First thing you need to do
 

Mike
The first thing to do is design / develop a way to keep out the spiders and flies.
You can have the nicest garage but if you can't keep the insects out you'll need to hire a maid cleaning services
And if you know of any system of such let me know!!

Yes. Pest control. Depending on where you live, if you have local rats and/or mice, they will find their way in. They love to eat wiring for some reason. I have had more than a few friends that took their car out of storage and found that all the insulation on the wiring was eaten off! For me, I adopted a bad a$$ cat that comes and goes, and I hate cats! But...no mice, rats or lizards anywhere and cheaper than a maid service;)

Well here are a few suggestions from reading briefly the thread. I wouldn't go crazy at this point with a theme, you will get there. I would paint in neutral tone. I would be more concerned with the built ins. This is coming from a car guy that has the money to do it all and doesn't. I would be intersted in having power available without the long cords(codes are different all over), have hot and cold water tap available to wash cars outside in the winter( not a big cost when planning from the beginning and washing a car in Connecticut in the winter is a pleasure), possible heat/air for your area if you are doing builds or spend a lot of time in your garage, possible drains if not too late.

As far as decorating I would go with pics that have have taken over time and car(s) you have owned, or anything from meets,races and "stuff" you have collected. If you want the ford colors go ahead and fill up the garage as you go along. Use the things you have come across that you admired or liked as ideas it will come together as time goes.

As stated I would concentrate on the hardware first or built-ins first. Others have mentioned good hardware and I did not repeat those.

Ok, I am in the middle of a new house build and with that I am building a detached 'toy room'.

10' plate line with interior ceiling pitched to 12'. (should be able to handle the Cobra)
Fully insulated. (I have a western exposure and really hate the heat)
2000cfm exhaust fan. (paint, cleaners, farts,..whatever fumes)
wall hanging 2 ton A/C unit (80F to 85F is comfy)
220v for the tig welder and compressor. (well, duh)
stainless steel wash basin. (gotta clean those parts somewhere and hands too)
1200w stereo amp and wall hung speakers, convertible to moving the speakers to the outside wall for pool parties. (i like me some tunes when working and there is no game on)
chemical seal for the concrete floor. (it never changes with age and abuse)
4 post lift. (getting too old to crawl around under a low sitting car)
9) 4' fluorescent, dual bulb, light fixtures. (just try and hide a paint flaw)
carriage doors on both sides. (keeps the ceiling from blocking the lift)
ethernet connection to the server/Internet in the house. (how do i get my tunes)
television cable to the distribution center in the house. (not going to miss the game)

The sheetrock is in and it is looking good.

Oh, they did over engineer the slab as well. 12 inches thick, reinforced with 5/8" rebar tied on 12 inch cross points raised 6 inches from the base pour and a steel chicken wire grid 3 inches above that, with 9 piers, 8 feet into the ground.

Should be able to park a 16 ton Mack on it without worrying about it.

I will add cabinets from 6' on up to the ceiling edge. Anything on the floor will be on casters. This will allow me to arrange the garage to accomplish the task(s) of the day. Makes it easier to clean as well.

That is how I did it.

I won't even try to compete with some of you guys, but I have always held function first before fashion. My garage is simply me and I know where everything is. And it's no showplace.

The one thing I did was install treated/painted plywood over the drywall around the entire place (up to 8 feet). I can screw anything anywhere and don't have to worry about looking for studs and messing up the drywall.

Skuzzy, you have what is close to what we call a "Mat Slab"! You plan on going up 5 stories?

Last, if not too late a trench drain across the threshold of the garage door is something I wish I had.

My 2c

LOL! When I saw the forms I asked the builder what his engineer was thinking. He just shook his head and said this one is going to cost me. It was only supposed to have been 6 inches thick.

Oh yeah, I do have a french drain across the front of the garage as well.

As this will be the last garage I will ever have, I am trying my best to do it right, for what I do in a garage (wookwork, welding, metal work, build stuff....).

I have a 25 foot gantry. Great for moving engines. And A tilt able engine cradle. A cupboard with lots of draws, and screw whatever is inside to the front. makes it easy to see what's inside without labels.
Filing cabinets, for larger objects.
JD

I have always thought that a nice roll-up garage door would be the ticket as opposed to the more standard sectional door that ends up cluttering and crowding the ceiling area in the garage. A roll-up coils right above the header of the door and stays out of the way. If your builder did the rest of the construction like he did that slab, there should be plenty of support for it.:cool:

I’m surprised the Garage Journal didn’t quench your thirst. Your initial plans sound great. Look forward to reports on your progress. Pick the layout concepts and adjust the motif to suit your theme.

