The House Projects Thread

[Simon]

I had a bloke do all the skirting and architrave, including cutting, fitting and painting in a day in my last house. Not sure adding the lining would've added that much time to it.

[Rich B]

Swapping skirting/architrave is easy, replacing a door requires a bit more skill, plus the door itself could be a few hundred quid. If you’re replacing the lining too then you have to carefully get the old one out without damaging too much wall and floor (or maybe even taking up/replacing floor) then decorating will take a day to get a few coats on.

2 days would be plenty imo, but if you’re paying on the job rather than the day rate, it doesn’t really matter.

From experience, you’ll do well to even get someone to do that sort of job. Most chippies just see that as a little hassle job and will put it way down Their list of priorities!

[Carlos]

Frankly it's a pig of a job if the old frame doesn't come out easily, lots of making good which you'd assumed he's costed and expect for nothing lol

Even getting my mate to do shit like that is a nightmare, it ends up being 3 half days over a month when he has loose hours.

ETA - he would charge about £400 for that with me accepting him doing over a few weeks. So £800 doesn't seem to bad.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I was going to say a grand. As rich says, fitting a new door case can be a dick of a job and one of those small jobs many wouldn't touch

[GG.]

Ok - helpful - thanks all. So consensus of opinion is that it's in the ballpark.

[duncs500]

Now we're in our new place I'm dreaming of things to do with the garage. I've always wanted a really cool garage. However, I just don't know if it makes any logical sense to do anything.

My dream was white walls and grey tiled floor. It's nice and dry as proven by the recent rain, but being single skin brick I don't think a render on the walls would be an option, and painted brick doesn't look any better than bare brick.

Floor wise it's brush finish concrete, and it already has a bit of a step down to the drive outside, a proper tile setup would only make the step higher.

In short, it's probably not sensible to do anything other than put some shelving in, a decent tool chest, and maybe a few automobilia type flourishes.

[Jobbo]

You could paint the floor, though it will gradually wear as you use it so probably won't look any better after a short while.

I've never really understood those beautiful garages which you see in pictures on PH. Fine if you never open the door and just sit there looking at your car, but if you drive in after it's been raining then it's going to be far more effort to clean up than a quick sweep out once it's dry.

[V8Granite]

Definitely paint and tile for a few reasons....

Tiles look much nicer, good quality ones also take abuse very well.
Use the tiles as skirting to seal the floor up and make it so when you mop up you don’t get the walls dirty.
It’s warmer, now either they don’t transfer the cold as quickly as concrete or they do actually insulate I don’t now but even in winter I don’t get that cold burn feeling I used to on bare concrete.
Paint the walls, it cuts down on dust and makes it brighter. Also because it’s a flat colour it makes you keep it cleaner, wipe down the small marks etc.

Mine is singles skin, wooden doors and a wooden roof with thick felt. An overhang it’s full length for a little ventilation. I was going to heat it but instead bought a decicant de-humidifier which puts out just enough heat to take the edge off and make it comfy to work, I set it to 60% humidity so nothing can rust.

It was the best thing I did with the house as now I can pop out and do little jobs in comfort and it’s an enjoyable place to be.

Decide on a plan or layout and then build around that. Mine is a very efficient use of space and I’m getting twice as much done than I did before because of this.

Dave!

[mik]

I like the look of floor tiles, but I would feel
Compelled to put a bit of wood under a jack to protect them..... and the car is pretty low

[duncs500]

Definitely paint and tile for a few reasons....

Tiles look much nicer, good quality ones also take abuse very well.
Use the tiles as skirting to seal the floor up and make it so when you mop up you don’t get the walls dirty.
It’s warmer, now either they don’t transfer the cold as quickly as concrete or they do actually insulate I don’t now but even in winter I don’t get that cold burn feeling I used to on bare concrete.
Paint the walls, it cuts down on dust and makes it brighter. Also because it’s a flat colour it makes you keep it cleaner, wipe down the small marks etc.

Mine is singles skin, wooden doors and a wooden roof with thick felt. An overhang it’s full length for a little ventilation. I was going to heat it but instead bought a decicant de-humidifier which puts out just enough heat to take the edge off and make it comfy to work, I set it to 60% humidity so nothing can rust.

It was the best thing I did with the house as now I can pop out and do little jobs in comfort and it’s an enjoyable place to be.

