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Recent Blog Posts
Brightening Up Your Garage with Fluorescent Lighting
If you are the type of person who does a lot of handiwork in your garage, you will want to be sure your workstation is well lit. With poor lighting, it is difficult to make precise measurements and accurate cuts. If you do a lot of painting, you will want to be sure your colors look good in proper lighting. There is no reason to strain your eyes when there are better, inexpensive lighting options out there. Florescent lights provide brighter, more consistent lighting with a color rendering index of at least 85. While many garages and garage door openers come with built in bare bulb lights, the fact of the matter is they often are not powerful enough to get the job done.
To take on this simple project, all you will need is a cordless drill, wire cutters, metal bushing, screws, nuts, and the florescent fixtures and lights. First, remove your current lighting with the drill, wire cutters and any other tools you may need. For safety purposes, make sure your power is turned off. Now put in your florescent fixtures that will hold your new bulbs. You will want to make sure to buy 8 ft. fixtures that can hold 4 ft. bulbs. Using sets of 4 ft. bulbs is typically easier to maintain than the longer 8 ft. ones.
How to Deodorize Your Garage
Musty smells can make your garage an unpleasant place to be. Because it acts as a home to grease, oils, yard supplies and other chemicals it is inevitable that your garage will develop a stench over time. Even after removing these smelly items, your garage will hold its stink due to lack of ventilation. Follow the steps below to remove the stench for good and make your garage an enjoyable place for your whole family.
Put Your Smelly Items Away
It is impossible to get rid of all the smelly oils and chemicals in your garage, so the important thing to do is limiting the area they cover. Keep all of your odorous items in one place, ideally in a sealed cupboard or shelf. Make sure all the items are sealed. It also helps to store an open box of baking soda alongside them to help combat the smells.
Clean Your Floor
The garage floor is where most of your garage's smell comes from. For this reason you must thoroughly clean your floor with a solution of bleach and water. Use a broom and brush vigorously. Be sure to target any specific stains and neutralize the odor with coffee grounds or kitty litter.
Garage Pests: Carpenter Ants and Termites
Termites and carpenters ants are threats that we do not often think about until it is too late. Homeowners often neglect to check for these devastating pests during the summer months when they are most active and swarming. One of the main places that these pests nest in is a house's garage. Garages attract carpenter ants and termites because they have wood frames and areas of the wall that are not sealed properly and can provide easy entry. Garages also have higher levels of moisture than other parts of the house which attracts the insects.
Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not eat wood. They nest in it. Carpenter ants get their name because they dig through wood for their colonies and turn wood planks into piles of sawdust called frass. If you find strange, small piles of sawdust in your garage, that typically means you have a carpenter ant infestation. The longer these are left untreated, the more damage is done to your home. Carpenter ant colonies grow quickly, as they use the garage's wooden frame to build new nests and tunnels.
Turning Your Garage into a Home Bar
Something a lot of people have dreamed of at some point in their life is owning their own bar. Rather than trekking across town to pay for overpriced drinks, you could host your family and friends and avoid crowds. While owning a bar is not a possibility for everyone, building a bar is a project that almost anyone can tackle. And the perfect place for this project is the most underutilized room of the house - the garage. While your garage might not initially seem like the comfiest place to have a drink with your friends, after a little clean up and paint job it will soon become your new favorite hangout.
Step 1- Clean Up
No one wants to drink in a room filled with dust and cobwebs. Take time to clear out any unnecessary junk from your garage. After that, be sure to do a thorough sweeping and mopping of your floor. Make sure you wipe down the walls of your garage as well. Your garage should be clean and inviting for your future guests.
How Garage Insulation Can Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
In the hot summer months, we all depend on our A/C to keep us cool. However, constant A/C usage can cause your energy bills to skyrocket. One key to keeping your bills low, but also staying cool, is to ensure your home is energy efficient. One way that many homeowners waste energy is through interface problems with their attached garages.
When built, a house's outer walls are insulated with materials to prevent heat loss and air flow to the outdoors. Homes with attached garages, however, often lack this insulation on the walls facing their garage. These walls may have holes or gaps in them, unintentionally left over after construction.
In the winter, the temperature in a garage mimics the outside weather, and in the summer, that temperature can sometimes rise even hotter than the outside air. These temperature differences cause air conditioning systems to overwork to compensate for the air that seeps through these holes. Additionally, these gaps are a safety concern. Garage fires (which we have previous discussed on the blog) can spread to your house through these small holes.
