# Garage Makeover



## GT11

Well guys, it is time for a new project! If you followed my lake house addition from a few years ago, I sold the silver Porsche and replaced it with a nice new one last week. After parking it in my garage in Spring, I realized the garage let the car down.

Here is the before picture. I already upgraded the lighting, removed the base board and leveled the floor. The real work starts this weekend and I hope to be finished by 12/31. I added the cabinets when I bought the house in 2009.

We recently had flooring replaced in the house and had left over materials. Instead of throwing the stuff away, I plan to use it in the garage. My scope of work is:

Install additional light (done)
Install tile floor
New base boards
Paint the walls
Add graphics to the walls

The garage is a little over 200 sq ft and I will lay the tile myself. It will be my first time laying tile over just a few sq ft here and there.


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## GT11

Got a decent amount of the floor done, close to half. The thin set isn't hitting the 70 sq ft like the spec sheet said; I am only getting 50 sq ft/bag so I will have to pick up another bag. After being on my knees all day, it feels like I was hit by a truck!

Will hit it hard again today.


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## fishingcacher

Are you planning on parking the Porsche on the ceramic tiles?


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## fishinfool

i highly recommend a set of knee pads when you go get that last bag of thin set. well worth it....


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## GT11

I have a set of knee pads and my knees still hurt!

Yes, the Porsche will park in the tiles. If I have the correct contact between the tile/thin set and floor, it will be fine.


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## GT11

It doesn't look like much progress was made but there was a lot of stuff done that didn't involve laying tile. First, I cleaned all the thin set from between the tiles, then cut all the pieces for both sides, 60 cuts total. I also filled in the top of the center section. You can begin to see how the floor will look; wood look top, sides and bottom with a stone center section. Since most of this tile was left over from other projects, the floor will cost me roughly $1/sq ft.


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## GT11

Fishingcacher's comment was probably along the lines of, do you plan to park on the tiles and won't they crack?....all my neighbors and friends asked the same question. The short answer is no, with the caveat that they won't if I install the tiles correctly...

What I usually don't include in these projects is the research that goes in to a lot of what I do. First, my undergrad degree is in Engineering so I take a technical approach to this stuff. Now for some math; the Porsche weighs 2988 pounds and the tires are 11" wide and have roughly 7" of contact area front to back for each tire. I know that weight isn't exactly evenly distributed but this will be close enough, so roughly 77 sq inches of contact per tire. 2988/4 = 747 pounds/tire/77 sq inches = 9.7 pounds per sq inch.

Now for a comparison, we have a couch that weighs roughly 200 pounds and has four legs with a round contact area that is less than a square inch per leg but we will say it is a square inch. 200/4 = 50 pounds per square inch per leg. When my wife and I sit on this couch the total weight now becomes 200+225+135 = 560/4 = 140 pounds per leg and 140 pounds per square inch. The couch is exerting over 14x the weight per unit area than the car and sits on the same tiles that I am putting in the garage.

Now the research part. As I was looking at floors, I looked at the snap together plastic tiles, mats, epoxy and others. Most came in around $4/sq ft. Since I had a lot of left over tile, I researched tile as a flooring material in garages and found that many shops and car dealers have tile floors and they don't have a problem.

The final piece of the puzzle was knowing how to practically do the work and knowing the technical side of it. Any time I have work done, I always ask the tradesman a ton of question and learn the technique. For this project, I also looked up the ASTM spec for tile installation. It gave me guidance on trowel notch size, contact coverage, back buttering and bearing capacities.

If you are still awake and have made it to this point, you probably see why I don't include this stuff in my builds but with some calculations and some research, I usually know the project will be a success before I start it.


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## manwitaplan

Keep up the good work!


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## GT11

Thanks Manwitaplan.

I decided to put in a little time on the garage last night. I am getting faster with the tile and after running through 25 pounds of thin set, I still had energy to do another 25 pounds. I worked until about 9:30 on the floor. I think I will take it easy tonight, however. From being on my knees and putting weight on my left hand, I have numbness in my fingers...I must have compressed a nerve...getting old it rough! Tonight I think I will make the remaining cuts but not lay the tile. Sorry for the bad picture, I had already closed everything it before taking it.


