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**The Garage/Mancave Thread**

44K views 215 replies 55 participants last post by  SupraFiend 
#1 ·
We need a garage thread around here ! Somewhere to post your build or show us what came with the house you purchased. Post whatever you want as long as it's garage related ,, hanging out with the lugnuts or working on a ride . If your building post your Floor Plans , budget , labour costs, materials. Let's put together a thread to help out the peeps who are wanting to build or want to renovate what they have.

Billy had the idea for the thread so i'm just kicking it off . It may even get Malloy to stop buying bikes for a minute and put up his much needed Mancave :)


We purchased the house in Aug of 04 . The house didn't have a garage but had plenty of room for it so my search for floor plans started back then. I looked at tons of plans but ended up taking a set of house plans and converting it into a garage. I wanted a ramp to the adjacient bank so I could store the sleds and quads upstairs in the off season. I wanted no support beams upstairs or downstairs so I didn't lose any space and I wanted high ceilings. This made is tough to find a set of plans lol. Anyway in Sept 06 I hired a friend and his crew to put up the structure complete with siding . I would take of the electrical and ground prep work . I also ended up buying the 26' I beam because he wanted to use wood. Total price for main finished structure was $15000.00 tax in . A very good deal ,, he was a friend and they were short on work before xmas so it was a win win situation. So the plan was set and the garage was going up ...on to the build

oct 06

Breaking ground with a borrowed Mini Ex from my folks company. This saved a few bucks !


2 months go by and no contractor,, the house he was building kept getting bigger lol.
Nov20
12" Slabe on grade with rebar reinforcement. 4" Abs floor drain to open ditch ( price included)


Walls going up on block knee wall. Great option over a poured footing. No rotton walls down the road and a big savings . I love being able to hose out the garage and not have to worry about water creeping up the walls. 3/4" D-grade used for outside walls and interior walls and ceilings. 3/4" T and G for upstairs floor.
Supra waits

Next was the 12"x26' Steel I beam. Cost $750.00 Boom truck rental,,$50.00 The I beam sits on a 6" I beam across the door supported by 2 more 6" I beams on each side of the door.

Upstairs framed up , siding on , no windows yet and SNOW falling :( Ceilings are 9'5" on both levels.

Dec 22 2006 Garage 90% complete.

Dec 30 06 Moving some things in , building a bench and wiring up outlets and lighting. $ 450.00 for outlets, 4' lighting, 14/2 wire, marrets, and 2 5K watt electric heaters.
Note.. make sure you add a couple extra outlets around the bench and an extra light just over the bench.


Upstairs

5' custom roll up door for the sleds and quads. 17x 24' room for storage. 9x 24' room for a game of poker or shooting shit and havin a beer . It's now been semi taken over by my 10yr old as a game room .
old pics juring construction,,,, upstairs roll up also uses the low rise setup ,not in pic.



Here is the low mounting setup on the 84"x120" door downstairs. I had to use this setup because of the 12" I beam hanging to low for a conventional mount. This pic also shows one of my fav tools in the garage. A Warn 1K lb 24v winch mounted to a beam trolley on the I beam . I use this a lot !! Move engines , sleds , 1/4's of moose ,, you name it ,, hook lift and roll lol
cost . Works great for sled recovery in the deep snow too ( cost : door included ,, winch $340.00 )



Soo that's about it I guess . Total cost was $16,250.00 give or take a few bucks for shelving etc ( Walmart $24/ section btw )

I've spent countless hours in this garage since Xmas 06 . Having the space to deal with 2 or 3 jobs at once and still having a room to sit back and relax is awesome. Being able to work on the cars all winter is ,,,priceless :)





What would I do different :

1. Floor should have been covered with something. Now I get concrete dust and I have oil on the floor so nothing will stick to it :(
2. SHould have installed more lighting on the walls downstairs. You can never have too much light ,especially if you do any painting. It didnt' help that the walls were left natural so not much light reflecting. ( I will add a few more at some point)
3. shoudl have installed an oil /water seperator for the floor drain. At some point I may have to put one in the ground.
4, I should have buried a cat 6 cable and sat cable in with the power wire from the house. Now I have to dig another 60ft ditch before we pave the driveway.

