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Shop Renovation

21K views 39 replies 20 participants last post by  Beginningwoodworker 
#1 ·
Challenges and A Plan

I've been woodworking for about 5 years now. My workspace has been in my uninsulated and unfinished, attached garage. I originally thought that I'd make smaller projects so I could park both cars in the garage and pull them out when it was time to work. To accomplish this, I just made 2 benches from 3/4 mdf. the benches were 30" x 8' and 36" x 4'. They weren't very stable and they cluttered up quickly with benchtop tools and my current projects. Then the cars fit so tight, it just didn't seem worth the hassle. It's time to reevaluate.

I love my house. We saved for many many years to be able to buy it. It's nothing outsiders would be impressed with, but it's got everything my family needs. The lack of an ideal workshop space is my only complaint, so rather than spend my time dreaming of moving out of a house that's already a great fit for me, I need to renovate and make the best of a GOOD situation.

I've got too much stuff to keep parking 2 cars and I've promised my wife she won't lose her spot. That means I've got about a 24' x 11' space to work with, but only about 20' of wall space. Thankfully I'm also stealing the wall space on my wife's side of the garage to keep my lumber rack. I guess I'll need to make the best use of space that I can. The before pictures will be added in the next blog, but here is the plan for now.

I've got 1 circuit in the garage. Its 20 amps, but my dust collector (DC) and benchtop planer each draw 15 each. I also got a 15 yr old beat up 8" jointer that I'd like to set up to run on 220 and who knows, maybe one day I'll get a real table saw (TS). I think I want to add a couple 20 amp circuits to what I've got and a 220 (maybe two - I need to research the feasability).

I've got 1/3 of the garage sheetrocked and insulated. The rest needs to be done since it gets really hot in summer and pretty cold in winter. This impacts the temperature in the room above the garage too though, so this needs to be done anyway. Insulating the garage door is going to be the real challenge though. I haven't liked the kits I've seen, so I'm going to try and come up with something of my own.

The last thing I'll need to do is recreate my workspace/storage area to be more efficient and pleasant to work in. I'm going to steal Todd Clippinger's sheet goods storage idea seen here. This will essentially be one side of the cabinets that I plan to build along my wall.

Unfortunately, this means the blog i did on my sheet goods storage was a waste of time.
http://lumberjocks.com/HokieMojo/blog/10536

It just takes up too much space. I still like many aspects of it, but my original plan was to move it into my wifes parking spot whenever I was going to work. then move it back to my side when I'm done. That meant full setup and breakdown time for every work session. 1 hr setup, 1 hr work, 1 hr cleanup didn't motivate me to work very often. I doubt anyone will read this whole blog, but hopefully people will see the subsequent entries (with pictures) and enjoy it.
 
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#2 ·
Before Pictures

In my first blog post of the series, I discussed some considerations for my garage. It didn't get a huge response, so this time, I'm posting PICTURES BELOW (-: My garage shop renovation has been underway for a couple months with me working every other weekend when time permitted. I've been trying to take occasional photos, but haven't really had a lot of time to keep up with a blog. Here is my retroactive attempt to get things up to speed. But first, here is my to do list:

To Do (bold items are complete as of this blog posting):

1) Clean up and trash unused items/unusable scrap
2) Consolidate everything in the center of the garage
3) Rough in wiring and electrical
4) Get a sub-panel installed
5) Fiberglass insulation
6) Drywall and Mudding
7) Repeat step One
8) Prime (and maybe paint)
9) Install Fire Extinguisher
10) Add T8 light fixtures
11) Reattach hanging items that will be reused
12) Build a more substantial wall mounted lumber rack
13) Complete and re-purpose my mobile lumber rack/sheet goods storage
14) Take a hiatus from woodworking to hang out with the family
15) Build some small projects for gifts
16) Build shop cabinets, router table, workbench, miter station, etc.

That's quite a list, but I've already done a lot. I'll show that in future blog posts. For now, here are some BEFORE pictures. Unfortunately, these were taken when my wife and I were looking to buy our house about 6 years ago. I wasn't woodworking until two years later and all I saw the garage for was a place to fit 2 cars. As such, I didn't take a lot of pictures.

