# Garage/Shop Remodel



## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

It all started with this 1950s Delta Radial Arm Saw...







This saw belonged to my dad, and, as far as I am concerned, just "came with him". I don't ever remember a time when this saw was not in the garage of the house (built in 1958).

Dad is gone now, and there is talk of moving Mom into a better suited place, and I got to thinking that this saw really ought to stay in the family. I need it like I need a hole in my head, but I am sure most of you understand the reasoning...

So, now that I have the darn thing, I had to figure out just how I was going to use it in my garage (without telling my wife that she could no longer park her car in it :huh.

So, I spent way too much time figuring out SketchUp so I could come up with a plan. Here are the basics. Currently, the garage is a typical 2 car California style garage (meaning that there is room for one car and considerable junk). The walls had all been sheetrocked, so I figured I would go ahead and sheetrock the ceiling and turn the attic space into better storage with better access.

This is what I came up with...







The plan is that the radial arm saw will be able to slide out of the cabinets, along with a 4' material handling shelf on each side.

So, along with finishing the ceiling, I will be building new cabinets all around, adding a sink to the side of the washer and dryer, building a work bench (that I have been without for years and it is killing me :blink. A couple of "man cave" enhancements will include speakers in the ceiling, a 32" flat panel above the bench, LOTS OF LIGHT, etc. A couple of "might as well keep the whole family happy" type of things is that the cabinets will be built 6" off the floor, and the floor will be epoxied for easy clean up.

I got started a couple of weeks ago, and it is coming along pretty well. The sheetrock in hung and finished (except texture) on the ceiling. The rough in electrical and controls for my "entertainment" system are all done. I am in the process of plumbing for the new sink now, and if I don't get back out there soon, it will be a wasted day (not to mention that as the water is shut off, it is going to make for a LONG weekend if I don't get it back on).

Here are a couple more progress pictures. I will post some more assuming I get anything done.


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*Water turned back on*

Well, the water is back on. That's good. And, I might add, that I only had to turn it off and on one time (that means no leaks, for those woodworkers that don't do a lot of plumbing).

Hope to texture tomorrow, paint and start building cabinets on Monday.


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## cowboy dan (Apr 11, 2010)

good start. i will check as you go. i have to remodel my shop soon. and i'd like to make cabinets. i'm no plumber. but i can't have water anyway as it's not properly heated. i have somewhat of a similar shop. it's a double but only one car fits and it's not mine...lol. wife doesn't care for the dust on her car so she moves out without arguement


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*Paint*

Ok...had a pretty good day. Got it textured and painted. I am a "day" ahead of schedule (the "schedule" is pretty arbitrary at this point).

Shop dog is helping out...


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## Warnock (Apr 4, 2011)

I assume you meant "shop dog is supervising."

Good looking job, lots of work, but worth it in the long run.

Keep it up.


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Looking good. That's going to be a sweet looking garage when you are all done. Looking forward to the next set of pictures, so keep up the great work.


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## troyd1976 (Jul 26, 2011)

Looks great man, is there even a beer fridge i didn't see? seems like your gonna have it all in there..One other question, is there any concern of having the washer and mainly dryer in a saw dust environment, or do you plan a D/C system? I need to know this incase i ever have a basment thats actually useable as a shop. :laughing:


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

I don't have a dust control system designed in. I have built some pretty extensive projects in this garage, and never run into a problem (except the obvious dust on the clean laundry!). Other than that, it isn't really a problem. I do have the advantage of being in San Diego where I can keep the garage door open most every day of the year, so that helps with the dust to some degree. Not gonna get that in a basement...

Beer fridge? Naw...I have to get _some_ work done while out there (without cutting a finger off).


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*Slow Today*

I didn't get a a lot done today. I guess the texture and paint took its toll out of this beat up old body yesterday. I did get the attic access ladder installed, however. Maybe I will get a second wind tomorrow.:icon_smile:


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*nice*

cool saw, dog, pull down stairs, plumbing job...etc. I don't like drywalling, but I'm pretty good at it, if I must admit. I sand it with a ROS and a dust collector to a shop vac....virtually no dust in the air. :thumbsup: Sounds like your wife is pretty darn "cool" herself..... bill


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

Well, things have slowed down a bit (for some reason my real job is getting in the way of stuff I like to do). But, I did get the lights up, along with a start on the first cabinet.


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## cowboy dan (Apr 11, 2010)

i'm going to tell the future! your wife is going to kill you! you have the laundry in where you work. just don't get caught steeling her good blankets. bed sheets make great covers and drop cloths. hide the ones you mess up and hopefully she will forget she ever had. i stole my kids curtains and use them for my ts cover. kids are still mad...lol


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## GearWorksguy (Aug 30, 2011)

A wonderful project. You do great work... I put stairs into the ceiling of my garage too and found that I wanted to put the least used stuff up there like winter tires, bulky stuff. I had problems getting things up and down the pull down stairs since my goals of stuffing things up there were greater than my capacity to walk up the stairs and hold on to the "railing" at the same time. Be safe there. You will eventually have a floor and shelves up there just be careful not to store anything flammable up there since temperatures will be higher than in the lower level.

For harmony's sake, I would also suggest you put some sheet vinyl down around the front of the washers and dryer; the floor can be a staging area for sorting dirty cloths and the vinyl will keep things cleaner. There is also the cloths dropping while moving just washed stuff to the dryer so the vinyl will also help keep the clean cloths cleaner.


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

Dan, thanks for the advice. I will watch that...although as long as I don't get too much polyurethane on the sheets...well, Ok, I will be careful.

Gearworks - I like the idea of the vinyl in front of the W/D. That will most certainly help in clean up as well as appearance. 

