My Coach House to Garage Conversion

[hidetheelephants]

duff-man said:

Tracked barrow?

So much win.

[Mark Benson]

Ug_lee said:

2 Post lift has been ordered and will be with me next Wednesday. Needs to be fitted prior to the tiling which is happening early October.

Now, how to get the parts which come on a curtain side truck of which the heaviest part is 200KG, from the end of the driveway into the garage?

Mates are out of the question, I have them but unfortunately they all work during the week. Also some cheap car dolleys won't work as they will dig into the gravel bit stuck as to how to do this, any ideas?

Given that you managed to secure a new garage complete with lift for an o-ring (that wasn't even faulty), I expect nothing less than some sort of hovercraft as the solution to this problem.

[geeks]

Given your fondness for overkill how about something like this:

[_bryan_]

Can you not check with the haulage company to see if the truck will be accompanied by a fork lift??

Failing that, hire a fork lift????

[Ug_lee]

Thanks for all the suggestions chaps it certainly gave me something to think and laugh about! In the end I decided to go for the middle ground and used this to get the lift off the truck.

Worked brilliantly. This all happened 5 weeks ago but was offshore with no internet until now. Aim is to hit the ground running this time home, get the lift up and running and then the tiling.

I've been wavering between porcelain or the dynotile not sure which to go with. It will be a working garage so something that is easy to clean and deals with spills would point to the porcelain. However I'd like to heat it and the plastic tiles insulate the floor considerably better.

[alpha channel]

That is one nice garage.

I'd go plastic as if it's a working garage then, stuff, heavy metal stuff, will get dropped and having to replace a porcelain tile (or two) every time you drop a hammer/screwdriver/spanner would get... irritating. Personally I'm all for a (slightly) oil stained cement floor, a proper garage should look used .

[Hugo a Gogo]

I'd have gone for polished and sealed concrete

[Ug_lee]

Reached a bit of a milestone today!



It took a whole day yesterday of shifting posts/car in/car out before I was happy with the location of the lift. But it definitely paid off as things are seriously tight. With my back in absolute bits from yesterdays graft I finished bolting everything down, adjusted the cables and working my way through the woefully inadequate electrical drawings I got it working!

Then followed a series of 10+ lifts of slowly increasing heights with the car and checking the torque on the bolts each time before I went for a full lift.

To give you an idea on how tight it is:





Almost in built safety in that if it should fall forward/aft it will rest against the wall 2" either side. It's that tight I'm thinking the walls would be better off whitewashed than lined as I can't really lose the space. It's particularly tight as this car is pretty big but I should get 90% of cars on the lift. I also have around 2" of clearance on the car I want to put below this. Making it a 2 car garage

Spurred on by my success I decided to sort the LED floodlights to light up the outside. £80 in power supplies and lights and I'm very happy with the end result! Now to do the rest of the house with another 20 lights.



I have a good quote for dynotiles and lined up the Newage performance garage cabinets, however will need to hold off for a while as the offshore industry has hit a brick wall. So 25% of the workforce has to unfortunately go, with that in mind I need to keep some cash in reserve just in case.

[5potTurbo]

• insert innuendo link here*

"Crikey that is tight!"

[jason61c]

Nothing like a tight fit.

I guess the walls are solid so just limewash them.

[Ug_lee]

Last week my (awesome) builder came to make the roof 100% and sort out the mess left by the previous roofer (why is it so hard to get decent tradesman?) I'm currently chasing a refund through the small claims court for the work I paid. After getting up there on a ladder and inspecting the previous roofer had actually made the roof worse than before. Lesson learned and all that but it has left me seriously out of pocket.

But it's looking much better now after my builder spent 4 days on it. I had a tree growing out of the roof at the left hand side, no guttering resulting in a lot of foliage growing off the wall (where the darker patch of stone is) and missing tiles all over:



He has completely enclosed the ends of the roof in lead. Old buildings tend to have solid stone ends on the roof, which although look great are a magnet for failure. The pointing is down to me over the winter when it doesn't get too cold.

The front is also done:


Notice there is now a roller shutter door in! It needs a shroud for the top, inside and out with brushes so I can heat it but it was seriously cheap so do not mind sorting my own out. Has remote open and close on plippers so it is finally secure.

