Who has the best Garage on Pistonheads?
Discussion
zippyonline said:
Hi Caddyshack
Looks like a nice space.
What's the internal height of your garage? Getting ideas for a potential garage rebuild on a house we haven't put an offer on - and getting a feel for how much of a lift height I could get in - I can do a bit of expansion under permitted development, but that has height restrictions...
Recently finished mine. You want 4.8m to the apex for a full height lift. Looks like a nice space.
What's the internal height of your garage? Getting ideas for a potential garage rebuild on a house we haven't put an offer on - and getting a feel for how much of a lift height I could get in - I can do a bit of expansion under permitted development, but that has height restrictions...
You can't do it through permitted development but why would that concern you?
The least painful and least costly part of the exercise has been the planning application! Do the drawings yourself - they don't need to be done to any great standard. Building control has been straightforward and also very helpful throughout the process.
Decide what you want and then get it done - don't focus on whether it is permitted development or not - it really isn't the deal breaker.
mtrehy said:
Recently finished mine. You want 4.8m to the apex for a full height lift.
Good info. Mine is planned as 4.8m on the drawings but the builder has used ‘building tolerances’ to max advantage and I’ve ended up with 5.4 ish. 
Your statement sounds correct, but doesn’t it rather depend on the pitch of the roof as to what size car you could actually lift?!
Krikkit said:
I was thinking that, but that could be difficult I suppose! I've got a copy of the BS7671 on the way to check out the requirements anyway.
Find a local friendly electrician first, get him to have a look and give advice, do the fitting but leave the covers off plugs etc so he can check everything and leave him to connect the fuse board/breakers. He will get a bit of income and you will make a saving and know it is all fine, plus have the paper to prove it.
Krikkit said:
Quick question for those who bought garages with inadequate wiring - did you do electrical work yourself?
Mine is currently fitted with a fuse box, 1x socket and 1x crappy light bulb. My plan is to replace it with a new RCD'd consumer unit, fit a ring mains with 4x double sockets and a separate lighting circuit. It's wired through an armoured cable, with junction boxes etc, the only bit I'd need help with is replacing the wiring from CU to the start of the armoured cable - it's currently 20A.
Reading lots of scare stories about Part P non-compliance making things painful in future are off-putting, but spending £££ on such a simple job would be a right pain. I'm happy enough doing simple electrics myself, and something like this is straight-forward enough for me to do with no worries.
What size and approx length is the armoured cable, it will have the conductor size moulded into the side. Mine is currently fitted with a fuse box, 1x socket and 1x crappy light bulb. My plan is to replace it with a new RCD'd consumer unit, fit a ring mains with 4x double sockets and a separate lighting circuit. It's wired through an armoured cable, with junction boxes etc, the only bit I'd need help with is replacing the wiring from CU to the start of the armoured cable - it's currently 20A.
Reading lots of scare stories about Part P non-compliance making things painful in future are off-putting, but spending £££ on such a simple job would be a right pain. I'm happy enough doing simple electrics myself, and something like this is straight-forward enough for me to do with no worries.
I would say 20amp feed (presumably breaker size off the house cu) into the garage with be enough for almost anything you will want to do.so cheapest is to leave that.
Does the house CU have an RCD? No real point in a second in the garage if so, and although better to have it non-rcd to garage and local rcd there you can run into issues about the supply cable not being rcd protected on its route it it's not buried to 2inch or otherwise mechanically protected such as being swa armoured. Plus you shouldn't really get nuisance trips in normal use.
Small cu in garage, 6amp lighting and 20amp radial with some dbl sockets. 16amp ceeform if you want a larger welder. Include a emergency light for £15 then if you do pop the rcd your not plunged into darkness mid job with a spinning angle grinder in your hand.
Spark will likely not cost much more to do that than to sign it off.
Daniel
RichB said:
Good idea that I would never have thought of. I assume you run these from a feed separate to the RCD?
They contain a battery.Wire them directly in to the light circuit supply, which keeps them charged and turned off. If that supply fails they switch on powered from the battery and give a few hours light before going flat. As soon as the power returns they turn off and charge again.
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Fire_and_S...
Daniel
dhutch said:
What size and approx length is the armoured cable, it will have the conductor size moulded into the side.
I would say 20amp feed (presumably breaker size off the house cu) into the garage with be enough for almost anything you will want to do.so cheapest is to leave that.