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## Hooked

Looking really nice GT. Like the way you're arranging the tile. I think the new Porsche will like it's new home.


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## GT11

I have been out of town for a few days and got back last night. I am trying to let my hand (and body rest), so I didn't lay tile. I did grout the front half of the darker tile however.

This weekend I will work on the tile again and possibly start painting. I will also have the garage door lift and rails raised.


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## GT11

Every project hits a major milestone that let's you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today I finished laying the tile and it is 75 percent grouted. I am glad that is over.


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## BullyARed

Nice job!!!


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## GT11

Hooked and BullyARed, thanks for the comments. The tile came out nice, especially for my first time considering I picked large format tiles to install. It really makes me appreciate the job the guys did laying tile in the house. Last night I finished the grouting and tonight will cover the floor and start on the walls.

I am also looking for a garage door company to raise my tracks and mechanism...no one wants to mess with it. Does anyone have a suggestion in the Spring area? I may have to add that to my list of things to do if I can't find someone.


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## Hooked

May help to search TTMB for a garage door guy in your area. I found a really good one in Alvin who travels to my area.


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## JDT4430

The floor looks great. The wood look tile looks like the same Daltile I used in my house. For the garage door if it has an electric opener and the only problem is the tracks are a bit to long you should be able to adjust the distance the door goes down with a twist of a button in the opener itself and just cut off the track were needed. If its a lot the top section may not come all the way around and make a good seal though.


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## GT11

JDT, I want to raise the rails 21", along with the opener. It is low and looks bad. I have 10' ceilings and the rails are at 7'6". The door doesn't hit the tiles. I will post a picture to show what I am talking about.


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## GT11

The Germans are great engineers but like most engineers, they aren't very artistic. Take their colors; black, red and yellow. You can buy tape with the three colors but as an engineer, I even think that looks bad. I think they hire someone from Italy to help with the Cayman design because I think we would have a box otherwise.

Tonight I started adding color to the walls. The lower side walls will be gray; a nice German industrial gray. One upper side wall will be white and the other red. Tonight I spent a little time and got the gray portion done.

I am also thinking of moving that storage rack to the other garage.


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## BobBobber

10+ years ago, I installed underlayment and laminated flooring in kitchen and family room. Like, you, the knees paid the price. I also learned to alternate between sitting on one hip, kneeling on a feather pillow, lay on my stomach and do it flat out on the floor. Tile requires more knee time than laminate. And there are no knee pads that will do the job.

If not too late, hire a flooring guy to do it. Believe me, it's worth it.

After finishing the two floors in laminate, I hired out the carpeting and bathroom linoleum. Had to watch the flooring workmen closely. I think the knee pains must take a toll on their brains, because they seemed more unskilled and more cranky than any craftpersons I ever knew.

*HOWEVER:* So as not to ruffle anybody's feathers, I'm sure that there are three guys in Texas who are experts, and 2cooler members.


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## GT11

BobBobber, I figured it would be hard to find someone to do the floor job with all the Harvey work going on and it is always tough to find someone to do a small job. So in the interest of having a project for the DIY crowd, I did it my self. I will tell you this; it was a painful experience! Hopefully that is my first and last floor to install!!!


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## GT11

*Red is a pain!*

The gray and white went on without a problem, the red, not so much. It looked terrible after the first coat and I had to second coat it. It looks much better this morning but I may have to do a third coat. Sorry about the bad picture but I was up late second coating this thing.


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## GT11

*This year end really snuck up on me*

I usually take the last two weeks of the year off but didn't realize that was next week until after I booked a couple of days of travel so I decided to take today and tomorrow off.

I got some stuff done including a third coat of red. I spent an hour or so trying to find joist in the other garage to move the storage rack and could only get three supports at a time in the right position. I will have to buy some angle iron to bridge across two joist for one of the supports so I put that on the back burner for now. I also bought the base boards and will pick up my saw and nail gun this weekend to get that installed.