So post your garage and any tips on construction, questions or advise you can give. A good laugh garage pic is always welcome :thumbsup:
 
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#9 ·
Awesome garage Bruce. Very cool. Inspirational!

Any pics of the back? Would love to see the ramp (bridge) set up.

If you paint the inside walls white more light will get reflected. A few less lights required.

CAT-6 cable, why not go wifi? Unless you are running something special.
Satellite cable, why not just mount another dish on the garage?
 
#12 ·
Now that looks like my garage. I dont want to take a picture because supra parts are scattered everywhere.



Yotaholic, was the price you quoted a DIY price or was it all done by a single contractor?
 
#13 ·
<---dreams of his own man cave....wishes of my wife understanding my passion for supras and cars.....:sadbanana: currently in harsh battles over it...
 
#14 ·
<---dreams of his own man cave....wishes of my wife understanding my passion for supras and cars.....:sadbanana: currently in harsh battles over it...
Do what I did ,,, tell her your building it big enough for her to have her own little craft room , storage room or whatever she wants to do with it. Her space ! My wife ended up with a corner upstairs but she's happy to have a place to put all her garden shit and xmas decorations . It can be a good thing for both of you ;)
 
#16 ·
Nice man, seriously inspirational stuff you got going on there. *sigh* I can only dream for now lol.
 
#20 ·
Yes , I did price it but in the end it would cost more for what I wanted. I would have to insulate , frame up second floor , build dormer for upstairs door, upstairs windows would require cutting and framing of the structure. Another problem I realized is I need heat in the garage from oct - may . Steel buildings are hard to heat in my experience and even harder to seal up to retain that heat. Condensation and mold , proper venting system ,, too many things to consider if I went steel. So I weighed out both options and ended up going with wood. It's so much easier to build on later and so much more pleasing to the eye. The wife didn't like the idea of our property looking like a commercial lot much either. She said the garage should match the house if it's in town ,, I couldn't argue that fact so we went with matching siding and shingles.

this is the one I was looking at from Allied steel buildings

 
#19 ·
I wont even take a picture of my clustered mancave:eekfacepalm:

Give it a couple months.

16k not a bad price at all. We paid 20ish for a 24x32. That wasn't finished or anything. Slab plus walls roof and one light = 14k. Adding cabinets and lighting took the other 6. One story.

If I could build that for 16k here I would be all over it. That would be sweet.


Gotta have good lighting for sure. Outlets are always needed.

Linchmob....Start keeping full size tool boxes and car parts in the dining room....Thats how I got a mancave:thumbsup:
 
#21 ·
heres my garage, thread i had from a while ago.
http://forums.celicasupra.com/showthread.php?t=28791&

here's some pics of the shop a friend and I are leasing now
before pics from a "24 hours of LeMon's build" some edmonton locals did a while back, previous leasers had the shop at that time. couple different angles to see the shop from.


after pictures.





upstairs


the mezzanine floor used to have an extension go up to the overhead door, we took that out. then we cut back part of the old floor 3' back so that when we get a car hoist it can lift cars up fully without the bumpers hitting the floor.

moved the sink, added a work bench, added shelves, redid the railing.

hard to see but we've also moved a tire machine and balancer into the rear of the shop, i also have an ARC/TIG welder i will be moving in soon.
 
#22 ·
Mancave? Pshh! :p

We'll have to take photos when we start building... Ryan (Funkycheeze) has quite the garage planned. 24 x 28, 10 ft ceilings, lift, wired up for another lift, mill, lathe, welder... the works. It's going to be great. My mkii build is going to be so much easier in that setting!
 
#23 ·
Let me first off say that I am a very privilaged person to have a father who has collected an amzing collection of tools over his life, and he lets me use any I need to be as creative as I wan't. My car wouldn't be anything that it is today if my father's shop didn't have a tool for everything, and a backup tool just in case. He is also generous enough to let me keep my car there in secure shelter while I am in school without making me pay storage for taking up his room. I only hope when I have kids, they can also be blessed enough to have the tools to express their creativity (if they decide to be gear heads, which they will be ;) )


Here is a shot of the outside of the main shop. It is a 3 door garage, which will comfortably hold 8 cars if need be (4 in each partition). Obviously I have layed claim to the far left side stall.


