Building A Garage

[wrxhoon]

Make it as big as you can fit on your land and as high as possible , even if you dont want a hoist in there, its cooler and you can use the height for storage . Minimum 7 mtrs long if you want a bench at the rear .

415 volt comes handy for the hoist , welder and tyre machine .

If you can aford it make it double brick , much cooler than steel ( a lot more expensive though ) and use a sectional door not a roller .

If you need a heavy duty floor 150 mm thick with 2 rows of f82 mesh will do the trick , otherwise 125 mm thick with a row of f82 close to the top .

[m&m]

If you use the Merlin motor you wont have a problem.If your opening height is 2400mm,you will fit in a 4WD with a roof rack.

I recommend you use the CSI door,very strong door at a good price,B&D is good but dear,stay away from Steeline,Gliderol and Centurion.Dominator make a good door but expensive.

[Duncan]

sweet thanks guys

Any other tips? What shits you about your garages?

[Patto-]

My garage doors aren't wide enough. It takes precision driving to drive the car in forwards let alone backwards. Misses the mirrors by about 3cm on each side. No way you'd get a wide 4x4 in there.

But I think my garage was designed for one door but instead has brick support down the middle. So it has double doors. It sounds so obvious but give yourself plenty of room either side of the car.

Thats the only thing that shits me about my garage. Oh and also its full of shit now so I can't put my car in there anyway. Don't let your missus use the garage for storage, she'll take it over.

[Eug]

in regards to the base, if it is attached to the house

then you will need to dig for footings and slabs.

and yes you will need an engine stand, especially if your tinkering around in the garage

[funkymonkey]

garage needs a hoist to raise the car and a hook in a structural beam to rig up an engine hoist on... that is all... everything else is optional.

[NinetySix]

everythings great so far

tho if you cant stretch the budget to 3 phase and a hoist, think about a simple pit. just a hole in the ground that you can comfortably fit into with a suitable lid. gf's old man did that and it works reasonably well

felt a bit hairy fixing a leak in my fuel tank from it tho.. as you have to get somebody to drive the car over you... pretty much sealing you in... with leaking fuel :\ ive seen others with steps leading down tho

[scathing]

Yeah, if I was building a garage I'd want a hoist.

Alternatively, I did see this on New Inventors recently:

Cartar 125 mobile automotive hoist

Apparently its not safe enough to spend a lot of time under the car (its more a panel beater's tool) but you could always use it as a full-body jack to put all four corners on wheel stands simultaneously.

[PHATR32]

this is my garage me and my dad built. the pics shows it with the frame up. its long finished now.

We bought the steel tubing all from scrap wreckers. The blue tubes are those real thick ones are used to build playground houses etc and go about a meter under the ground, in solid concrete.

The yellow poles are old stop and give way sign poles we bought. the are fully rust proof inside out.

The colorbond sheet i got from auction for real cheap.

we compacted the ground with a heavey duty compacter and i used a truck load or so of yellow sand.

the roladoor i got from the tip, a bit scracthed but a quick paint job made it look like new.

the most expensive stuff was the concrete. i needed two truck loads.

the f**king thing is hell solid and on a doesnt move or leak.

it fits the gtr in and has plenty of space all round. plus a ton of space for my work bench etc.

steve

[NinetySix]

Nice. very nice

[Beer Baron]

duncan, definately make it as big as possible, spend some time thinking about airflow and light (both natural, and lighting). also definately get someone to come and lay the concrete for the floor as the laying down those pre made slabs sucks and they probably wont stay perfectly flat (plus all the joins are a pain).

like wrxhoon suggested brick would be ideal, but obviously more costly.

3 phase is a great idea too. also i would build a little brick enclosure behind it to put the air compressor in (with some sound proofing) and have it plumbed to two points in the garage (one each side) to save getting tangled up in air line all the time.

also a big strong beam down the length of it is a good idea for attaching a block and tackle to.

running water is handy also.

fridge is very nice but may lead to a poor standard of work during the summer as you may find yourself constantly pissed.

[PHATR32]

forgot to mension we laid electrical pipiing, and water pipiing for a tap and sink on the side of the garage (out of sight) and the pipiing allows me to have power sockets all around the garage. i had the fridge sorted way before i had even built the damb thing.

the air compressor housing is good idea, mine is in the shed and is loud.

might make a sound proof cabinet for it or something.

was thinking about a engine hoist but i bought a crane instead.

steve

steve

[madbung]

Sounds like a good setup..ever thought of having a pit in one of your bays? cool to work in 4 the summer mths, no hoist posts in the way, also a great storage area when not in use.

[maccattack]

Always liked the idea of the old garage "pit" which allows you to work under the car - If you are building - cheaper than a hoist. Have it set up so that you can cover the hole with heavy duty timbers if you need to.

[46n2]

as the good baron said, natural light and airflow

Also plenty of bench-space and power outlets.

i like the compressor-in-a-box idea too

[wrxhoon]

Pits have long lost their appeal because they are very dangerous , i wouldn't even think of having one in mine . If you want a hoist and you have plenty $ to spare the japs have fully recessed in the ground so you can drive over them as if they wern't there . A normal 2 post hoist acn be had for less than $2000 second hand and they are very handy to have , dont bother with with a 4 post or drive ons , minimum height 3.6 meters . You can install the hoist anytime as long as you have the power there .

[Beer Baron]

i also think pits are horrible. it's like working in a dungeon. so it's not much fun if you get a little claustraphobic. also unless you put side access to it can't easily get in and out (means you always need someone there helping you). plus I much prefer a nice flat, clean floor. makes it easy to clean spills and easy to find sh1t when you drop something.

do i need to post up that report on jack related deaths again??? lol.

2 post hoist is definately the go, but for a home garage a big beam with a block and tackle will do the job too if you prefer more flexibility and more floor space. hoist and block and tackle is better though

[Abo Bob]

As for size, a roof over your entire backyard and some walls and that should do it.

[full custom job]

The best option my brotherinlaw put in his shed, were lights running along the sides of the shed thay are very handy....

[someonestolecc]

This may sound stupid but if you fully work on your car I'd suggest putting in a gutter around the whole outside. I'm not sure if that's what you call it. Make sure it doesn't run straight into the drain though (a catchment or something?) so you can degrease and clean the floor.

The cement should be the shiny stuff so you can clean it.

Pretty obvious :\