Next stage is sorting the walls by brushing off all the loose debris (horrible job) and limewashing the lot. I wanted to line and insulate the walls but cost and space constraints mean its just not possible. Also been an old building a limewash enables the walls to breath as originally intended so no damp. Once the walls are done I can concentrate on the ceiling, floor and electrics.

I got sidetracked the other day and installed another load of LED floodlights in the courtyard. I was on my knees and digging channels for the wires around the courtyard. Needless to say my back and legs are really paying for it today.



I'm upto 23 floodlights so far and all for about £130 

Edited by Ug_lee on Thursday 29th October 22:59

Edited by Ug_lee on Thursday 29th October 23:09

[EddyP]

Looks great!

Which type of flood lights are you using? It looks like you've sunk them into the ground is that right?

Thanks

[Ug_lee]

Yes they are sunk into the gravel. They are only cheap 10Watt floodlights that I got off amazon. But frankly for the money I'm not sure how they make them. Metal bodied and glass lense with an IP65 rating. £35 for 10. I know it states 9 in the advert but I ordered 18 and got 20. For the taller sections of the house I'll be getting 20 or 30watt versions but 10 watts is fine for to light up most stuff.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00WSE1NUC?psc=...

Once sunk in I hardly notice them, obviously if you have a hard standing, then some sort of cowels may be needed, also hiding the wires would be difficult.

And used these power supplys inside the coach house.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ECW6K74?psc=...

I used waterproof automotive connectors on the ends of the floodlights so if there are any issues it's a simple switchout. The ones for the coach house have been running every night for the last month without any problems.

Also being 12V means I won't fry any of the kids should something go awry

Edited by Ug_lee on Friday 30th October 17:18

[Uggers]

I'd like a few opinions on what I can do to the garage to reduce dampness. I know it's a no no but I sometimes have to put the car in wet which can sometimes stay wet for days. After xmas I put a lot of cardboard in there and the boxes felt noticeably damp and soft after a few days. Now that there is the speedboat, RS6 and all my tools in there the damp problem needs sorted.

Prior to the roller shutter door it just had the simple open lattice gates and the damp never seemed too bad leading me to think it's a question of ventilation. Dehumidiifing is just not going to happen in an old building like that.

So was thinking one of these in 14" flavour:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00L13ITBC/ref...

Controlled by one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008JLQXNA/ref...

Regarding RH levels I know indoors in a heated and warm house the levels should ideally be around the 60% mark. But if outdoors in an unheated garage is there any point having a fan blowing if RH outside are 80-90%? Would I just be blowing damp air into the garage?

Should I have the sensor inside the garage to push air out when RH is high inside, or put the sensor outside to use the fan to suck air in when RH outside is relatively low?

Does it matter if the fan is sucking air in or pushing air out, it's just circulation at the end of the day?

Any advice appreciated!

[Rangeroverover]

I have a similar yard, currently has original cobbles, I cannot afford right now to re do them so will probably pea gravel over them; how would I stop all the gravel blocking the drains in the yard or falling through the grilles

[Murph7355]

Uggers said:

I'd like a few opinions on what I can do to the garage to reduce dampness. I know it's a no no but I sometimes have to put the car in wet which can sometimes stay wet for days. After xmas I put a lot of cardboard in there and the boxes felt noticeably damp and soft after a few days. Now that there is the speedboat, RS6 and all my tools in there the damp problem needs sorted.

Prior to the roller shutter door it just had the simple open lattice gates and the damp never seemed too bad leading me to think it's a question of ventilation. Dehumidiifing is just not going to happen in an old building like that.

So was thinking one of these in 14" flavour:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00L13ITBC/ref...

Controlled by one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008JLQXNA/ref...

Regarding RH levels I know indoors in a heated and warm house the levels should ideally be around the 60% mark. But if outdoors in an unheated garage is there any point having a fan blowing if RH outside are 80-90%? Would I just be blowing damp air into the garage?

Should I have the sensor inside the garage to push air out when RH is high inside, or put the sensor outside to use the fan to suck air in when RH outside is relatively low?

Does it matter if the fan is sucking air in or pushing air out, it's just circulation at the end of the day?

Any advice appreciated!

Is there any reason not to get a dehumidifier?

