Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms refurbing the garage

no doubt the subject has been discussed before but I failed to find it using the search.

our garage dates from the late 90s with a vinyl tile covered concrete screeded floor, an ill fitting garador and walls constructed from lightwieght unpainted blockwork. The floor types are the sort of 1 ft square coloured vinyl you used to see on 1960s kitchens, and a few have lifted as water from wet cars has got underneath. How the rest are glued down I do not know.

So - would you plaster the walls and then paint or just paint?

And the floor - best strip I guess but what to cover it with. Not keen on the interlocking tiles, but paint on top of the adhesive? Maybe quarry tiles?

Any door recommendations?

What about benches? Currently there is a sturdy wooden bench with lots of drawers underneath and looks like it came out of an old house kitchen. Plus a bit of dexion racking from the labs at Daniel Doncasters Steelworks


This will mainly be a DIY project and to misquote Gordon Gecko - thrift is good.

I can't see the point of plastering garage walls, I didn't even paint mine, but we did specify 'fair-faced' blocks. If your blockwork is a bit pants I would just paint them with an exterior emulsion.

I went for a plastered ceiling though, and fitted plenty of LED battens

Not sure why you don't like interlocking tiles, I love mine. Easy to look after, comfy to kneel on.

As for a door, I went for insulated roller shutters with high-security channels. They cannot be jacked or levered open, and don't occupy ceiling space when open.

what sort of floor tiles did you use and have you had them down long?

Ecotiles, they were the only ones I found that were British made. They've been down since April 2016.

The best thing I did was line the block walls with larch planks from the local sawmill, looks a million dollars but cost less than any other cladding.
It was good fun to do, it’s a lovely material to work with, lots of benefits including, provides good insulation, prevents condensation and softens any noise.
My door is an insulated sectional with windows, my floor is ceramic tiles. The door was expensive but the tiles were only £5 m2 plus grout and adhesive, I laid them myself, again, that’s about as cheap as it’s possible to cover a concrete floor and yet, it looks very expensive.

Similar to Tim above.

I did paint my brick work with an exterior white paint. I painted my floor in a light grey concrete floor paint. My roof is open to the rafters but there was already strip lighting in there.

I put three electric roller shutter doors on for security, space saving, ease of use and to provide a wider entry into the garage to get my wife's SL in.

I keep the Aero in an air chamber and I dehumidify the garage if the RH% rises above 70%.

Insulation and plywood walls , insulative floor coverings of various types , try e bay .

I've had the walls plastered in my workshop and then given a couple of coats of light coloured emulsion. I've no idea of cost though as I put a new floor in a truck for my mate who is a plasterer. I find it easier to keep clean especially as I do a lot of spraying in my workshop.

The concrete floor is boarded with 8x4 sheets of exterior grade marine ply which is then painted with industrial floor paint. Warmer than a concrete floor when you are lying on it and easily replaced if it gets damaged.

The work bench is made from 2 x 2 angle iron with an off cut of kitchen worktop on it which came from the local builders merchants - the size of the offcut dicated the framework needed for it.

Arwyn

Brushed the brick walls and coated with 3 coats of white emulsion. Floor done with latex screed intending to put Ecotiles down (the company is just up the road to us) but ended up just putting leftover carpet down. Have to hoover it every now and again but it’s proving remarkably resilient. Well worth doing as the garage is lighter, cleaner and easier to keep tidy.

A good number of mugs just like me on here who spent extra to get an insulated roller shutter door rather than an uninsulated roller shutter door.

The foam insulation is too thin to insulate to any extent as if it was, the size of roller when loaded with the door would not fit between the top of the door opening and the garage roof.

They are just as bad as a single glazed window, insulation wise and while my garage has insulated walls 4" to 6" and ceilings again 4" to 6", on a cold day when I'm working inside the garage with electric fan heaters on, the inside of the roller doors are covered in condensation.

To get a properly insulated door you require to install a sectional garage door and in that case you have to have somewhere for the door to go when open and if that is the roof and you want a lift in the garage you loose lifting height as the mechanism will get in the way!

Therefore what do you want to do in the garage. Do you want it basically to not look as bad as it is or do you want to spend time in there maintaining the car and doing other odd jobs in the winter.

If you want to spend time in there in the winter we have to talk insulation, heating and lighting and sufficient power or if it is just to look less worse, then painting the walls and either painting the floor or some form of floor covering is all that is required.