THE LAST FRONTIER FOR RENOVATIONS
When you can’t wedge a car inside, it might be time to tackle that jumbled garage
One day, shortly after the Pringles finished their garage makeover, Ruth Pringle wondered where her husband was hiding.
She opened the door to their two-car garage and found he’d grabbed a folding chair and was just sitting out there.
“Enjoying the view,” joked retiree Brian. “Now it feels like it’s an addition to the house — it feels like a room.”
The New York Times has called the garage the “last frontier” of home renovations. And “garage mahals” that house luxury cars have their own TV show. But most of us are like the Pringles. If we’re lucky enough to have a garage, we just want to make a utilitarian space user-friendly and attractive.
For them, it meant gutting the garage to add new insulation that makes the inside of their home more comfortable, grinding down a stained floor and adding an easyto-clean resin finish, installing wall-mounted storage and adding a heater to make Brian’s wintertime puttering more pleasant.
“It was functional, it looked junky,” Brian Pringle said of the old garage in their 17-year-old house. “Now, even though I have the same junk, it looks neater. It’s so convenient. I want to putter around the car — just having it a few degrees warmer means I don’t have to come out in a parka.”
The Pringles have a very typical suburban garage, according to Matt Bourne, foreman for Ottawa Garage Makeovers, a garage storage solutions firm. He points out storage solutions like the wall-mounted panels that fit hooks of any size, shelves and baskets to keep everything from rakes, snow shovels and bikes vertical and household chemicals safely out of little hands.
It all frees up floor space, makes garden, automotive and seasonal items easy to grab and creates space to actually park and open car doors and trunks.
“It makes life simpler for the client,” Bourne said. “Each item has its own specific place.”
Garages have always been dumping grounds, but now they’re getting smaller, just like downsized new homes. A 1980s garage may have been 420 square feet, but now they’re likely 350 square feet, said Andy Millette, owner of Ottawa Garage Makeovers.
A 2015 study by a maker of garage storage systems found that one in four American homeowners can’t even fit in a car because it’s too cluttered. While nine in 10 said their homes were fairly organized, a third kept the garage doors closed so neighbours wouldn’t see the mess. Even more than that didn’t even know what was in there.
“The garage is a hot spot right now — people are ... making better use of that space,” said Millette, adding that people want to store their cars (or even make room for another with a lift) while also making room for a potting bench, home gym or just flexible family space.
“The garage makes up a substantial amount of the home as far as square footage,” he said. “If you can capture that into workable, clean space you’re picking up an awful lot of square footage for a very inexpensive price.”
A reboot “changes the whole atmosphere of their space,” but first come practicalities such as assessing insulation adjacent to living space and checking for trouble spots like damaged drywall, mould and pests, Millette said.
The garage trend is also a growing business for Jason Allen of Tailored Living, who also tackles interior closets, pantries and mud rooms.
“Every year, the garage side of the business grows faster than anything else we do,” Allen said. “A lot of people say they’re downsizing and they want to maximize their new square footage. A lot of people just see the benefits of how it improves the space.”
He’s noticed another tipping point for getting a call.
“A lot of the times it’s when they can’t get their vehicles in,” Allen said. “A lot of people want to accommodate one or two cars in their garage — they can’t without proper storage solutions. It becomes a dumping ground.”
A former mechanic who admits he likes an organized garage, Allen is another fan of slat wall storage systems with hooks, loops and baskets for sports equipment and tools. Allen uses a 3D computer program to map out designs so that storage stays above the nose of a vehicle, for example, and there are easy paths for traffic into the house.
He cautions that in the storage realm it should be safety first — like the potential hazard of mounting heavy seasonal tires on rims on overhead storage. But he says that the garage can take the pressure off indoor space, like as a mud room for young family overwhelmed by mitts and boots.
“Most people overlook the garage,” Allen said. “It can create an incredibly valuable space.”
If you (can create a) workable, clean space, you’re picking up an awful lot of square footage for a very inexpensive price.