Northern's Not-A-Car Thread

[Northern]

Since I bought my first E30 back in 2010, I've always wanted a garage.

I think a lot of us own (or owned) these cars for extended periods of time with no garage, and it sucks.
Always trying to fix things over the winter to drive during the summer, laying in slush, freezing your fingers and toes off, not being able to leave anything halfway done with the tools laying around overnight... hell, I even electrocuted myself once with my welder, trying to remove 12 broken exhaust studs from an engine with Roysneon in a car tent in the rain.

So when my wife and I looked at houses, a big "must" for me was to either have a garage or least the access and space to build one.
So, we bought this house in 2013, with an open backyard ~40x42' and a 10x8 shed to tide me over.

Fast forward to spring 2021, and due to terrible decision making skills, I still didn't have a garage.
I had just graduated so I tried to get the ball rolling, but I didn't start working until late June and it wasn't until Dec 2022 that I actually pulled the trigger while I was recovering from my knee injury.

So what did I get? Well, of the 10 companies my wife and I contacted, we received 3 responses. Not super surprised, people are building like crazy here, there's at least one house being torn down/built on every block at the moment, and you can't look in any direction without seeing a dozen cranes for apartment builds.
Anyway, 2 ignored the ask and responded with "We only do 24x24 at this time" and one actually listened, asked followup questions, and quoted.

I went with him. After a ton of revisions, we went with:

Weather-tight shell
20x30 * Later changed to 20x28.
2x4x10' walls
12x8' insulated door
1 man door, 2 windows
8/12 storage trusses + pull down ladder
200A panel
Some lights and outlets.

Might edit this list if I bother to look back at the email chain...

Reasoning for the dimensions:
You need engineered footings above 600sqft, or with a "loft".
If you have a loft, you also require 2x6 walls. Great for strength and insulaton, but bad for cost and interior dimensions.
8/12 truss gives me ~6ft of headroom in the attic.
I know 7' doors can be tight for some vehicles.

Updating post 2 with pictures in a moment, then post 3 I'll update in a few days(hopefully) once I gather pictures from 2024, and Post 4 with some gripes/regrets/costs.

[Northern]

Apologies in advance for the tall-ass photos.

Borderline hoarder's paradise back here before I started.


First thing to go was this weird light pole behind my house. No idea why this was ever here. The light never worked, but the outlet was pretty useful.


My old man helped cut down my Cherry tree. I miss it, the few days a year when it would blossom were really cool, and the cherries were good if you could get them before the birds.


The trunk still standing was pretty sketchy because it leaned the wrong way, but we made it happen.


My mother ended up paying to flatbed my old shed to her place for hay storage (or maybe just to help me get rid of it, still not entirely sure)


It looked big without the tree and shed, but there's an embarassing amount of junk lying around


So at this time there was some fuckery afoot.
According to land use bylaw, I need 4.1' setback from any property line, and 8' from the house.
Literally every single other garage on my block is either directly on the property line, or 2' maximum off the line.
I was banking on using this as precident to do 2' so I applied for a variance and paid my $500 to play the game.
City sat on the application for a month, and I called a bunch of times with no update, eventually I realized the online portal updated to say it was Approved!



I emailed the builder, and he submitted his plans to basically be told the opposite, and had to do a new plot plan and resubmit for permits.


Basically wasted a month and $500 just to lop 2' off the back of the garage to fit my lot anyway.

Onto the stake-out. Learned my lot is 4' deeper than on record, so avoided cutting into my weird "yard slab"


Hiding all my junk in the corner at this stage


Excavation begins


A lot of gravel


Pad poured


Every day I came home from work, there was another pile of material


Framer was half monkey, had the whole thing framed in 2 short days.






Siding starting


Done


I honestly had no idea what it was going to be like inside when it was done. I had a CAD sketch for a floorplan with various vehicle footprints, but it doesn't do it justice like walking around in here.


In the AM on Jul 21, the roof went on. In the PM, we were hit with the most rain I've ever seen. Something like 200mm, or ~8 inches of rain.
I'm on top of a hill, but I know a lot of people with flooded basements, and some roads and highways were 5' underwater for a few days after.
I was going to leave work by the side door, but as I was going down the stairs, there was water gushing into the stairwell from under the door on the ground floor.


