I have an integrated garage with a concrete floor, breeze block walls, concrete ceiling, power and water.
Where do you start to smarten it up? Plasterboard walls? Then lighting. I’m sure there is a logical order but I don’t know what it is.
Like do you do the floor last? What about lighting and an electric roller door?
just paint the walls because the garage isn’t heated & you have many gaps plasterboard isn’t really a good idea
paint the floor last & use rubberized plant room paint
what are you intending to do in it?
As wise said, it will be tricky to properly insulate it while keeping that up and over door.
Just make it fancy. I’m thinking of installing an electric roller door. I’m not sure if I’ll be doing any serious maintenance but I want somewhere nice to put the bike and do some small jobs.
Roller doors are a top upgrade. I love mine. They improve security, convenience and help insulate the place a little better. I would do this first.
If there’s an internal door, I would insulate the garage so you can leave the door open and have it heated. Makes it much nicer to work in (if you’re going to have a workbench).
If you’re going to install a workbench I would give serious thought to electrical, ie make sure you get enough high ampage sockets pit in a convenient place, install Wi-Fi, usb sockets etc.
I used an epoxy resin floor coating for ours, again love it, really smartens the place up and makes it easy to wipe up spills. Do this at the very end to avoid it being damaged by other works.
Got it from:
Where did you get your roller door? I’ll use them.
Electrics we’re already sorted, basically had the floor epoxy resin laid and whitewashed the walls then moved furniture in, put a threshold seal to reduce water ingress
The paint made a huge difference. I’ll take some pictures and let you all know where I get to.
Paint the walls, upgrade the lights, draughtproof the garage door, improve the door security, lots of strong shelving.
Floor finish last. Consider interlocking rubberised flooring as it is a DIY job and has insulating properties.
Haha. Londonbuilders.
Absolutely do the floor first, then get the door sealed up better.
TV on the wall, chromecast/appletv/firestick/roku and a cheap soundbar.
@Curtis what paint did you use for the walls and floor? My garage is semi detached and the unattached wall is single layer brick so porous and gets damp with heavy rain fall. did you have to use some sort of waterproof coating anywhere outside or inside as a base layer ?
If you’re going to be putting wet bikes/cars/dogs/kids/etc. in it then make sure it’s got decent ventilation, particularly if you upgrade the door to something that’s more draughtproof. If you don’t, it’ll work brilliantly at turning things to rust.
We used a sealant as the base coat on our exterior garage walls for this reason. It works well. There’s some bits we haven’t done and they’re getting damp, making the multi-coat paint peel. Need to correct that. I’ll go take a photo shortly.
Used exterior masonry paint thinking if it can withstand rain hopefully will withstand any damp but the walls didn’t seem to have any damp problems prior, had to give it 3 coats but that’s probably because the first I laid down too thin with a roller more then anything. Used a proper masonary paint brush after and went on much better
The flooring is also from resin coat but I got it laid by a flooring specialist as the quote they offered wasn’t much more by the time I factored in hiring floor grinder and what I’d need to prep the floor prior etc etc
Agree, I’ve just ordered a desiccant dehumidifier for this same reason, wet bike, dryer all produce moisture and don’t want all the tools/bike rusting