There is egads of storage in this garage. Every tool you could possibly need can be found in any one of the three full tool chests, or any of the cabinetry that lines the garage. I try and keep my side of the garage clean to prevent any accidents near my car.



These pics are old, but give you more of an idea of how this section of the garage is layed out:



Lol at the 12 foot diameter confrence table workbench in the background. I used this table when doing my last build, and it was glorious. But it took up too much room, so we burned it. :(



Yes, we have our own tire mounter and balancer. I got them for free.99 from the shop I use to work at when they upgraded to digital machines. They were going to throw them away, and they work great! We have probably mounted over 100 tires since we had these machines in the shop. Nothing like friends nocking on your shop door with four tires and a 24-pack! Also, we have a nice sand-blasting cabinet. This side of the shop is a bit of a mess now as we are reorganizing the other half of the shop.



We also have 8 speakers (2 in each corner) of this half of the shop, which are powered by a nice Kenwood head unit. Most of the speakers are ancient PA's bought at church bazarrs or given to us, but they sound fantastic and are insanely loud if you want them to be! Elton John FTW!



My brother and I immortalized my dad's old plate collection of cars he owned for father's day.




-Mike
 
#26 ·
Planning is the biggest part of having a perfect work area, Yotaholic looks like you did lots of pre-planning and have a nice set up. We are currently living in a subdivison and I have a 18x28 in house garage. The next house which will be in a few years time I already have the garage plans started for a 30/36 which will require a larger lot of course. As you can see, not much room left for working. In the process now of putting a floor coating.

 
#27 ·
Yes ,,having a floor plan that works for your needs is the most important part. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter how big you build it ,,you will never have enough room :laugh:

Nice collection of toys Jason ! Bring that sled out to the west coast next winter for some steep and deep fun :thumbsup:
 
#28 ·
Have about 700kms in the last 3 winters on the sled :(
Just put a kit on the floor this week. Now have to wait 7 days before putting the car in. Good thing my old man has a large garage

 
#31 ·
sorry, no pictures of me in the wife beater sweating like a biatch scrubing the floor LOL. Didnt even think of taking any pictures. It a Rustoleum kit I just picked up at Canadian Tire when they went on sale. Nothing fancy but keeps the dust down and easier to keep clean.
Floor prep is the key in doing these kits. I used the cleaner provided in the kit, scrubbed and pressure washed the floor while hitting any grease or oil spots with simple green degreaser which I let soak over night. Once done I purchased another jug of concrete cleaner and gave it to it again. What sucks is you cant roll anything in over the floor for 24 hours, and vehicles for 7 days.
 
#30 ·
From one of my favorite sellers on eBay...




 
#33 ·
What I've got now:



and from the other direction:



Photos are old - don't have the white pra anymore.

I'm looking at a place that's got more than twice the floor space and a high enough ceiling to put in a good two post lift. Will know in a month or so if it's going to happen :)
 
#36 ·
Nice design on the ext. and good floor plan. I'm a builder, by trade, so I would suggest that if you run some cat 5 under ground, then maybe a 12/2 w/ground in case you need a 20 amp circuit for say, a large compressor. The 14 gauge is good for 15 amp, at least code here requires it.
You're right, framed buildings are way better that steel if you want to insulate. Also, you can bury pipes and cable. I don't understand why you covered the int. with OSB itstead of 5/8 fireproof sheetrock. Good thing in a garage, where fires often happen. Also, brighter if you prime it white. I noticed you complained about the OSB sucking up the light.

There are lots of good products that you can paint on your floor.
 
#40 ·
I never put mine up in this thread...



...that was pre-insulation. Those 3" thick sheets of foam board went in top to bottom and were sealed with "Great Stuff". Additionally, I completed all the wiring and have the sheet-rock crew coming out first thing Monday. If both the weather and my spare time hold-up, I hope to get it painted, top floor snap-together laminate installed, and bottom floor epoxy-coated by the middle of next month. ...which means I can finally move EVERYTHING out of my basement garage, and get the F back to work on my projects.

-billyM
 
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