Garage Makeover!

[90GTVert]

Jan 23, 2023 9:40:28 GMT -5 FrankenMech said:

What kind of heating system do you use in the main house?

Heat pump. A friend has a 1 car garage with 1 vent from the HVAC in it that works OK, but it has an 8ft ceiling and the whole basement/garage area is built into the ground 3/4 way around. This garage is 40x24 with a 12ft ceiling so I think I'd just cool/heat the rest of the house with vents in the garage and let fumes in.

I looked at one of those big ceiling mount heaters, but the cost would be quite high for anything capable because they either need gas or higher voltage to make the heat and we have neither ready to go. Thought about one of those propane wall mount heaters, but again we have no existing propane. Wood stove could work and there are quite a few trees down already behind the house. Seems like the most affordable option, but still more expensive than using what I've got right now and much more labor intensive. I don't do nearly enough oil changes for a waste oil heater.

Last year I probably spent $150 all winter on kerosene and that was largely due to the garage project. Normally I'll just be cold for other work. Doesn't warrant spending money I don't have for anything much better at that rate.

[FrankenMech]

I have a vent I can open for occasional use from my main forced air HVAC system. I don't think it is quite legal for fire and fume reasons. With some judicial use it works. I can also open the door from the house into the garage and place a box fan in the opening. It works for both heat and AC for a short time. I also have a small kerosene heater but have to watch the flames. Running a new 240VAC electric service isn't hard and is useful for welders etc. PVC conduit is cheap and easy to run. Wood isn't too bad for occasional use but it does get very labor intensive for continual use.

[90GTVert]

I got the sanding done and did some spackle and caulk. Not much. The spackle was mostly because the builders did a lousy job on the joints where there's drywall at the house entrance.

I put quarter round on one drywall to lauan joint to sort of smooth out the transition from thick drywall to thin wood. I was going to do the same to the other side, but the builders did something strange again. The gap at the bottom of the drywall is 1/2", like the other side is all the way up and down. At the top it's near 1/2"... but a foot or so down it's not far off of flush. I probably should have shimmed the whole section out when the lauan went up, but 25 year old me didn't know or care to do that. At that time we just wanted the garage insulated with walls and didn't care about rough edges. Anyway, I just put caulk over there. No way I was ever gonna cut a piece of quarter round with just the right taper for that. The right way would be to straighten out the situation behind the wallboards, but I'm not interested in pulling down the walls and re-doing things.

Fun fact; the entire wall on the house side was actually drywalled by the builders. We never asked for it to be done. They realized it wasn't in the plan/estimate and cut everything off other than where it meets the house and trashed it without ever talking to us about possibly leaving it all up. They left one section only because they said it needed drywall to meet code where it meets the house.



I added one support in the center to my little shoe rack add-on to the landing of the steps. I made that years ago. We used to trip over shoes entering the house or knock them off of the landing. Now they can fit in the add-on out of the way of the door and we put bags to hold recycling on top. Ugly, but functional.



Once the sanding was finished, I spent a long time trying to get rid of most of the dust. The area that I'm not working on now is still dusty and everything will have to be cleaned when the project is about over.

I finished one coat of primer on the ceiling earlier today. That actually took me about 10-12 hours over 2 days. I got 2 coats with a brush on the top edges all around first, so at least that's done. Hopefully the 2nd roller coat will go faster. I still have to do a 2nd coat around lights and brackets and such as well. I'm very slow with anything involving the ladder because I do not like ladders. Even with spending a bunch of time up there on garage projects with a good ladder, I'm still not comfortable so I'm not rushing when a ladder is involved.



The only bad thing about the white ceiling is that it makes the edges of the lauan that don't meet up well obvious. The ceiling was done by a professional contractor so at least those aren't my fault. I think it was also screwy stud spacing that the original builders did faulted with making it tough to get everything perfect.

[FrankenMech]

Construction standards for finish are a LOT lower in a garage. Use a baseboard to trim out large gaps at the base of a wall and wide trim at the ceiling. I often use a 1x4 for trim in a garage. Codes vary but the garage to house wall around here must have 5/8" sheetrock for fire protection. 1/2" sheetrock is required under paneling on house interiors for fire codes here. Fire codes are very important. Inspecting or rebuilding a house after a fire can be very educational and deeply chilling.

[aeroxbud]

That seems a strange thing for the builders to do. Trashing the drywall without even speaking to you. Would of made more sense just to get some money back rather than losing all the material costs.

[FrankenMech]

Stud spacing variations hurt the builder but they are probably due to a high alcohol consumption on a Friday afternoon or near 5 O'clock on any day. Alcohol consumption on the job can get a builder in big trouble with OSHA but the contractor may have had to turn a blind eye to keep a crew on the job. My house has a few stupid mistakes and omissions also. Contractors will also cut as many corners as they think they can get away with. Even on BIG commercial projects. Contractors, architects and inspectors ignored problem indications and mistakes on the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the sky-walks fell here in KC.

When a plan mistake is found the contractor will demo out whatever they must to bring the project into specs rather than continue on with a type of construction they are not getting paid for. If they discover a wall wasn't to be rocked halfway down the wall they will rip off the rock rather than sheetrocking the rest of the wall.

[90GTVert]

I agree that it was weird to tear it down. All they had to do is say they screwed up and offer the option to leave it up. Their time was already gone and it took more time to tear it out. We talked to the builders every day. If they offered to just charge for the cost of materials and leave it up, they would have fared better.

