Renovating a Garage Into a Man Cave / Work Space. Need To Make Sure I Am Doing Things Right (floor, opener)

[ShakyJ]

Ok, moving into a new home and I have wifey permission (happy wife, happy life) to renovate the empty 20x20 garage. As I work from home buying/selling goods and shipping them I need a shipping area. Plus I like to tinker on items, possible boat in the future, etc. I need a dual purpose garage. 1/2 work, other half tool area. We do not need to park our cars in there, but I am still working on the arrangement.

I need some guidance not so much for ideas ( although I welcome them ), but to make sure I am doing a few things right. I am not a novice when it comes to building things, but I have never rebuilt a garage.

Floor: Freshly painted by the previous owner. I was looking to go epoxy. Assuming I need to get rid of this paint? Any other ideas aside the snap floors?

Walls : Typical Floridian concrete blocks. I was going to wrap the garage in studs and drywall. Am I asking for trouble when attaching the studs to the blocks? Since the studs are going to be on concrete so we need special blue studs for the warmer Florida climate or will regular #2 pine 2x4 work?

Garage Door: Looks about 10 years old. Needs a fresh coat of paint, but I am noticing on the bare aluminum metal that holds the door pieces together there are some rust spots. I know there are rust removal products and even paint that will cover rust. Any thoughts here on how to tackle this aside sanding it? I don't wants the rust to come through the paint so I may just sand it. Painting concerns on this metal that appears to be galvanized aluminum?

Lighting: Just the overhead lights from the garage door opener. Ceilings are about 10' high and there is plenty of crawl space up in the attic. Thinking of basic recessed cans.

Ceiling: Bit tough with some odd marks and repair drywall boards. I dont want to tear it down, it isnt that bad but I dont want to leave it as its since it doesnt look "factory fresh". I was debating on making it a textured ceiling or just screwing fresh sheets of drywall on there. I am open to ideas here.

Washer/Dryer & HVac: Sadly these are in the garage against the back wall opposite the garage door. I was debating on putting up a wall to make them their own room, effectively making my 20x20 garage about a 13x20. This is for aesthetics and sound dampening.


Appreciate any help I get get.

thanks!

[SuperSparkle928]

Originally Posted by ShakyJ

Ok, moving into a new home and I have wifey permission (happy wife, happy life) to renovate the empty 20x20 garage. As I work from home buying/selling goods and shipping them I need a shipping area. Plus I like to tinker on items, possible boat in the future, etc. I need a dual purpose garage. 1/2 work, other half tool area. We do not need to park our cars in there, but I am still working on the arrangement.

I need some guidance not so much for ideas ( although I welcome them ), but to make sure I am doing a few things right. I am not a novice when it comes to building things, but I have never rebuilt a garage.

Floor: Freshly painted by the previous owner. I was looking to go epoxy. Assuming I need to get rid of this paint? Any other ideas aside the snap floors?

Walls : Typical Floridian concrete blocks. I was going to wrap the garage in studs and drywall. Am I asking for trouble when attaching the studs to the blocks? Since the studs are going to be on concrete so we need special blue studs for the warmer Florida climate or will regular #2 pine 2x4 work?

Garage Door: Looks about 10 years old. Needs a fresh coat of paint, but I am noticing on the bare aluminum metal that holds the door pieces together there are some rust spots. I know there are rust removal products and even paint that will cover rust. Any thoughts here on how to tackle this aside sanding it? I don't wants the rust to come through the paint so I may just sand it. Painting concerns on this metal that appears to be galvanized aluminum?

Lighting: Just the overhead lights from the garage door opener. Ceilings are about 10' high and there is plenty of crawl space up in the attic. Thinking of basic recessed cans.

Ceiling: Bit tough with some odd marks and repair drywall boards. I dont want to tear it down, it isnt that bad but I dont want to leave it as its since it doesnt look "factory fresh". I was debating on making it a textured ceiling or just screwing fresh sheets of drywall on there. I am open to ideas here.

Washer/Dryer & HVac: Sadly these are in the garage against the back wall opposite the garage door. I was debating on putting up a wall to make them their own room, effectively making my 20x20 garage about a 13x20. This is for aesthetics and sound dampening.


Appreciate any help I get get.

thanks!

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Sounds like you have a lot of potential there. Should be a fun project.

For the floors, I have gone the epoxy route twice, though if the floor is truly level, I have come to like exterior tile.
If you stay with the epoxy (I like the 2-part xylene-based Rustoleum epoxy), you need to figure out what the last owner used to paint the floor. You may have to strip it. The water-based one-part floor coatings are notorious for hot-tire lift.

Given you are in Florida, I would think the garage would get hot in the summer... so I would guess that insulation would help (I live only a few hours from the Canadian border, so I am clueless about FL building practices). I know nothing about termites, etc, though we use pressure-treated lumber in the garages any place they are in contact with cement.