Power company couldn't get power out to the garage, so we pivoted and piggybacked off the house panel.
House has a 200A service and heat/hot water/stove is all propane, so plenty of headroom.
Cable is 250A rated, panel is 200A. In case the house ever gets upgraded.
Video - probably have to click the pic? edit: doesn't seem to work, link is below...


20230822_110841

Here's where the car and all the junk went while the trench/electrical was in progress


I guess this S52 block was the first actual car item that went in the garage


Attic. For perspective, it's about 5'11" from the floor to the metal at the peak of the truss. I can stand up, but have to duck under the trusses.


Added some Amazon Barrina lights (The "T8" 5000 lumen versions) - I also added a thinner runner outboard of the main walkway.
1/2" should be sturdy enough to hold some rubbermaid bins, and it really stiffened the building up end-to end. You could rock the centre walkway end-to end as there was no diagonal bracing for the outboard ~7ft on each side of the trusses.



Before I moved in, I wanted to do the floor with a Rustoleum EpoxyShield kit. Outcome was a mixed bag and I have regrets, but it could be worse.
Floor sanded, etched, rinsed, dried


++E30 content


Largest problem with the whole process - Epoxy was chunky. No idea what happened. I had two kits, one was like this, the other wasn't.
It was a freakishly warm Oct 28th, so it was going on the floor whether it was chunky or not.


Looked pretty good, and honestly from afar it still does


All these chunks now look like spots where gum has been trampled into the floor.
Not sure if it's the camera or the sawdust, but it looks better in this picture than in person.


I was oddly paranoid about scratching the floor with the steel casters, so I switched my stands to plastic ones.


Here's how these three spent the winter:


Since I had all the space in the panel, I had it filled out. The #1 thing everyone says is that you can never have enough outlets.
I also have 2 runs of Cat6A, one to hardwire a PC, and one for an Orbi wifi mesh node.


I have always used the cheapest and shittiest jacks because they live outside, so I treated myself to a nice/fancy one.
I could've bought a larger one, but figured this was big enough while still able to fit under an e30.


That basically brings us up to the end of 2023. I need to dig through the last year of pictures, then I'll update Post #3...

[Northern]

Ok 2024 onward - Basically the start of the interior.



I kicked the Mini out, and pushed Rusty into the middle of the garage to make wall access easier. Somewhere in here I bought one of these "Fedmax" metal cabinets on sale from amazon to store spray cans/chemicals in. It was the cheapest option by a fair amount and it kind of sucked to build, but it's where I stored most tools while I was doing all of this.



The rest of the fence came down in a storm in March. Lost 3 sections on the other side as well, and one at the back thanks to a tree.



Beginning of April. Insulation underway. I started with the rafter vents that tie into the top plate.
They're thin rigid styrofoam with some wrinkling to help them bend... and still don't bend well, so it was a shitshow installing them. I sprayfoamed the shit out of them because there were gaps at the bottom/sides that I assume would just let air straight under the insulation and against the ceiling.
Ceiling is R20 (6") fiberglass.
Walls are R12 (4") fiberglass.
I also caulked the sill plate - sill plate to floor, and inside the wall where the sheathing meets the sill plate.



Random Volvo content #1:
My XC90 has a composite transverse leaf spring in the rear, so that means it's basically a Corvette.



E30 was also ejected from the shop for drywall



10' sheets suck, but it was worth it with the 10' ceilings and the 20' wide building. The home depot rental was worth its weight in gold (also the free labour from a few friends) I did 12' sheets on my ceiling once, and I will never make that mistake again unless I have help.



Here's where it gets weird for a bit. I wanted to make a bit of an effort to sound proof the walls, so I threw a layer of Sonopan on.
It's basically a 4 x 8 x 3/4" sheet of wax and wood fibres marketed as a sound blocker. I've used it in the ceiling of the house to block noise between floors and it seems to work at least as well as a second sheet of drywall.
Definitely has its downsides though - extremely messy, and makes drywall a bitch to install because 1, you can't see the studs before you install the drywall (so I marked the floor and used a laser level to show the stud location) and 2, its springiness loves to cause the screw to pop through the drywall sheet.
Ideally you're supposed to use this with resilient channel to maximize the soundproofing, but I wanted to mount cabinets and things to the studs and I think the channel would have a hard time supporting cabinets.
I didn't install it on the ceiling due to weight concerns, and I definitely hear a lot coming down through the attic...



Walls starting, again 10' sheets



The more difficult wall done and some mud.