You have power in there (I'm assuming). If you have access to a drain just plumb one in.

I've used the Ruby Dry type successfully for a good ten years now. It can be plumbed in or stand alone (pain in the arse emptying them). A single unit easily covers a single garage sized space, possibly more.

[monkfish1]

As above. Why not a de-humidifier.

Id suggest its the ONLY proper solution.

But make sure you get a dessicant based one. This can operate down to freezing, unlike a ormal one, which will trip out a few degrees above freezing.

Ive got 2 of these in different garages. Works a treat. Just set mine to 50% and let them get on with it.

http://www.dry-it-out.com/DD822-Graphite-dehumidif...

[Uggers]

Rangeroverover said:

I have a similar yard, currently has original cobbles, I cannot afford right now to re do them so will probably pea gravel over them; how would I stop all the gravel blocking the drains in the yard or falling through the grilles

Best way is to get gravel that is not too small. I have a drainage grill under the gravel at its lowest point and there were no chips in the u bend section when I last cleared it out. I think pea gravel would be a bit of a nightmare for you as they are quite rounded and small. So walking on them will be difficult, like walking on marbles. I spent ages trying to find the right gravel and went for a rock hard angular gravel called crannoch Ice.

It's got to the point it has almost locked together now and pulling a full Wheely bin over it is not a problem. It also doesn't crush into powder and turn to a mulch when it rains. It's 4" deep and the occasional weed that pops up is easily pulled as it cannot get any purchase into the gravel. 18months on I'm very happy with it.

Murph7355 said:

Is there any reason not to get a dehumidifier?

You have power in there (I'm assuming). If you have access to a drain just plumb one in.

I've used the Ruby Dry type successfully for a good ten years now. It can be plumbed in or stand alone (pain in the arse emptying them). A single unit easily covers a single garage sized space, possibly more.

I thought it would only be effective in a much more sealed environment? I'm yet to dry line the garage and it may be a while till that happens due to costs and income disparity.
As such I thought it would be pissing in the wind trying to dehumidify such a poorly sealed garage?
I have a Premier-air dehumidifier in the house and it did a sterling job of drying it out but it took nearly 2 years of heating and dehumidifying until I finally got the RH below 60%. I'd imagine it would take even longer for an unheated garage, especially a 8x5m garage with 5m high ceiling?

So thought as a cost effective measure would be introducing increased airflow, but worried if the air is damp (and been Scotland it is damp a lot of the time) I'd simply be pumping damp air back in?

[monkfish1]

Uggers said:

I thought it would only be effective in a much more sealed environment? I'm yet to dry line the garage and it may be a while till that happens due to costs and income disparity.
As such I thought it would be pissing in the wind trying to dehumidify such a poorly sealed garage?
I have a Premier-air dehumidifier in the house and it did a sterling job of drying it out but it took nearly 2 years of heating and dehumidifying until I finally got the RH below 60%. I'd imagine it would take even longer for an unheated garage, especially a 8x5m garage with 5m high ceiling?

So thought as a cost effective measure would be introducing increased airflow, but worried if the air is damp (and been Scotland it is damp a lot of the time) I'd simply be pumping damp air back in?

Correct. If its 90% utside, it will be 90% inside if you pull it in! OK, its a big building. Try to eliminate the draights and you should be OK, but you might need a bigger one than i used. On my older garage, it was pretty leaky draughtwise, but it still held it at 50% from after the 1st week for 5 years.

[Murph7355]

monkfish1 said:

Correct. If its 90% utside, it will be 90% inside if you pull it in! OK, its a big building. Try to eliminate the draights and you should be OK, but you might need a bigger one than i used. On my older garage, it was pretty leaky draughtwise, but it still held it at 50% from after the 1st week for 5 years.

Ditto this.

Just run 2x dehumidifiers. if 1 doesn't get it down effectively.

As monkfish1 notes, get a dessicant one should you need an additional. I have this - http://www.dry-it-out.com/ruby-dry-amber-dry-dh600... Though mine's grey in colour (Amber Dry v Ruby Dry).

Definitely, definitely, plumb them to a drain!

Ref draughts, you need some air flow, so don't try and make it air tight. Your roller door will keep the worst out. The dehumidifier should be able to cope with the rest (put some basic draught excluders round any particularly bad draughts).