Decided to build a garage. Now the fun begins.

[South VA]

Ah, makes sense. I have to open mine from the outside and it is a real PITA

Opening from the outside without handles would be a pain. Walking around to the inside to open it, especially on the bay farthest from the man door, is a journey!

I just looked at the doors and one issue would be the outside handle clearing the top of the door opening when the door opens fully. There’s maybe a couple of inches or so of clearance there.

 

[South VA]

More planning:


# Step 4: How will lighting be provided?
AKA: The lighting plan.

The lighting plan encompasses area lighting, task lighting, and exterior lighting.

Area lighting:

The first thing to consider was the overall level of illumination inside the building, at floor level. According to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), the standard for a garage is 50 foot candles (fc). My understanding is that foot candles is a measure of illumination at the surface being illuminated.

Lumen (lm), on the other hand, is a measure of brightness of the source, at the lamp itself.

Frankly, I find the discussion of foot candles and lumens and the relationship of them hard to wrap my mind around. As I understand it, the number of lumens from a light source needed to achieve a number of foot candles on the floor depends upon several variables, including the design of the fixture and the distance from the fixture to the surface.

But 50 foot candles is a minimum, and would probably work. It was suggested earlier that 100 fc is preferable, as it gets into truly well-lit territory.

When figuring up the number of 4’ 5000-lumen fixtures needed to get close to 100 fc, I came up with 24. Hanging and wiring that many fixtures seemed to be a bit excessive.

I also considered UFO high bay fixtures, as they are much brighter and therefore would require fewer fixtures. However, they’re designed for ceilings significantly higher than mine. And they cast shadows.

Then I started looking 4’ shop lights with higher output. One company sells US-made three-tube, 8550 lumen led shop lights that would get me to 91 fc using 12 fixtures, according to their calculations. They seem like excellent fixtures.

Unfortunately they’re quite expensive; those 12 fixtures would set me back almost $1,000. That said, they’re made out of steel, have a five year warranty, have replaceable tubes, and are made in the USA. But still, $1000 for interior lights...

So I went back to amazon to see just how close I could come to 100 fc without breaking the bank. And found some 10,000 lumen 4’ fixtures that would seem to do the job for about $25 each.

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Taking the differences of the fixtures into account, twelve of these should provide around 100 foot candles. But if they’re close to that, and they last, they’re a bargain. FWIW, they have a 4.8 star amazon rating.

The disadvantages of these are that they’re made in China and don’t have replaceable parts. The whole fixture has to be replaced in the event of a failure.

If I were still drawing a salary instead of my current retired status, I just might buy the US made lights. But that’s not my reality, so it’s off to amazon I go. I ordered 12 for area lighting.

Task Lighting:

Since the workbench, tool table, tool chest, and parts washer will be along the back wall, task lighting will simply be a row of the same 4’ fixtures placed 18” off the wall. A drafting lamp on the workbench or tool table could be added for those times when they’re wheeled out from under the fixed lights. Task lighting will be the easiest of the three to change if it comes to that. I’ll try it out and see how it goes.

Exterior lighting:

I have mixed feelings on this, as we live in the country and I really don’t like light pollution or light trespass. However, some exterior lighting is necessary.

Pole mounted sodium vapor lamps, for example, are popular as yard lights out here; we have one. It’s arguably the most practical and economical solution for security lighting in a rural area. Someone suggested to me that it helps keep coyotes away, but that seems like a stretch. But they contribute to light pollution and trespass.

Most commercial buildings around here have box type fixtures that project as much light outward as they do downward.

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My preference is to use cutoff type fixtures so that most of the light shines down, rather than in our eyes when approaching the building.

This is an example of a Dark Sky compliant cutoff fixture:

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The plan is to place a fixture above each bay door, and one on the side by the man door.

And here’s what the lighting plan looks like:

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The area and task lights are ordered. Next will be to figure out how to provide and distribute electrical power.

More to follow.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

Opening from the outside without handles would be a pain. Walking around to the inside to open it, especially on the bay farthest from the man door, is a journey!

I just looked at the doors and one issue would be the outside handle clearing the top of the door opening when the door opens fully. There’s maybe a couple of inches or so of clearance there.

You could always attach a bracket to the back of the door that would prevent the door opening past the handle so avoiding a collision with the frame.

 

[termite]

You could always attach a bracket to the back of the door that would prevent the door opening past the handle so avoiding a collision with the frame.

Lift strap fastened to the door a few inches above the wheel mounting location. High enough that the mounting bolt misses the frame and weather seal should also do it. Much like the door straps you see on delivery trucks with roll up doors.

