I ran all of my wires. Due to anticipated high amperage, I used 4 gauge wire (for this particular wire I used aluminum because copper is so damn expensive right now) and ran a line from the takeoff lugs on the building's main panel back to my garage, and mounted a subpanel. I also used an existing wire to connect a fan-forced heater and mounted it in the framing... nice and toasty in there now. I ran all the wires for three big fluorescent light fixtures with a 3 way switch in two places, 4 small spotlights (for above where I plan to build a workbench and where I plan to have my big roller tool chests) controlled by a switch near where the workbench will be, 9 normal outlets, and 1 line for a 220V wire for when I get a compressor, hopefully not too far in the future. This is all managed by a 15 amp breaker for all the lights, three 20 amp breakers for all the outlets, and a 40 amp breaker for the 220V line.

Here is some pictures with most of the walls done being framed and most of the wiring done.











Today I got some bulbs and turned on the breaker for the fluorescent lights so I can stop working with those damn spot/work lights. I finished a couple other little wiring things and insulated the two walls that are up that border the outside. Here's some pics with the lights on.





I plan to run a couple speaker wire outlets and the accompanying wires on the back wall because I plan to bring in my stereo and speakers on shelves there. After a couple more little wiring and insulation things, it will be time to start the drywall for all the walls and the ceiling. Really starting to come together.

[ceo012384]

A little update.

The bike is in there now on a tender, because of the snow. Fits in nicely, I will have PLENTY of space to work on it. Only problem is I noticed there was some oil on the ground underneath the bike, and it didn't look like it was coming from the breather tubes. I didn't have time to look into it, so now it's bugging me quite a bit, I'm worried.





All of the insulation is done. I've JUST started drywalling. Lots of work left to do there.



Because the little spot lights I am putting above my workbench and tool chest are a little too long to fit in the rafters, I had to box them in. I built little boxes and hung two of them, I still have to hang the other two.



Here's a random shot of the little side room.





Left to do:
- Hang boxes and run wires for speakers (have parts already)
- Hang other two small light boxes
- Modify the subpanel (add a 60amp main breaker and ground bus bar... have the parts)
- Build and hang doors
- Finish putting up plastic sheeting
- Drywall hanging, mudding, sanding
- Paint
- Install all outlets, switches, and faceplates (after paint, obviously)
- Put down epoxy floor coating (medium gray with black, red, and white paint chips)
- Crack a beer and admire the work

[ceo012384]

Did a couple little things the other day.

I mounted up boxes and ran wires for all of the speaker outlets.

Also, I modified the subpanel a bit to follow convention... the neutral and ground wires needed to be on separate bus bars, and the hot lines coming in needed to run through a main breaker before going to the individual breakers.

Gettin shit done, son.


Updated... new ground bus bar, new main breaker.


After xmas I'm planning to make a ton of progress, mainly on the drywall and the construction of the doors.

[ceo012384]

So in the past few days I've made some pretty decent drywall progress. The ceiling in both rooms is completely done, including boxing in the little spotlights. I started the walls, I've done the whole back wall in the main room, and half of the wall that interfaces the two rooms. Did a couple wiring things, added a dedicated outlet under the workbench for the minifridge,other odds and ends. There are a couple portions of wall that cannot be drywalled until later, because I have to design and build the garage doors, and design and build a door to replace the small door in the small room that goes to the outside.

Here's some shots of the progress:

Back wall, ceiling (notice that my 'work table' looks like I had a huge coke party ... gotta love drywall):


Side wall, ceiling with boxed in spotlights:


Ceiling:


Side wall, ceiling with boxed in spotlights:


Looking from the main room into the small room:


Looking from the small room into the main room:



Comin' along decently now that I've been able to put in a couple consecutive full days

[Cutty72]

eventually... when i get the time and money... i will build myself a bigger shop.

Looks good CEO

[Gas Man]

Originally Posted by Audiomechanic

Now we just gotta get GasMan to continue his Phoenix thread. How bout it? I know I'd like to see what becomes of the chop!

Yeah... man.. that is alot of pics...

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

Yeah... man.. that is alot of pics...

you can do it!

[Audiomechanic]

Originally Posted by Trip

you can do it!

Shoot, most of us have seen the progression of it up till the TWFix migration. Just continue it from there!!!

You can link us to your BD forum if we wanna back track and look at previous pics.