Help plan my new garage!

L

LightngSVT

New member
THe great news is that my wife and I are building a new house and it should be ready around March 06 and I got a 5 car attached garage! Only downside to that is that its a front entry, but who am I to complain? The big downside is that the house is being built waterfront on an all sports, inland lake so you can guess as to the investment so this leaves me like ZERO money to put into the garage. But I still need some ideas and suggestions.



Here are some of the features I did manage to put into my 1200' garage (left side is 12 x 40 and right side is 12 x 60 with 10' ceilings):



Multiple outlets in cieling for lighting

3 seperate, GFI protected electrical circuits with 8 outlet loactions

laundry tub with hot and cold water

hose spigot

Insulated and drywalled

insulated garage door with windows

3- 3' x 5 windows

natural gas line run (for future heater)

cable outlet (cable TV in the garge should be really cool!)

I still have to inquire about a floor drain



Ill try and get up a floor plan and a diagram of what I plan to do. I already have some of the Black and Decker (I think? from Lowes) floor and wall cabinets and some open shelving units. I plan to have 3- floor standing cabinets and 4- wall cabinets plus 3-4 open shelving units for storage. I have to incorporate a small "fish area" into my garage for my tropical fish maintenance (water filter, 36 gallon water container, etc). I think I have storage covered. However Im not sure what to do for electrical extension cords and air hose? Probably need to look into hose reels, etc?



My biggest concern is getting proper lighting given the size and budget. I dont forsee Metal Halide lights in my garage budget (I know they can cost up to $500 each for a 500 watt fixture for a fish tank). I was thinking in addition to the 3 light bulbs in the ceiling (100 watt) I was thinking of 5- 8' twin tube flourescent fixtures on the ceiling?



Next concern is the floor, while I kind of like the look of bare concrete I know that it stains VERY easily and looks crappy ina short time. at 1200 sq ft the race deck and similar systems are out of the question now because they would easily run $3-4000. There will be 2-3 cars that wont leave the garge much and 2 that will be driven daily. I was thinking of the U-Coat it system as it seems better than some of the other available from Lowes, etc (my current floor lasted about 4 years before I got some small areas of peeling). Anothe rthought I had was the feasability of doing a clear sealer over the concrete? And will these coatings be OK to apply in winter in Michigan? Id want to do the floors before we start parking cars in there.



Im looking forward to see what you Autopians can come up with!!!
 
Kewl, I just saw a house for sale w/a 5 car garage (and dreamed about having that much room all night). You lucky dog :)



I would have a sperate sub panel put in the garage from the main service so you don't have to go too far to flip a breaker if one trips and if you need/want to add some additional circuits later it won't be as much of a hassel.



Thing I would have if I had a 5 car garage.



1) A lift, maybe not four posts but a sicssor type (some can be folded and stored out of the way when not in use)



2) Air compressor. Don't really need a big garage for one but these puppies come in handy for detailing and autobody work if your into that like I am.



3) Lots of Lighting (ceiling and wall mounted). You can go with T8 fixtures they are inexpensive even at Lowes or Home Depot. I would have them wired so they didn't have to all come on if I didn't want to.



4) Lots of outlets so you don't need to run extension cords or really long one's at least.



5) Floor drain is mandatory. I live in Rochester NY by Lake Ontario and being able to wash my car in the winter inside is priceless. Walls should be "finished" and not just plain old dry wall left showing.



6) A deep sink with running water



7) one or two fire extingishers "just in case"



STF on the floor bit. There are some really good Epoxy based one's you can get that should last for a while.



Congrat's on the new house dude, a friggin 5 car garage, some guys have it all.
 
:woohoo: a five-car garage!



What’s really important is how you it works for you. Everybody’s different.



Since the budget is tight, for now I’d concentrate on the things that will be really difficult/expensive to add or change down the line, infrastructure. Power, plumbing and cabling runs are all a pain to do after the fact. Flooring you can do any time.



Even lighting fixtures can be added later if you have the wiring already in.



Of course, if you don’t mind exposed surface runs even those things can be added later as long as they are brought up to at least one wall.



There have been many discussions of garages here over the years. Search around and you’ll find a ton of ideas.



Here’s a link to a web forum dedicated to everything fun in the garage.







PC.
 
This should be great, you'll be happy with a good shop!



Overdo the lighting. You'll never have enough, seriously. As mentioned, get the 8' fluorescents on the ceiling and walls, the latter are really important.



For swirl spotting, get some high-wattage incandescent fixtures hung from the ceiling. Mine take 300W bulbs and have metal reflectors to direct the light down on the vehicles. These aren't too expensive either.



If you can't swing the cost of the lights, still get the electrical contractor to run the wires. It's all about having stuff done in the right order and you don't want to have to go back into the walls ;) This means to run any air/water lines you might need later too. This is more stuff that's pretty cheap to do at the right time.