Good contractors are very hard to come by. The place that did the garage was well known and had a good reputation... though google reviews weren't really a thing at the time so it's not like today. They mostly stuck to the estimate, but the work quality was pretty poor in many areas. Stuff that no pro would leave behind IMO, like nails driven through something and sticking out (railing to those steps) and just left that way rather that redone and all sorts of things that appear to be lack of building knowledge or cutting corners.

Years later we had a kitchen and bathroom remodeled with a different contractor. They sucked too, to put it plainly. The estimate included all bathroom fittings/appliances and kitchen appliances. We wound up picking out and buying most of that ourselves and the bill was still higher than the estimate. They put up one piece of paneling in a different room (small project to match paneled walls in 2 rooms) that clearly didn't match. There were 2 versions with standard wood color or a red tint. They put one panel up with red tint and never noticed. Had to argue to get it swapped out because they claimed the difference was hard to see... but everyone else could see it. The contractor's son did his first ever tile job on our shower. He literally told us he wanted him to get some practice there before moving on to some of the other jobs they do. That's fine I guess, but he struggled and it took longer and I think we got charged for the extra time he wasted. The walls were not prepped for paint properly and there are all kinds of blemishes. Amateur stuff from a company that works on a lot of high end houses. Kinda felt like they didn't care or used our comparatively cheap house as a trainer.

Eventually, we found a good one. The last bathroom remodel went amazing. My father regularly talked to a guy in the hardware store that he worked at and liked him and his father. He did a few really small jobs for us and they went well first. Nice guy to talk to, attentive to details, billed fair. He gave an estimate for the bathroom and actually billed LESS than the estimate. It turned out beautiful (for what it is... it's not a million dollar house). All trim work was spot on. His drywall guy was super fast and did perfect work. The tile guy was a pro and also fast and great craftsmanship. I literally could not go in there and pick out 1 flaw when he was done. The guy really cares about what he does and wants to make the customer happy. Doubt that anyone is local to make use of it, but his business is KNL Carpentry and I'd highly recommend him. Night and day difference in the experience vs any other contractor that we've had around.

[90GTVert]

I ordered some diamond plate style rubber mat like I used on the workbench to make a mat for the landing of the stairs after they're painted. I'd like to secure it a little, but I want to be able to remove it.

I thought about putting threaded inserts into the landing and then it would be easy to bolt down without damaging the wood with regular screws going in and out... but I'd like no tools required remove/install.

I searched for floor mat grommets/clips/fasteners, but I see automotive stuff that isn't made to secure to wood and generally doesn't look like it would work quite right.

As of now, I'm thinking I could make some sort of stubby pins on the lathe that I could screw down to the landing. Kind of a mild T or mushroom shape. Then punch holes in the rubber mat to correspond and install rubber grommets. Not sure that rubber grommets would be needed, but may prevent wearing the holes or tearing the mat. Should push on with enough effort that it's secure, but be easy to remove/install.

If anyone has a better idea that is less work than making custom pins and all of that, please lemme know.

[FrankenMech]

I don't know anything about better but fender washers, pan or truss head screws, and T-nuts would probably be OK. Stainless steel hardware would probably work best. Aluminum "L" channel for the mat to slip under may help secure the stair side to prevent tripping. I think they make some stair tread nosing type product for that application. Check with Google and the home box or hardware stores.

[sinfull]

Keep it simple, screws and fender washers, they work and will make removal easy, 2 mins with a screw gun and it's off.

Use enough with good spacing and ripping should not be a problem

[90GTVert]

I finally got all of the coats of primer and paint done on the ceiling. Now both hands are numb from carpal tunnel due to so much time pushing a roller on a stick into the ceiling and holding a paint brush.

I got some new cords and rubber cushioned clamps to try to improve the ceiling wires a bit. One bay done so far. Replaced an old fluorescent light that has a bad switch with an LED light while I was at it.

[sinfull]

Looking good 👍

[90GTVert]

Not as much progress as I’d like, but a bit of priming. Trying to work in shorter intervals to help the numb/sore hands heal… or at least not get worse.



I came home yesterday to a cracked window in the house. My parents said there was a loud pop or bang and they thought something big had fallen over, but nothing had.

30+ year old original window, just like all of the others in the house. Luckily it just cracked the inside pane and the outside is OK so it’s not an emergency. More crap to fix.

[FrankenMech]

The white paint is looking good. The white will make a lot of difference in the light.

It may have been some slow compression that broke the window. Maybe some house settling that twisted the window. Get some silicone sealer on those cracks to keep water vapor out of there as much as possible. Otherwise water/fog/ice/frost will fill up the window. The auto parts stores sell a type of thin penetrating silicone sealer for windshields.

www.autozone.com/sealants-glues-adhesives-and-tape/windshield-repair-kit/p/permatex-windshield-glass-sealant-1-5oz/552992_0_0

I think that whole dual pane unit must be replaced. Check your foundation.

[90GTVert]

I haven't looked at the window yet, but a garage window was busted with a stone (mower) and I replaced it last year. Not too bad to replace the entire double pane panel. A local company said they can't replace just 1 pane and they'd have to send away for it so I went with an online glass company that I was very happy with and cutout the middle man. Gotta look up their name and I'll prob do the same this time.

Never thought about settling playing a part. I had the gigantic windshield of my '97 Firebird crack way back from sitting out in the sun. This window is on the west side of the house and gets a lot of sun.

I primed for 3 hours this morning. Now my hands are very numb. They had improved some. Not sure that I'll do much more out there today. Painting just eats time way more than it seems like it should... but maybe I'm bad at it.