New garage build. - structure done, electrics done, now on to location of things

Discussion in 'Garages, workshops & DIY' started by M7R, Aug 10, 2011.

  1. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    I thought it was about time I got this going as this has taken all my time since moving in back in dec (hence slow progress on the cars)

    MOved in to the new house in dec and finally got a good look around the garage. I knew 1 was bowed but had hoped to salvage the garage - upon closer inspection it was deemed the best idea was flatten the old single skin brick garage and build a new bigger one behind the old garage, meaning the old garage base could then be used for woring on the cars (the front drive is just long engough for a car and only as wide as a car so jacking one up isnt posible)

    behind the old garage was a dead plot of land with a couple of bushes on it and then a 6ft x 8ft shed,

    the plan was to have a new big garage and do away with a seperate shed, originally the garage was going to be 3.2M wide by 8M long but this was revised to 3.5M wide by 7.4M long as 8M was just too close to the rear boundry and would have caused hassle. it is also a higher than normal garage being 7ft to the eves :)

    Job one - take down the old garage.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    the bricks which were OK were cleaned and saved, and the rest was skipped (I now have 1000 bricks stacked up in the garden ready to use for a path and patio area) and about a million roof tiles!

    once the base was cleared the next job was clear some more land (when we moved in the garden had been land scaped and paths put in, bushes etc, very nice looking) so a load of the bushes next to the shed were dug up, the concrete paths down the garden, down the side of the old garage were also dug up and taken to the tip.

    Once a few bushes on the right hand side were removed, the shed was emptied, then with 3 mates it was picked up and walked across the garden to the other side.

    Under the shed was another pile of bricks, so again these were taken to the tip in the trailer.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    more bushes were removed from the land between the old base and the old shed place, and then the base was laied.

    [​IMG]

    Then finally on Monday the garage was delivered, and assembly was started yesterday [:D]

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The build has come to a halt at the mo though as annoyingly they didnt send the fascias, so the roof and door cant be put on, and it wont be finished untill next week, so after a few snotty calls to them they agreed to give me the UPVC fascias for free to say sorry.

    Once it is finished it will be painting then electrics, and then kitting out the insides and the car will hopefully be back home by some time in Sept..maybe.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2011
  2. Mike_H Forum Addict

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2004
    Likes Received:
    17
    Location:
    iQuit
    Nice Work Karl - plenty of room to work and store stuff in there.
     
  3. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    it should be big enough for the mk2 to be in there and have the doors open / get a jack down each side etc.

    the back 2m or so will be for storage of the camping gear / car spares / tools etc, I was going to build a internal wall and have the 2 split off from each other, but I have my eye on a very tidy mk2 in the village thats owned by an old boy so I am thinking of having it so 2 cars can be in there end to end (its that or I want to build a kit car at some point...)
     
  4. G40

    G40 Forum Member

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2010
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Portadown NI
    That looks a great job :thumbup:, what company supplied the garage?
     
  5. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    Compton, not the cheapest but very good customer service and quality, its the little extra like all main doors have 4 point locking, all side doors are 3 point locking, and the cement fillet round the bottom is included in the cost (most others charge for this extra that makes the garage water tight)

    however I have had a few issues.

    1) I filled out the "help the driver" delivery form stating not to send a 38 ton arctic and to send the 25ton rigid due to how tight, twisty and norrow our road is (the bin lorry just copes) I also stated that the drive was too narrow for the fork lift, and there is height restrictions too as we have double gates to the back garden with a beam across the top. all was on the form with dimensions.

    guess what turns up 3 months later!! yep some how and I have no idea how the guy got a 38 ton arctic down our road!!!! it cause havoc! the road was blocked each time the driver had to use the forklift to drop the pallet of pannels off the truck, as the forklift could only get up the pavement but not on to the drive. he then had to take the panels off the pallet onto a barrow and round the back on his own (the help the driver form said if there was limited access then team of guys would be sent). The neighbour had to put his car back on the drive (parking is tight on our road at times) and this ment that his wife in her wheel chair could not get up the drive.. so they were stuck in for 2 hours while the truck was unloaded! hes a misserable git who doesnt like me at the best of times butg I did feel sorry for him)

    The next day the fitter arrived to put the garage up, got the walls built only to find the facias were not sent!! so can not put the door on, or the roof untill they are fitted.

    so after being on hold for 20 mins I finally spoke to some one in customer serives (the other times I have called to confirm things it has been a long hold too) they said there was problems with the fascias and I should have been called on friday to tell me this - had they called I would have told them to not bother sending the fitter!!!! - so I played hell with them and asked how the extra hassle and the extra time I need off work to make sure all goes well will be compensated?? I suggested a upgrade to UPVC fascias as the new ones will not be arriving untill next monday and the fitter wont be back untill Tues!! The chap from Comptons said he would have to ask the customer service manager and get back to me.

