any electricians / builders? advice on garage refurb please

[stevie_b]

Cheers all. Gives me some food for thought there. I boarded out the bottom of the mezzanine area where you can see those joists in the pic and put the 15 low-voltage downlights in last night. They do the job okay and look quite nice reflecting off a car parked underneath! I went for tilting ones and have angled them to point at the side walls so I think it will look quite good once I get some pictures/paintings up on the walls.

There are two striplights in there as well, so I get a decent spread of light throughout the area.

I put 2 500w halogen lights, one at each end in my garage, cheap to buy, but not to run, heat the garage too tho

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that before but I bought one the other week to put outside for security lighting so I'll try it out on illuminating the inside of the garage itself first. As you can see in the pic the roof is fairly high so I can mount it quite high up and will probably get good coverage as a result.

and paint it white too...except the floor paint that grey

Yes, I'm painting all the walls/blockwork in brilliant white, all the wood in gloss white and the supporting steels in Hammerite smooth white. Some of the smooth blocks can be painted quite quickly but the rougher ones are taking ages to get good paint coverage on them. I've spent many an evening and weekend out there doing it now, and have used up my first 10 litre tub of brilliant white, although I have now put a telly in there too so it is no great hardship other than very cold at the moment. I have pondered shoving the paint in the spray gun and using the compressor for speed, but I'm guessing it will just end up everywhere - I can't be bothered to empty everything out of there first! I won't be needing to paint the floor as I have ordered a load of floor tiles that clip together and will give me a dust free flooring that should last for many years with no maintenance :D

[stan]

Couple of tips ive learnt from doing things "arse about tit"...

Spray the walls with PVA/water mix with a spray gun. This seals the blockwork and allows the paint to go on ALOT easier.

Get the concrete floor spotless clean using commercial water soluable degreaser, then use a good epoxy 2pac floor paint. There is a guy on ebay sells stuff for £20/5l tin...rrp about £60/5l. I done my workshop with it and its the nuts.

Strips lights defo, as many as you can get hold of....ask around shops that are being re-fitted, I got about 10 units from a place near me for nothing.

Get a space heater :D

[stevie_b]

Thanks Craig. I'd thought about sealing the walls before I started but figured it was just one more chore, but if I can just quickly spray it all on then that sounds worth a go... What ratio of PVA to water would I want to put in the spray gun tin? Does it only need a thin coat applied all over the wall or am I trying to get a decent amount into all the cracks in the block structure, etc.? Do you go over the top with a brush once its on to give it a uniform texture or anything?

If I get a space heater are there any pros/cons that you would advise me to follow a specific route of electric/paraffin/gas/other?

Thanks again.

[stan]

I've got a huge gas space heater, does the job very well, no/low maintenace, and a big bottle (£50) of gas has lasted me two winters.
The diesel/parafin ones are likely cheaper to run, but they are higher maintenance, play up quite alot and can make your eyes water after a while!

As for pva, i think its 50/50..it'll say on the tub though, neil/maxiboy will probably know better. But, yeah try and get it will into the blockwork.
I just brush painted my walls, but itf i didnt have cars/tools/engines in here, i would have likely tried spraying them with water/emmulsion mix.

[stevie_b]

Thanks for the info Craig. I hadn't really thought about vapours and since I have two young children who might be in there sometimes I'll definitely avoid the paraffin/diesel ones now. Do the gas ones give off anything toxic such that they need to only be used in well ventilated areas? It might be safest for me to just go for electric, or are they not really up to the job? Mind you, I've spent lots of time in there recently and it's been the coldest winter for a long while and I managed okay so maybe I can get away without heating it anyway!

40 litres of pure brilliant white paint now applied - I feel I'm starting to get somewhere with it now, although it will still be a good few nights/weekends before it's done and I can start putting the floor down :(

[MAXIBOY]

could paint that in 4 hours using a 12 inch roller for rough surfaces...

hope you not using a brush...

[stevie_b]

Yes, using a brush at the mo. Gradually upgraded my size of brush as I have gone along though When I get to the bit of the space without all the stuff stored in it I can start using the compressor/spraygun as I won't mind it going everywhere then.

Do you think I'd get away with a roller then? My Dad keeps telling me to 'use a roller' but I didn't think it would work - there are quite deep indents in the block and even with a brush I struggle to get it all covered well, so I didn't think a roller would stand a chance?

[MAXIBOY]

yeah with a rough roller and a paint bucket..

we paint quite a few garages etc..

would be an easier job..

[stevie_b]

Tried with a roller but it wouldn't get into all the gaps on the blockwork. I was tempted to just slap it all on with a broom but in the end just used a big masonry brush. It took an age, but after 70 litres of emulsion, 10 litres of gloss on the woodwork and 5 litres of Hammerite on the steels I have finally got it all finished and have been able to lay the floor tiles. I'm really happy with the result - even more so now I have just seen again the 'before' picture and can even surprise myself with how much it has changed...





It's now a really pleasant place to work. Hopefully all the dust problems are now behind me and the mezzanine level is a really useful place to store all the junk I rarely touch out of the way (there is half a Clio interior up there somewhere!) and I have put in a loft ladder that I can just pull down whenever I need to get up there for something, keeping the lower level completely free of obstructions.

There is a strip light in the ceiling but in the end I did also go for those little halogen lamps in the lower ceiling below the mezzanine. If something is below it they do give a really good light and I have been able to point a few to highlight the pictures on the walls, etc. which I think is a bit more interesting than just strip lights everywhere...



Now I just need to finish off the space next door to a similar level!

[LEIGH-ANNE]

WOW - Well done! Glad u kept the effort up bet ur relieved its done now!