Back wall primed. I did like 4 coats with the Behr 19L bucket of drywall sealer before I realized I probably just needed to paint it.



Late April now. Still only primed, but a bunch of plywood fell on the floor



The fleet is all lined up on the street too (well, the running ones at least)



Solid 15-footer



?





I'll post more pictures at some point, but basically its a lathe with a lot of swing - a Warner & Swasey No.4 Turret Lathe.
IIRC it was $600 plus another $280 to move it.
I think it's something like 18.5" swing and 16" bed.
Footprint is not quite 4x8
Came with a 7.5hp 3ph 600V motor and wiring which is a problem for me
Turret is jammed
Chuck is sticky, probably has some crud jammed in the sprial mechanism thing, I don't know what it's called, I'm not a machinist...
Came from a friend, who bought it from a shop that used it to cut open torque converters and re-weld them... so there's spatter in some undesirable places but at least not on the ways.
Future project...



"Everything" mudded and sanded (there's still one section above the garage door that's not finished as I type this, months later)



A coat (or maybe two?) of primer on everything



Sometime in May, my Wife was sick of the state of the rest of the yard, so she had the two stumps removed, and 7 loads of dirt removed to bring the height level with the garage. Plus some other stuff.





Painted.



TV is up. This is an old 40" I've had forever. Ideally a cheap 65-75" eventually.



The same plywood that the lathe rolled in over the back of. Was kind of a game time decision when I was buying drywall and went with 1/2" plywood on this one wall. Was super easy to install, just plunge cut the receptacle holes with a circular saw, then finished the corners with a jigsaw.
I don't know what this plywood is called, but it has all the imperfections pre-filled, so it looks a lot more finished than any other plywood I've ever bought.



Can't really do a 2-post unless I commit to having only one car in here at a time (unless stacked) so the plan was to get a quickjack when they went on sale at Costco, which they finally did at the beginning of June. 7000TL gets close to 24" of lift and is rated for 7k lbs. Fits the e30 and Mini, but it doesn't fit the XC90!



Funny story though, the pump was DOA with a defective power cable. So they shipped me a new pump assembly, it just took a while. They did let me keep the defective one, so I swapped the power cable to a thicker gauge 16' one and it works now (since I already installed the fittings and filled it with ATF, I saw no reason not to.)



Temp computer setup to run the TV, Sound wired up. Watching whichever F1 race was on in early June with the little one... the only race I watched this season, as is tradition.




Quickjack was great for the Mini, did a bunch of plastic repair to the obliterated radiator support, new big FMIC, new fogs, intake muffler delete, WG actuator adjustment, DV upgrade, catback, and boost gauge install.
I found new casters for my creepers and they are smooooth now. still sucks getting up off the floor, I'll hopefully eventually get a fancy creeper to help with that.



Once it was done, some hooks from canadian tire seem to work well for wall storage. They sit on the ground and the hooks basically stop them from falling out. The quickjack specific hooks are $150 and these were $6.



Heat pump, self explanatory really haha.
Senville Aura, 12K BTU, -30degC Arctic rated, 25.5 SEER2, COP 3.88.
Added a bunch of extras for mounting/lineset cover, and a smart dongle (the alexa one they ship with this unit isn't compatible with any phone app, google home, homeassist, etc.)
Installed myself, and my HVAC friend checked it over and evacuated the lines for me.





Not a whole lot has changed since this pic back in August. Still have a ton of extra shit in here that shouldn't be here.
Some materials leaning against the wall in the back corner,
Plastic shelving is kind of a catch-all for everything that doesn't have a home.
S52 block on stand under blue tarp
M20 block on the floor...



Bought two of the large Ikea IVAR cabinets for over the computer corner. They're made to mount in the matching shelving unit, but they seem sturdy with the top french cleat/bottom board setup. Camera and headphones since I ended up WFH here sometime during the summer, abandoning my home office.



If the E30 is wedged against the wall, the Volvo fits.
Just drove the front up on ramps to change the air filter and front O2 sensor.



This was a surprise to me - another lathe, EMCO Maximat V10-P with 4 speed milling attachment.
This was "Free" in the sense that some relatives were downsizing and I have a 10-year store-to-own agreement.
If they move again and gain a garage, they'll take it back, but in the meantime, it works and has a milling attachment.
Lots of tooling, but not much that is usable, so I've been on a bit of a tooling shopping spree.



