Garages....

I'm hoping to ditch the 'farm' I'm living at and buy a house back in town (Eugene), maybe moving in towards the end of February. Very nice house. The bad part is the garage. I'll be going from an oversized 2-car with lots of storage and a HUGE workbench (it stays behind), to a 'standard' 2-car attached garage, with very little room for storage or a workbench. I know for sure that I'll have to build a shed for the back yard to store the lawnmower, other yard items, maybe bicycles, etc. I'm probably going to have to come up with something small (maybe folding...?) for a workbench. Garage has a normal roll-up door, side 'person' door on the left, door to the utility room on the back wall, and one (wow...) outlet on the right wall.

Any ideas?

 

Oh man, I would struggle big time with what you are doing. First thing I'd try to figure out is can I do something about resizing the garage. Add onto the back, or front, or go up some and mezzanine it. We were at a fellows shop a while back and up front a very unassuming looking older two bay garage that matched the WWII style home. Open the doors and it goes back another bay on each side, the back bays having a higher ceiling by using different rafters. One side high enough for a hoist (thus storage for two cars when not used as a hoist. The other side had a mezzanine for storage. Stairs were up in the air, raised and lowered with a garage door opener. Very well thought out, creative use of every available inch of space. Under the mezzanine was work bench, engine and tranny projects, etc. He happened to have an enclosed 24' trailer on one side of the driveway that held his race car ('33 Willy's I think) and inside the shop his '39 Stude Coupe hot rod, on the hoist a Ranchero of mid sixties vintage being redone by he and his son. Lots of light, bright walls, painted floor. Very neat and tidy, but clearly a shop that was functional.

I thought at the time that if I was ever in the situation where downsizing from my 1,200 sq ft space was desired I could live with this option for a shop.

But oh man, it would be tough. But having a nice house is also high on the list of considerations.

Is there a way to expand that existing garage?

 

If you are going to spend the money to build a shed, KK, I would kick in a little more money and expand the garage. Providing you have the room to do it. Nothing better than having a huge garage/work space. Do you have pix so we can make suggestions? I'm pretty good at this kind of stuff.

 

The layout of the house (plus lack of $$) precludes any enlargement of the garage space The walls are finished, as well as the ceiling, which has a trap door access to attic storage. I'll have to put in a larger door with fold-down ladder,and lay 1/2" plywood up in the attic for the storage. I figure I've got about 18-20" of space around the walls to set up storage and a workbench without getting in the way of the vehicles. Another complication is that I'm almost forced to put our two vehicles in the garage. The driveway only holds 2 cars, one of which will be taken up by the daughter's Focus. Also, the street is narrow, with parking on only one side of the street.

I'm starting to think that maybe my best bet would be to think 'real large' with the shed, and put my workbench in there.....

 

Krash : You would be surprised what you can do with limited space.I have owned my house for over thirty years ,and every year I 've said next year I'll add on to the garage.For one reason or another it never happened. I have very limited space, but I have used it wisely I have two benches one hinged on the wall 7ft.long which I can fold down.My other bench is on wheels I can move anywhere I want.I have a small loft which I use for storage.I built a 13x10 shed a few years ago my compressor and welder are stored there as are all my other spare parts.

 

I've built a garage loft before - one where I was able to park the nose of my car under it.

Won't be able to do that in this garage, either, unfortunately.
I was thinking along the lines of your fold-up workbench. Should be able to get that to work.

 

After reading all the posts I'm most likely missing some thing here but.....

...... You say you can make a fold up work bench but can't make a work bench thats permanant that you can park the nose of your car under? That would meen you would have to put away eveything, evey time, thats waisting time if you have a couple/tree day project..turns it into a week long project.

I may be the pot calling the ketle black here as I also need more "else where storage". I have a detached 2 car garage, toooo small for anything. One side of the garage I have a 10' x 12' mezzanine 4' 6" of the ground loaded with "stuff" and a car under it. The other side of my garage my work bench is shaped like a "L", the side has on floor shelf space and the front is built 40" deep but under that it's open so I can park ..my Buick in and close the door for the nite, the Buick fits in if need be under the 10' long 40" deep bench. The onl put it away I have to do is clear the floor.

