New Workshop/Garage Fit Out Ideas

you might be best to become a member of 'garagejournal.com' and scout what those crazy guys are up to. I've seen some awesome garage setups on there. (Keep in mind its mostly US).


My best attempt thus far was my 60X30ft shed at my old house (we rent it out now so someone else enjoys my man cave). But I never got it finished the way I originally wanted and after I had the Aussie Fever strippers put a show on for me and some mates it just seemed to turn into a full time bar!... guess you could say I lost my way!. 
 
One thing I do not regret having in it - 8.2kw inverter split system AC... my old house is in Cobar, so temps get really hot, then in winter we get really cold thanks to the desert conditions. so the AC was easily best investment. 

some other little trinkets we put in there:
- Compressor with retractable hose reel (was planning to plumb in an air line but never got round to doing it)
- 240V power outlets at every truss (had plans for 3 phase as I had a used 3 phase hoist. these days i'll just stick with    
  240v on the next one as it's not really needed for me)
- Concrete Sealant - used a light blue. kept shed tidy and less dusty - easy to maintain and hard wearing
- 9ft slate pool table
- 2 X 120L fridges
- lounge suite
- TV, DVD player
- home made timber workbench with vice and power board
 

I'm soon to build a kind of pitbox at my current house which will house my SP Tools ute box and act as a work bench I can pull around the shed or even around the yard if I'm working elsewhere. keen to make a functional workspace that isn't tied into the one location of the shed.

be sure to post up pics when you start getting your garage sorted, and congrats on the new shed... I mean house....

If you plan to install a car hoist, think about having enough roof height.
A 2 poster will need special footings, but a 4 poster should be fine on a stock 100 mm reo concrete floor.
 
Some 4 posters can be easily moved around with detachable casters.
 

Have one bay with a plumbed level floor (no drainage) for wheel alignment, corner weighting and drinking.
You realise 3.3 is a bit minimal head height.  OK for MR2 but Porsche Turbo, Maserati, Mercedes, Jaguar etc.
Go a bit higher and you can store one of the afore mentioned up on the hoist and another under it.
Drinking at altitude ?
Solid, well braced hardwood decked work bench. Vice and grinder away somewhere you can keep swept clean.
No seats anywhere. (No work happens while seated).  Drink standing !
Can I have first dibs to spill oil all over the place ?

Hi Again,
+1 for Dudeman's attention to ventilation.
As I expected there is lots of stuff on internet about compressed air reticulation.
One of the pics attached shows the main basic principles. Another important basic is tube/pipe size.
The other pic is a basic condenser made from tubing, to install between Compressor & Receiver.
Probably cheaper & less maintenance than an air drier, & probably good enough for air tools. Not for spray painting but.

I agree, put a window in....albeit small but enough to see the outside world. It also means you get daylight in there if you just trying to grab tools etc for jobs outside of the shed without having to go near a light switch.
 
I'm a little on the fence regarding expoying the floors. Its a great product, but have heard to you need to redo it every 5-10 years? Its a hell of a job to do. I just used the garage paint on the concrete floor myself and its worked a treat. Best part is, you can always just whack another coat on as required which is easy to do.
 
As Dudeman mentioned, keep walls/ceiling white to give the best light in all situations. 
 
If your going to all the effort of putting in air attachments, maybe put on on the outside of the shed. Could come in useful for painting/grinding or the like outside? (Depends on how decked out the inside is)
 
my 2c :)

If you in Melbourne I can give you the name of a guy who Epoxied my garage floors. I got a full flake epoxied garage floor. How many meters length/width is your garage going to be? Also for the hoists with 4 post hoists you can get add on's that slide so you can jack the wheels up. I have a double garage with 6meter high ceilings so I was looking at putting in hoists to make it a 4 car garage. I think if parking underneath a 4 post is safer, plus easier to drive in and out of. As for air tools I thought about that too as I used to have a compressor at my parents house but I ended up selling that off as Lithium Ion battery tools are better because most of the time what you need is an impact wrench but with the battery one its easy to take to the track, plus don't need to wait for the compressor to fill with air (I used to drain mine as I didn't want it to rust). The only thing you can't do is spray I guess but from experience of spray painting at home with the compressor it always turns out crap because there is too much dust that will end up settling into the paint, that's why spray places have car ovens.
 
*Edit* oh I should say, I tried to do the self epoxy floor kits from Bunnings first but they end up lifting with tyres in the space of a year. That why I got a guy in to redo the floor. He ground it down to the point where we could go for grind and seal or just epoxy with full flake. He said it needs to be ground as this opens up the pours in the concrete without that it just lifts.

Great suggestions by everybody.
 
I agree, some natural light would be a good way to go. I can add some slit windows high up out of the way.
 
The garage will be roughly 8m deep x 10.5 m long, one 3.5m bay with 2.4 m ceiling and the other 3.3 m ceiling. Looks like I have some research to do on epoxy costings as well. If applied right I should get a few years out of it. Any reapplication could be done without completely emptying the garage I suppose. Im in Hobart so I will need to do this myself or pay someone to do it.
 
Im still keen on the air system as there a number of other tools to use with it such as air gun, cutting tools, tyre inflator etc. Great idea for an outlet on the external wall, will need to be in a weatherproof box.
 
A shop press is something I have wanted for ages so will definitely be getting one of these, among other things.
 
Time to do more research on hoists, you have me thinking about a 4 post now although there is no reason to park a car on a 2 post.