Less than ideal temporary home, but as long as I don't need to have stock poking out through the wall, it will work.



Spent a lot of time this summer trying to remove the old concrete fence post stumps and re-do the fence. Hopefully this design lets air pass through so I don't snap these posts off in a few months/years...
The engine hoist and a chain works hilariously well to rip things out of the ground as long as there's a lip to grab.
Unfortunately I'm an idiot and instead of spending $60 to rent the Home Depot concrete mixer, I mixed something like 25 bags of concrete by hand in a bucket, half a bag at a time.



Cheap amazon junk that fit between the window and breaker panel. Works well enough, but could use a third set if there was space for it.



Basically brings us to October.

[Northern]

4

[It's Soda Not Pop]

Nice work. Happy for you.

I have a 2 car garage, but I would love a Man cave/project garage separate from the regular garage.

[AWDBOB]

I've been waiting for this thread!!! Funny how relatable it all is. My house is still on 100A service and my current detached already takes up 40A of that so I had to get the pole barn its own meter which was a 3mo hassle (at least), and have a minimum monthly charge that I don't hit. Great that you were able to pull off of the house for power!

In my county we had a 45% structure to land rule for ground water and so far so good, but after adding the barn I had to be much more intentional with where the water was going. That involved different gutter routing to get water away from the house and away from the 6x6 engineered posts for the barn. I'm sure you've already dealt with this, but it was something I had to do.

I used the same Barrina lights and they have been great.

Your garage is framed much differently than my barn which appears it'll be much easier for you to insulate. I had to order custom pole frame 6" r19 which was insanely expensive. I hope you got to avoid that cost lol

I ran conduit in the concrete for cat6 and somehow the mesh i already had set up in my detached garage has worked fine in the barn. Only time will tell if it gets through the faraday cage over winter with all of the doors closed.

[Northern]

Nice work. Happy for you.

I have a 2 car garage, but I would love a Man cave/project garage separate from the regular garage.

Thank you! Yeah this is really what I'm hoping to use this for. Originally wanted everything car related out of the basement and into the garage, but the more I put in here, the more I realize there isn't room to store and work. Trying to come to grips with the idea that I need a lot of other storage space, whether that means shed/outdoor/basement, I don't know the answer yet.

I've been waiting for this thread!!! Funny how relatable it all is. My house is still on 100A service and my current detached already takes up 40A of that so I had to get the pole barn its own meter which was a 3mo hassle (at least), and have a minimum monthly charge that I don't hit. Great that you were able to pull off of the house for power!

In my county we had a 45% structure to land rule for ground water and so far so good, but after adding the barn I had to be much more intentional with where the water was going. That involved different gutter routing to get water away from the house and away from the 6x6 engineered posts for the barn. I'm sure you've already dealt with this, but it was something I had to do.

I used the same Barrina lights and they have been great.

Your garage is framed much differently than my barn which appears it'll be much easier for you to insulate. I had to order custom pole frame 6" r19 which was insanely expensive. I hope you got to avoid that cost lol

I ran conduit in the concrete for cat6 and somehow the mesh i already had set up in my detached garage has worked fine in the barn. Only time will tell if it gets through the faraday cage over winter with all of the doors closed.

Yeah I lucked out with the house panel. House is from around 1944, and they upgraded the electrical (well, the panel and 4 kitchen outlets) shortly before we purchased. I do save something like $30/mo not having a second meter, and it's nice that there aren't lines directly over the driveway.

My zoning has a max of 35% lot coverage, so this is butting against that. For some reason my lot is quite high and drainage doesn't seem to be an issue yet. They also used a ton of gravel, so that probably helps.
Insulation was quite cheap, I'll get into that more once I get the pics organized.

I actually haven't hooked up the wifi mesh node because I found the same. Signal is stronger out here than in my bedroom.

[2mAn]

Yes!

[DEV0 E30]

WOOT! That is a good amount of usable space!

Garage builds and garage organization are always a part of my interests. Moving into a new house soonish, and going to be starting again from scratch to make the best 2 car garage I can.
This time, no washer or dryer in it, so it will be a better workspace for sure. Plan is to maximize every square inch and of course make it comfortable. Air sealing, insulation, and mini split.

[Northern]

Air sealing, insulation, and mini split.

spoiler alert lol

I love ideas for garage storage/organization so feel free to throw ideas at me or point out where I fucked up... there are a lot.

