Garage Facelift
 

I'm starting to up-grade/organize my garage. Just had an electrician upgrade our home service to 100 amps, and add two more outlets, and two halogen lights in the garage. We had a new cement floor and automatic door installed two years ago.

Next step is to finish the walls, add cabinets, and generally dress up the appearance of the garage.

I sent away for a furnishing system by a Company called Garage Tek. www.garagetek.com and am interested in what they have to offer....anyone know anything about them?

Any other tips/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks gang! :cheers:

Zippy :usa: :usa:

Never heard of them but it sure looks interesting.
Just make sure you keep us up to date on progress ,,, with pictures of course.

Take care
Jim
:usa: :usa: :usa:

Haven't dealt with them. Zip, you're raising the bar for the rest of us :D

Ya, ZIP. don't dorget the pics. :cheers:

After may years of building cars in the garage became a MAJOR EYESORE, Here is what we did to our garage last July. Perhaps you can get some ideas from mine. My Air compressor is located in the basement to draw cool/dry air, I have a 220 outlet for my welder (haven't used in years) and many, many lights and outets.

Click Here for lots of PICs


http://www.stl-vettes.com/images/Garage/DSC01720.JPG

Hey Zip,

Not sure if you remember looking at my garage floor when you were over, but I HIGHLY recommend a floor coating (not the paint crap). Its a 2 part clear expoxy coating, then a layer of silica (color of your choice) mine is gray with red, then another layer of 2 part clear epoxy. Best $$$ I spent on the house by far. Gives it a good appearance and keeps thing remarkably clean. This has to be installed professionally, not something you want to do yourself.

You also might want to paint the walls and trim out the doors etc. with wood trim painted to your liking.


Joe

Hi Zippy

I installed some Armstrong tile in my garage a couple of months ago and so far it has been good.

http://www.armstrong.com/commfloorin...sp?item_id=381

The cost for a 2 car garage was about $275. from Home Depot. I used 3 boxes each of White,Black and Red. I had to special order the red tile because they didn't have it in stock.

The only issue you may have is water and salt form the cars, I don't have that problem, however I have noticed that if you don't seal the tile with a good wax/polish, water from the air conditioner drains form the cars discolors the black tile, it comes off with mop and shine. Not to much of a job.

Here in Texas we don't get a lot of rain most of the time. (Well some places don't)

Some things to consider is if you use a floor jack or jack stands I always put 1/4" plywood under them.

Good Luck.


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/see5vett/....src=ph&.view=

Garage facelift
 

We will finish our facelift this weekend (the second half of the floor). For cabinets I went to Home Depot and bought the Mills Pride cabinets (some assembly required). We used a 2 part epoxy system by Rustoleum on the floor although we have some concerns about hot tires on it. If it doesn't work we'll go to the black & white tiles.

The walls are painted with C5 wallpaper border trim. I'll take some pics this weekend when it's finished.

Nice garage!

Thanks for all the help gang!

George: Really like your pic..what brand of cabinets are those, and where did you get them?

Joe: Yes, I did notice your floor, and like it.

Zippy :usa: :usa:

Zipster, I think you might be on to something there Bro! Keep us posted. Good luck and I am already jealous!!!! :P Bill :cheers:

See5Vett:

Very nice! :cheers:

I saw another post or two (maybe it was another forum) that indicated regular floor tiles would not stay down with the weight of a car rolling on them - even carefully. Any indication that they might pull up? Any special installation tricks - preparation of the floor underneath, special adhesive, etc.?? :-?

I'm really wanting to do something like this, but with 1300 square feet of floor, I don't want to have to redo it - the cost will be high enough the first time. :eek:

-Walt :cool: :z:

Floor
 

Thanks for the comment,

Like I said I've only had the floor down a couple of months, so far everything looks OK.
I cleaned the floor with a mild mixture of muratic acid and and water to clean it, not hard just have to be careful not to get it on anything but the floor, I just used a floor broom to scrub the floor, you'll ruin the broom, but it works.

Putting down the floor is easy, the glue is clear and the only issue is the floor wears down the trowel that you spread the glue with, I found plastic ones from Home Depot and got a couple.

Once the glue is down it takes a few minutes for it to tack, then you just set the tile down, and make sure it's making contact. When done you should get a roller and go over the floor to make sure all the tiles are sticking. One trick I used was take a small rubber ball and drop it on each tile, you'll hear if it's not sticking by the sound it makes.

Re: Floor
 

Thanks for the tips.

I'm lucky to live in a dry area (desert) rarely below freezing in the winter. But it does get hot this time of year - the garage probably hits 120-130 on the hottest days. Outside temps the last few days have been in the low 100's, cooling down to the 70's at night. The high daytime temps might be as much of a problem as wet and cold if the tiles get soft with that much heat.

I'd love to have the black-and-white floor - yours looks fantastic. Maybe I'll do one section and see how it holds up for a couple of months. . . (and then hope the color matches when I do the rest!). :lol:

-Walt :cool: :z:

Well today when I got in my car the temp said 107deg, and your right when you park a couple of car's in the garage at the end of the day it gets hot, so far the heat hasn't been a problem.

Art