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## GT11

*Mid Day Report*

I installed the letters on the wall and did some clean up. I have to paint the ceiling and the wall with the garage door on it, then do some touch up. I painted the electrical panel satin white to blend in a little better. Sunday or Monday I will install the base boards and be close to finished.


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## GT11

*Cost*

So let's talk about cost. If I would have bought the snap together tiles or had someone do epoxy, the going rates were $4 - $6 per foot. The garage is 22' x 10' or 220 square feet. Therefore the flooring alone would have cost $880 - $1320. Since I had a lot of the tile, I have $406.73 in the floor or $1.84/sq ft. You don't realize how expensive stuff like grout, thin set, spacers, etc really are until you start buying that stuff. Plus, I had to buy some tile. Under $2/sq ft isn't bad but it was a lot of work.

The paint and baseboard & supplies were somewhat expensive too. If I were doing a house, I would go to one of the home building supply stores and not a big box store but since this was a small project, I went to Lowes which is a mile from the house. Total here was $325.12.

The last part of the makeover is the graphics (I am still waiting on one more) and they were $200, so:

Flooring: $406.73
Paint & BB: $325.12
Graphics: $200.00
Total: $931.85 or 4.23/sq ft

Not bad considering what it could have cost. If I would have paid someone to do it, it would probably be 3x that cost.


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## Hayniedude24

Nice and you've literally inspired me checking out this thread the last few weeks. To do the floor only anyway. I went to Sherwin Williams yesterday and bought a kit that's just the paint, flake and grit for $80 (it says for up to 250 SqFt), another $40 for the sealer for 300 SqFt. Tomorrow I'm gonna bust out the degreaser and wash bucket and do a corner of the garage. If it turns out good it's on for the rest. It's a lot cheaper than I thought so I was pleasantly surprised as I've been holding off because I thought it'd be a lot more per SqFt even doing it myself.


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## GT11

Texashookset, was that the one with the two part epoxy or just the single part coating? If it is the one part, I have used it before and it will peal up over time. If it is the two part, you should be good if you prep the surface well. I know they say the degreaser is good enough, but you may also want to look at an acid etch to really get the correct surface profile to make it stick.


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## Hayniedude24

Man to late for to etch and it's the one piece with the epoxy. I got done what that one kit would do (7-1 today) so I'm gonna need a full day and a half to do the rest later this week. I sure hope it holds as my garage was pretty bad being a twenty year old house but I did spend a lot of time first with the kit degreaser and Zep Purple. Pic from my wife (posted just to see how bad the floors are and that was after degreasing/cleaning) because she can't believe I'm tacking this easy for most projects because I really don't like projects when it comes to the house.


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## Hayniedude24

I still have to seal it but will when the whole garage is done. Next will be painting and putting a shoe on the garage walls. I didn't realize how worn everything was til I got all the stuff on the floor moved away from the walls. Thanks for nothing. Lol


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## GT11

Definitely looks better! The one part I used didn't have a sealer so hopefully the sealer helps it hold up better.


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## BretE

Ok, y'all inspired me. Hung some old mounts in the corner of the barn. Gonna finish out about 1/4 of the barn with a TV, fridge, etc.....baby steps, got plenty of time....


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## GT11

Right on! Life is too short to have a bad man area!!!!


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## GT11

Finally got to something I enjoy doing, wood working, or at least trim installation. I like it because it is easy, fast and I know the end is near. I also uncovered the completed floor for the first time.


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## Hayniedude24

Dang nice for sure.


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## GT11

Baseboards are cut in and the overhead rack has been moved to the other garage. Moving it was a lot easier than I thought. Next I will paint the ceiling and raise the garage door mechanism.


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## Hooked

Very nice GT. Quite a transformation...........fitting for the new baby.


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## misbhavn

Well, I knew from the title of this thread that it was just going to **** me off! This makes me want to burn my garage down! 