This is from the garage door looking in. You can see a door that is a small closet. It's useful for a bit of storage but doesn't have a light so I don't care much for rummaging around in there. I worry what I'll find in the dark enclosed space.


Here is the furnace/hot water heater. Nothing exciting, but in the photo you can almost see the closet I mentioned. This is also one of the one and a half walls that are already drywalled (and I assume insulated)


And here is a shot from the back of the garage looking toward the door. You can see some nice big shelves above the door. These seem nice, but I question how much weight they can hold. I know they each supported 200 lbs when I was putting in the insulation/sheetrock but I won't be putting much heavy stuff up there since i don't want it coming down on my car, no matter how little value it has. These shelves will also provide some real headaches for me when I try to drywall around the support brackets in future blog posts.


If you want a few more pictures, you can catch glimpses on another of my lumberjocks blogs by looking in the background of the photos. Basically, it is an unfinished garage. Nothing special. Hope you check out my future posts. More should be following in the next few days.
 
#16 ·
Wiring is mostly complete!

DISCLAIMER:
I did all my work with the wiring while it was not hooked up to any power sources. One I got to that point, I stopped and let a pro review my work, fix my mistakes and do any of the dangerous work like hooking it up to power. Mistakes might be in this blog, so don't take this as a how to. I'm just documenting my understanding of the process so you can see the progress. Consult with a professional to do any of your own work!

To Do (bold items are complete as of this blog posting):

1) Clean up and trash unused items/unusable scrap
2) Consolidate everything in the center of the garage
3) Rough in wiring and electrical
4) Get a sub-panel installed
5) Fiberglass insulation
6) Drywall and Mudding
7) Repeat step One
8) Prime (and maybe paint)
9) Install Fire Extinguisher
10) Add T8 light fixtures
11) Reattach hanging items that will be reused
12) Build a more substantial wall mounted lumber rack
13) Complete and re-purpose my mobile lumber rack/sheet goods storage
14) Take a hiatus from woodworking to hang out with the family
15) Build some small projects for gifts
16) Build shop cabinets, router table, workbench, miter station, etc.

I'll start off by saying I lost some photos, but I still have some good pictures to show you in this post. Just bear with me.

Also, I'd like to extend a special thanks to Alexander for his help getting me educated on the purchases I was about to make. It is a huge help when you know what you are talking about when speaking to the pros. They might not know woodworking so communicating your needs (and knowing what those are) is important. Thanks!

I moved all my stuff to the center of the garage. It gave me a whopping 3-4 ft of space all around the edg of the garage to install wiring. The flaw with this plan was that I learned on the job that I needed a lot more tools than I originally thought. Those tools were inevitably buried in the center most portion of the pile. Ahh, the fun.

As you might have seen in my last blog, the electrical box is in the back left corner of the garage. I needed add outlets to the front left corner, back up and over the garage door to the front right corner, and another pair of outlets to the middle right wall. At the middle right wall, there will also be a 240volt outlet to power my jointer and maybe a tablesaw in the future. Here is what the outlets each look like:
240 volt:


120 volt - This was the hardest part of the entire job. It was almost IMPOSSIBLE to get these THICK wires tucked back into the box. Just a warning in case anyone wants to use 10 gauge wire. If I were an electrician, I'd charge double for this.:


In total I'll have three circuits at each corner of my workspace:


For each of these outlets, I used 10/3 wire. That is some really tough stuff to run. It might not be to bad to run it in a straight line, but when you need to zig zag around an I beam, the occasional exterior sheathing nail that is buried in the 2×4's, or shelving supports, it does make it a lot tougher to pull the wire. I did go with the heavier gauge because of the length of the run, the capacity to run large tools, and the ability to use it for my 240v outlet.