For lighting, the tinkering area and parking area would work with the 8-foot double fluorescents, though it depends on how fancy you want it to look.

Garage door: I would guess it is galvanized steel, not aluminum (can't tell without seeing it).... It will be a pain, but you need to wire-brush/sand, use an iron-oxide-compatible primer (the stuff that turns black when in contact with the iron oxide, and then paint with an oil-based paint. I painted mine white to match the ceiling (obviously not inside the tracks).

Ceiling: Is it in too rough a shape that a skim-coat or textured layer won't cover the issues up? I found that skim coat is easier to keep clean than the textured stuff.

I like the idea of putting the W/D in its own room, but it takes a good amount of room out of the available space.... can you just built a small room just large enough to hold the W/D, and put double louvered doors on front of it? Otherwise, I would think ending up with a room that is 13x20 sort of has the 'garage stall dimension' look.

[Barking Spider]

Since you are going to spend time in there, have you thought about heat/air?

[ShakyJ]

Originally Posted by Barking Spider

Since you are going to spend time in there, have you thought about heat/air?

Yes
If I 2x4 the walls I will insulate. back wall is insulated already. This leaves the garage door. I know there are options for that.

[Barking Spider]

Won't you need air conditioning if you are going to spend a lot of time in there during the summer?

[Threerun]

I'm in Montana and you damn sure need heat if you're going to work in the garage during the winter! Gotta be comfortable.. Try a mini-split system- they work pretty well.

I would not make the room any smaller, IMO. It may actually detract from the space to have an odd room in there. I don't know what your vision is- but my garage is a garage- lot's of workbench space, tools hanging everywhere, A loft for storage (it's a good size garage- maybe 38x28x14 foot ceilings )..

Mine is a man cave in the purest sense- dirty and loaded with crap, lol.

[ShakyJ]

the hvac unit and feeders are right in the garage. Easy to tap into.

[jimboburnsy]

Unless you are going to air condition the garage, there probably isn't much reason to insulate it if you're a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico and there may be some good reasons not to insulate.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but if it's an attached garage the ceiling joists may just be there to hold up a fire barrier and may not like having a someone crawl around on top of them. I wouldn't dismiss the recessed cans, exactly, but you may appreciate the flexibility of track lighting if this will be a serious workspace (not metrosexual track lighting, of course... Chunky, industrial track lighting).

Using the borated studs is probably overkill for a non-structural wall to support cosmetic wallcover. You could save some headache (and maybe some money) by using a few PT/borate studs as horizontal ledgers (lots of adhesive and a few shots with a ramset), then frame out your walls in sections and shoot the studs to the ledgers rather than the concrete block and the bottom plate to the garage floor. That way you have a little air gap between the concrete block and your studs and you can use cheap pine studs without worry, even 2x3 studs.

Does your local code allow for surface wiring with MC cable? You could save a fair amount of cubic footage by using furring strips and pegboard for wall cover and then wiring OVER it rather than under it...

[K'ledgeBldr]

Originally Posted by ShakyJ

the hvac unit and feeders are right in the garage. Easy to tap into.

You can't. It's against code.
Any kind of conditioning of a garage space would have to be done from a separate HVAC unit.
CO2 and living spaces don't mix well together!

[ShakyJ]

Originally Posted by jimboburnsy

Unless you are going to air condition the garage, there probably isn't much reason to insulate it if you're a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico and there may be some good reasons not to insulate.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but if it's an attached garage the ceiling joists may just be there to hold up a fire barrier and may not like having a someone crawl around on top of them. I wouldn't dismiss the recessed cans, exactly, but you may appreciate the flexibility of track lighting if this will be a serious workspace (not metrosexual track lighting, of course... Chunky, industrial track lighting).

Using the borated studs is probably overkill for a non-structural wall to support cosmetic wallcover. You could save some headache (and maybe some money) by using a few PT/borate studs as horizontal ledgers (lots of adhesive and a few shots with a ramset), then frame out your walls in sections and shoot the studs to the ledgers rather than the concrete block and the bottom plate to the garage floor. That way you have a little air gap between the concrete block and your studs and you can use cheap pine studs without worry, even 2x3 studs.

Does your local code allow for surface wiring with MC cable? You could save a fair amount of cubic footage by using furring strips and pegboard for wall cover and then wiring OVER it rather than under it...

Ironically the ceiling in the garage has spray insulation on it already.
I wasnt sure if regular pine studs would be ok. With the cold concrete against them. perhaps just the bottom boards on the ground?
Not sure about the code on the MC. I was going to run some regular lines off the box which is right there.

What about a vapor barrier or is that only for below grade homes in basements?

Generally speaking I would think some insulation would be in order. Not for heat, but for the AC a good 3-5 months of the year.

thanks!