Great job on the finishes. Coming from someone whose father owned a flooring business growing up, I can appreciate the work that went into the tile.


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## Hayniedude24

^^^ burn my garage down... Lmao.. Funny stuff.


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## RLwhaler

GT11 said:


> Finally got to something I enjoy doing, wood working, or at least trim installation. I like it because it is easy, fast and I know the end is near. I also uncovered the completed floor for the first time.


Super Nice! :cheers:


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## GT11

Thanks for the comments, guys. I just flew in from Midland and thought I would work a little on the ceiling tonight or that was my thinking at noon today. After getting up at 4 am, flying over and getting home at 8 pm, I think I am done for the day. The thin set and grout has set up for a week so this weekend we should have a picture of the car in the garage!


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## Hayniedude24

Well I'm gonna jump on it tomorrow too since this rain and humidity has finally stopped since Sunday. Have 800 SF to go but I got everything moved out onto the carport so ready to degrease and get after it. My little girl is out of school for Christmas as of today so she and my wife have a game plan of small brushing all the edges, floor with last coat of grit and seal it all in one day. There's no way I could one day it without their help so hopefully I'll be enjoying some cold ones going down the stretch by dark.


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## GT11

*Baby has a new home!*

Time to relax! I am still waiting on the graphics for the left side and the quote to move the door up but everything else is done. This is a working garage so the back counter is still set up for my electronics repair. A few notes:

I now have a transition to go from the concrete to the tile. I grouted the slope to make it match and I put spacers behind the Porsche sign to give it a 3D effect and the center of the travertine is granite. Enjoy!


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## Hayniedude24

Hell yea!


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## Hayniedude24

Mighty fine bud. I'm assuming that old hoopty you got in there doesn't leak oil to bad? 

Lol


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## GT11

I sealed the tile just in case!


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## Hayniedude24

:cheers::biggrin:


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## Hooked

Outstanding!!!! 
You must be working on some rather large electronic equipment judging from that wrench.


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## GT11

That wrench is actually made of wood. It is a pattern for a sand casting and I thought it would be a nice collectable for the garage.


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## GT11

*The wife is enabling the insanity!*

I found a company to convert my garage door rails to a high lift so that will happen soon. Christmas also brought a new piece of "furniture" to the garage, compliments of my wife!!


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## GT11

*I am finished!*

As of last night, the project is 100% complete! The garage door tracks were moved up and really opens the room. I had a little scope creep but it was with stuff that I had so it didn't add to the project total. My other graphics came in but were smaller than expected so I didn't install them. At some point I will add something to break up the red wall.

I added a bluetooth speak to the room (last picture) and a TV over the work bench...that way I can watch repair videos while I am doing repairs.

Looking at my picture labels, I worked 14 days on the garage. Some were full days but some were just a few hours...glad that project is over, now its time to enjoy it!


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## GT11

A couple with the new graphics in place....


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## Hooked

Nice touch.


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## GT11

Hooked said:


> Nice touch.


Thanks!


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## al_carl

GT11 said:


> I know that weight isn't exactly evenly distributed but this will be close enough, so roughly 77 sq inches of contact per tire. 2988/4 = 747 pounds/tire/77 sq inches = 9.7 pounds per sq inch.


Wouldn't it be easier to just stick a pressure gauge on the tire? 

Nice garage...nicer car! Thanks for sharing.


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## al_carl

Texashookset said:


> Man to late for to etch and it's the one piece with the epoxy. I got done what that one kit would do (7-1 today) so I'm gonna need a full day and a half to do the rest later this week. I sure hope it holds as my garage was pretty bad being a twenty year old house but I did spend a lot of time first with the kit degreaser and Zep Purple. Pic from my wife (posted just to see how bad the floors are and that was after degreasing/cleaning) because she can't believe I'm tacking this easy for most projects because I really don't like projects when it comes to the house.
> 
> View attachment 4019057


I didn't degrease (house was almost brand new) but I did etch and got 12 years out of that epoxy. It's just now starting to come up, mainly where the wife parks her car.


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