Garages

Yes, it's a big weight off my mind - I didn't want to install a big solar panel array on the roof, associated plumbing and batteries, then come home to find someone had been up on the roof and pinched everything. And be unable to get my car in/bike out, because no power.

Order times for Hormann doors are currently 30+ weeks, so looking at Ryterna, but with a Hormann operator. Lead time 8 weeks for those.

The chap came out to measure up for a final time before placing the order- the side hung doors for the workshop come in a steel frame which you don’t want to get wrong, dimensionally.

Discussion currently is how tall we make the doors- originally they were around 8’, which makes for very large doors.

The floor in the garage is concrete covered in a dense layer of compacted shit- thinking of hiring a concrete scrabbler to take off the top layer. Is there a way of doing this whilst guaranteeing that the floor you create is flat?

I’ll resin seal it afterwards which may level it a little, but if the base is flat then that makes things more straightforward I imagine.

Is there a way of doing this whilst guaranteeing that the floor you create is flat?

Have a search in the DIY thread as iirc someone was looking at doing exactly that.

In terms of base/flooring have you read that epic pistonheads thread on garage flooring? If not might be worth a skim.

Use a laser level at the lowest point and keep going until there are no high spots

If not might be worth a skim

Garage update, I'm expecting the* builders on Monday morning, who will take down the brick pillar with the cracked bond due to sideways movement (sideways heave?) caused by the disparity in relative heights of the ground the garage is on and the property next to it.

They will assess and rectify what they find with regards to the slab/footings, and then reinstate the wall. They'll also create a door aperture between the two garages with a suitable lintel.

Finally, they'll render the brickwork and leave everything looking neat.

I've just agreed/placed the order for the doors, going with Ryterna due to 30 week (!) lead times for Hormann, but using a Hormann motor for the sectional door on garage 2. Garage 1 is having side hung doors which I'm thinking of splitting 2/3rds and 1/3rds of the aperture per door.

Each aperture is 2,560cm wide by 2,100cm high, so that would give one door of 1.7m width and one of .845m width, which is just a little over standard and I think would suit the workshop more than two doors of 1.25M width. I welcome opinions on this.

The doors are going to cost £5,700 all in - materials, labour and so forth. Looks like a 12 week lead time for them, and I'm told to expect that they'll be all of that.

In the meantime I can crack on with the floor, walls and ceiling.

Does anyone have any whitewash (product, application) recommendations?

*Alter to your suit your prejudices

Does anyone have any whitewash (product, application) recommendations?

Varathane falls under the same company as Zinsser so is bound to be good.

had a quick look at Matt’s garages today, he’s done a lovely job of clearing the roof but definitely ‘a project’.
the other garage i had a good look at (belonging to a flat for sale) was absolutely fucked, door looked like it was once decent but years of neglect have taken their toll.

All the garages are, in the main, pretty shabby.

I’m somewhat worried that I will telegraph “something nice in here” by dint of putting on nice doors and so on- but with that said, thieves came directly to my shitty looking garage before Christmas so I’m probably over thinking that.

This is where we start from:

996 hiding in Garage 2 - this will be the storage garage as it's a straight shot from the entrance/driveway from the roundabout:

It used to have power - and will do again, but I doubt that I'll be re-using the existing wiring:

I think a chassis (or similar) has been hung from the roof previously:

The previous owner left me a load or racking:

You'll notice in that final picture in the previous post that the brickwork looks a bit sad - more on that to come (including resolution).

I've run power (temporarily) using the safest possible method:

Which is required as my battery is on 0%:

This render needs re-doing:

These aren't mine but I'll fix this drainpipe:

Because it's making the next door garage rot:

Anyway, this brickwork is buggered:

This door is having a doorway made for it, with a suitable lintel:

Mysterious pipes in the floor at the back:

More racking:

So much potential. I think you said before but I guess you're going for loads and loads of very understated/invisible security. Maybe a shabby paint job on the new doors?!

Goodness, that is a lot of racking. I wonder if those pipes were a sink?

Very small diameter pipes- I think gas when I look at them. Very odd.

ED-209 is the minimum level of acceptable security.

Compressed air?

Could be, no idea where it would be running to/from though. IIRC there was a regulator hanging on the end wall before the previous owner took it away.

My broken brickwork has been fixed - I'll pop out and get a photo.

Boom. I can no longer see daylight through the wall.

1 Attachment

Nice! got a pic from the inside?

Perhaps a coating of the famous Tynan's Anti-Theft paste, used to be a very popular product on the forum but think it's popularity waned when people discovered it wasn't vegan friendly?

Probably worth making allowance for an EV charger when you're getting the rewire done if the supply to the garage allows for it, bit of future proofing innit.

Floor has been jet washed, water runs off fairly large areas such is the level of oil impregnation.

This suggests that nothing will stick unless and until the floor is taken down to the underlying concrete slab.

Worth looking at (very) high pressure water blasting, or does this call for a concrete grinding machine?

Grinding. Concrete is porous and so that oil will have been drawn into and then blocked tiny pores that a jetwash wont reach

Ah, bugger. Hiring the kit looks to be ~£500/day.