Decide on a plan or layout and then build around that. Mine is a very efficient use of space and I’m getting twice as much done than I did before because of this.

Dave!

Damn you Dave! These are all intriguing points.

I thought about a dehumidifier as well, but will wait until I have something to put in there for that.

Jobbo, surely the good thing about tiling the floor is that it's easy to clean?

[Swervin_Mervin]

Painted floor is fairly easy to clean Duncs - might even be easier than those interlocking tiles as they're generally textured.

These exact issues are things I'm currently pondering as well! However, 80% of the floor in mine is already painted and it brushes clean very easily. It's also showing no signs of wear and we've been here 7yrs, and the previous owner 10, and I know he kept two motorbikes in there. Aco drain across the threshold also helps in my case as I can hose out if needs be.

[integrale_evo]

Definitely paint the walls even if you're not going to line them. No it doesn't look amazing but it reduces dust and makes it a much brighter and more pleasant place to be as well as smoothing the bricks slightly so any cobwebs and dust you do get are easier to brush off. You expect could use some water resistant insulating plasterboard, like intended for bathrooms, if you really wanted clean, smooth finished walls.

I agree with the others, for a garage you actually want to use regularly / do any work in I'd much rather just have a painted or epoxied concrete floor than mess about with tiles as you then have to make extra provisions when using jacks / stands so you don't damage them.

I also don't really get the fascination with overly pretty and flashy garages unless you're only using it to park an expensive rarely used car you just want to go and look at in it.

[ZedLeg]

My mate painted his floor with PU based floor paint and it's very hard wearing.

As Dave! said having another floor covering can be more comfortable as big cement slabs are huge heat sinks.

I wouldn't bother trying to make a show garage but sealing the walls and floor makes it much easier to keep the place clean.

[duncs500]

Painted floors look ok, the finish on the concrete is quite deeply brushed (if that makes sense) so I would be worried that paint wouldn't penetrate the grooves very well.

I wasn't thinking of the interlocking textured tiles, more proper industrial tiled flooring... although might get slippy!

I hear what people are saying re fancy garages, but if it's functional, easy to clean, and looks good, I can't see many drawbacks other than the initial cost.

[Jobbo]

Jobbo, surely the good thing about tiling the floor is that it's easy to clean?

There will be grout or joins between the tiles which collect dirt - and you said you didn't want to raise the floor, which tiles would inevitably cause.

[Swervin_Mervin]

And you'll be forever cleaning them as they'll show the dirt more! You could screed the floor before painting if the grooves are fairly deep.

[duncs500]

Jobbo, surely the good thing about tiling the floor is that it's easy to clean?

There will be grout or joins between the tiles which collect dirt - and you said you didn't want to raise the floor, which tiles would inevitably cause.

Well this would potentially be the fundamental issue, but I don't know how thick a good tiled floor would be? Got to be 40mm or so step into the garage though I reckon.

Can't really ramp down from it either as it's nice paving on the drive.

[V8Granite]

I jack up the ML and the Defender in the garage, I don’t put anything under my metal axle stands or trolley jacks, I did have metal wheeled ones originally but now it’s a Nylon wheeled one. Times only break if they have somewhere to move to. I had an extra Rhodesian Army chap who then became a builder do mine, it’s all tiled floors out there so he did a great job.

Easy to keep clean, I have a dark grout though and have spilt old oil and transmission fluid over it etc. It’s not slippery when wet, I can’t remember what it’s called but times have a number to determine how slippery they are.

There are some very good epoxy paints which work well but I don’t think they look as nice. If done properly though they will seal it perfectly.

Wanting to keep the garage clean is a good thing, it’s a pleasant place to sit and repair the kids RC cars and toys. Pop some
Music on lose yourself for a bit. Just make sure no-one tries to invade and put their crap in there !!

Dave!

[Mito Man]

Get a garage floor protector, the big 5 or so metre long rolls and lay it right over the concrete floor. No dust, insulates, easy to mop, chemical proof, won’t break if you drop a hammer on it, takes 10 minutes to fit.

[V8Granite]

Just to mention, it takes me 10 minutes a month to clean my floor, I have a Makita vacuum cleaner (tart) I leave in the garage so give it a quick hoover, then spray mop and that’s it for another month.

Dave!