    I waited 2 hours +, no call so phoned up and asked to speak to the customer service manager direct, the receptionist tried, had no answer so took my number, as soon as I hung up he called. They agreed to the upgrade so all was good... but when tackled on which lorry would be sent next monday they confessed it would be the 38 ton arctic again, so I am now in a battle with them to have that changed, but it seeming they cant / wont as they say they have no smaller trucks avaiable, so I have asked them what happens if A) he gets stuck? B) his a neighbours car? or C) the emergancy services need access? (theres a number of old people live on the street and it isn't that un common to see one...

    I am now also having issues with the steel personal door, as it does not lock properly, has not been fitted straight and due to its design leaks like a sieve if the wind blows!! (Ill get pics up) so had I known it was this poor I would have opted for a UPVC door and paid the extra 200 or so!

    In fairness the agent who sold the garage was very helpful, and the customer service manager has been helpful up to now, but we will see how helpful he is after the email about the door (I spoke to him today so he knows it's coming)

    At the moment it is 50/50 if I would reccomend them, but I will reserve judgement untill it is finished.
     
  6. G40

    G40 Forum Member

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2010
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Portadown NI
    Sorry to hear about the above, no project like this is ever straightforward, it'll be worth it in the end though.
     
  7. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    well 1 week on and we are getting some where.

    The garage is sort of finished now, but there have still been niggles.

    Compton have agreed to change the personal door for the PVCu one at the price it was when I ordered the garage, so that is a plus but I will have to wait for it to be made and come into stock so hopefully by the end of the month.

    There was a mess up with the finishing of the garage though. It was agreed that the new PVCu faiscas would be delivered monday, and the garage finished tuesday. so Monday I took the wife to work and left her car on the drive (which is quite narrow) I then get a voice mail mid morning from the fitter (who I was told was in Stockton on Tees) saying he was on his way to mine, but with held his number so I could not call him back to tell him all the card board boxes he had left outside are now in the green house, and to watch the wifes car.

    I managed to get hold of Joe the Customer service manger by mid afternoon - it took about 10 calls to get him! - and he did not know the fitter was going to mine today and theough he was still booked for tueday, so he told me to check everything was ok when I got home.

    I arrived home and notcied straight away that the wifes car had been scratched, so not a good start, then when looking at the garage the door springs had not been set, meaning when oipening it was really heavy and when shutting as soon as the door starts to fall it comes down fast and is a pain to catch and not be hit by, it doesnt open level, the lock in the bottom left can be opened when the main lock is locked by twisting the handle a couple of degrees, one of the roof fillets had been left out because it was too much like hard work to add one more, and one of the spare bolt holes in the front had not been filled. and the roof has been put on wrong, the over hang is too short so the water does not drip into the guttering when its lightly raining, it misses it and hits the wall!

    so another snotty email was sent, and a phone call to follow up. the outcome was the car is being paid for, another engineer will be sent to asses the roof as if it isnt right chances are new roof sheets will be needed, and the rest of the issues with the dorr will be address when the new personal door is fitted. also the fitter who has done all the work wont be sent back to me I will be getting some one else who actually cares! (the fitter left me 2 spare roof sheets! how am I ment to get rid of them?! having said that I might just stick them down the side of the garage just encase)

    but it does look impressive!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  8. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    the building part is finally finished!!!! last week the fitters came for the final time to fit the replacement UPVC back door (I had a double glazed one sent which was a bonus) and they re did the roof and internal fillet as the original fillet was leaking when it rained.

    I have now started the painting of the walls and got the floor paint all ready too, then its a case of what to do about the lighting / insulation,

    I was thinking a number of strip lights, but I think a cheaper and more energy efficent way would be a number of angle lamps from the roof trusses, ala:

    [​IMG]

    The idea being I would insulate bellow the roof sheets with the big foam and silver foil covered boards, then clad them with the white upvc cladding and have the angle lamps on top of that.. that way I can have lights above where the door is - there is about 2mm between the door and the cross truss when opening the door so no good for a lamp there, and I can still keep the roof space if needed for storing light items like spare bumper skin etc if needed.