Speaking of "hot" attic spaces...anyone that is considering finishing their otherwise unfinished garage: be sure to ventilate the attic space. Local code will tell you what is required, but is very important that you let air circulate in that enclosed space.

Here are a couple of more pictures of the progress...I have to ask myself...who's idea was it to decide to build this many cabinets?? Sometimes we should be careful of biting off more than we can chew.








Anyone ever notice how any horizontal surface turns into a work bench?


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

I got the laundry cabinets completed and put into service : ). Now, on to the rest of the garage. 

I have come to the realization that this is likely the largest project I have done in my home shop. But it is building my home shop. The irony here is overwhelming. It would really be nice to have that radial arm saw in use when building so many cabinets. Or simply having room to work would be great. But, NO! I have "stuff" all over the place (all of which is OUT of place). 

If it looks anything like my SketchUp drawing when I am done (and I think it will), it will be a wonderful shop that I am too tired to use. So, I got that going for me.


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*Moving Forward*

I got started on the cabinets on the east side of the garage the other day. This is the "plan".








I modified the "design" a little during construction, but you can see where the tool box and work bench will go. Dealing with the garage door is a challenge.

My wife and I decided that we would build the 12" deep cabinets behind the door rail full height. The top part of the cabinet isn't real usable (the doors have to be below the door rail), but it eliminates the high horizontal surface that collects junk and LOTS of sawdust.

I hope to have that side of the garage done this weekend. We shall see...:laughing:


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## GearWorksguy (Aug 30, 2011)

*Nice Work....*

Nice project. It looks very nice. How will you find things with so much cabinet space? I would loose stuff in all those closed doors..:smile:

Will there be room for any vehicles? It looks like there will not be any clearance to open doors on the drivers side, at least on one bay...


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

Ok, my last post a few weeks ago suggested that I would be done with the east side of the garage by "this weekend". Well, I guess it is now "this weekend", but I got it "done". (I put "done" in quotes, because it's not "done-done"...still have to install a few shelves). 

Here are a few photos of the progress.








I have built 4 of these work benches over the years in various houses around the county. Pretty simple design, cheap and sturdy.














If you're interested, look at the SketchUp drawing I posted earlier in this thread. Good comparison to "plan" versus "as-built".


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## Robert Webb (Oct 13, 2010)

*Aluminum pull down stair way*

Joe

I have gotten older and more decrepit and have trouble raising and lowering my garage pull down stair way and have thought of replaceing my wooden one with an aluminum stair way. What do you think about your new aluminum stair way? Do you think it would be worthwhile to change out my wood stair way with an aluminum one? My ceiling is about 11 foot.

Robert


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

Robert Webb said:


> Joe
> 
> What do you think about your new aluminum stair way?
> 
> Robert


Robert...I got this one from Lowes for about 200 clams. I believe it does go to 11 feet. Being somewhat decrepit myself, :laughing: I find this one works real well. I haven't used a wood one for many years, and guess I forget how heavy they are, but with the light weight of the aluminum and the pretty good spring system, this really is easy.

Joe


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## ctwiggs1 (Mar 30, 2011)

This post is great. Keep posting! Thanks for sharing your new garage!


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

If anyone has been watching this post, you probably figured I either decided to give up or died of old age. Well, neither one happened, actually. Things have been slow, however.

Anyway, I picked up most of the rest of the sheets of Melamine I need for the balance of the cabinets and doors. I had them laying flat in my truck, and thought I could just use pull them out as I needed them (which wasn't supposed to take more than a couple of days). Well, two things happened. First, I didn't get everything done like I wanted to, and then, a storm moved in and it was going to rain! Right here in San Diego! Darn the bad luck!

So, I made my wife help me unload the sheets (7 of them). We didn't have any real good place to put them, so we just had to lean them up against the new bench and cabinets, and off to work we went. 

As I was driving home the other night, I got to wondering how I was going to do anything with all that lumber in the way. I decided I needed to build a rolling rack. So I stopped by the home center and bought a few 2 x 4s and 4 wheels. This took about an hour from start to finish, and makes all the difference in the world. 










I built a couple of a-frames. 









Added a couple of stringers and wheels...


















And, woula! A rack to move the heavy stuff around.


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*WOW - It's been over a YEAR!*

Soooo, it would appear that I'm not real good about keeping this deal up to date. I got the garage done (all except the epoxy floor...some scumbag wanted $1,500 to do it...not on my watch!). Here are a few pictures of the final details.

This first one is the slot to hold the slide-out for the work surface.








The second is the base for the radial arm being attached to the slide-out.








The slide-outs are actually drawers, and by lifting the tops I gained even more storage space.








Slide-out finished with the other cabinets.

View attachment 58209


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## Joe56 (Jul 2, 2011)

*A Few More*

Ok, this is it for the garage project. For my first project in this new space, I built a set of tables for one of my sons. I will start a new post with some of the photos. Thanks for looking!:yes:


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## nmacdonald (Jan 13, 2012)

Looks real good. Thanks for the update as I haven't seen this thread and enjoyed going through it.


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## Gregg30! (Nov 28, 2012)

Wow, looks really cool! I can't wait to see it with the epoxy floor! Keep us updated on the progress!


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## KLadwig (Oct 6, 2012)

That's a real slick idea to have the work surface slide out with the saw. It's there when you need it, but out of the way when you don't. Nice job.


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## Corky (Dec 18, 2012)

GearWorksguy said:


> Nice project. It looks very nice. How will you find things with so much cabinet space? I would loose stuff in all those closed doors..:smile:
> 
> Will there be room for any vehicles? It looks like there will not be any clearance to open doors on the drivers side, at least on one bay...


Vehicles? Isn't this a garage? That is a place for tools!


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