Tidying up a dingy garage.

[UrbanSpaceman]

Evening all

I have a single garage that has a bench at the far end, it's not well lit and the space available is not well used.

I have a vague idea of what I want to do, in a nutshell I'll put two sheets of ply/OSB on the wall, painted white, and mount proper racks for tools rather than the mess I currently put up with.

I very much doubt I'm the first to want to do this, I wonder if anyone can provide some light on the subject (pun intended!)

There are two sockets on the wall already with cables in plastic conduit. I'll attach some timber battens to the wall every 600mm and screw the sheets to that. Am I better using ply or OSB, bearing in mind 9mm OSB is currently £13 a sheet at wickes! Will 9mm be substantial enough? I doubt there will be any great weight to be supported, just hand tools.

Any feedback appreciated!

 

[yetloh]

Can't see a problem with the thickness of board, but is it a single skin brick garage like many? If so, unless the outside is very sheltered from the weather, you are likely to have problems with damp penetration, not to mention heat loss. I'm no expert in these things but there are plenty of others here who will be able to advise on these points if they are relevant to you.

Jim

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

Valid point, the end wall is block and brick.

 

[xy mosian]

If you are putting a workbench in, don't put the lights behind you. Keep them high as you can so the light is not in your eyes.

xy

 

[Graham Orm]

Line the wall with visqueen (thick plastic sheet) before anything (Wickes). This will keep any moisture out of your boards. What is the fabric of the garage?

 

[MikeH]

Suggest you go for thicker board. You never know what you might want to hang in the future, thinner board limits you a bit, thicker board will make little difference except a bit of extra cost.

I did something similar many years ago, made a "workshop" out of 2/3 or my single garage. Insulated the roof and floor, chipboard over 2" polystyrene on the floor (wit battens). Insulated the walls a bit and then 18mm Chipboard. painted the walls and roof brilliant white. Been fine now for about 16 odd years. I have cast iron tools in there all year round with almost no heating and they are fine, even in cold damp winter.

Do put LOTS of sockets in and think about things like dust extraction in advance if you can. Better to over engineer a bit than realise you have forgotten something big that you need.

Of course this may be a bit OTT for what you want.

 

[Hemsby]

If it is a single skin, whatever you decide to do with the inside I suggest you make the first job a good coat of Thompson’s water seal on the outside.

Better to stop the water ingress at source. Also quick & easy to do. Amazing product =D>

 

[Myfordman]

You could always seal the inside too with Synthaprufe. Dilute two parts of the emulsion with 1 part water for the first coat.
Apply with an old broom/brush and stick the head in a bucket of water each time your stop. You will never get the brush clean again so prepare to throw it away.
When it dries it turned to a coat of bitumen - completely waterproof.

 

[PAUL_TDI]

I'm doing similar at the moment, boarding out a concrete workshop.

As others have said I think 9mm boards are a bit flimsy for the wall, I have a stock pile of 9mm OSB off cuts which I bought cheap at the moment which I have used to line the ceiling, but have used 12mm ply on the walls.

I bought reclaimed ply so that was only tenner a sheet and 1 side was already painted to aid as a preserver.

When you screw into 9mm OSB if you hit one of the gaps between slithers of wood you could essentially be trying to mount something with 6-7mm of wood the add that the screw head will be countersunk there's not much wood left.

If you need to mount anything only concrete/brick look into Tap-Con screws, no need for wall-plugs!

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

Here's a picture of the "workshop", this was taken the day we moved in, it doesn't look like this now!!

I'm interested to know the general consensus on OSB vs Ply, I've never worked with OSB before. Is the main difference cost? Wickes 11mm OSB is £15 / sheet, 12mm ply £25

When you're buying two or three sheets that adds up!

 

[Zeddedhed]

OSB is pretty good stuff.
in the construction industry it's considered to be strong enough for flat roofing so I wouldn't worry about it's strength.
It's not as nice to look at as ply, and you'll never get a good smooth finish on it but if aesthetics are not your main concern it'll be just as good as ply of a similar thickness.
As another post said I'd go as thick as you can afford. If you fit 18mm you can effectively hang anything from it - bikes, cabinets - whatever. (within reason)

 

[dc_ni]

I'm interested to know the general consensus on OSB vs Ply, I've never worked with OSB before. Is the main difference cost? Wickes 11mm OSB is £15 / sheet, 12mm ply £25

When you're buying two or three sheets that adds up!

As i'm sure others will tell you, get prices from your local timber/builders yard, they will have a bigger range of stock and probably be cheaper than the big shed's. I was quoted £20 a sheet for 12mm exterior ply from a small builders merchant the other day and I'm in Northern Ireland where everything costs more

 

[MikeH]

That looks almost identical to the inside of my garage before I boarded it and did the ceiling and floor. Put a stud wall just behind the furthest extent of the up and over garage door with a door in the middle.

Have you considered chipboard for the walls rather than OSB or PLY? I don't know the relative cost but so far in the many years mine has been up I have not had a problem. As I said before though I did offest the chipboard on the one exterior wall (left side of mine is a party wall to an adjoining garage. I put thick plastic behind the offset with an airgap between the plastic and the wall and then insulation before the chipboard. Probably not the right way but so far no issues and it's been there many years.

 

[Graham Orm]

OSB or chipboard won't hold a screw anywhere near as well as ply. I've used 18mm sheathing ply (cheapest ply available) in mine. It works well and holds anything I screw to it. It's also usually light coloured timber which reflects the light well and doesn't need paint.

 

[Graham Orm]

In a space like that I'd suggest putting the bench along one wall, leaving you space to either side.

 

[John15]

As said earlier in the thread, put in plenty of power points. In my small 14' x 8' shed I've had six double 13 amp and two 16 amp sockets put in. I thought it was going to more than I would need but surprisingly I use nearly all the 13 amp and 1 of the 16 amp. So if my experience is anything to go by, put in more than you think you'll need.
Cheers,
John

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

We moved in 18 months ago, since then there are four double plugs and two strip lights replacing the single bulb and one socket!

The bench is along the back wall, I don't really want to move that.

THanks for all suggestions, I'll get hold of some plywood sheets and have a go.

 

[Graham Orm]

Visqueen first, there will probably be a wall plate (strip of wood) along the top of the bricks where the roof rests. Get a stapler and simply staple the visqueen to it. Then fix some 2x2 to the brickwork as a frame the same dimensions as your plywood with a couple of strips at even distances across the width of each sheet. fix your plywood to the 2x2 rather than straight to the wall.

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

Well, I have done it.

Easier than I thought!