    I have drawn a cruse pic on paint but photo bucket isn't playing ball at the mo, so Ill upload it later, but if anyone knows a better or easier way let me know

    cheers

    Karl
     
  9. mole Forum Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2011
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    bagshot
    celotex under the roof is the way to go, 60ish mm should keep the heat in. problem is fixing it there and then what to fix the cladding to. you may need to fix a timber frame to the steel trusses first. also the walls may need insulating to depending how much time you want to spend in there in the cold and how much money you want to spend on energy heating it.
    As for lighting id have a selection of strip and pendant style, to much light is never a problem.
    thats my two penith worth
    good luck
     
  10. SkyRocketeer

    SkyRocketeer Forum Member

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2003
    Likes Received:
    13
    Location:
    Here be dragns
    You want an even diffuse a light as possible in a garage or workshop - point source lights (such as bulbs) aren't much good as they cast harsh shadows (Unless you got tons of them)- imagine trying to peer down the back of your engine on a bright sunny day- compared to a lightly overcast day.

    I'd recommend strip lighting, in poly-carb diffusers if you can (gives them some impact resistance). And put loads in. My old garage had about 10 single 5' tubes nicely spread out (t'was about 7x7m though)

    If you've got the height/space some floodlights lighting the ceiling (if it's a light enough colour) should give you a good diffuse light to also help, though you'll get more lux for your money using fluorescent.

    You can supplement this with extra lighting over work benches if you want - tungsten is good for this as it has better colour rendering than fluorescent -useful when trying to figure out what colour wires in your loom are supposed to be.

    Also think of putting some tubes down at low level - handy for getting light under the car -these will definitely need impact protection though.

    All this is based on the assumption you're doing more than just parking the car in it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2011
  11. mr.brown

    mr.brown Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2003
    Likes Received:
    97
    Location:
    Sunny Surrey
    What about in-floor lighting?

    [​IMG]
     
  12. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    I think I have sorted the lights now, I am going for some outside wall lights as they are buy 1 get one half price from B&Q and only 5.39 each..

    http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=11597651&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372073}/specificationsProductType=post___wall_lights/specificationsSpecificProductType=wall_lights

    I plan on 3 of these on each truss which is 4ft apart, so there will be 12 in the roof up to where the garage door comes to when open, and then 1 on each side where the door is, this is less than the cost of a couple of big double tube lights, and will be less energy too (im thinking 11W energy saver in each one will be enough) they also have a cover, which is extra for the tubes, and makes the tubes lower too (these are the same height as the tubes, yes the bulb is covered and protected)

    they will also be wired up so I can turn them on in stages, to again save on energy useage.

    some lights might be added over the work bench in time, it all depends how dry I can make the garage (see seperate post for more woes)

    cheers

    Karl
     
  13. Ess Three Forum Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2003
    Likes Received:
    84
    Location:
    Aberdeenshire, UK.
    What did you end up with Karl?

    I used the angled bulb holders on the roof trusses - fitted approx 24 of them in a double garage with energy saving bulbs, and it's like daylight in there.
    I think in total, I was around 60 for a roll of 1.5TE cable, 24 bolb holders, 3 light wwitches and the bulbs.
     
  14. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    the electrics have just been switched on! :p

    I went for 12 of the bulk head lights mounted on to wooden boards which were attached to the trusses by jubilee clips, that way there is no drilling so my 10 year garage garantee is not void, and with the boards being wide it provides a nice platform to hold the cladding when I make the celing out of sections, like a number of loft hatches back with insulation :thumbup:

    I have now started moving my tools and spares backfrom my folks house, and today I will be building my work bench / storage, and buying my new shine roll cab (my old one is way to small and broken so the wife has given in! :lol:)

    also the alarm is up and running too :thumbup: so all being well the mk2 will be back next weekend finally [:D]

    Ill get some pics up in a bit of the progress
     
  15. Ess Three Forum Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2003
    Likes Received:
    84
    Location:
    Aberdeenshire, UK.
    Good man!
    Always good to see some 'man cave' photos :lol:
     
