Am I making sense? Garage workshop vs shed workshop. My thoughts...

**twistsol** · 12-10-2021, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by dbhost

Honestly, space wise, IF I can get the non shop stuff out, and keep my lovely wife from overrunning me again, I would prefer to stay in the garage, assuming I finish the insulation that is...

So basically all you need to do is change your wife's behavior ... good luck with that.

Setting up a shared space with everything mobile has the added advantage that your shop layout can change on a moment's notice to accommodate the current project. If you need to rip a 14' board, you just move the saw close to the garage door and your outfeed is in the driveway. I have slightly more than the 20x30 shop of your dreams but the ceiling finished out at 8'1". With the exception of the cabinets for the miter saw, everything in my shop is on wheels or otherwise portable. Once you've put in the effort to make the shop mobile, it becomes a huge pro rather than a con.

If it were me, I would build the biggest shed allowable/affordable, and then move all the storage stuff out to the shed and keep the shop in the garage. Stuff will still get dumped in the garage, but it can be taken out the the shed.

If the freezer is a chest type rather than upright, then it's just another work surface. Move that to the Pro column. Alternatively, anything your wife dumps in the garage could just be piled on the freezer and when she can't get into it, calmly explain why. You may want to keep a sleeping bag and ground pad from the camping stuff in the shop to deal with the fallout from that conversation.

**LCHIEN** · 12-10-2021, 12:27 PM

Seems like the wife will keep dumping stuff in the garage. Is she the hoarder or is it you, though?
Can you change it so that stuff gets dumped/stored in the shed? if a shed is just used for storage you don't need to finish it out and even have a nice level slab. Also saves running electricity to the shed, whereas the garage is already wired up. Insulating one wall is easier than 4. And they have insulation blocks you can fasten tot he panels of the overhead door. Overhead door makes it easier to bring in large projects and or machinery vs hauling it through the back yard. Garage 360 sq feet less freezer foot print is way more than 200.

Didn't say if freezer is upright or chest. but Chr's suggests the freezer is another temporary work space if a chest.

MOdern 4-ft LED utility lights can be mounted flush to the ceiling giving near maximum clearance.

**dbhost** · 12-10-2021, 12:28 PM

Originally posted by twistsol

If the freezer is a chest type rather than upright, then it's just another work surface. Move that to the Pro column. Alternatively, anything your wife dumps in the garage could just be piled on the freezer and when she can't get into it, calmly explain why. You may want to keep a sleeping bag and ground pad from the camping stuff in the shop to deal with the fallout from that conversation.

The freezer is a big upright, the size of a large fridge. 24 cu ft or something like that. Basically sized like a big vertical 80 gallon or so air compressor.

As long as I keep it clear of pokey stuff, I have REALLY nice air mattresses :-D...

I have a project in works I haven't mentioned here. Right now my coleman fuel, and propane cylinders are in the back yard wrapped in a tarp to dog proof them.

I am cobbling together out of leftover PT 2x4s and old fence planks a stowage box to protect them from the weather / dog...

And yes, there is a little bit of frustration with wife feeling free to dump whatever she doesn't know where something goes into the shop.

Originally posted by LCHIEN

Seems like the wife will keep dumping stuff in the garage. Is she the hoarder or is it you, though?
Can you change it so that stuff gets dumped/stored in the shed? if a shed is just used for storage you don't need to finish it out and even have a nice level slab. Also saves running electricity to the shed, whereas the garage is already wired up. Insulating one wall is easier than 4. And they have insulation blocks you can fasten tot he panels of the overhead door. Overhead door makes it easier to bring in large projects and or machinery vs hauling it through the back yard. Garage 360 sq feet less freezer foot print is way more than 200.

Didn't say if freezer is upright or chest. but Chr's suggests the freezer is another temporary work space if a chest.

Modern 4-ft LED utility lights can be mounted flush to the ceiling giving near maximum clearance.

We are sorting out estate stuff mostly. And in the remodel, she goes in like a whirlwind and finds stuff in the areas i am working, takes them and more or less chucks them into the garage... Her sister keeps bringing junk to the house, it goes in the garage. A good example. Yesterday she showed up with a pine hallway shelf / mirror that would in no way, shape or form go with our decor. Out to the garage it goes!

A lot of it is things she wants and projects for me, but ends up crowding me to where I can't really work.

There is literally a kitchen full of drawers, plus 2 large dressers worth of drawers. PLUS a giant tote full of stuff to keep stored in the camper once that build is done.

I think I will feel a lot less pushed if I can just get the drawers, and associated junk out of the garage. Honestly, if I can get the drawers, and bric a brack sorted, chucked, or stashed in the attic, AND the lawn and garden / camping stuffed into a shed, I should be relatively good to go. We are working on purging stuff, selling what we can, donating off stuff we can't. Anyone here wanna buy a Cableas Deluxe Camp Shower tent in primo shape? We went with a Joolca double instead...

The roll up doors are already insulated. They are done with 2 layers of Rmax foam board and liquid nails with expanding foam in the gaps. The issue is the area between the overhead door and its frame. There is gasket material available, but it dries out and crumbles away after a few short years... I keep replacing it but it is a pain to have to keep doing it.

The freezer is an upright, big one. I have the next 3 Thanksgivings covered...

My old T12 flourescent utility lights are flush mounted with the exception of the one that is in the path of the supply hose to the hose reel, which I have mounted up on a through drilled hunk of 2x2... Costs me about what, 3" of headroom?

The hose reel and air cleaner cost me a LOT more in the way of headroom.

There are some things I need to find better solutiosns to no matter garage or dedicated building.

#1. Clamp rack. The compact rolling clamp cart is fantastic, until I get to the pipe clamps, and they are just too danged big... Too tall, they are difficult to get out of the rack anywhere near the overhead doors so I end up rolling them into the driveway, pulling out the clamps and rolling the cart back in. I think I know where to hang the pipe clamps but not certain.
#2. Finishes. Particularly spray paint. Somehow, and I am not sure exactly, but I ended up with a sizeable collection of spray paint. Actually come to think of it, I went against my own design and just thought about it. All of my paint fits with room to spare, if I get hte cans of WD-40 out of there, more stuff the wife put pu not knowing where it goes. Can? Must go next to the spray paint. Not really, never made a space for it yet. Need to. Oh and the cans of biscuits. I need a better place to keep biscuits.
#3. Glue. My gallon of titebond 2 is now a quart of thick goo. It needs to go and I need to just buy in quart bottles. But the gallon at the time was the cost of 2 quart bottles, and I got 3 quarts of use out of it.
#4. Rotary tool stuff. Currently just sort of stood up on an open shelf. Sucking up half the shelf. One of those plastic multi drawer craft paper holding box things from Walmart, maybe $5.00 each, I could use 2 actually, 1 for rotary tool stuff, the other for sandpaper...
#5. Infrequently used handheld tool storage. Reciprocating saw, jig saw, giant HF belt sander etc... They are kept in tool bags and stuffed on a top shelf. I need to figure out a better way.
#6. Jig storage. My MLCS through dovetail templates / jigs are on the shelf next to the giant HF belt sander, but my HF half blind dovetail jig is hanging nicely on the wall and much easier to get to. Need to find a better way to make the MLCS jig easy to get to. My shop made box joint jig is likewise stashed on top of a cabinet. Need to figure storage out...

There is more, but yeah, it sounds like I may verywell be better off moving non shop stuff out of the garage, moving pending project stuff out of the workspace until I am ready for it, and moving on...

**capncarl** · 12-10-2021, 03:22 PM

There is no solution for the wife using garage space as a dump. Relatives bringing stuff is also the same issue.

long pipe clamps….. easy to solve. Replace the pipe with short pieces of pipe threaded on both ends and use pipe couplings to make them as long as you want. You can also bore out one end of the coupling so the pipe fits in loosely and drill and use a latch pin. A 5 gallon bucket full of pipe pieces is a lot easier to store than long assembled pipe clamps.

Explain the un insulated section above the roll up door.

free range drawers could be stored in a wall cabinet with cubby holes sized for the drawers.

a new shop could have the dust collection piping under floor. Is there any rule that a outside building must have a conventional truss roof or can it have an open A ceiling so you have more overhead room?

solution for your lights being turned off on you….. remove them from the smart switch.

another pro for the garage is being able to use the driveway for additional work space, and you can always move our the wife’s car for additional room for assembly etc. on large projects. Nothing like trying to work on the grass in the back yard in the dark!