Here is a comparison of 14/2 (white) wire and 10/3 (orange). It probably doesn't look like much, but it makes a HUGE difference when trying to feed the wire:


After doing the rough wiring, it was time to get the sub-panel in. This was a job for someone who knew what they were doing, but I did know what I wanted. I went with a 100 amp sub panel. It is fed by 2/2/2/4 wire. I order the material and asked for a 6 foot length so that it would reach from adjacent spaces in the wall. Thankfully they actually gave me about 9 feet because I used almost all of it.

Here is a photo of the new box being installed:


If you are curious about the difference between 10/3 and the 2/2/2/4 (insulated sheathing was removed. The wire is actually all four wires in one), here is a photo. The wire is literally solid copper a little thicker than a garden hose!


The remaining things to be done are to add four 4-bulb T8 light fixtures. I'm going to do this by running conduit along the ceiling and calling a pro back. I will be getting a new heating/air handler system for the house so I'll keep the blower and build an air filtration box (I think this will require a 240 circuit). I want to add another 240 volt circuit in case I ever get any more big tools (I'm planning ahead by about 30 yrs) Finally (unrelated to shop use) we want to get a chest freezer so I'm going to need to add one more outlet for that. I need to get a pro back out here soon! (-:
 
#24 ·
Almost back to where I began - new photos

Sometimes, to go forward, you need to take a few steps back. The last couple entries documented the steps backward; removing fixtures from walls, piling everything in the center of the garage so I could work around the edges, losing my tools in the mess, etc. In this post I start to put things back together. Here is my updated to do list:

To Do (bold items are complete as of this blog posting):

1) Clean up and trash unused items/unusable scrap
2) Consolidate everything in the center of the garage
3) Rough in wiring and electrical
4) Get a sub-panel installed
5) Fiberglass insulation
6) Drywall and Mudding
7) Repeat step One
8) Prime (and maybe paint)
9) Install Fire Extinguisher

10) Add T8 light fixtures
11) Reattach hanging items that will be reused
12) Build a more substantial wall mounted lumber rack
13) Complete and re-purpose my mobile lumber rack/sheet goods storage
14) Take a hiatus from woodworking to hang out with the family
15) Build some small projects for gifts
16) Build shop cabinets, router table, workbench, miter station, etc.

This means I've added my insulation, put up drywall, did some basic clean-up and got my fire extinguisher in place. I didn't take photos of the insulation install. I really wish I did. IT would have been like having an X-ray of my walls available to me. Of all the steps to skip, this is the worst one, but I'm not about to remove anything to take pictures. I will explain what I did though.

1/3 of my walls were already insulated and dry-walled as well as the ceiling. These were the sections that shared a wall with the living space of my home. It was nice to not have to do these areas. In the spots that did need insulation, I used R13 fiberglass batts. The main problem with this is that I have 9 ft cavities to fill but the batts are 8 foot lengths. Also, MANY of the studs are less than 16 inches apart. Thsi meant LOTS of cutting. I borrowed my dads staple hammer though and got insulation in in about a day. Special thanks to my friend Randy who came over and was a HUGE help. What a generous fellow. Here is one bit of insulation I did get a shot of. I tried putting "great stuff" expanding foam around my door. I made a mess. Just a warning to others. Be careful. There really is no way to clean it once it cures.


After this, I put up drywall. No pictures of the bare drywall, but I've got some after painting it (I just used primer). Here is a shot of the some outlets. As you can see, I had some trouble cutting the hole for the outlet on the left. Any tips for this?


Here are a few more outlets, including the 240V:


Here is the steal beam that spans my garage ceiling. Cutting around this was a bit tricky. I didn't do a great job, mostly because I had to wiggle the piece into place and damaged it a bit. while the dry-walled section of the walls are 9 ft tall, they rest on cinder-block walls that are another 2 1/2 feet high so I was trying to get this almost full sheet of drywall in place while on a ladder with no one else to hold it while I tried to screw it in place. I did it, but I'm sure the pros (and amateurs) out there would have had a laugh watching me try and do it.


Here is a nice feature that came with my house. Some big shelves that hang above the car bays. While they are pretty nice to have for light but bulky storage, they did make my work a bit more challenging. I basically had 14 sheets of drywall to cover my open spaces. Not bad, but after cutting them to the sizes I needed, I had used about 30 pieces total. In other words, I only installed 2 full size sheets of drywall on the whole project, and both of those had cutouts for outlets. I was pretty efficient though. Aside from one piece left to be installed near my electric panels (after I get some HVAC repair work done) I'll have about 3/4 of a sheet of drywall left over as scrap, even when I include all my tiny scrap pieces.

.


Here is a shot of how I did mudding/taping and a comparison shot of how the pros did when the house was built. Can you tell which was by the pros? They each have 2 coats of primer. I'm not saying I'm as good as the pros, but they did the bare minimum in the garage and it was functional and not ugly, so that is what I went for. Not trying to spend a week sanding and doing 3 coats.

.


And here is the fire extinguisher


I've made good progress. Next I'll post some pictures of the lumber storage solution I've been implementing. It is slow going for now though. I'm really getting burned out from this project because even though I don't have many tools, I'm still having trouble coming up with good storage solutions for everything. I want to put more stuff on my walls, but I seriously worry about putting too much weight on them. I also do need to let my wife keep a spot in there. I made a promise and I do intend to keep it. Stay tuned. I'll have something new in the near future!
 
#29 ·
Some needed storage - with pictures

First things first, my updated to do list:

To Do (bold items are complete as of this blog posting):

1) Clean up and trash unused items/unusable scrap
2) Consolidate everything in the center of the garage
3) Rough in wiring and electrical
4) Get a sub-panel installed
5) Fiberglass insulation
6) Drywall and Mudding
7) Repeat step One
8) Prime (and maybe paint)
9) Install Fire Extinguisher

10) Add T8 light fixtures
11) Reattach hanging items that will be reused
12) Build a more substantial wall mounted lumber rack

13) Complete and re-purpose my mobile lumber rack/sheet goods storage
14) Take a hiatus from woodworking to hang out with the family
15) Build some small projects for gifts
16) Build shop cabinets, router table, workbench, miter station, etc.

I had to temporarily skip step 10. I'm trying to save a little money at the moment and installing light fixtures will be the most expensive part of the renovation. My original budget says it will take about 25% of my total budget but my latest estimate says it will go up to 40% (although with savings elsewhere, I should be able to keep the total budget the same).

I was able to do some work to get a few items off the ground and out of the way. This involved hanging my car ramps, creeper, and jacks on the wall. I also want to hang my ladders on the wall too, but haven't come up with a good way to do this yet. I want them up and out of the way, but still accessible. Any ideas?

I also hung up my old Triton lumber rack. I had this thing so weighed down before, I had to have been close to the weight limit. That made me nervous, so I am using it to store shorter boards and it is in a more out of the way space. Less weight means I don't need to worry about a collapse. Here is a photo with about 1/3 what I used to have on it.


you can see what I mean when I say it is up a little higher


A while ago, ~Julie~ posted a lumber rack project that looked as if it would suit my needs quite well. Here is a link to her project that I used for inspiration. Thanks Julie!



I'm not sure if I built it the same way she did, but it seems to be holding up so far. Here are some pictures of my version.









I'm not sure if I'm going to continue blogging this. I really wanted to thank a couple people that helped me with the earlier steps and I've done that now. Otherwise, I feel like I'm just posting the same things posted by others before me. It just doesn't seem to interest all that many people. Maybe I'll just do one "final" post when/if I get to that point. Maybe I'll be re-invigorated in the future, but that is the plan for now.
 
#30 ·
Keep on posting Hokie! seems like in todays economy people are reserving their comments for better times ;) but I'm sure many are interested to see how things progress.

I personally lost track of your posting for some reason and missed the last 2 postings which I actually found very interesting (electrical esp.)

it may be too late - although , I thinkg it may NOT bee to late- but as far as the lumber rack - I'd opt for a moveable shelf setup that you can change the heights on those brackets if you need to. Then again, I'm not really sure if those need to be moved much - if ever :)

Looking forward to the next installment.

FYI. I usually blog for my own benefit so that I can later go through it and see how I progressed through some projects like a movie/story :)
 
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