Fred's Future Garage

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Fred
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Fred's Future Garage

Post by Fred »

I don't have any of that brown stuff to put it on, yet, but hopefully
I might soon, and when I do, I'll need to formalise a design for it.
This thread, then, is a place to collect both your and my ideas and
notes on the topic. Feel free to add 2c. I've only scratched the
surface of the process at this point.

Initial thoughts:

Size: Bigger = better, within reason. Minimum three car floor space with room to move and working area on top.

Height, high. A lift is guaranteed. A mezzanine floor for storage is likely. Possibly combining the two for storing four wheeled things up high.

Interbay shelves, on castor wheels to allow more space as/when required. Reuse my shelves, add castors, maybe build more.

Power, plenty, enough to run welder, compressor, and more, at the same time, ideally. IE, at least 2 15A sockets plus ample normal 10A sockets.

Lighting, plenty also, for general space, for benches, for storage areas, on a separate fuse system to the power feeds.

Heating, I already have an LPG space heater, though it might struggle depending on eventual size.

Floor, dead flat, but with provision to drain fluids without wetting walls. Possibly concrete base around wall higher than pad? Needs more thought. If it allows hosing out the surface, that's good. Epoxy coating is a bonus.

Fish cleaning area, old stainless steel bench bolted to hidden exterior wall with water supply present via tap and hose fitting with gate valve. One tap inside with provision for hose fitting, and small basin draining to exterior for hand rinsing etc.

Working areas, dedicated area for welding, drill press, lathe, parts washer, blast cabinet, etc. Possibly a spray booth.

Access, dual double garage doors, possibly roller, space to maneuver things.

I beam(s) in ceiling for moving things on a chain block.

Dimensions: 120sqm limit for unlined sheds, past that more rules come in. Maximum base size with distance from boundary set to allow appropriate height.
Width ideally 12+m just for cars, and depth enough for a boat trailer or two cars, up to 10m, at least for part of the floor area.
Bench marks:
Trailer boat thread says 6 to 8m and trailer would be that plus 1 to 2m, so 7 to 10m depth to fit a good size trailer boat inside.
Current garage is about 3.3m by 7m, and is a bit short for fitting KP (3.8m) + caravan (4.7m) in in a line. 8.5 would be minimum, 9 comfortable, but insufficient for two big cars.
120 / 9 = 13.3
120 / 14 = 8.5
Possibly minus 0.2m in each dimension for walls, if those count against the area.
Then there's reality: The site is steepish, and longitudinal space would be limited, so it'll likely end up wider and shallower. If so a boat would have to be tucked in long ways with vehicles around it.
Max width is about 20m, which would make for 6m depth.

Heaps more, no doubt, but that's a start. Your 2c welcome.
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: Fred's Future Garage

Post by ToxicGumbo »

This might be superficial, but any thoughts on sealing or coating the floor? I don't like chipped paint, but a sealed and polished concrete garage seems like a good way to deal with spills and dirt.
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Re: Fred's Future Garage

Post by Fred »

ToxicGumbo wrote:This might be superficial, but any thoughts on sealing or coating the floor? I don't like chipped paint, but a sealed and polished concrete garage seems like a good way to deal with spills and dirt.
Fred wrote:Floor, dead flat, but with provision to drain fluids without wetting walls. Possibly concrete base around wall higher than pad? Needs more thought. If it allows hosing out the surface, that's good. Epoxy coating is a bonus.
I said bonus because although it is very nice to have, that's exactly what it is, nice to have. Bare concrete does get stained and marked, but they're battle scars and memories, and don't really affect pleasantness of working on it. And, that paint ain't cheap! It is good, though. We'll see. The whole thing is a dream right now. Part one is pending, more news as it comes to hand.

There's also a moderate chance that the back half of the floor space will be plywood over beams, in which case a urethane coating is a must for that area.

More about doors and windows: Aside from the main access doors for vehicles/boats/etc, there needs to be a robust human sized door for entering/leaving quietly at night and so forth. Windows need to be frosted or non existent. Possibly frosted and up high enough to not be looked through by the nosey. Skylight, perhaps? Natural light is good, and the main doors will provide a lot when open, but in winter, or with it raining, it'd be nice to have natural light inside during the day. Actually, given the quantity of bush that will surround it, high windows or skylights will be the only thing to let sun in, really! Again, we'll see. Very soon.
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Re: Fred's Future Garage

Post by Fred »

Dirt upon which to build such a dream garage is now legally ours! V1 of the garage will be a gravel driveway. Working out the details of that now.

Once the gravel driveway and site surveying is done, I'll post a rough layout of the space available to build this on, and the restrictions on it in terms of height and so forth.

One thing that I've learned since posting this is that if the gable width is at or over 10m then they need to be engineer designed which raises the cost. I'm not sure that is relevant, as to get height and avoid height limits, it'll likely be a single slope roof highest on the uphill side and lowest on the lower boundary side. The roof line cannot exceed a 45 degree line from the point 2m above the dirt at the boundary. This will be one of the limitations. The other is the start of the steep land. However the steep land could be cut into and retained in order to increase available footprint for this shed further from the boundary.

One thing I know I want is a drive on drive off 4 post lift for storing extra cars up out of harm's way. And a mezzanine to drive onto once at full height. That raises minimum 2 cars (one on mez, one on lift) or more with some thought.

More updates as I have any, or think of desires.
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Re: Fred's Future Garage

Post by Fred »

Tyre/wheel racks! This is a must, I have well over 100 wheels and nearly as many tyres. Two plus sets for each vehicle, basically.

Getting up to the site for a measure up has been delayed by other family chores, sadly. Likely to get a chance in a few weeks, though, with luck.
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Re: Fred's Future Garage

Post by Fred »

Driveway under/in front of garage: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0115622912

Image
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