Pain cave improvements

We have an old detached back garage that is used as workshop, gym, turbo room, garden shed and kids toys store.
It’s also the rabbits occasional play room.
It gets filthy and full of cobwebs, it’s very cluttered and doesn’t really have room to work on my massive bikes easily.

Initial thoughts are

• empty the whole thing for a long weekend and do a deep clean
  
• board the ceiling
  
• paint all the walls
  
• some sort of stick down flooring
  
• Kitchen type units to store stuff cleanly
  
• mini outdoor shed for dirty gardening tools
  
• Use insulation board and expanding foam to fill the gaps round the top of the wall where stuff gets in, but I worry about this making it damp?
  
• Put some sort of dirt catcher strip on the door
  
• Improve the lighting to LED panels or similar and add a couple more sockets. My neighbour is an electrician so that’s easy
  
• massive clear out via the tip
  
  
  

Anyone done similar and care to suggest any top tips?!
Hopefully I can at least get it clean enough to use my turbo out there and not find my bikes covered in cobwebs

4 Attachments

There are people more qualified than me to comment on the building work but yes a good clear out, ditch a load of unused/unwanted stuff or move it to another smaller shed and a good clean will go a long way before you even start re-boarding walls/ceiling etc.

looks like a fun project. I cleared my garage out last year and it's much more useable now

Did you do anything to improve the structure?

no, nothing. Structure is sound as it is an integral garage with a first floor above.

it has bare brick walls like yours but a plastered ceiling. I fitted a worktop and some old kitchen cabinets for storage, a bike rack for multiple bikes and ditched a load of junk that had been in there for years.

I also replaced the old school fluoro strip lights with new LED. Rather than replace and rewire I used these retrofit tubes which did the job

I also sold a few bikes to ease up the storage situation.

jobs still to do include painting another layer of white on the ceiling ~(its white but could be brighter to reflect more light) and getting a new permanent floor to cover the dusty concrete floor currently there.

Yeh floor is a big job for me too. Will you paint/ seal or go for stick down mats?
I found painted looked good but chipped too easily for a weights room so I think I’ll stick mats on the whole area, then it should be easy to sweep

I was wondering what was best. some kind of self-levelling floor but not sure i want to do it myself.

Don't think i will go for mats as i can see them getting untidy very quickly.

I've got some builder coming to do my drive soon, i may ask him what be suggests.

If you don't require oil/similar resistant flooring you can get foam tiles off ebay cheap. We got a load when child no1 was learning to walk. They can slip a bit, so I'd be tempted to spray a light coating of adhesive to make sure they stick.

Our shed and brick outhouse have vinyl installed by the previous owner. Although it's not the slickest look it's quite effective. And I assume was cheap. So in the first instance that's what I'd do instead of paint.

Also sorry if this sounds obvious, but it's not clear from your OP... It's dirty and full of cobwebs because you don't clean it like you do with your house.

Of course some surfaces may be easier to clean and others may catch a bit more dirt. But mainly its dirty because you're not cleaning it regularly not because of gaps.

I think vinyl would split with weights being dropped on it but I guess I could add a protected weights area

protected weights area

That would be my inclination. Surely you're going to have the weights in one area? I think a surface that is suitable for a workshop and will withstand weights being dropped will be quite expensive.