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Garage Upgrades

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Rebound, Aug 16, 2021.

  1. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    I've been working on my new garage.
    I painted it blue and white.
    Next, I had an epoxy-coated floor installed. It has a 15 year warranty. It's more comfortable and cleaner when working under a car. Fluids clean up easily, and it looks great. Everyone who sees it loves it. This was a big project and it was too much DiY for me, so I hired a local company.
    Then, I bought a gigantic set of cabinets and installed them. It turns out, garage floors are designed to slope towards the door, so I had to level the two tall cabinets carefully so that the workbench and cabinets which join them would be perfectly flat.. and they are. I also had to take care than when the cabinet door closest to the garage door was fully open, it wouldn't hit the garage door. It's all within an inch or two, but never touches.
    I ran a new power outlet. This was easy; there was an outlet on the other side wall, so I just needed to punch a hole in the wall and run a little bit of Romex from there into a new outlet box. But now I have my battery chargers inside one of the cabinets and I just pop the battery out of my power tools and charge them right up.
    I installed LED lighting in the garage and also inside the cabinets, and I replaced the old, loud garage opener with a belt-driven Chamberlain unit. This has all the programming features. My phone reminds me if the door has been open too long, and I can check its status from anywhere and close it remotely. Amazon can open the door to drop off deliveries.
    I like this garage a lot.

    New Floor and Storage.jpg Storage doors open.jpg Second cabinet.jpg Cabinet with lighting.jpg
     
    #1 Rebound, Aug 16, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2021
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  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Nice. How much did this set you back?
     
  3. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    For heaven's sakes, if I kept count, I wouldn't have done it.
    There are a lot of vendors of those cabinets. I chose the "heavy duty" version, not standard. The cost depends upon how many cabinets you install, and that in turn depends on how big your garage is.

    The garage opener was about $200. Totally worth it. I probably paid about $100 or $200 for paint, and about $150 for the lighting. I like bright lights when I'm working on cars. Luckily, there's a shed out back for the gardening tools, so I don't need that stuff in my garage. It's a two-car garage that will very barely hold two cars... so for me, it's a very roomy one-car garage. Chamberlain.jpg

    Here's a photo with the Chamberlain door opener. It was very easy to install. It has lighting which automatically comes on when I open the garage door or from motion. I put LED bulbs in but I also have very bright LED fixtures overhead when I want to work. Here in Oregon, we get gray skies for a lot of the year, so bright lighting is a must for your sanity.

    You can also see I removed one of the dividers over the windows in the garage, but now I have them all removed. Don't tell my HOA.
     
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  4. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    I know people pay $10k-$50k for the floors, lights, cabinets and refinished walls.
     
  5. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Good heavens, it wasn't close to $10,000. The floor and big cabinet were the only large expenses. I already had drywall up, so that was all DiY.
     
  6. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    It would be nice to have that epoxy floor and a heat pump in the garage.
     
    #6 rjparker, Aug 16, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2021
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Wow! What’s not to like? Well done!
    I would love to do my floor. Does the epoxy work on 70 year old concrete complete with 70 year old petroleum stains?
     
  8. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    There are concrete stain removers when used on a 70 year old stain would at least make the surface bondable. Pretty sure you do the initial cleaning then a primer. I use a product called Pour and Restore on fresh stains or a less expensive version below:

     
  9. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    It took two professionals a full day to do this.
    They begin by using a 600 pound, diamond-bladed grinder to grind the concrete down to a completely fresh, porous surface. Vacuum. Then they grind out all cracks and fill them. Wait to dry, then grind that flush. Vacuum. Only after hours of meticulous prep are they ready for the first of three or four applications.

    Is it worth it? I think so. But it’s not cheap.

    If you do it yourself, you can rent these grinders from Home Depot, but you need to be that thorough and you need to know about the curing times and stuff. A LOT of DIY’ers on YouTube have had these floors peel up after a year because the floor beneath wasn’t prepped correctly. You can’t cut corners on it.

    I shot a time lapse of the installation.

     
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  10. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    For heaven's sakes. Not sure why costs have to be a secret. They are important when you are considering upgrades. Homeadvisor says the range for an epoxy floor is $3 to $12 sqft.

    "Homeowners pay an average of $2,228 to coat an existing concrete floor. Total project costs typically range between $1,449 and $3,011. Materials and equipment alone will cost you $2 to $5 per square foot. Expect to pay a pro another $1 to $7 per square foot for labor."
     
  11. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    Fantastic work Rebound. I would love to have a high four figure budget to fix up the garage for my passion but my better half would never allow it. Maybe some day when we are empty nesters. Meanwhile, I'll have to live vicariously through meet ups and experience other people's setups. :unsure: who knows when we can safely do that again.
     
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  12. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Because I don't feel comfortable with questions like that. I'm happy to share my garage but I don't talk to people about how much salary I earn, what I pay for my cars, and so forth. Some people make more, others make less, and I want to associate with people here based on our common Prius ownership, not on our common incomes or wealth levels. I wish you could respect that.
     
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  13. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    I looked at every flooring option and this seemed to be the only good option. Take a look at the floor installation video... it's a LOT of work and if you don't know how to do it properly, you get the joy of doing it twice.
    There are various floor coverings, like rubber tiles, etc., but they can still get expensive and they aren't nearly as durable. The Rust-oleum coating kits don't seem to work very well. So you could paint it; I think that's the easiest bet for a low-cost solution.
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I'm beyond jealous...

    upload_2021-8-17_9-43-52.png
    That bottom shelf looks a pretty penny. Also, top shelf, is that a Moroso Air-Oil Separator box I see? Oh, and the CTEK charger, check. The thing to the right of it looks "interesting"...
     
  15. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    I do like those shelves... Did you notice the LED lighting inside that cabinet?

    I bought an oil catch can and that Moroso bracket, but the bracket is too large for the can, so it's sitting there until I need it for who-knows-what.

    Speaking of shelves... if you look at the first photo, there are two shelves and a drawer. Then, there are three shelves. What happened was that one of the tall cabinet doors arrived with a small dent. I nicely asked them to ship me a new door. They didn't have any in stock so they agreed to my request for two additional shelves. (What's that? You can't see the dent? Exactly... It's there, but it's not a big deal).
     
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  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    that was an amazing video, i wouldn't even attempt a diy.

    my floor is also wet in wt/humid weather, and puddles in the back.
     
  17. PtPri

    PtPri Junior Member

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    That's a very well kitted garage! :rolleyes:

    Those epoxy floors are the schitz! (y)(y)
     
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  18. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Technically… the installer said it’s something better than epoxy, called polyurea. I’m not a chemist, so I don’t know if it’s better or not. I sure hope they didn’t coat my garage in urine!
     
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  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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