A quick shot of my garage. Never good enough...always a work in progress.

My garage space is a little uncommon, but it had an 11'-14' high ceiling and a large sectional garage door when I started working on it. I put my lift in the 14' high area and installed a suspended ceiling at about 9.5' everywhere else including around the garage door. That was when I decided to have a disappearing garage door. In a nutshell, the garage door rises through a slot in the suspended ceiling and disappears above the ceiling when open. The tricky part was suspending the ceiling tiles in the space beneath the open garage door. As they can't be suspended from the ceiling, I had to install a long support beam above the ceiling and below the garage door rails.

Anyone would be happy with a garage like that. Sort of reminds me over the years that I fill up my garages with stuff no matter the size it gets filled.



I mentioned a tap for hot and cold water but didn't explain. Just a simple floor faucet and basin with a simple mixing valve to control the water temperature in the winter. Just hook up a hose and your good for the cold winters.

Also was mentioned garage doors. This probably won't help but my Malibu home's garage doors match the doors that open the house to the ocean and mountain breezes. Sort of like a Hawaiian doors/windows that slide to both sides and open the rooms to the outside. This mechanism was applied to the garage so the "doors" all slide to the side into the walls to be stored. Everything is open no dividers to hit as you pull out. You can park anything in there practically.

Sorry didn't have time to read all the post. As once a contractor I built two shops for myself to work on cars. Critical things are plenty of 20 amp recepticles. A 30 amp outlet for a 220V mig welder. A closet built usually in a back corner exterior wall for a 60 gal compressor with 220V 20 amp or bigger outlet with exterior door and a vent up high to bring in fresh air so you cut down on the noise and draw fresh air from the outside when you paint. The other critical thing for me is a shop furnace mounted from the ceiling that blows crossways across the shop. Also lots of florescent lights. Sorry not into the rest of the facy girlley suff. A shop is for work!

Added:
Forgot, I also run the air lines from the compressor in the walls to come out in at least two places before rocking. Insulate really well and put in a solid core insulated door.

I've spent a ton of time on GJ and found several great ideas like those already mentioned but was also looking for something tied to Ford and Shelby. I'm not building a garage that will be featured Architectural Digest nor something from Hooverville......just trying to find the middle ground of between functional with a little style.

I never seen or thought of hiding a garage door, but that is a really cool idea. Speaking of cool ideas, I'd love to have a gantry but didn't have the space so I went with a single steel beam running the width of the garage.

That was the first thing I wanted was roll up doors, but the city building code will not allow for those doors in a residential area. We would have had to get a zoning change.

Oh, we are building in a historical district. The Wife wanted to live there, and I wanted a garage. We both get what we want.

A few pics of my garage. Quick overview... Removed existing sheetrock and re-insulated and installed 5/8" sheetrock (Nys Code for attached garages). scraped floor and painted wit Hot Trax (Benjamin Moore product, installed Motor Mat tile flooring (blue & grey) checkerboard pattern. Wainscoted walls 1/4 way up to cover foundation, Iistalled all Gladiator cabinetry, shelving, work bench and 3 rolling storage cabinets that fit under work bench. Other enhancements include Quick lift, 33 gal. compressor, 32" TV, killer stero system w/ 4 matched in-wall speakers and CD/DVD player, telephone and computer. Heat and A/C. Covered steps leading to basement with Water Hog stair treds. I don't know how to post a pic. If someone can walk me through it I will do so,if anyone is interested to see the finished product. Pics are on a flash drive.

Ralph

Me thinks that any HOA will like these. They can do whatever you want. No, I'm not a spokesperson or affiliated in any way. They just know how to do things right.

Los Angeles Garage Doors - The Overhead Door Company of the LA Basin

i checked out that lighting for the lift; impressive.. but not cheap....

There is no HOA. I would not live there if there was. There are three historic entities. The neighborhood, city, and federal (it is an national historic area). The requirements are slightly different for each. It took a year to get the house plans approved for construction. The inspections are intense and frequent.

Pain in the butt, but the neighborhood is like and ole school one. Everyone knows everyone and they all come together at the drop of a hat to share BBQ, beer and so on. We really like that.

At any rate, the garage doors being visible from the street put them under the microscope for the various entities. I could do carriage looking doors or carriage doors. I went with the carriage doors and they are being custom made by a tradesman in Montana.

Very nice with the carriage doors. At least you won't be crowding up the ceiling area. I read the Historic District Guidelines for Fort Worth and you are right. They are quite conscious on what can be done. Good luck with it all!
Next time I have to fly to DFW, I'll let you know and maybe I can see it.:cool: