I see you are in Houston.

You might check out a Pick-N-Pull there and see what their customer area looks like, but the one I am thinking about is the P-n-P on Loop 12 in Dallas. About four feet up the walls are clad in aluminum plate with a chicken-foot pattern. I complemented one of them on the look and they said it just made it easier to clean because someone was always leaning a dirty part or tire against the wall.

Many, many years ago I worked in a shop where we repaired auto a/c units. This was an old Shell Station that had three bays and towards the bottom of each bay door was a small hole that was covered by a disc that slid out of the way so you could pass a large hose through it. It was about three inches across.

During the winter we had a hose we would slip over the exhaust pipe so we could run the other end of the hose out through the opening. This was better than cracking the door a bit as that let in a lot of cold air.

If you pipe in compressed air with iron pipe then every now and then put in a commercial type air filter with a drain in the bottom of the bowl. You will collect a lot of water in your pipes and there is no sense in it just sitting there eating up the pipe from the inside out. I use Norgren filters that i installed about 40 years ago and they are still working great.

spend a few hours here

Garage Gallery - The Garage Journal Board

to get some good ideas

from having a 22x24 garage on my property i can tell you that with all the stuff you WANT to put in there,that will be taking up floor space.it ain't gonna happen, that is if you plan on being able to actually do anything in there other then stand and fart.i have an 05 suburban setting in mine right now and i can shimmy behind it.my toolbox is setting right in front of it and i can just about walk thru there without turning sideways if i put anything in there deeper then the toolbox i ain't gettin thru.make it at least 28 deep.and you must remember that those 2 and 4 post hoists,the posts are at or over 10 ft apart AND right in the way.go wider also if possible.

Everyone keeps mentioning 220v power but with all the outlets and equipment what you need is a minimum 200amp service. If your thinking of feeding a sub panel from the house it's not going to power all that. Decide what electrical loads (equip't) you want and then add about 50% more for future. I agree with catmandoo62 about the size, you want 6-8 ft in front of the vehicles and enough width to be able to fit the car and hoist in there, tool cabinets, compressors and other gear takes up a lot wall space.

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Democracy dies in darkness, you have to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight

Couple build threads from the m-100 board that might yield some ideas:

M-100 Message Board - Building an ideal garage?

M-100 Message Board - The build begins

and this place:

The Garage Journal Board - Powered by vBulletin

When you do the lighting, dont get the cheapie home depot strips. Get the T5 high output flourescent highbays. they rock!

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1984 300SD Orient Red/ Palomino
1989 560SEC
2016 Mazda 6 6 speed manual
1995 Ford F-150 reg cab 4.9 5speed manual

Jay Leno's Garage

Lots of practical Ideas.

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

A separate dirty area - to help you to work like a formula 1 mechanic not a back street botcher.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

My epoxy floor has held up. First don't apply sealer. Next, the concrete has to dry out for at least a month. In my case, I built for many month till I coated the floor. My neighbor built during that time. We both used the Rustoleum water based two part epoxy kit. He works on cars and it has held up. I have draged machinery across mine. Some chips from dropping stuff on it. THe concrete chipped out, so I can't blame the epoxy. He has a two post lift. I personally, don't know which is better.
He did add drains. Also, he put a lip or sunken lip for the garage doors. Basically, the outside 'platform is an inch or two below the inside floor. The garage door goes down to the outside platform. This seals the bottom of the door better. I didn't do this. I did glue down one of those rubber lips. It does well to keep the water out. I made side edges for it, from left over piece. They are wedged shaped, so wedge on top of wedge makes a square lip on the ends.
He put the air lines in the wall. I did seperate grounded electrical lines for computers. I have some CNC machines. I'd probably do 6 inch walls. Better insulation. I did do a 2nd story, so did my neighbor. I framed mine with dormors. He used prebuilt trusses, that had space in the middle. I added 24ft x 24 ft andded to 12 x 24ft I already had. I think his is 30 ft x 36 ft. I'd also think about at least a 9 ft garage door.

Tom

i don't know what kind of issues you have with mice.but up here come winter they want inside.and once inside the walls they can wreak havoc on wiring,for this reason all my wiring is run externally and in conduit.in the wall looks nice but one thing about conduit,if for some reason down the line you want to add something you can fish more wire thru them.

Two post lift is the only way to go. A four post is not good for suspension or brake work.

For air plumbing, use black pipe with a descending angle to all outlet down pipes. Use a ball valve on the bottom of each down pipe for condensation drain. Use up turns for outlets. All this will make for high volume dry air which is good for everything, but ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY for paiinting.

Do not even consider using PVC pipe for air. Lots of people do it and lots of people have been injured and even killed when it becomes brittle and blows apart.

My $0.02
Larry

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

All good ideas, and yes, I am limited by space. Gov't says I can only cover 45% of my property with building, so the house layout came first, then the garage was layed out to be as big as I can get. No bicycles, lawnmowers, or any of that stuff are going in this garage, and no large vehicles - MB sedans and a CJ7 are all that'll ever park in there.

Thanks for the suggestions; some of them are now on my list of "items to try to fit".

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

When you decide on a lift, install some lights in the floor to shoot the underside of the vehicle. I just saw a thread on garage journal about it. Brilliant idea.

A urinal (could even be a waterless one) and

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

get an electric range so that you can do powder coating