My floordrain has a commercial oil separator to keep the EPA happy, and is plumbed into the sanitary sewer line. Overkill regs-wise, but I'm set for life even if they change the rules later. Try to do as much as you can to make everything "commercial grade", it's money well spent in the long run.



Other thoughts/stuff I'm glad I did- dedicated water heater/conditioner/filters for garage, washer/dryer for shop use only.
 
Accumulator said:
My floordrain has a commercial oil separator to keep the EPA happy, and is plumbed into the sanitary sewer line. Overkill regs-wise, but I'm set for life even if they change the rules later. Try to do as much as you can to make everything "commercial grade", it's money well spent in the long run.
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Accumulator,



That is quite interesting. What I wonder though, is if such an oil separator is acceptable to have installed any where, as in certain states ( never minding any particular residential community guidelines :rolleyes: ) may not allow such a thing. :nixweiss: Sounds like you had an exceptional contractor who understands such Autopian desires :D
 
Bill D- Actually, don't get me going on the contractor ;) But all's well that ends well and I wasn't shy about what I had to have.



The separater should be OK for residential use, it's a matter of nasty stuff getting into the sewer and everybody's happy when somebody cares enough to voluntarily spent money to prevent something like that. [insert joke about the Jaguar's oil leaks here ;) ]



The big thing is to have the drain hooked up to the sanitary line and not just treat it like "brown water" and run it into a storm sewer. Think of it like the line you'd run your washing machine discharge into.
 
I talked to the builder today and they said they cannot install a floor drain due to code restrictions. Bummer! Ill have to do some more investigating on this issue. I have already spec'ed no leass then 8 outlet locations, including multiple ceiling ouitlets with seperate switches, a deep sink with hot and cold water, hose spigot (Ill have a filter, but not for the hose), natural gas line, cable TV hook up fully drywalled, insulated door and 3- 3' x 5' windows.
 
I'd press a little harder on the floor drain, there are all kinds of oil separators like Accumulator has...it's just too important, IMO, to not make sure there is some way to get it...perhaps as Accumulator suggested, the builder was thinking a storm drain in the garage like you would have in the driveway.



Accumulator, what kind of periodic maintenance do you have to do on that separator? Is it accessible by just pulling up the grate, etc.?
 
Yeah, not to belabor the point (or be a PIA) but I can't believe a properly plumbed floordrain, *going into the sanitary with a separator* would be against code. I realize that different places have different rules, but that really sounds like a blow-off answer. My builder needed a little, uhm, prodding to do this the way I wanted and the inspector ended up complimenting me on my environmental awareness.



Setec- Maintenance is through a manhole cover (!) if needed, but it won't be, at least not in my lifetime. I have a *big* tank, I forget the gallonage but it's about as big as we had at my commercial shop. I had that one checked when we sold the building (after years of use) and there was hardly *any* oil/crap in it. In a residential garage where I'm not having oil spills/etc. it's just not an issue. Just a way to make it a non-issue and do my bit environmentally speaking.



Oh, and drain style- trench drain running in a way that will a) catch the water and b) not be a PIA (think creepers, etc.).
 
LightngSVT said:
I talked to the builder today and they said they cannot install a floor drain due to code restrictions. Bummer! Ill have to do some more investigating on this issue...
Click to expand...
Talk to your local building department/inspectors to get it straight.



Your guy may be right on the money, then again, maybe not. Most of the contractors I've had to deal with have either been too lazy or too stupid when it comes to dealing with anything that's a little different.





PC.
 
Yikes!!! Oil seperators, man hole covers, large tanks...... This sounds like a very, VERY expensive proposition. Sounds like it might be beyond my means? I tlaked to a friend who currently owns a house on the same lake and is building a new, 7000' house (including walk out) on the lake and he said the same thing that garage drains are against code. I still need to see about tying into the sewer from the city.
 
Congrats, one thing I did not see mentioned would be a hot water hose spigot. Washing cars with hot water in the winter-priceless.
 
zippymbr said:
Congrats, one thing I did not see mentioned would be a hot water hose spigot...
Click to expand...



Accumulator said:
Other thoughts/stuff I'm glad I did- dedicated water heater..
Click to expand...



Heh heh, guess you missed that, what with all my talk of oil separators and other wacky stuff ;)
 
Great LInk!



the other pc said:
:woohoo: a five-car garage!



What’s really important is how you it works for you. Everybody’s different.



Since the budget is tight, for now I’d concentrate on the things that will be really difficult/expensive to add or change down the line, infrastructure. Power, plumbing and cabling runs are all a pain to do after the fact. Flooring you can do any time.



Even lighting fixtures can be added later if you have the wiring already in.



Of course, if you don’t mind exposed surface runs even those things can be added later as long as they are brought up to at least one wall.



There have been many discussions of garages here over the years. Search around and you’ll find a ton of ideas.



Here’s a link to a web forum dedicated to everything fun in the garage.







PC.
Click to expand...
 
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