  16. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    I got a bit carried away with the board for the fuses etc.... its a bit over kill.. but in my defence I was going to have a larger alarm control, but went for the smaller one in the end as it does the job just fine. (the light switch bellow the breaker is for the outside light, the other one turns on the first 3 rows of lights in main garage area.. then by the back door there is a doubel switch, one which also turns on or off the main 3 rows, and one that controls the back row of lights above the "shed" area of the garage

    [​IMG]

    Its still a mess, but should be straight by the end of the weekend, the work bench is being started this eve.

    here it is without the light covers on:

    [​IMG]

    and here it is with the light covers on:

    [​IMG]

    This is how the lights were mounted to the roof

    [​IMG]

    This way the boards will support the classing backed with insulation foam like big loft hatches, allowing access to the roof space if the electrics or roof need checking, but also keeping some heat in as well... in a year or so I will hopefully line and clad the walls too, and the garage door.

    you can also see the sockets in the big photos, they are mouned on brackets up high, this is so the walls are kept clear for access and to help stop the sockets being bashed too.
     
  17. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    I picked up some 600mm kitchen base units last night from Discount Kitchens Limited, http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/discountkitchens2010/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 27.50 per unit with hinges, and they come with proper backs, not the normal floppy fibre board! went together OK, and bar a couple of bits where the edgring is lifting a little (which I have already stuck back down) they are spot on! and half the price of B&Q cheapo units (but you do get doors with them.. however im sure doors wont be 30!)

    So I have now started planning the final design, and I think what is shown bellow will be best... however it would be good to get others thoughts just encase I have made a big over sight.. all the drawings are to scale, the shelfs ate 400mm wide by 900mm long, the cabs are 600mm square fully covered by a work top, the tool box is 460mm x 700mm,

    design 1:

    [​IMG]

    Design 2:

    [​IMG]

    Im thinking design 1 would be best, as although 1 cab is covered by the tool box it is easily wheeled out of the way, and that one will only be used for stuff that I don't need all the time, like the spare turbo, gear linkage, and other random just encase spares.. This layout also means there is plenty of room to open the draws in the roll cab, and leaves the gang ways open.. the only thing im not 100% happy with is where the bikes are, as the original idea was to have them at the back of the garage, and the space round the car clear so I can work on it when ever I want etc

    what are folks thoughts?
     
  18. Ess Three Forum Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2003
    Likes Received:
    84
    Location:
    Aberdeenshire, UK.
    The lights look good.

    My suggestion with regard to the layout would be to not fix anything just yet...put the car in, use the freezer etc and see if it's workable before you firmly fix it all in place.

    For your wheels: Are you stacking them?
    Have you considered getting a local blacksmith/welder to knock you up an elevated wheel rack?
    Won't cost much...and you could store the bikes underneath.
    I'd keep the bikes well clear...I had mine in the garage near the cars for a while and was forever catching them and knocking them into the cars...at the rear, well out of the way, would be better.

    Good idea regarding the sockets up high - I fitted retractable extension cables / retractable air line in my garage to keep the walls/floor as clear as possible.
     
  19. M7R

    M7R CGTI Regional Host

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2007
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Nottingham
    wheels are being stacked, as the walls dont give much option of bolting things on to. there are bolts holding each pannel together but they are only M8 and only used for holding small shelf units, so I think wheels off them would be pushing it, also there arent many bolts high up, so again the wheels would end up at chest height with maybe one more rack bellow, (wheel wheel racks could leave marks on the tyres depending how they are held as you will get pressure points. stacking spreads the weight better accross the tyre..

    The bikes down the side I agree is not idea, but there is narly 1m between the wall and the car, so there should be room, however like you said nothing will be bolted down, but the work tops will be cut and fitted, but if needs be I can always get another one cheap.
     
  20. Ess Three Forum Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2003
    Likes Received:
    84
    Location:
    Aberdeenshire, UK.
    Space is always at a premium...making best use vertically is always an option.
    What about some industrial racking along the back wall to allow you to stack the wheels & put toolboxes low down (on the floor) with the legs of the shelving giving you shelves up above?

    A set of wheels is only around 1m tall...toolboxes (Roll Cab without Top box similar) so that gives you a good metre of shelving/storage above, all along the back wall without taking up floor space.

    You could push the freezer against a side wall, and put cabinets down one wall if required.

    It would also give you the option to lean the bikes against the wheels, semi-tucked under the racking, to get them out of the way?

    Just a thought.
     

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice