Upcycle Garage Project

A standard suburban two-car garage gets a modern but frugal makeover with some help from Kijiji and a few dumpster dives

Panorama photo of the finished result.

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

This project was the first one I did at my new home and was the one I was most eager to undertake. I was moving from a home with a cramped (for me) single car garage to one with a much larger 18′ x 20′ double garage, and when setting up this space from scratch I wanted a combination of form, functionality and of course some aesthetic appeal in this new bigger space, while having the flexibility to store normal garage-type stuff in an organized and accessible manner.

I spend quite a bit of time maintaining my small fleet of older street motorbikes, and I needed the space to be organized and well suited for all the maintenance and repair work. This was still a household garage, however, so it was important to make the best use of the 360 square foot space and to keep separate “zones” for the different storage and workspace needs. People seeing the work in progress often asked “Oh, you’re building a man cave?”…..umm, no. Man caves have sofas, TV’s and beer fridges. This is a garage, just a custom themed one that happens to have a nice floor and some added amenities. “Mancave” would be the basement project! 🙂

This work was done over the course of a few months and although not much of the material was sourced for free, quite a bit was procured in the used market at good prices. The general breakdown was about 65% of the materials purchased used, about 15% of the materials purchased new, and about 20% of the materials obtained free. A lot of the free material was the smaller stuff used for some of the details and finishing work, but these made a big difference to the function and appearance of the overall finished product.

This page shows the build process from start to finish and details how I designed the space, where I sourced the material, and some of the features I designed into the finished product.

PURCHASED USED:

• 4 Upper and 4 Lower cabinets with 12′ long countertop (Kijiji, $300)
• Bar sink and tap combo (Kijiji, $40)
• Epoxy floorkit (partial; Kijiji, $480)
• Hose reel (garage sale, $3)
• Most slatwall pegs and hardware (Kijiji, $10)
• Some art (garage sale, $8,)
• Aeroplane themed ceiling fan (Kijiji, $10)

BORROWED:

• Pex ring crimper tool
• Spiked shoes for the epoxy floor install

PURCHASED NEW:

• Fluorescent lights ($40, clearance sale)
• Two 4′ x 8′ MDF slatwalls ($80)
• Drywall mud ($20)
• Paint ($100, 3 for price of 2 sale)
• Floor primer ($40)
• Some art ($10)
• Plastic artwork frame kits (Walmart) ($20)
• 20′ Pex tubing ($20)
• Some ABS pipe and fittings ($25)

RENTED:

• Floor grinder ($80)

FREEBIES:

• Some slatwall (Kijiij)
• Long melamine strips, plywood, other miscellaneous lumber (dumpster)
• Small black steel shelving
• Chromed steel linen basket
• Long quarter round (dumpster)
• Some ABS pipe and fittings (dumpster)
• Some plumbing fittings (dumpster)
• Countertop fluorescent light (gifted)
• Electrical wiring (dumpster)
• Steel grey shelving unit
• Hardware and hinges
• Plotted images from internet
• Carpet pieces
• Schwinn Poster

This photo shows the overall look and appearance I was aiming to replicate, since I had a very similar layout in my own garage with respect to the overall size and the door location, and I also liked the grey color scheme. This beautiful example is from garageliving.com out of Toronto who do some really nice high end work with all metal cabinetry and metal slatwall panels. Way out of my budget, but really nice looking. According to fixr.com; a typical cost for a garage remodel runs $7,000 to $15,000. I set out to do a cheaper but still nice looking knockoff for way, way less than that. So, I got to work sourcing material and planning as I went, since its somewhat of an iterative process. Envision what you want to build, then see what you can find, then see what you can build.

The garage during house construction a few months prior to occupancy. The homebuilder provided bare drywall with taped joints but no real mudding other than a rough first layer. This photo was taken prior to the pouring of the concrete floor; under the mess left by the workers and the gravel is an insulating layer of 2″ construction styrofoam. Note the location of two electrical outlets and the water tap low and right of the door. The outlets were kept exactly where they were originally located but the water tap was moved. Who wants a water tap at the back of their garage when you really need it at the front?

The mudding was something that was a bit time consuming and as always the case when doing ceilings, not very much fun. I used a free-cycled steel shelving unit and cut the rails to a specific height so it would fit between the raised door and ceiling. I then bolted two 12″ shelves together to make one shelf 24″ deep This one holds two tires (and a folding creeper in its box); its twin in the other corner holds the other two tires and some jackstands. Both ends have wooden supports braces that are then mounted to wall and ceiling studs. This provides a place for winter/summer tires up and out of the way.