Converting Your Garage into a Guest Bedroom
If a home office, gym, or bar is not your thing, but you are still looking for a way to overhaul your garage, consider converting your empty garage into an extra bedroom for your home. An extra space to sleep is ideal if you have family members visiting often, teenagers who want more space, or want to start renting out rooms for additional income. Additionally, adding an extra bedroom will increase the value of your home. That being said, converting your garage from a dusty, car storage to a cozy accommodation is a lot of work. Depending on the type of room you want, this project will cost anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. You may want to hire a professional contractor for some parts of the process as well.
The first step to creating a new bedroom is insuring you have the necessary permits to convert your garage into a living space. Every town has different zoning laws for these types of things, but typically you will need a permit from your city or town to start the project. After that, you will want to start the conversion by removing your garage door and all its parts, and replacing it with a wall. Unless you have some sort of background in construction, this is the part of the process where you will need to consult a professional. When the new wall is put in, be sure its siding matches the aesthetic of the rest of your house. With the new wall put in, you will also want to be sure to insulate and drywall it, and ensure the other walls of the garage are properly insulated.
How to Convert Your Garage into a Home Gym
After reading our prior posts about clearing out your clutter, you may be wondering how to utilize your new spacious garage. One idea for an alternative garage use is turning your garage into a home gym. A garage provides the perfect setting to get a quick workout in, and can be as big or small as your fitness goals are. By building a gym for your home, you skip the commute time, annoying crowds, and steep costs of working out at your hometown gym. Best of all, converting your garage into a home gym removes any excuse for missing a workout.
Step 1- Establish Your Space
Unlike other garage conversion projects, turning your garage into a gym does not require any major changes to the structural aspects of your garage. There is no need to provide any additional lighting, carpeting or insulation if you are just using the garage for sweating and pumping iron. Determining how much space you will need for your gym is up to you and your fitness goals. Your garage gym could simply consist of a treadmill and a weight rack and only take up a small corner of the garage. You could also decide to start parking your car on the street and turn the entire garage into a CrossFit studio.
Famous Garages: The HP Garage
Our blog has gone into detail on plenty of alternative uses for your garage, one of them being a home office. Garages offer the perfect place for entrepreneurs to do business as they provide no cost to operate out of and allow them to work from their home. Even some of the biggest companies in the world can be traced back to their garage-based humbled beginnings. One of the most famous companies to start out in a garage is tech giant Hewlett-Packard. This garage has become so well known that it is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and is know as "the Birthplace of Silicon Valley".
In 1905, Dr. John Spencer first built his property at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California. He added the garage years later, and it first became occupied by Dave Packard in 1938. That same year, Bill Hewett moved into the residence's garage so that he and Packard could begin their business partnership. At the time, they only had $538 between the two of them. The garage measured only 12 by 18 feet, and consisted of just a concrete floor and a workbench. Hewlett and Packard spent their early years developing the HP 200A, an audio oscillator that Walt Disney invested in for his famous hit, Fantasia. This product was manufactured entirely in their garage in Palo Alto. By 1940, Hewlett and Packard had become big enough to move onto bigger and better things, however, the company still pays respects to its birthplace.
DIY Mechanics and Garage Car Lifts
Becoming a "do-it-yourself mechanic" is a growing trend among car owners and enthusiasts alike. For those who enjoy working on cars in a home garage, it can be especially grueling when squeezing between the concrete floor and car for hours on end. For this reason, many do-it-yourselfers install car lifts in their garages. Additionally, car lifts free up space in your garage. If you are a car collector, you can easily shelter two of your cars inside your garage where you would normally only be able to fit one.
Car lifts can run anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the type of lift you want. Home lifts operate identically to those found in auto shops, and can be made to fit in most types of garages. However, you should be sure to check that your garage is big enough to accommodate a lift. Ideally, your garage should be at least 22 feet deep, 11 feet tall, and your floor should be made of concrete that is 4.5-5 inches thick.
Tips on Running a Successful Garage Sale
An important aspect of maintaining your house and garage is keeping it clear of clutter. A good tactic is to do this at least once or twice a year. However, when you decide what you want to part with, what do you do with it? Rather than throwing your old belongings in the trash, you can make a profit and hold a garage sale. In the summer months, many shoppers traverse their neighborhoods for the best deals on gently used items. Read below for our steps on how to prepare a successful garage sale and make some money out of your garage this summer.
1. Decide on your inventory
Make sure to rummage through all parts of your house to find any clothes, toys, appliances, or other trinkets that you no longer have use for. Generally, the rule of thumb is if it was stored away in a box and unseen for years, it is time to give it away. Ask your children what clothes they have grown out of and what toys they no longer play with. These can find a new home with a family of young children. Additionally, make sure none of the items you are trying to sell are broken, beat up, or dirty. Visitors to your sale might see these items and be turned off from buying other things.
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