[AWDBOB]

I love ideas for garage storage/organization so feel free to throw ideas at me or point out where I fucked up... there are a lot.

I built the trendy slider racks for 27gal totes. They weren't very expensive to build and cleaned up a LOT of parts. Menards had cheap totes, something like $8 a pop which made it feasible.

Would definitely recommend for stuff you can inventory and don't need to access regularly.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[DEV0 E30]

spoiler alert lol

I love ideas for garage storage/organization so feel free to throw ideas at me or point out where I fucked up... there are a lot.

Nice. Looking forward to it.

So, I've got tons, but off the top of my head, most are either Facebook Groups or literally Folders packed with images saved from zillow or stuff I've seen online.
It's a disease, with the idea that someday I can use all the ideas I've collected when I have more than a 2 car garage. But also knowing that a 2 car is better than no garage. Need to really use those space saving ideas.

And fuckups are part of the process. I've done blown in insulation at multiple houses now, and paid someone to do that and air seal it as well.

====================


Garage Journal ------------- [ If you aren't already here, you're welcome, and I'm sorry. ]

FB Page --- Jack Olsen's 12 Gauge Garage, aka the godfather has IMO the best 2 car garage. (Really his is a 1 car) ------------- (He first posted on Garage Journal, like 12 years ago)

FB Group --- Average Middle Class Garage Goals ------------- Lots of above middle class stuff in here, but also a lot of good stuff.

FB Group --- Harbor Freight Tool Hacks

FB Group --- Garage and Workshop Organization

====================

I built the trendy slider racks for 27gal totes.

I need to do this myself, I have .... 20ish 27gal totes. And some of the bigger ones.
I had them in a cheap metal pallet-rack shelving. Double stacked the heavy ones at the bottom. Not smart.
I've been seeing a lot of these tote shelving with wheels on FB marketplace. Def the way to go.
I'm hoping most become empty when the E30 is running, but with them on wheels I've got some ideas to make the space actually usable.
We'll see how I do.



====================

Whyyyy does r3v crash everytime I come to post one reply at night. Oof.

[Northern]

Garage Journal ------------- [ If you aren't already here, you're welcome, and I'm sorry. ]

FB Page --- Jack Olsen's 12 Gauge Garage, aka the godfather has IMO the best 2 car garage. (Really his is a 1 car) ------------- (He first posted on Garage Journal, like 12 years ago)

FB Group --- Average Middle Class Garage Goals ------------- Lots of above middle class stuff in here, but also a lot of good stuff.

FB Group --- Harbor Freight Tool Hacks

FB Group --- Garage and Workshop Organization

I get advertised a lot of tote storage options, a lot are ceiling hanging (not an option for me, but look slick), but I've seen some racks as well. At the moment I have something like 10 of the black plastic shelving sets that everyone sells, one is in the garage. It doesn't take much to make them sag, and some things are just better stored in totes.

So maybe the racks are a good solution for my basement, or I can find a way to have them outside along the side of the garage.


I thought that 12-ga garage one sounded familiar, and it is. I recently read through his garage journal post. I don't think I have an account, but I've read a fair amount through google hits.
I'll take a look through the FB stuff tonight.

I look at the garageporn reddit, but it's mostly people arguing about floor coatings, hexagon lights, and people buying those multipiece garage storage systems that only have one small box with drawers...

[DEV0 E30]

Yeah I’m not a fan of overhead stuff either. But racks on wheels, I agree I’m hoping I have enough space on the side of one of my walls.

What I like about Jack’s garage is he has so many workspaces and it’s so organized. The 911 and trick lift helps too. My thinking is if I can have a lot of fold up or hidden workspaces I too can get stuff done in the next garage. I want to be able to park two cars, but no junk and rolling out one or both cars instantly makes it an area to get ish done.

Ah yes, I’m a part of many sub reddits too, I agree there isn’t as much of a focus on working garages or problem solving in most of them.

[Northern]

Post 3 Updated, bringing us up to October-ish of this year:

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/the-project-forum/10129159-northern-s-not-a-car-thread?p=10129161#post10129161

Flickr was set to the wrong size so I shared some micro pictures at first, but it should be fixed now.

Took me a while, little one has not been sleeping for the past week so I don't get time to do stuff at night.

I need to update my cost spreadsheet and then I'm going to just throw down some costs/regrets/lessons learned in post 4. Not going to rush with that though.