The cabinets and countertop were a Kijiji find that were decent value and in good condition; 4 uppers and 4.5 lowers with a 3 drawer stack and a long 12′ countertop that I cut in two to fit along the back walls either side of the door. I actually bought them before moving in and kept them at a relative’s place because I could not pass up the deal. Sometimes you get lucky; the width of a row of 4 cabinets was exactly the same length as the long wall on the left side of the door leading from my garage into the house.

One of the lower cabinets was retrofit to stack on another and the long 12′ countertop was I cut in two; one piece to fit the back wall left of the door and right of the double stack as shown here. Two gaps were created below the countertop; the one in the center for a roll-out stool and the one on the end by the door for a small roll-out tool chest. Again, sometimes you luck out as the two gaps were exactly the right size for their purpose and enabled the tool cabinet to line up with the end of the wall. The tool chests were also as long as the coutertop was wide. Note I added another electrical box for under cabinet lighting.

A 3rd cabinet was added to the top of the stack, then the rest of the uppers placed. The slatwall piece above the countertop and its quarter round edging piece was freecycle. The fluorescent light with a built in toggle switch is mounted within a wood framed box under the center upper cabinet. Wood end pieces were mounted on the cut end of the countertop and painted black to match the tool cabinets. The lower tool chest is now placed in the end gap below the countertop.

Plumbing for the sink to be installed on the 2nd countertop right of the door. I had to remove the builder-installed water tap (to be reused and relocated), then drill out a cavity leading from the garage into the house. Inside my basement “Tool” room – an unfinished workshop space that also contains the furnace and water tank – I plumbed in ABS drain pipe along the back wall to a nearby downstack and also tee’d into an existing ceiling-mounted pex hot water line to plumb in the sink. Some of the ABS pipes and fittings, the shutoff valves, and some pex and brass hardware were sourced freecycle.

The stainless steel bar sink was another Kijiji find and was in great shape. It came complete with taps, mounting hardware and even the water cut-off valves. Here I’m about to measure the cutout needed to mount the sink on the second piece of countertop. This will all mount on top of the last lower cabinet unit. Why would someone install a sink in a garage? Believe me, when you are wrenching on motorbikes or cars, a wash station is an indispensable must-have.

The countertop mounted with the sink installed. A new piece of MDS slatwall 8′ x 4′ high was cut in two with the long piece and short piece wall-mounted as shown, and once again I lucked out as 8′ was the combined length and depth of the countertop cut to fit this length of wall. Note the cutout for the wall plug. The melamine shelf and chromed steel “pull out” linen basket were freecycle. The space below the shelf allows for tool totes to be stored underneath. Yet to be done is the pex line leading to the front of the garage and the finishing over the concrete toe wall along the side of the garage. During a build like this, countertop space is quickly utilized as soon as its installed!

The east wall of the garage is where the motorbikes will be parked. I managed to find several 8′ long MDS laminate cutoffs in a dumpster. The 4″ wide ones were mounted on the wall and then painted a light grey as a decorative feature. This helped delineate the separation between slatwall and non-slatwall areas. They are mounted 4′ apart edge to edge to match the slatwall height on the opposing wall. The ceiling, walls and MDS were all painted at the same time after the mudding was completed.

The west wall of the garage would be where the bicycles and other garage-type items are hung. Shorter pieces of laminate cutoffs bridged the gap between a purchased 4’x8′ MDS slatwall and a freecycle piece of slatwall. Mounted on the strips of MDS are two bike hangers custom made from scrap wood. This provided a way to remove any one bike without disturbing the other. The vinyl poster was also freecycle. These 4′ foot tall accent areas on both walls helped produce visual continuity with the fixtures on the back wall. Freecycle 6″ wide melamine strips are mounted below and above the poster and also provide a mounting base for the bicycle hangars.

So at this point the garage is purged of any and all freestanding objects and the floor is prepped for the epoxy kit installation. The first step is a thorough wash and broom scrub of the concrete floor. One issue I had with this homebuilder was their refusal to omit the broom finish on the floor (code reasons, supposedly) even though I told them I was going to finish this floor. So that meant more work and costs for me as I now had to rent a floor grinder to properly prepare this floor for the installation of the kit.

The floor would now be wetted as the grinder makes a LOT of dust if used on a dry floor and the finished surface comes out smoother if water is used. Notice the toe-kicks under the cabinets? They were made from freecycle material and mounted top-hinged, so I can lift them up and use the space underneath for storing flat objects like my hydraulic floor jack and oil drain pans. In this pic they are being held up by bungee cords so I can get the grinder in close without damaging them. Even the steps under the door have been removed and they will also be epoxy coated with the kit.

