Decided to build a garage. Now the fun begins.

johnckhall said:

Just thinking outside the box, I see that your roof trusses have horizontal metal beams. Have you ever thought of any overhead storage attached to those? Not any type of loft, but maybe some boxed in storage that hangs below beams. Or brackets attaches that allows it. That's a lot of overhead space that's essentially empty. Just curious . . . you may not even need that much more storage.

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Erik the Awful said:

Oh, so a parts splasher, not an actual cleaner. I bought HF's parts washer and never bought their crappy water-based cleaner. I went straight for PSC-1000 from Tractor Supply. Just keep in mind that you DO NOT want that stuff on your skin, but it works great.

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Erik the Awful said:

It's not a daily use item. But, if you put it on casters (I did), you can roll it where you need it.

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Orpedcrow said:

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HA! I found a random video in the depths of my phone and was able to get a screen grab.

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South VA said:

More planning stuff:

# Step 3: How will these things be arranged?

The objective of this exercise is to produce a functional floor plan for fitting all that stuff into the garage. As previously noted, the main limitation of relying on a floor plan drawn with CAD, or on paper, is that it’s a two dimensional depiction of a three dimensional thing. Useful, to be sure, but limiting.

Software to simulate such a thing exists, but I don’t own it or know how to use it. And it would still be an entirely virtual experience. What to do?

Enter the cardboard.

I mentioned this a few posts back, and felt that it would be worth at least trying. Silly, perhaps, but a simple enough thing to try. My hypothesis was that a cardboard-populated floor plan would allow me to see where everything goes and literally walk around in the “furnished” space. The only ‘virtual’ part would be the cardboard. Everything else would be real. So why not?

BTW, finding large cardboard boxes out here in the sticks is not necessarily an easy thing to do. Fortunately we had a pretty good supply of large pieces on hand, most recently harvested from the shipping boxes for the shelving and topside creeper. Tools used were a utility knife, a framing square, and a sharpie.

Thus equipped I started cutting out two-dimensional representations of the various objects and arranged them on the floor.

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And wound up with a floor plan of sorts.

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One unexpected benefit emerged almost immediately. While cutting the cardboard to size for each template, I found myself thinking about the form and function of the actual thing it represents; quite apart from where it should go. Oddly enough, doing that made me feel somehow more directly involved in the planning/design process.

Focusing on the individual items is arguably revisiting Step 2. That’s fine, since the goal of the overall planning process is to make this garage as functional as possible. Knowing more about how a piece looks and functions serves that goal. Of course, reflecting on these things made Step 3 take longer than I expected; but it was time well spent.

Two examples of such reflection are the workbench and work table.

The workbench: I originally envisioned this as an uncluttered work space, possibly with a bench vise, a couple of drawers underneath, and enough room underneath for my knees so that I can work at it sitting on a drafting stool. With the exception of adding a desk lamp similar to the one @Orpedcrow uses on his rollaround cart, my reflection confirmed the basic concept. So far so good.

However, seeing the cardboard ‘workbench’ in place, on the floor made me realize that as designed it would be a bit too large for fitting between the vehicles, walls, and the lift. So I shortened it by a foot, and narrowed it by 6”. It’s now 2’x 5’, which seems about right. This was tested by holding the ‘workbench’ at working height and walking it completely around the Subdivision. The larger version wouldn’t have been able to turn the corner at the vehicle’s front end. The reduced version passed.

The work table: In my mind, the work table was to be just that: a plain table with nothing permanently attached to it, ready to provide additional space for projects that might take a bit longer to complete. Sort of like the workbench, only larger.

It took me a surprisingly long time to realize that having both an empty work table and an empty workbench just might be redundant. It’s hard to justify having both in what is turning out to be a more limited space than I had originally thought. There’s a lot of stuff to fit in this garage. Y’all warned me about that, didn’t you? You did.

On the other hand, having a rolling tool table - like @PlayingWithTBI made - makes all kinds of sense. At a minimum, the bench grinder and drill press need to be mounted to something anyway; why not on the same table? Along with a lamp, of course. Being able to put those tools closer to the action certainly seems like a very good idea.

Once again, seeing my 3’ x 5’ cardboard ‘work table’ in place made me realize that it is also too wide to wheel around this garage. It’s now the same size as the workbench (2’x 5’).

And, just like that, repurposing my kitchen table as a work table became a casualty of the planning process. I’ll either build one or find something else to repurpose.