Krash, your gana be undersized, no room.. Like Fox said, show us some pics and we'll help the best we can:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Oh man. I sympathize. I dream of the day we can move out our of our 990sqft home and I can finally ditch my 20'x10' garage for something larger. It's like threading the eye of a needle to get the Parisienne or the Roadmaster in there in such a a way that you don't have to crawl out through the window. A workbench is almost totally out of the question as is working in the garage while the car is in there. I have a 20'x20' work shop out in the yard with a good sized bench and a small 30A pony panel but no way to get the cars anywhere near that shop. There's no good replacement for having the bench near the car.

Have you had a look at the photo threads over at the GarageJournal.com forums?
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/
I pop over there and dream from time to time. Those guys have some amazing ideas for space efficiency in small workspaces. Of course some of them just have mountains of space (and money) and that's fun to gawk at too.

 

K.K., In my humble experiance size 'n money don't matter, character do We all wanna do the best we can for those we love and our selvez and fantasize 'bout bigger 'n better. Then one day I realized we waz all the Jones's that we waz in compatition with and I laught like H***. 'Sidez, even Mr. Leno can only eat at one table, sleep in one bed, and use one throne, and drive one car at a time. The rest iz all just fluff 'n stuff. Thought for the day: He who diez with the most toyz iz still just az dead. Kick back ah little Man, we only go 'round here ONE TIME. Make the most of it! I never heard of anybody that at the end of lifez journey they said had too many friendz did you. We all love yah Man! I'm done, Jer

 

Well said, Big Barney

 

Thanx, Jer.

I'll get some pics next time we go over to the house.
Had the inspection Wednesday. House is in good shape. Just a few overdue maintenance issues, since the house has been vacant for a few months.

 

Got an idea floating around in my head....
2 narrow workbenches, storage below, open only on one side. Attached together with removable pin hinges, benches mounted on locking caster wheels. Back a car out, 'fold' the two benches together with the open storage facing out, latch together - you now have one large, deep workbench. I don't think the 'seam' down the middle will be a problem.

 

I've got the perfect WORK BANCH TOP for yah K.K. Only one way to make it? Well maybe two wayz to make it but those 3"X6" double toungue and grove boardz are way hard to find, studz ain't! Use either 11 or 12 8' studs and 3 36"X1/2" dowels and two tubes of liquid nails and ah 6" long 1/2" wood drill bit!( the 11 or 12 studz will give you the correct counter top depth) Stack 'um straight against a wall in your garage and even on the endz ON SOME NEWZ PAPER. Start drilling a series of 6 1/2" holes across the top of your stack, remove ah couple boardz at ah time and repeat 'til you're at the bottom board while keeping them in the same order.(stack 'um upside down as you remove 'um) Cut the dowelz in half and stick 'um in the 6 holez and go to work with your liquid nailz and start lacing boards in reverse order from what you took 'um off. When you're done smack the top board ah few timez with a hammer and walk away for 24 hourz. Wa-LAH YOU NOW HAVE THE MOTHER OF ALL WORKBENCH TOPZ. Trim the little nubbinz off the top and build the rest of your cabinet. You'll like that topI have one and so doez my Son-in-Law Jer

 

I've been in my house for almost 9 years now. It too has a "standard 2 car garage". I curse it every time I have to do any work in there. Too many brake or suspension jobs where I'm crouched over trying not to bang my forehead on the fender or my back hitting the wall. No way I could pull an engine or do any serious work here. Even oil changes are a minor pain. My wife bugs me about being able to park her car in the garage for the winter, but even with her small Saturn it is tough to get in and out of the car if there is another car parked in there. Pure evil I tell you.

 

Here's an out of the box thought.

Build the bench you want. Legs and all. Put "eye" bolts in each corner and ropes up to the ceiling. When you need it you have it there on the floor. Done with it, winch it up tight to the ceiling. The legs are only down what, 30" or so, thus no problem with your vehicle.

Just thinkin..........