Now the grinding has been done and the floor has been rinsed, broom swept and rinsed again. The floor grinder can be seen parked for the night. The machine itself is powerful and works well provided you get used to “driving” it. It can get away from you should you put too much weight to one side or the other. The grinder not only removes the broom-finish ridges, it also preps the concrete surface without the need for any acid etching and leaves a nice smooth finish ready for priming.

Now the primer has been put down and once again the toe-kicks were held up with bungee cords and some masking tape. The primer was worth the extra $40 bucks and since it didn’t come with the kit I had to purchase it separately. The east wall has also been prepped for the installation of wall trim (freecycle MDS strips) and this trim will create a clean transition between the concrete toe wall and the drywall as well as conceal the Pex water pipe leading to the front of the garage. The epoxy kit will be used on the face of the concrete toe wall as well as on the floor.

The epoxy floor kit was a fantastic Kijiji find and although it was a 40 mile trip to go get it, it was worth it. The seller had purchased it in the USA and brought it up across the border to use for an outbuilding, and simply had about 1/4 of the kit leftover; enough for 600 square feet. Including the toe wall faces and steps, my garage needed coverage for about 450-475 square feet. The dark grey color was perfect for the “50 shades of grey” paint scheme. This was another lucky find at less than 1/2 the price of a new kit – my cost was only about $1 per square foot.

The epoxy floor kit came with colored flakes that could be added in to give the floor a terrazzo look. The kit came with all instructions as well as a mixer blade and squeegee. Like all epoxy kits, you must thoroughly mix and then spread quickly before the epoxy hardens. I divided the kit in 4 parts and did 1/4 of the floor at a time. Here the toewall has been brush-covered first and some flakes have been thrown against it to stick, with the excess swept up and reused.

The floor has been completely covered with the kit and it has hardened to a cure within a 24 hour period. I was able to borrow a pair of special spikes shoes that allow you to walk on the wet spread mixture without leaving marks, allowing you to spread the flakes. One thing that was tricky was the adding the flakes in a consistent and even manner; you have to throw them up in the air in small amounts so they spread out enough. Within another day or so I added the clear coat over the top, spread with a roller. Overall the finished floor turned out great.

Now that the floor is all finished, the bikes have been assigned their designated spots complete with some representative artwork sourced from the internet: photos of each model of bike and “reserved parking” signs underneath the MDS strip. A freecycle piece of slatwall holds the recycle bins, one above the other, so they are easy to remove and replace and are up and out of the way. Now, see that square panel underneath the black bin? Well…..

…..Its actually a purpose built freecycle wood box on a hinge that is held closed against the wall by a small brass slide lock at the top. The hose reel is mounted to the box, not the wall, so you open the box and simply pull the hose end out and let the reel unwind. That tap I removed from the original builder-installed location has been relocated to here, so you just reach in and turn it open to pressurize the hose. This setup is aesthetic and out of the way, and the tap and hose are now in the location where you would actually want them for washing vehicles or watering lawns.

On the other side of the garage, more freecycle elements add to the dual purpose of storage and aesthetics. At one end, a small open-topped box was built out of scrap melamine to hold long skinny stuff like x-country skis, hockey sticks, etc. It’s tucked in behind the door track and still allows access to the light switch. On the other end, the narrow slatwall piece to the right of the poster holds only bike stuff – helmet, pump, water bottle, repair kit, etc. The 4′ x 8′ slatwall in between is for hanging regular garage “stuff”. Note the freecycle MDS trim has now been added between drywall and the epoxy-finished concrete toe wall.

Old-style tube fluorescent lights (clearance sale) and a used “propeller” ceiling fan were installed on the ceiling to provide additional illumination and air circulation during the summer heat. With the painting, flooring and other amenities all finished, I got some cheap plastic frames from Walmart and some other used frames and printed out some internet pictures to use as artwork to compliment the overall look and feel of the garage in keeping with a motorcycle theme. Not yet installed are some other small steel freecycle shelves I added below the helmet shelf, which was also freecycle. The upper tool cabinet has been re-oriented perpendicular to the wall to line up with the bottom one; I find this more convenient for accessing tools and it frees up more usable workspace on the countertop.

The finished product, looking from the outside in. The floor is awesome, with a hard, smooth glossy finish and a perfect color for this grey theme. The motorbikes and bicycles are separated, the countertop workspace has a rollout bench and overhead work light and there is plenty of cabinet space. The sink and other countertop provides a cleanup station and everything is neat, clean, organized and doesn’t look too shabby either, especially for just over $1,200 CAD in material costs. Contractors charge in the $3,000- $4,000 range just to install this kind of flooring!

Have any questions or want more information about this build? Send me a message in the contact link and I’ll be happy to provide a response.