Your ideas/input requested for planning a garage

[Patcon]

I used an epoxy floor finish in my floor ("color chips" I believe...). It will chip if abused but almost no chemicals will touch it. It looks a lot like the rustoleum kits but higher solids... Lots of outlets is good. I like the alternative energy approach where it makes financial sense...

Charles

[240260280z]

I love the HTC grinding. Not sure if I can find floor grinder here?

[ajmcforester]

Yep I learned not to plate on high humid days in NJ or take it down to the basement. I had low contact this the sight over the last 1-1.5 years the site, I bought a house from the 50's with a garage almost perfect for a lift. TO make it perfect I need to switch to a sliding door over an overhead door so I can have 24' of lift height. I bet you can guess that I understand your discretion of the region by the user name.

[ChrisZ]

I love the HTC grinding. Not sure if I can find floor grinder here?

There must be other who make this grinding stuff, maybe you can even rent the maschine, my floor is not finished yet so i can't show you the result, the total price will be less than $30 per sq meter and i didn't touch a finger.

[Carl Beck]

Hi Blue:

+1 on visiting the GarageJournal.com site - spend a few hours there and you'll pick up a lot of very creative ideas. Also +1 on having a polished concrete floor. Many of the major Discount Stores and Grocery Stores around here are using this now - as well as some of the Drug Stores. I was going to recommend a Race Deck floor - I love mine - but I'm not sure how that would work with a heated floor. At any rate do something with the floor before you get much stuff in there..

On the vinyl chip floors - the most expensive, very best of them are excellent. I hear lots of problems with the less expensive, thinner vinyl chip layers etc types. Do a lot of research on that subject.

Enjoy the process...

Carl B.

[Patcon]

I did a lot of research looking for a high solids floor epoxy. It is very chemically resistant but if you slide something heavy like a tranny it will scratch it right off the concrete. I etched my concrete before the first coat. If you want to grind your floor Sunbelt rentals here in the US have floor grinders for rent. They offer the stones in carbide and diamond you have to buy the stones. The latter being way more expensive and faster.

C

Edited October 30, 2013 by Patcon

[240260280z]

I had to trench in a power cable to the garage from the house.

I used my gas powered pressure washer to cut a precise 3" wide X 18" deep trench. It was minimal work and mess. No crowbars or shovels were needed.... just a pick-axe with a broad blade.

We have mixed till soil here so large rocks are usually problems when digging holes. With the pressure washer, I just blasted around the rock on all sides and under then I could simply reach in a pick it out.

For initial cuts I used some pipe on the lawn to act as a straight line and guide. I used a 0 degree nozzle and made a few completely vertical cuts along each side of the pipe-guide to cut the sod and soften the soil with virtually no back spray or mud.

You can eventually stick the nozzle deeper in the ground to feel where you cut and the soil loosening.

I just kept passing over the line and the cuts went deeper. After ~ 6 inches of depth were loosened, I moved the guide and used a pick axe to lift and snap the small roots I came across near trees.

As mentioned above, the big rocks were easily tackled with the pressure washer and picked out.

The slurry of silt flowed and could easily be pulled out again with the broad blade of the pick axe.

Enjoy if you try this. BTW it was my boss's (wife) idea

[Patcon]

That's cool. Never tried that and have been doing a lot of trenching at work lately.

C