Building Storage in our Garage

Frank Pellow

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Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Building Storage in our Garage (pics)

(post 1 of 2)

This year I have been revamping our two car garage to hold our car (we only have one), our trailer, lumber, sheet goods, and lot of other stuff. Most of the work was done last spring, but I am putting the final touches on the place right now. I keep a weekly journal and here are the relevant extracts from that journal.

April 9th 2006:

On Sunday, I started to tear down all the old shelving in the garage. I am going the build all new platforms and shelves with a reorganized layout. The new layout should easily accommodate both the car and trailer as well as all the other paraphernalia that is in the garage now and also provide space for storing wood (wood for woodworking, that is).

Garage Reorg -01 -small.jpg

Garage Reorg -02 -small.jpg

That’s the old platform at the back. At the stage shown in these pictures, it is about half torn down. That particular platform will be replaced with one of about the same size, but the new one will be much stronger and it will not have a centre post.


2006 April 16:

It was a close thing, but I achieved my objective of getting both the car and trailer stored in the garage by 18:00 on Saturday. I built three different platforms to hold the stuff. The first is a small platform in the north-west corner, mostly there to protect the gas exhaust pipe. Even though the base for this platform is small, I used the same construction technique on it as I later used on the two much larger platforms. That technique is to cut slots into the tops of vertical 4x4s and then to place notched 2x6s (or 2x8s for the platform across the back with the large expanse) on edge into those slots.

Garage Reorg -05 -small.JPG

I plan to, eventually, place some sort of framework on top of this platform to hold 5x5 Baltic birch plywood sheets on their edge.

We had some quite nice weather this week and I was able to set up the saw horse platform in the driveway and work there, as can be seen in the picture below. Also notice the structure in the garage doorway. That is the support for one end of the platform that is to extend across the back of the garage.

Garage Reorg -03 -small.JPG

The pictures below show the platform under which the trailer is to reside under construction:

Garage Reorg -06 -small.jpg Garage Reorg -07 -small.jpg

The platforms are now done:

Garage Reorg -08 -small.jpg Garage Reorg -09 -small.jpg


And here I am just after 18:00 having crammed everything into the garage:

Garage Reorg -10 -small.jpg

Almost nothing is currently in the place where it belongs. Some things need to be given away and several shelves still need to be built. But, the hard work has been done.
 
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(post 2 of 2)

2006 April 23:

On Tuesday, I built the storage rack for the Baltic birch plywood. I used wood that I rescued from the old platform. The rack is quite light but strong and does the job well.

Frame for Baltic Birch playwood -1 -small.jpg Frame for Baltic Birch playwood -2 -small.jpg Frame for Baltic Birch playwood -3 -small.jpg


I built a couple of shelving units for the garage and am in the middle of painting them right now.

Garage shelves under construction -2 -small.jpg


2006 April 30:

The first order of business this week was to install the two new sets of shelves in the garage, then to paint them a final coat. Here is they are:

New shelves in garage -1 -small.jpg New shelves in garage -2 -small.JPG

The shelves in the left picture are positioned just inside the back door at the right hand side of the rear platform. The ones in the right picture are on the west wall. I will eventually build another (less deep) set of shelves replace the current simple ones that a currently between the new shelves and the front of the garage.


2006 October 29:

I am building some lumber storage racks to be installed on the large shelf over the trailer. Here is one of the racks being assembled on a rather expensive assembly table.

Assembling part of lumber rack on my table saw -small.jpg

The wood is all salvaged from neighbours. I cut it into approximate 1.5 x 2.75 inch sections of appropriate lengths. All the joints are butt joints and I am using two 3.5 galvanized spiral nails per joins.
 
Frank, that is great, isn't it just the best to get a bunch more space out of an existing structure? :D

I do that myself a LOT here in Japan, space is hard to come by, but you can make good use of it, if you try.

Cheers!
 
Lumver storage racks now complete

OK, I finished the lumber storage racks that I showed under construction a couple of days ago. Here are a couple of pictures:

Wood storage rack in garage -2 -small.JPG Wood storage rack in garage -3 -small.JPG

Now to fill them ...

Thats completes the storage enhancement that I will be doing in the garage. But, there are more to follow in next spring.
 
Frank,

Nice job on the racks.

And I learned something new and unexpected from your pictures. I'd never heard of "Avodire" before, so I googled it and now know it's an African hardwood often referred to as "African Light Mahagony".

Thanks...
- Marty -
 
Frank,

Nice job on the racks.

And I learned something new and unexpected from your pictures. I'd never heard of "Avodire" before, so I googled it and now know it's an African hardwood often referred to as "African Light Mahagony".

Thanks...
- Marty -
Thanks Marty. The racks work well and, already, I have used them to sort out my stock of lumber and it is organized far better than it has ever been. The different size openings worked very well. The fact that I can get at them from either end also helps. :) But, the racks are now 95% full. :( I sure wish that I had about three times the room for racks.

I purchased the avaodire at an annual clearence sale at a local lumberyard (Century Mill Lumber). Now I am on the lookout for a suitable project.
 
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Frank,
way to go! at first I questioned the height above the trailer platform, looked like it would get stuck in a hurry. Then I realized that the tail end was up because it was parked and all was good.

Then I saw your car, and I have to admit I laughed. That has to be the first and only Audi I've ever seen with a trailer hitch. Not that It wouldn't haul, but I'm a Trucker, and seeing trailers of any sort behind luxury cars just seems a bit incongrous. Just out of curiousity what is the car rated to tow, and where idid you find a hitch assembly to fit it?
 
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Frank,
way to go! at first I questioned the height above the trailer platform, looked like it would get stuck in a hurry. Then I realized that the tail end was up because it was parked and all was good.

Then I saw your car, and I have to admit I laughed. That has to be the first and only Audi I've ever seen with a trailer hitch. Not that It wouldn't haul, but I'm a Trucker, and seeing trailers of any sort behind luxury cars just seems a bit incongrous. Just out of curiousity what is the car rated to tow, and where idid you find a hitch assembly to fit it?

Ned, first of all, let me welcome you to Family Woodworking. I am gald that you found your way here and I hope that you come back often.

I guess that my Audi A4 could be considered a luxury car, but it is the cheapest Audi that they make and I just consider it to be a better Volkswagon. I have owned 6 Volkswagons in my life (if you count the Audi) and I keep cars a long time so those are the majority of cars that I have owned. The manual frowns upon folks mounting a hitch to the car, but they say that it is possible as long as it is attached to the body and not to the bumper. I found a local trailer specialty shop to put the hitch on the car for me. The car it rated to tow a trailer of about 600 kilograms when does not have brakes, more if the trailer has brakes. 600 kilograms is somewhat over 1,300 pounds.
 
A year later

I thought that I would post an update to this thread. All summer our car and trailer sit outside, but come winter, I manage (somehow) to cram them into the garage again. I just managed that feat again this afternoon.

Here are a few photos from prior years:

2003: Our car in the garage-2003.JPG

2004: Our car in the garage-2004.JPG

2006 -early: Our car in the garage-2006.JPG

2006 –late: There is no picture with the car in the place, but here is one of the new lumber storage rack on top of the place that the trailer is stored:

Lumber Storage Rack in garage -2006 -small.JPG

Last week I built two more sets of shelves for the garage and here are two pictures taken this afternoon:

Car in garage 2007 -left -small.JPG Car in garage 2007 -right -small.JPG

The blue shelves are the new ones. As you can see, over the years, we never have additional room for the car but the other stuff in the garage is getting much better organized. There is still room for improvement and I will report again next year about the same time.
 
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