Must-haves for a garage setup

Grinder34

Track Monkey
I'm finally going to have my own 2-bay garage and I'd love to get some ideas on the "must-haves" and "nice-to-haves" for the setup. Currently, I do all my work out of a 12" toolbag, so this will be a nice step up for me!
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
I recommend some pegboards to hang tools. I recently put a few up and it makes finding a tool and putting it back in the right spot a lot faster.

Build your own work bench. It is pretty cheap to do and you can make it fit your space exactly the way you want.

I would highly consider coating the floor if it isn?t already. You can do it yourself and it works out nice if you prep well. It makes oil spills and general cleanup really easy and it looks nice.

A decent kerosene or propane heater is nice for the winter and you might be able to snag one cheap coming into spring. To go along with that, get some screw in hooks and a couple cheap tarps to use as a divider in winter. Then you only have to heat one bay where you are doing your work. Speaking of hooks, buy a lot of the screw in hooks, they are nice to use to get things off your floor space.

All of that stuff is pretty cheap to buy/make/install and make the garage more functional. Enjoy it!
 
Power tools, either air battery or corded pick one and start building a batter set of tools to make the job easier. I personally use a combination of battery and air tools for my garage work area. Also having a battery dewalt drill and impact screw drug vet are must haves for small project work.


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Eagleye

Tinkerer
Power tools, either air battery or corded pick one and start building a batter set of tools to make the job easier. I personally use a combination of battery and air tools for my garage work area. Also having a battery dewalt drill and impact screw drug vet are must haves for small project work.


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Agree on the nice power tools. Don't cheap out here even if it means waiting a while to purchase. I recently sold 2 old Ridgid drills and batteries before black Friday deals and bought myself a Bosch hammer drill & impact drill set. They are absolutely amazing to use and with the free tool (reciprocating saw) and 2 batteries it was a great deal. The battery life on them is awesome. I highly recommend Bosch power tools. I also have a plunge router and palm sander of theirs that are great (bought them through the Certified Pre Owned site, also highly recommended over the box stores).

When I worked construction/cabinet making in high school and college we had DeWalt stuff that is very nice as well. I would be happy with their stuff, I am just partial to Bosch. Our maintenance guys have Milwaukee where I work now and it is okay. The battery system seems nice, but imo they are more expensive than they should be. Ridgid may have improved in the past few years and if you use your power tools a lot are a decent consideration since you get free batteries if yours die (at least you use to). I walked in to Home Depot and told them my batteries were no good and they told me to grab new ones...no questions asked. Saved me $100.
 
Good recommendations. In addition I use a variety of tools including an angle grinder, saws all, and dreamed. Many hand tools. Breaker bar, foot and inch pound torque wrenches. Metric and standard wrenches, sockets, hex keys, torx. All drives and multiples. Don't need to get it all at once, but be prepared to invest as projects come up. The investment pays for itself over and over.


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Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Pictures of the 2 bay garage!!!
 
On my drive to work today was thinking of all the stuff I wish I would of done while my garage was still empty when I bought my house back in 2011. That being said #1 thing I wish I would of done is epoxy the floor. soo much easier and to do when the garage is empty. If there are already stains in the concrete from oil what not I would rent a cement grinder and grind off a very thin layer and epoxy seal the floor. If you wait to do it you will have to clear out your entire garage to do it later....From experience this is not ideal...I plan on doing mine this summer, so tired of crap getting on the floor and taking forever to get the stains out.
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
On my drive to work today was thinking of all the stuff I wish I would of done while my garage was still empty when I bought my house back in 2011. That being said #1 thing I wish I would of done is epoxy the floor. soo much easier and to do when the garage is empty. If there are already stains in the concrete from oil what not I would rent a cement grinder and grind off a very thin layer and epoxy seal the floor. If you wait to do it you will have to clear out your entire garage to do it later....From experience this is not ideal...I plan on doing mine this summer, so tired of crap getting on the floor and taking forever to get the stains out.

I did this ^^^ at my last place and it was a PITA taking everything out...cleaning the floor. Coating everything, then putting it all back. I also failed to adequately get old stains off the floor first which meant it pulled up in a few spots in the first few months. Overall I was happy with it but am happier that my new place already has it done!
 
I did this ^^^ at my last place and it was a PITA taking everything out...cleaning the floor. Coating everything, then putting it all back. I also failed to adequately get old stains off the floor first which meant it pulled up in a few spots in the first few months. Overall I was happy with it but am happier that my new place already has it done!

Best way to get the stains out is to rent a diamond concrete grinder and grind off the top layer for a perfect surface


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Grinder34

Track Monkey
Hmmm, you guys are giving me ideas....that I wont be able to afford because I'm house-poor
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
Finally snapped a few pics to show how I've organized in my new garage.
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shiftspeed

New member
As a subaru owner, besides having basic tools I suggest you also have like a mini closet with some subaru items that usually gets damage.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Just revisited this thread. Wow, how much I'm lacking. Our garage is exactly two car widths + about 3 feet. So my car's passenger door is inoperable, every other door you can squeeze into. And it's car length + 3 feet as well. So unless you're perfect at getting the bumper barely inside, you're left with about ~2 feet, or enough to squeeze by to get to the 2nd car. Sooooo, all my dreams are out the window :(
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
I've seen garages like that. Does make one wonder what the original owners drove, if they went cheap on building it, or if permitting didn't allow for more. With the cost of everything around DC I'm guessing it was a space/initial build cost issue?
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
I've seen garages like that. Does make one wonder what the original owners drove, if they went cheap on building it, or if permitting didn't allow for more. With the cost of everything around DC I'm guessing it was a space/initial build cost issue?

Bigger garage = less lawn. Our lawn is already tiny!
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
Less yard = less mowing and more space for car things

C'mon man you didn't buy a house in that area for the yard space did you? haha
 
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