A friend built an electric cable wench powered dumb waiter type elevator in his house garage so she could haul all of her surplus junk to the attic. It’s located next to the pull down stairs in the garage. I bet that attic looks like crap now!

garages used for everyone else’s junk is a universal problem. My neighbor behind me has a 500sf shop with a carport, in addition to the 3 car house garage. The house garage has an old Mustang that hasn’t been moved in years, a ski boat, a motorcycle, several freezers and no telling how many pieces of the grown kids leftover furniture. His shop carport has another boat, lawnmower, garden tiller and yard sweeper under it. He can’t get into his shop for old Chester drawers, kids riding toys and anything else someone hauls in. Their autos are parked on the driveway.
my old racing buddy pulled his enclosed car trailer beside his shop and evicted all of his wife’s clutter out of his shop and into the car trailer. He built nice wall to ceiling shelving on both sides and front end. The shelves held most of her stuff, at that time. Now you can’t even get in the trailer door! At least it’s out of his way for now but he will not ever get to use his trailer again,

**dbhost** · 12-10-2021, 04:29 PM

Well, when I decided to use the garage as a workshop, the deal was only thing of hers to go in there was the freezer. It was the bargain I made for her to agree with having the sub panel / wiring done in the garage. Obviously that didn't last...

I only have 4 pipe clamps, and a total of 8 pipes. 4 6 footers, and 4 4 footers. I may end up hanging them in the gap between the wall hanging boxes, on the sides of the boxes IF broom clips will hold them... My thought process was to try be able to make 10 foot clamps. It was a one time thing only doing a project with a friend....

The problem with unwelcome junk is universal yes. My uncle dealt with it, my Dad did in his basement. Thus the desire for a separate man cave. But yeah, I am struggling with giving up floor space for this.

I'd rather not post pics, but it has been eating at me how messed up it got and how quickly it happened... Basically speaking, I want my shop back.

Some of it is my doing as well. The camping gear, I was trying to make it easier to get to the stuff we use. It worked for that VERY well but it contributed to the problem. Although lawn and garden, as well as camping gear takes up a total of 36sq ft... Basically a box enclosed by 2 24" deep by 4 foot wide racks, the wall, and the door...

In garage pros	In garage cons	In shed pros	In shed cons
Power already run	Deep freeze in space	Completely dedicated space	Need to build everything from ground up.
Dust collection runs exist	North wall stil uninsulated	No contamination of house	Detatched from house / plumbing.
Cabinetry designed for garage	8' ceilings only, not really able to stand sheet goods on end.	Easy to insulate and HVAC	Gobbles up space in tiny yard.
Overhead doors allow easy load in / out	Overhead doors use up a whole wall, and are impossible to seal	Easy to keep warm / cool.	Difficult to move items in / out.
Lighting, air scrubber, and hose reel already installed.	Lighting, air scrubber, and hose reel cut down overhead room	Ability to recess lighting during design phase.	An angle to roof creates problems for haging air cleaner.
VERY easy to upgrade to 6" dust ports. LOTS of room for the ducting.	Current ducting dual 4". Needs to be updated.	Can design in Dust collection duct routing in initial build	Due to limited space, duct routing interferes with ability to use wall mounted storage
Can use BT3100 with wide table kit to match workbench.	Current status, BT3100 on wide table kit difficult to move.	BT3100 can be taken back down to stock rails. Compact router table wing.	Reduced size of BT3100,
18x20 space, minus the deep freezer.	Have to put things on wheels to free up for car storage	No need to share space with anyone or anything.	Limited to 200sq / ft with shorter ceilings.
Already mostly integrated with smart home	Need to figure out how to get Alexa to ignore my wifes voice on commands for garage. Keep her from turning lights off on me.	Can integrate with smart home easily.	This assumes constant added power.

Am I making sense? Garage workshop vs shed workshop. My thoughts...

Am I making sense? Garage workshop vs shed workshop. My thoughts...

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