The Garage, Shop, Toy Area Mega Thread
 

OMG, I hate you so much. I can get the Sequoia in there on about 2 minutes notice... don't know how I'm going to get out of it once in there, but it'll fit.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...206_195616.jpg

I'm just here to envy people with actual garage space. Apartment living is not race car friendly :(

There is so much I want to do to make my space better organized and more usable, but I keep taking on projects and don't leave myself time to actually work on the garage. I'm hoping in the spring I'll get a chance to renovate the inside to make it more efficient. I've been putting a lot of thought on how to get a lift in there without spending too much money, but 8' ceilings suck and I'd probably need to reinforce the floor too. I think my first focus is going to be a better welding area and maybe a tire mounter and balancer set up so I don't have to bring wheels and tires to have friends mount them anymore.

Low ceilings and limited space? Get a Quickjack. Best money I ever spent. You'll never pump a jack handle again.

Moved into this house last year largely based on the garage space. Known as mine and ours garage. The garage on the right is a standard new home garage. Basically just big enough for a mid to large size cross over in depth where the IS300 is parked. Stairs into the house take away room on the left, but the IS300 could still fit there. Currently a beer fridge and deep freeze reside in front. The garage on the left is an addition that is deep enough to fit my F150 in when I need to on the left side. The right is perfect for a Miata because there is a bathroom along the back wall.

https://images2.imgbox.com/fd/fd/qAD7ygiO_o.jpg

If you got a small shed for the bikes and right side gear, made a hanging shelf out of a 4x8 sheet for the left shelf items you would have plenty of room. you can build one of those hanging shelves with just 4x8, 4 2x4's, some chain, and 8 hooks.

Recently completed 40x60x14

It's filling up quick!

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https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4624/...30540018_c.jpg

Pretty standard detached suburban 2 car garage, but a little deeper than average. Ceilings are too low, at 8' 6". Added a 220v electric heater which keeps the garage warm enough to work in down to 20F outside. Quickjack is a life saver.

You call that a 2 car garage?! Looks like you could wedge about 6 miatas in there to me...

I have a 2 car garage, the only problem is there is about 10 city blocks between the two halves

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6d06d7bbe4.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...272dfb00ee.jpg

You all have too much space and not enough stuff :)

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dc99bf4e2d.jpg

No pics at the moment, but my current garage is a freakishly tall, slightly narrow two-car. Stairs take up a good chunk of the with, but if it were possible to stack cars three tall I could fit six of them as long as they weren't too long. :giggle:


We will be buying and moving to my parent's place this summer which has a proper three car garage, deep enough to actually fit our minivan. It also has a gravel RV pad that I have thought about building a shop/detached garage on, but that looks like it would be more than I want to spend at the moment.

Out here in AZ, it seems like the modern, suburban garage is 20x20. Fits two Miatas great... unless you have tools. And a motorcycle. And a couple more Miatas....

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4683/...0abe740c_c.jpg

I've got a lot of stuff on wheels (welders, workbench, bender, etc.) so I can move them around, but it's still pretty cramped. I'm getting ready to build a new bench that will double as a welding cart/toolbox/table to consolidate some stuff.

I also need to get off my ass and build a(nother) storage shed in the back yard.

I had a QuickJack and sold it. By the time I got the QuickJack out, slid it under the car, and hooked up the lines it was just as fast to jack the car up on stands. Additionally, being limited to only being able to get to the underside of the car from the front and rear was extremely limiting with four cars in the garage. Long term projects made more sense to just use jack stands for and short term projects weren't worth the hassle of getting it out...so it sat and collected dust. The QuickJack is a great set of luxurious jack stands, but is no means even remotely comparable to a lift IMO. I personally found the money from selling it was much better spent elsewhere. The only positive the QuickJack gave me was that I was able to sell it for a profit because I got it for a killer deal from a hidden stash of the older models.

A friend of mine is considering low ceiling lift options. He initally asked me about the quikjack. Personally it seems more novelty than useful for the reasons you state above. I've moved him more toward the maxjaxx and triumph short 2-post style lifts instead. We need to check his concrete depth before going much further.

Apparently Porsche Cayman's can't be put on jack stands in the front so he's trying to figure out which route to take.

Allrighty then...

This is in Istanbul, Turkey. Shared garage - 4 friends sharing expenses.
689 sq.ft
Has a bathroom, nice kitchen area.
We built the whole thing from scratch.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...75f524db50.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...363f06b61c.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5de764af36.jpg

Seriously jealous of the first post and of all the garage spaces with lifts. Living in the bay area sucks for having a 'car space'. My next year plan is to convert a used school bus to house my race car and reclaim my garage space and driveway.

Here's my setup. It definitely needs more organization and some climate control for both summer and winter. I'd love to add a lift but I don't think the ceiling is tall enough.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qU...=w1439-h809-no

It looks like you have plenty of room to get the posts between the rafters. You might not be able to fully stand under anything larger than a Miata, but it's still better than being on your back!

Garage is your generic 2.5 car attached deal.
When i bought the house i went through it. Six 8' recessed lights. New heater. Painted everything white. Epoxy coat the floor. Fixed a few other things, ect.
Heat, bench space, light, wash tub, fridge full of beer. It's perfect.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...63c99ad1ba.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ac7b3290bf.jpg

These pictures are a few years old. It's changed slightly since.

