Thread: Advice on building a Garage.

I have a link on my desktop that I'll look for tonight which takes you step by step through a bloke in Queensland designing, constructing and fitting out a garage designed for working on cars.

His can fit about 6+ cars in it so larger than what you may be looking at but gave good insight into weight distribution considerations, overhead requirements and appropriate and efficient lighting for working with machinery and on vehicles.

Peter

In my experience, if you promise to plant lovely gardens (and actually do it) about the finished workshop SWMBO will sucumb to allowing a larger workshop... but having said that irrespective of how big you build, it WILL be too small in 12 months time.

Whe you say 2 1/2 garage I presume you mean about 7.5m wide. A standard shed/ garage is 6m, If you can go for deeper bays it will give noticeably more room. Its nice to have a vehicle inside with enough room at the front for a mobile workbench in front of the engine bay.

A few other tips that I have discovered, in no particular order:

If you are building brick, I would presume you will use timber trusses, if so consider keeping the internal unclad, not as neat but provides some storage space up top.

A gantry of 75x75x3.5 SHS diagonally across one of the bays, with a 1T chain block and tackle is mighty useful, takes up very little room. With two adjoining brick walls you may be able to just run a beam diagonally across. The diagnonal allows fine tuning when removing/ installing engines and is less hassle than a swinging/ sliding gantry.

The shed which I am building currently on a new block up north will definately incorporate a small, soundproofed/ vermin proofed/ water tight air compressor and generator lean to outside the shed... So much nicer than having the compressor overwhelming the Mozart... or whatever your flavour of tunes may be.

Expansion cuts in concrete are all very good in concept but they need to be filled with silicon or some such otherwise they attract dust and metal shavings like a black hole...

IMHO float / chopper the concrete as smooth as possible, even consider finishing it and sealing. Without a hoist/ pit you will be on your back and dusty, rough conc gets wearisome.

A well stocked beer fridge is best positioned a small distance from the workshop to help maintain a certain level of sobriety.

When getting the shed electrocuted, speak with a good Victorian forum electrician about the maximum permissible current you can feed the workshop. Ideally a couple of 15A circuits with plenty of punch above 15 will be really handy if/when welding. I hate how I can be welding all day in my workshop, then come 5pm ish, all the neighbours come home, flick on their A/C, ovens and 80in plasmas and my shed supply is dropped to a trickle.

If you have the space, a tap/sink/ shower is nice to have at the shed... you can get cleaned up before heading back into the house.

Hope you may get some hints from that lot.
Steve

I've roughly got room for about 8m wide by 9 to 10m deep.

Good ideas thanks-

Agree about the power issue - I may even run a separate curcuit so that I can set up my HAM radio equipment too.

My old man has always had a pit in his garage so was thinking about that also.

(Easy to dream when I haven't seen the $$$ cost)

I like the idea of a pit... but up in Cooktown it would probably need bilge pumps!
Also the pad where the shed is going is pretty much rock at 500mm deep, will just have to get a two post instead!

Steve

If you are to use a chain block or similar for hoisting heavy things around, then definitely fit up with a travelling beam and monkey. Allow a minimum of 8' under the hook. You need this to lift tall engines out of high set vehicles. Build as big as you can afford or are allowed by the relevant authorities (Council or SWMBOWQ) and it will still be too small in a relatively short period of time. Minimum depth of 30' to allow a bench or tool trolley in front of a vehicle and still be able to move around inside with the doors closed which would be essential in Melbourne's climate. Width for three cars needs to be 40' to allow benches and storage up the sides and room between to work.

Only a couple of thoughts, Consider a door in the gable end of the shed to give you some extra height in the middle, I think my middle door is 2.7m.
Also make sure that you bevel the slab where the doors are so that water dosent run under the doors and flood the shed in heavy rain, I learnt this on the last shed I built on our former block and had to argue with the concreter when I was building this one.


This thread has lots of ideas as well.
OK show us your shed!!!!


Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tote

Only a couple of thoughts, Consider a door in the gable end of the shed to give you some extra height in the middle, I think my middle door is 2.7m.
Also make sure that you bevel the slab where the doors are so that water dosent run under the doors and flood the shed in heavy rain, I learnt this on the last shed I built on our former block and had to argue with the concreter when I was building this one.


This thread has lots of ideas as well.
OK show us your shed!!!!


Regards,
Tote

Thanks Tote,
Yes I've seen the SHED THREAD - I think that's what got me started. You'll see my somewhat pathetic single car "shoebox" in there somewhere.

Join scouts and buy a chainsaw!