Does the house CU have an RCD? No real point in a second in the garage if so, and although better to have it non-rcd to garage and local rcd there you can run into issues about the supply cable not being rcd protected on its route it it's not buried to 2inch or otherwise mechanically protected such as being swa armoured. Plus you shouldn't really get nuisance trips in normal use.
Small cu in garage, 6amp lighting and 20amp radial with some dbl sockets. 16amp ceeform if you want a larger welder. Include a emergency light for £15 then if you do pop the rcd your not plunged into darkness mid job with a spinning angle grinder in your hand.
Spark will likely not cost much more to do that than to sign it off.
Daniel
The armoured cable that's there doesn't have anything stamped/printed on it, but the biggest issue is that it connects to the house through the kitchen, quite a way from the CU, and the cables are totally inaccessible behind the plaster. The idea is to run a direct feed of armoured above head height to the house CU directly and make the old circuit redundant. This is the bit I want a spark for as I'm not sure on the best way.I would say 20amp feed (presumably breaker size off the house cu) into the garage with be enough for almost anything you will want to do.so cheapest is to leave that.
Does the house CU have an RCD? No real point in a second in the garage if so, and although better to have it non-rcd to garage and local rcd there you can run into issues about the supply cable not being rcd protected on its route it it's not buried to 2inch or otherwise mechanically protected such as being swa armoured. Plus you shouldn't really get nuisance trips in normal use.
Small cu in garage, 6amp lighting and 20amp radial with some dbl sockets. 16amp ceeform if you want a larger welder. Include a emergency light for £15 then if you do pop the rcd your not plunged into darkness mid job with a spinning angle grinder in your hand.
Spark will likely not cost much more to do that than to sign it off.
Daniel
The reason for upping the supply is I do quite a bit of welding, have a 2.5hp air compressor, a fridge-freezer and sundry other electricals going at the same time - it wouldn't take much together to get over 20A, and certainly if the compressor were to kick in at the same time as the welder, even if the welder was on low power settings, we'd be straight over 20A.
The feed from the house CU is RCD'd at the moment, but I'd rather have a CU with RCD in the garage to try and avoid nuisance trips hitting the house as well on the off chance. I've never tripped the RCD in my last place, but I'd rather have it isolated. Good point about the emergency light, I'll definitely stick one in.
I'll try and find a friendly local spark who will do an inspection.
Where is your electric meter? If it's on an outside wall then why not connect to there rather than the house CU? That way you could run a very high amp feed to the garage.
I think you will be surprised how little power you need, as an example I have a milling machine, lathe, compressor, mig, tig, full height car lift & 16 flourescent tubes and no problem with the existing 4mm SWA cable so far. you can only use 1 bit of equipment at once!
If I were you I would fit a cheap garage consumer unit to your existing SWA cable and then see whether that is sufficient. SWA cable is not cheap and neither will the work required to meet regulations.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Metal-Garage-Consu...
f:0
I think you are over simplifying finding an electrician to sign off your work (unless one is a very good mate). Unless you need building control sign-off then not sure why you want an electrical certificate? Obviously if at some point you have a fire and it's linked to shoddy workmanship you will have insurance problems but if you do the job right and safe then why worry?
Put it this way, what evidence did you have of when the current electrical work in the garage was done and whether it was to regulations when you purchased the house....
I think you will be surprised how little power you need, as an example I have a milling machine, lathe, compressor, mig, tig, full height car lift & 16 flourescent tubes and no problem with the existing 4mm SWA cable so far. you can only use 1 bit of equipment at once!
If I were you I would fit a cheap garage consumer unit to your existing SWA cable and then see whether that is sufficient. SWA cable is not cheap and neither will the work required to meet regulations.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Metal-Garage-Consu...
f:0I think you are over simplifying finding an electrician to sign off your work (unless one is a very good mate). Unless you need building control sign-off then not sure why you want an electrical certificate? Obviously if at some point you have a fire and it's linked to shoddy workmanship you will have insurance problems but if you do the job right and safe then why worry?
Put it this way, what evidence did you have of when the current electrical work in the garage was done and whether it was to regulations when you purchased the house....
eltax91 said:
Good info. Mine is planned as 4.8m on the drawings but the builder has used ‘building tolerances’ to max advantage and I’ve ended up with 5.4 ish.
Your statement sounds correct, but doesn’t it rather depend on the pitch of the roof as to what size car you could actually lift?!
Also depends on how short you are!Your statement sounds correct, but doesn’t it rather depend on the pitch of the roof as to what size car you could actually lift?!