The race boat stays in a friends shop when it's not in the driveway. I thought i had a picture, but i guess i don't.
It just doesn't really fit in the garage. lol

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a9ea68ed03.jpg

https://www.kwik-lift.com

I bought one of these. It allows you to lift the car with wheels on and then take them off. You can also move under from the side. The downside is that it is pretty hard to move around. I leave them set up.

A QuickJack isn't a lift, you are correct. It's better thought-of as a set of high jackstands that are much more stable and convenient to use. The main advantage it has over things like the MaxJack/etc is that it's portable, you can put it in the trailer and take it to the track with you.

http://www.codrus.com/cars/tpd/tpd-51.jpg

As for garage, I've posted these elsewhere on the site, but:

​​​​​​http://www.codrus.com/cars/fd/fd-lift4.jpg

http://www.codrus.com/cars/fd/miata-fd-lift2.jpg

--Ian

Love that four post and that FD!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...82f786ab06.jpg

Used to be nice.

Would you consider your garage to be a Category 4 or Category 5 now?

Miata is in the driveway, relegated to DD duty.https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...099117c5a6.jpg

My detached shop that caused a rule change at the HOA, and some bonus wall art.
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I feel like there's a good story behind this.

Building it now. Slab is poured and the metal has been delivered. Should begin standing up tomorrow. 80' x 100'.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...551ce70811.jpg

Outlets make all the difference in a space. We just recently built a house, they had 3 outlets in the garage. My real estate agent suggested that we should add some more before they actually run the wire. So we took a magic marker and added 6 more, just marked the 2x4's like the electricians had. Bam outlets everywhere.

Well that should pretty well take care of any needs you should have for quite some time! :bigtu:

I have 15 or 16 outlets in my little garage. Plus the 220v for the welders. There can never be enough.

I bought this garage with attached home. About 1000-1200 sq/ft. I have to put the Miata on dollies to get it into the back right now because the support beams are so close together but I hope to get an engineer in soon to get those spaced out if possible. The whole space needs to get real shop wiring installed. I needs a lot more outlets and 220v outlets for welders and plasma cutters, but it will get there.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/789/4...b59c42a7_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/807/2...bdb42f1d_c.jpg

So much garage envy..... Beats working in the dirt outside though

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3cb15e75cd.jpg

I bought a house without a garage this year... on the plus side I've got acreage, so building a garage hopefully this year.. In planning stages... not sure yet if I'm going with stick or steel construction... but so far I just know I want 220v, a floor drain, plenty of light, a lift and water for a sink... Jurys out on HVAC... probably will go with a 2 car because I don't want to cut trees.

I've been remiss. Garage is up!
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dd7c0527c7.jpg

It's cavernous:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8f290259ab.jpg

I'm at 90% done, 90% to go. Working on getting power, water, equipment and a driveway.

:cjerk:

Oh. My. God. The jealouay is real. That's exactly what I want. Except I'd have a bridge crane added for lifting and flipping over boats.

Holeee hell. That’s bigger than the service department at a dealership I used to work for.

Wife said "bigger is better." Who am I to argue? Also, we finally have our answer!

The answer to what? "how big is big enough?" haha

"Does size matter?"

Is that a G8?

Yes. Great car. Extremely overbuilt.

Prerry messy at the moment. Back left room has a sauna and little room I'm remodeling and the back right room is storage that needs sorted through. Also these are posted from mobile so I'll fix the rotation as soon as I get to a computer.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d775966500.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2d7bf692f5.jpg

My buddy is in the process of building his version of the Garage Mahal.

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Recessed or raised floor for the flush mount scissor lift? I love the colors and details there. Not much room for that big-ass Challenger in there!

I was thinking about a scissor lift for a while, but ultimately decided to go with a 2 post.
Much better access to errrything.

He saw cut the floor and dug out the dirt then put in rebar and concrete beneath the lifts before countersinking them in.

I don't have the progress pics anymore but here'sa test lift prior to the ceiling being raised.

[QUOTE=sixshooter;1481416]My buddy is in the process of building his version of the Garage Mahal.



How do you guys like the floor tiles? I have been considering them for my shop.

I don't like them. He likes them but because that Challenger has headers so low to the ground the tiles expand and push up, lol. He has to put something under the car to keep the heat from the headers off of the tiles.

I'll stick with concrete.

Makes sense. I was also considering that paint garage flooring. My shop floor just looks like shit

Tiles suck. I tried them, as my garage floor is paved (yes, paved. As in asphalt) and so is rough, uneven and full of divots. The tiles were worse. Forget using a creeper on them.

If you have concrete, use one of the epoxy coatings. If you're completely fooked, like me, get a couple of sheets of Masonite and put those down.

This picture is from zillow from before I bought my house. The crack down the center is roughly 3/8" vertical change so i would have to grind that prior to any coating. Also notice how there are no outlets anywhere. Once the yard is all done I get to transition to remodeling the shop.

https://photos.zillowstatic.com/p_f/...1000000000.jpg

I had a giant 1/2" wide crack in my garage. Filled it with concrete crack filler and painted over it. It's worked out great.

Mine is a vertical crack though. pretty tight laterally but big step vertically

Try using a surface sealer containing aggregate.

like this stuff