Although arranging objects and walking amongst them was the original focus of this exercise, another unexpected benefit emerged: Being able to look at the construction details of this metal building - the framing, open trusses, and window and door openings - from from eye level.

Why is this perspective useful? Mainly because it helps me think through how and where to attach things to the walls and trusses: the subpanel, wiring, lights, bicycles, yard tools, and brooms (the framing is on 5' centers, rather than 4' or 2' centers). It also helps in locating tools requiring 230V power, like the the welder and a larger compressor. Looking at the framing itself allows me to visualize exactly how the wiring will be run.

The workbench, rolling tool table, rolling tool cabinet, and perhaps even the solvent bath, need to be centrally located. In this context that means grouped around the center of the back wall. From that point, I added the rest of the stuff to the remaining back and side wall space.

When all was said and done, I transferred the measurements to the CAD drawing, and produced the floor plan:

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As several folks have pointed out, the arrangement will change as I use it; this seems like a decent place to start.

The point of this step was actually twofold: to find out if everything that I envisioned for this space would indeed fit, and where it should go. Both have been accomplished.

So about that cardboard - was it actually worth doing? I’d have to say yes, it was. Although cardboard didn’t replace CAD as a planning tool, it certainly supplemented it. Using both of them together made for a better outcome, imho.

More to follow.

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62barsoom said:

I haven't looked at your project for a while but you sure are moving forward nicely. Something I've been putting off is installing my big air compressor. The plan is a little pad outside the shop with a little lean-to built around it. That frees up floor space and keeps the noise outside.

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South VA said:

Thanks! It is moving forward, albeit more slowly as I wait for the bay doors to arrive, and work through the lighting and electrical plans.

The lean-to sounds like a reasonable approach, particularly if it can keep wind-driven rain off of the compressor.

I'm not yet sure how large my air compressor needs to be, since I've decided not opt for a media blasting cabinet. But it's looking like it will be smaller than the ones I'd been considering.

And I'm leaning heavily towards placing the compressor inside the building.

Why inside? Believe it or not, besides affording better weather protection and access, one reason for doing so would be to reduce the level of noise outside, in the back yard and in the adjacent goat pasture.

My GF has let it be known that she does not want to hear the compressor running while in the back yard, where she spends a lot of time. And the female goats, or does, are often very near the garage, and the intermittent noise wouldn't be particularly pleasant for them, either. Sounds crazy, I suppose, but there it is.

Fortunately there are some pretty good DIY plans for sound-dampened compressor enclosures available online. The main issue is taking up space on the building interior, but it appears that there will be enough room, now that the media blaster is out of the picture. The remaining issue is that the compressor enclosure will probably have a fixed location, unlike pretty much everything else, which will be on casters.

EDIT: I just found a couple of enclosure designs that use casters.

Still working out the details, but those are my thoughts.

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South VA said:

Thanks! It is moving forward, albeit more slowly as I wait for the bay doors to arrive, and work through the lighting and electrical plans.

The lean-to sounds like a reasonable approach, particularly if it can keep wind-driven rain off of the compressor.

I'm not yet sure how large my air compressor needs to be, since I've decided not opt for a media blasting cabinet. But it's looking like it will be smaller than the ones I'd been considering.

And I'm leaning heavily towards placing the compressor inside the building.

Why inside? Believe it or not, besides affording better weather protection and access, one reason for doing so would be to reduce the level of noise outside, in the back yard and in the adjacent goat pasture.

My GF has let it be known that she does not want to hear the compressor running while in the back yard, where she spends a lot of time. And the female goats, or does, are often very near the garage, and the intermittent noise wouldn't be particularly pleasant for them, either. Sounds crazy, I suppose, but there it is.

Fortunately there are some pretty good DIY plans for sound-dampened compressor enclosures available online. The main issue is taking up space on the building interior, but it appears that there will be enough room, now that the media blaster is out of the picture. The remaining issue is that the compressor enclosure will probably have a fixed location, unlike pretty much everything else, which will be on casters.

EDIT: I just found a couple of enclosure designs that use casters.

Still working out the details, but those are my thoughts.

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termite said:

Elevated compressor platform, maybe above a relatively stationary item?

If you go exterior enclosure, throw some fiberglass batts around the walls and let it ride. The goats at my in-laws are more bothered by my kids than they are noise from the tractors. It's unlikely that it'll be producing constant noise if you're just using it for the hobby stuff (impacts, nailguns, die grinders, etc.).

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