I used a raised tie roof truss which gives loads of clearance.
I'm 5.7 and have had SUV's on mine and I still have loads of clearance at a normal "working under the car" height i.e exhaust changes etc.
Pics shows car at working height (for me to get underneath) and also the clearance above with a 4.8m pitch and raised tie truss. As you can see there's plenty of space.
Edited by mtrehy on Friday 2nd November 14:13
Would appreciate the PH grey matter on our 10m x 7m triple garage project which has now commenced in earnest with foundations underway; specific questions I would value experienced thoughts on if possible please;
- 1) Tiling; likely to have Dotti R9 porcelain non-slip tiles across the floor in grey; the (minor) downside is that they are only available in 30cm x 30cm size. Has anyone used this tile and if not, did they find a comparable/better in a larger size (i.e. Vado?). If the Dotti was used, did they also then apply a sealant to it after fitting?
- 2) Underfloor heating; this is incorporated into the design, will include floor insultation, and I am looking at a 5 x 3m electric mat under each bay, separately controllable. Has anyone used such a system (i.e. Prowarm?).
- 3) Lighting; we have three feature oak trusses inside the garage and I am thinking now about lighting. Any experience/pictures would be really appreciated – current thinking is spot lights combined with a mix of larger pendant lights hung down from the joists.
For context, the building is heritage brick built, with slate tiles in keeping with a traditional setting/planning recommendations.
- 1) Tiling; likely to have Dotti R9 porcelain non-slip tiles across the floor in grey; the (minor) downside is that they are only available in 30cm x 30cm size. Has anyone used this tile and if not, did they find a comparable/better in a larger size (i.e. Vado?). If the Dotti was used, did they also then apply a sealant to it after fitting?
- 2) Underfloor heating; this is incorporated into the design, will include floor insultation, and I am looking at a 5 x 3m electric mat under each bay, separately controllable. Has anyone used such a system (i.e. Prowarm?).
- 3) Lighting; we have three feature oak trusses inside the garage and I am thinking now about lighting. Any experience/pictures would be really appreciated – current thinking is spot lights combined with a mix of larger pendant lights hung down from the joists.
For context, the building is heritage brick built, with slate tiles in keeping with a traditional setting/planning recommendations.
Edited by Mustang Baz on Tuesday 6th November 08:28
I have those exact tiles laid on mine, didn't bother with underfloor heating though as I felt that it was a big space which isn't perhaps as core to the house as say the kitchen floor and the additional cost of running it would be quite significant. I haven't put any sealant on the top of it, but they are new so can't say as to the longevity of the finish etc. That said, they are specifically intended for garage floors so one would hope they're ok!
By the way, as a trick which the tiler suggested for skirting, we used the tiles in place of any other skirting. Simply cut them in half and use a half tile in place of skirting. The finish works well and is more in keeping with anything else I've seen, frankly.
By the way, as a trick which the tiler suggested for skirting, we used the tiles in place of any other skirting. Simply cut them in half and use a half tile in place of skirting. The finish works well and is more in keeping with anything else I've seen, frankly.
BigR said:
I have those exact tiles laid on mine, didn't bother with underfloor heating though as I felt that it was a big space which isn't perhaps as core to the house as say the kitchen floor and the additional cost of running it would be quite significant. I haven't put any sealant on the top of it, but they are new so can't say as to the longevity of the finish etc. That said, they are specifically intended for garage floors so one would hope they're ok!
By the way, as a trick which the tiler suggested for skirting, we used the tiles in place of any other skirting. Simply cut them in half and use a half tile in place of skirting. The finish works well and is more in keeping with anything else I've seen, frankly.
Really appreciated advice and thank you; I was thinking about the skirting just last night. Good to also hear about the sealant need. By the way, as a trick which the tiler suggested for skirting, we used the tiles in place of any other skirting. Simply cut them in half and use a half tile in place of skirting. The finish works well and is more in keeping with anything else I've seen, frankly.
I was actually not going with underfloor until a couple of weeks ago, but am seeking to keep it tight by having 5 x 3m mats under each bay - turning each one on as needed vs a whole-floor heat. The walls and roof will also be insulated but with a pretty slim profile raft/pile foundation - hence the last minute inclusion of the (electric) underfloor.
Look at Muncher's house and garage build - he had the 30cm x 30cm tiles - which he fitted himself. Make sure you use one of the levelling kits.
Here is the thread ...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Here is the thread ...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
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