 

[jaybee]

Looks good, and I agree with your desire to not let excess light scatter into the sky. At our family farm back in Iowa, there are no lights which are on when they aren't needed. I love looking up into the night sky there. It's quite remarkable to be in such darkness.

 

[Erik the Awful]

The video below was shot in my 30x40 shop with the doors closed. The lighting in the video is pretty much how it looks in real life. Lighting is 12 5000 lumen lights bought from Amazon for $20/ea screwed to the rafters. I think 10k lights would be a nice amount of overkill.

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[thinger2]

What you say makes sense. Thanks again for a thorough explanation.

However, I'm still leaning towards a penetrating sealer, which is supposed to be breathable, and significantly less expensive, than epoxy. I'm less concerned about the appearance, the floor picture in post #682 notwithstanding, than performance and cost. That breathability would seem to be a good thing, and the floor wouldn't be as slick when wet. In either case, it would be a DIY application. Do you have any experience with penetrating sealers?

Thanks again for the explanation on curing.

I still would not coat that large of a pour unless I had hired a company that specialized in applying that product.
The problem is that that coating can hide underlying issues with the pour just long enough for the pour to be out of warranty and to have no warranty from the epoxy because it wasnt applied correctly.
Were they certified applicaters did they use out of date product etc
That is a very very commen problem.
You do not want to end up in a warranty/ application fight between contractors.
I shot blasted and recoated the hangers at Mchord air force base and nellis and the lockheed martin missile factory in harlingen texas and the friggen perfume factory and a pepsi plant and a place that made "ding dongs"
Ive sniffed some glue bud
Dont coat that concrete untill its cured
That added coating that they offer is just a way to cover up thier sins.
You will do a much better job of coating that concrete a year from now with a few beers and some burgers than they will ever do.
Because you will care about it and they dont care about it.
It is nasty dirty work.
But it isnt difficult.
People sometimes get nutted up over trying to keep a new concrete pour clean and pretty because they just spent a bunch of money on the concrete.
they want it to look pretty
If your concrete guy is going to come back 6 months later and epoxy the floor then maybe he knows his business.
There is just no way in any flying ******* world that you can chem coat a green concrete floor and expect it to last.
Let it cure, look for cracks and spalling.
Make them fix the defects.
Dont let them top coat over their bad pour.
An epoxy coat over a spalled rubble pour is an absolute friggen disaster.
You can end up with an entire floor that is glued to about 3 inches of crumbled rubble chunks of concrete because the mix got hot enough to cook the top of the pour.
If you do let this guy do it.
You better take a deep look at his warranty and if he is a certified applicator for that product and what recourse you have if he ***** it up.
I would dive a bit more into this but my lawyer is in on vacation and Ive gone so far off of the rails that I am nearly, almost spent.
I know Im late. I am a well known slacker.
But happy birthday to you late capricorns
And happy new years to everybody.

 

[Road Trip]

I shot blasted and recoated the hangers at Mchord air force base and nellis and the lockheed martin missile factory in harlingen texas and the friggen perfume factory and a pepsi plant and a place that made "ding dongs"

I can personally attest to the high functionality of the epoxy floor coverings in USAF/ANG
aircraft hangers. Not only did we keep the floors cleaned, but actually *wanted* them clean,
so that not IF but WHEN we had a FOD event, we could quickly find even the smallest knob
set screw, spring, cannon plug pin or socket, etc.

After a quick sweeping, we would run a walk-behind zamboni-style floor cleaner, always vigilant
for any unexpected bits making their presence known. Compared to anything I experienced in
the civilian world, the aircraft hangar epoxy floors were both hard-working & a pleasure to do
precision work upon.

For what it's worth I've personally helped to clean this floor after a phase jet or hangar queen
finally left the perch and went back outside where it belonged. :0)

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158th FW, Transitioning from F-16 to F-35A ceremony, on Hangar 3's epoxy floor.

@thinger2, from your commentary it sounds like you know what it's like to work in a Mil-Spec environment.

Thanks for sharing your insight on all things have to do with concrete floors and their coatings.

 

[Sean Buick 76]

I did enviropoxy on my floor and its so darn easy to clean!

 

[Erik the Awful]

I can personally attest to the high functionality of the epoxy floor coverings in USAF/ANG aircraft hangers.

You absolutely cannot run on those floors though. If there's any water or oil they are incredibly slick, even with grit mixed in for traction. I've Scooby-Doo'd way too many times just walking.