Project Garage

Part six: We sort out the painted floor and the workbench.

Ihave been using my newly-built garage for nearly one year, completing repairs and servicing a range of my own cars and project cars for Car Mechanics. The extra space, along with the inspection pit and improved lighting, make it so much easier to work on any vehicle. I’ll always want the luxury of more space, and working on brakes is quite a squeeze at times, especially when I need to take photographs, but it’s not an impossible task. Storage space for spares, consumables and tools will never be enough, so maybe I need to be more ruthless. I’ve just about filled my Draper Tools cabinet and keep reminding myself of the fact that some of the tools inside are still in their original packaging.

A couple of aspects of the new garage haven’t gone exactly to plan. The floor paint wasn’t a success, having peeled off soon after it was applied. I realised that I hadn’t given the concrete sufficient time to dry, as one CM reader pointed out.

Surprisingly, opinions were mixed as to how long it should be left to dry. I consulted builders, decorators and even a university lecturer in structural engineering with a knowledge of concrete. However, the new tin of paint I bought to repaint the floor does recommend that new concrete should be left for a few months before painting.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a case of second time lucky when I repainted the floor. This time, the tyres of my VW campervan lifted the paint. I spoke to the manufacturer of the paint and they explained that this is a common problem. The heat from the tyres, along with any dirt, such as bitumen, can react with the paint. Their advice was to rub down the areas where the paint had peeled, paint it again, then leave it for a week to dry before returning the vehicle to the garage, but standing it on cardboard. I followed their advice and the paint on the floor is better. Sometimes, the cardboard sticks to the floor, having been compressed by the campervan. When I carefully peel the cardboard off, it lifts the paint a little at times, but not as much as before. Luckily, I have plenty of paint, so I’ll wait until the weather warms up again in 2019 before touching up the areas where it’s lifted. I’ll also look at polishing the floor, which should help to protect the paint.

Another dilemma I’ve dealt with concerns my old steel workbench. I’ve experimented with a couple of layouts inside the garage, but have come to the conclusion that the workbench is simply too long. It’s a luxury to have so much space on the top of the workbench and underneath for storage, but it takes up too much room. My solution was to try a smaller workbench from Draper Tools – it’s lighter, so it’s easier to move around, and sufficiently short to fit across the width of the garage while still having enough space for the tool cabinet. It’s also capable of accommodating my vice and drill, along with all those spares that I may need one day.

I’ll probably never stop tweaking the layout of the garage and I’ve yet to bring my four bicycles back home, but I’ve already worked out where they can fit alongside the new workbench. In the meantime, whenever the opportunity arises to drive a car inside and work on it, I’m always keen to get stuck in.

The patchy grey floor paint had been applied a few weeks after the new concrete base was laid, but the concrete probably needed a few more months to fully dry. Rob decided to paint it again after six months, starting with a thorough sweep and clean with panel wipe.

The second coat proved to be more challenging to apply than the first. The covered inspection pit helped, along with the side door. The floor was left for seven days for the paint to dry.