Setting up your garage

RedJeepster1

RedJeepster1

Active member
Looking for some advice. Now that I've been in my house a year and we are settled in, I'm to the point where I want to tackle really setting up my garage. It's 24'x24' 2 car garage. Cement floor. Wood construction. Small attic space. Exposed studs on the inside walls with insulation rolled in, no sheet rock. No heat yet but I have a wood stove. I'd love to install a real heater but that is not in the budget any time soon. The electrical is a mess so I plan to rip it all out, back to the sub panel, and redo it. I am mostly working with a blank slate once I rip out the electrical, and looking for advice for what people have found works and doesn't work.

Items that must fit in the garage:
60 gallon air compressor
Miller 211 Welder
20 ton shop press
Work bench
2 rolling tool boxes
mini fridge
lengths of steel tube/box
Tool cases (Portaband, sawzall, nutsert tool, etc.)
Paint and lubricants
Fluid containers
Engine hoist
Axle stand
Portable Generator if I have room
all the rest of my crap...

Before I start running wires, I am just trying to think of the best way to use the space and I'm not really sure where to start. The Exterior door and sub panel are both on the side nearest the house, close to the front of the garage. There's two garage doors in the front, and apart from that there's really no limitations as to where things can go.
 
Should definitely talk to Frank about hard plumbing air lines. You can pick up a used forced hot air unit out of a double wide on the cheap that work slick heating garages.
 
If you could figure some way to separate the air compressor from the work space, not that this is an option for you, but mine is in the basement under my shop, so nice not to hear it running. Maybe at least enclose it in some sort of sound insulated closet?
 
My Garage is 22 square and I was surprised how much space I lost putting in the work benches and shelving around the sides. 

If I had to do it over, I would have tried to keep at least one bay full length so I could pull in a long car or truck to work on in the winter. 

On the wall opposite the doors I have a bench running about 1/2 way across and my stove so it really limits the length of a vehicle I can pull all the way in. 

I put my 60 gallon upright compressor in the corner behind where the man door opens in and it works good there.  Any way you can get the compressor up in the attic?  Wayne put his on the second floor and it worked out great.  A lot of the running noise stays up there when it's on.  Wayne also mounted a lot of his tools on wheels or rollers so he can move stuff around for storage and use.

I mounted a steel welding bench on one wall, but there is so much crap near it I never use it for welding indoors.  That was a waste, I wish I had made it moveable so I could roll it outside to work in good weather.

One other thought, put the addition on now while it's empty.
 
Compressor and welder are going to take some juice.  What do you have for a service panel?  Do you park your vehicles in there?  What kind of bench are you thinking of?  Put as many things on wheels that you can.  :mrgreen: 

Use outlets on the celings for lights.  Inexpensive LED  shop lights are awesome and if they burn out, can be easily replaced.

Are you planing on insulation?
 
There's NEVER enough room!

I would keep everything as modular as possible because you can constantly reorganize the space for whatever you're working on.

If you want to remote the compressor you can use uponor PEX for the lines I did a huge sign shop that way and it's still going ten years later.

Use radiant tube heaters on the ceiling when you're ready.

Best way to figure it out really is to work out of it.

Another great resource is the garage journal forum. Check it out if you haven't already.

CC
 
you got autoCAD at work? could do a quick layout on the computer, better for seeing how everything will fit.
 
Bruce said it. Everything on wheels. Air and power pull down from the ceeling.  Portable movable LED shop lights.
 
Regarding the air compressor, there won't be any way for me to get it outside of my working space. It is taller than my attic space and I don't have a basement or a closet to tuck it in or any way to cover it outside. I do want to set up hard lines running around the garage with a couple tapping points, but the compressor itself will just end up in one of the corners.

I do like the idea of having one side committed to being a "shop" side and the other side leaving nice and open to easily fit a vehicle in the garage, either for storage while I'm not working on anything or to work on a vehicle when it's needed.

Power and lighting - As it is already, power is somewhat of an issue. I have 220V 40 amps running to the garage from the house. At least for now, this is here to stay. It runs underground and replacing that stretch of wire is not in my budget. The house is also only a 100A service anyway since a lot of our stuff runs off the natural gas. Welder and Air compressor both run on 220V 30A. This means only one can run at a time. I plan to replace all the lights with LED. There aren't two lights the same in there right now, and half of them don't work in the cold.

Everything on wheels is a good idea. A lot of what I have now is already on wheels, but not everything. Keep the ideas coming guys, I appreciate the suggestions. Lots to think about.
 
Also, Joe, I do have Autocad at work, but I'm not super great with it. Better with solidworks, and I have that at home. Not a bad idea though. For now, I just have some grid paper. Working good enough for now.
 
all the cool kids use sketchup since they have accurate models for eveything

vehicles,tools,welders,drills

grage doors, normal doors windows etc
 
Live alone and then you can do anything you want with both the garage and the house :rotflmao:
 
One full bay, modular as best you can. Lighting, you need it, invest time in this. My garage and shop cast no shadow...
 
I am currently remodeling my garage and it has sidetracked all of my projects for 6 months. It is a very tight 2 car. Luckily I have tall ceilings. Doing to do some wall cabinets pretty high up. Air compressor is going under the stairs that lead into the house. Running air brake lines in the wall to a recoiling air house off the ceiling. I can also fit a rolling fabrication bench under the same stairs. Air comp and welder share a 30 amp circuit. Lots of new plugs on the walls on their own 20 amp circuit. Lots of new harborfrieght lights on the ceiling on a 15 amp circuit. Just finished insulation and hoping to do the sheet rock in February.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 
My garage is also 24 square .  I have to say , it looks big enough till you put shelves along the sides.  I used horizontal shelves 6 feet off the floor so you can still open the doors without hitting them.  My work bench 12'  is in the front right corner as the Jeep is shorter than most vehicles your gonna work on. My floor standing  drill press and grinding station is left of the work bench with the rolling floor jacks , then my rollaway . LIke someone can roll that suckah ! Above that is the propane 44k BTU heater  . You should be very carefull of what type of heat you use in there . Towns and Ins. Co. frown on solid burning heaters . Just so you know.  Because they dont know , wont rebuild your shit if it happens.  Someone suggested a mobile home Warm air furnace . A great choice as most of them are down draft style and the duct work is simple. Being a pumped fuel burner it sucks air from everywhere and gas spills or cleaning products will be able to be sucked in and then its all gone in a flash.  Most regs have that style of heat with a minimum floor to burner clearance for just this purpose. Just tryin to help , not preach . I retired from HVAC with some information.  Shelving on the right (Jeep) bay and storage lockers line that side. Cased tools , jack stands , grease guns and stuff not used every day , all cleaning supplies and painting supplies in a cabinet near the roll up doors. Dont try to make it as air tight as your house .  I try to keep the left side stuff on wheels or able to move it with a hand truck for those times when something else is in there.  Draw it out on paper and then change it again.  When my garage burned to the ground it was a sad day . Everything important to me other than family was in there.  I wanted 12 more feet . I was out voted !  Now shes pissed cause her new car is always outside in the snow .  Why , yes it is ! 24 square is not as big as you think .  Good luck    FjR68
 
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