[Closed] Buying a house with a garage

That's great news, and garages (or man caves) are brilliant. Though my advice would be not to be too ambitious. The space disappears quickly unless you're really careful.

Thanks and I agree. Struggling with the lay out in my head hence asking for advice.. might be best waiting until I have the keys in my hand before I get too far ahead of myself 😉

The other thing to consider is how many "holes" are in the wall. They use up valuable wall space. Is there a garage door and a pedestrian door? Any Windows?

A side door does mean you can have a powered garage door (if there's power) which might be more secure.

However, if one or the other isn't needed, bricking it up might be an option to get more wall space.

How far is it from the house? Can you extend the alarm system out that far?

We (I) specifically chose our house in the small 12 house development as it was 1 of 2 with a detached garage. We paid about an extra £5k for it. Single garage with a tiled roof and 'loft space' Also had a side door and window which face onto the garden (the garage is set back from the house). The side door and window were more for aesthetics - they've been bolted shut and steel bars fitted behind the glass since the bikes started moving in (wall spaced used to hang garden chairs and a few 'pop up' tents). No cars in there now, but it's the bike store, and workshop.  Zwift is set up and I also have an old PC for streaming music.  We have a powerline extender with wired and WIFI in there which covers the back garden and side garden/wife's summer house.

Bikes mounted on one wall - 4 vertically, and others on wall brackets. Added additional LED spot lights for bike maintenance, over and above the florescent tube. The summer house's electric is run from the garage too.

Security is pretty high on my up and over - two of the concealed locking shoot bolts on the bottom and two additional locks as well - takes a bit to get in, but it's damned noisy if someone tries to break in (two attempts in 20 years - both failed).

Racking at the far end, with another rack and a metal cabinet on the right hand wall. The a long storage unit/work bench. Opposite side, gardening kit, and bikes.

Garages are great but they are fantastic magnets for clutter and general crap, so don't get into the habbit of just 'bunging it in the garage for the time being' because the time being quickly becomes pretty permanent. My wife keeps trying to commandeer garage space for wasting machines, freezers and general storage. One day she even suggested we convert it into a room!!!

I'd say before you put anything in it seal the floor and paint it and the walls too and sort out the electrics and make sure you have plenty of sockets around the place. Also if you can get a cold water feed into it and waste so you can have a small sink with water heater. It would be great to be able to complete a ride, go straight into the garage and have the ability to make a brew or a post ride shake, clean up and sort yourself out without having to go into the house.

I'll second not allowing it to be a dumping ground.  Got control back in the last year as the family were dumping too much in there.  My missus bought me a load of heavy duty shelving for Christmas last year, I was chuffed as I then attacked it, binning any crap the family had left. It's still rammed, but everything is on shelves, in boxes and 'organised'. I have space to service the bikes, and 'good' lighting to see detail.

I never got round to sealing the floor in 20 odd year. Not been a big issue (but if you can - do it) so long as you keep the floor clean - not easy in a garage, but the leaf blower works amazingly well.  I've also used an old hoover (the one we use for the cars) to get into nooks and crannies. If you leave it, it can get a right 'sh1t tip' so keep on top of organising.  I've seen some really clinical garages, and that look ace, but so long as you can get to everything and it's not overly cluttered, you'll  be happy.

That said, there is an old exercise bike that the MIL gave us (she used it about twice) that I want gone as it takes up floor space, and a 'chair' that's awaiting recovering.

Not got water in there, but the outside tap is just a few feet from the garage.  Make sure you can get WIFI out there and some tunes, and you are sorted.  Finally sorted the 'tunes' recently.

My back is knackered after some idiot driver broke it, so I have to 'potter' about doing jobs, i.e. don't go mad, so having the garage, the tunes on, and the ability to work that bit slower to get gardening done, or making something for the garden, without having to rush is great.

Certainly get it organised, and try and keep it that way - not easy, but makes bike maintenance easier, access to garden tools/ drills/ saws etc easy.

Nowhere near enough room in.mine for a gym. It contains 12 bikes (not all mine) of varying sizes, paint, DIY kit, car tools, bike stuff, bike racks, power tools, eight car wheels and surprisingly little junk. No room for a gym, a punchbag or anywhere to sit and drink tea. That is a silly idea IMO. Unless you are one of those hen pecked husbands from that 80s sitcom.

My garage houses the older bikes - tumble drier ... and masses of stuff hardly ever used, but necessary to keep for when I do ..

Since both of my kids moved out, I now have a zwifting room ... and a spare room to keep the boxed summer bike.

Paint the floor and walls before you fill it with shit, or you'll forever regret not doing it.

Single garage here with 4 bikes tumble dryer and bench and shelves in one half and gym stuff in  the other .

We have a squat rack , TRX and some kettle bells and a cheap spin bike , good enough to get a decent workout with out taking up to much space .we also got a load of insulation over the main door in an effort to reduce drafts and try and warm it up a bit as exercising in a cold damp garage wasn't to much fun .

Lots of hooks on walls is a decent storage tip and I have 2 bikes on the floor and 2 on prongs like a cheap car rack  against the wall . I tried having them on those wheel hooks next to each other but whilst this took up less wall space I didn't like losing the floor space as I felt it made the garage seem smaller although I may revisit that at some point , combination of the two I think .

I also wish I had levelled the floor and painted it before putting stuff in there as being honest I'm not sure I will ever get round to that now .

A side door does mean you can have a powered garage door (if there’s power) which might be more secure.

Why do you say this? We have a powered door and no other means of entry to our garage.

"Paint the floor and walls before you fill it with shit, or you’ll forever regret not doing it."

Wise words. Paint the walls white if (like mine) there's no windows.

Paint the floor and walls before you fill it with shit, or you’ll forever regret not doing it.

100% this, and i say it from bitter, drab, dusty, experience 🙁

If you can, get a double garage!!
Previous house just had a large-ish shed for garden stuff, camping stuff & bike stuff.

When we moved in to the current house, the thought of having a decent sized garden shed AND a garage filled me with joy & I imagined what I could do with all that space & how I would fill it. Hmmmm. Now it's pretty full with not much room to swing a cat & I cast envious eyes over the people with their extravagant double garages.
There's not even that much stuff in there.....

Definitely get the floor painted & the walls done in a nice bright white. Get electrics in, assuming that's possible & as mentioned put as many sockets in as reasonably possible. We've got a fair few in ours at around chest height and I could really do with adding some more.
Lighting too - ours has got two rather feeble fluo tubes. It's on the (massive) to-do list to replace these with LED tubes & probably add one or two more.

Have a go at tiling the floor - its not that hard and provides a really great finish that no other surface can match (IMHO)

I think I did it for £100 which was less than getting the rubber mats

Insulate if you can

and an infrared heater over the bench is great

and an infrared heater over the bench is great

I just have an old halogen inspection lamp which works pretty well - bought from Screwfix for about £2 in a sell off now they have all swapped over to LED.

There’s some pretty good threads on here if you have a search - I keep hunting for the one with the guy who made his integral garage part of the house with upvc front and some really nice units inside, I can never find that thread though.

I just moved into my first owned home with a garage, was really excited to paint the floors and walls, fit a side door, fit lighting and more sockets and then a bench. But noticed a leak over the weekend, had a buddy round last night and it the entire roof needs doing circa £700, the excitement levels have really slumped...

The ashfelt looked relatively new and the homebuyer survey (useless) didn't pick anything up, turns out, although new, it wasnt fitted properly...

Since both of my kids moved out, I now have a zwifting room … and a spare room to keep the boxed summer bike.

... if you just heard a "clink" that was the sound of the penny dropping... I too have a new Zwifting room I didn't have 2 months ago 🙂 🙂 🙂

(at least until xmas that is)

Love my garage but it filled up quick so I built another one on the side. One is for (very organised) storage the other half is the workshop. Hot and cold running water, full electrics, newer kitchen units and worktops than the house kitchen, fully lined, insulated with WIFI and phone. Just need a telly and chair and i could move in.

This thread needs more pictures!!

i have just built a house and got a free design of the garage. So far I have sealed the floor, loads of lights and have put up racking for storage. I’m putting bike racks on the walls and a tool board arrives this week. Two 2 meter benches are going in the corner later this month. I’m lucky enough to have a small living area there with a couple of old sofas. There is wired internet for a YouTube tv and music.

I found all all my stuff on BigDug but they wouldn’t deliver so found equivalent stuff out here in Spain. There are lots of plans to follow: a beer fridge, photos for the walls, trail tool rack, big 3D map etc etc. I’m going to soft tile a corner for post work stretching.

We're looking around at houses now as we need to move out sometime in the next couple of years, the garage is top of my priority list!

I need one I can put my race car in so I can get rid of the place I currently rent, then I'll need room to work on it and for a bench etc, space for my bikes, roof space for storage would be nice, and I'm thinking now I've read this I'll need room for a beer fridge and sofa!!

 and an infrared heater over the bench is great

I just put the tumble dryer on!!