You open the garage door to your home or your apartment, and in front of you, you see piles of junk, items, and boxes in the space where your car should be but couldn’t fit. Well, its time to take that space back from the clutter that has pilled in your one or two-car garage. Time for a garage renovation!
One thing to make clear before continuing this is covering over a renovation NOT a remodeling. The topics covered through this article apply to both but with a garage remodel you will have other things to include like electrical, HVAC, and building permits. This content will cover tips on how to restore and repair a garage. A remodel would go over how to change the garage into a living space. If you are interested in tips to help in a garage remodel let us know in the comment section below.
Table of Contents
Garage Renovation
An average garage renovation has low overhead with a high return for homeowners. Depending on the damages to the drywall and plans for the garage, a renovation turns into doable DIY home improvement project. But before you get started and get eager to tearing down walls and painting over holes here are four tips reduce those renovations costs.
How Do You Envision the Room?
Before buying any material for this project, plan out how you’ll want your space to look after renovating. Maybe you'll commit the area to a full-time garage where you can tinker with the car? Perhaps a more organized storage space to put away all the seasonal decorations? Or maybe you want to spruce up the place to increase the value of your home? Whichever reason will dictate the amount of material you need and lets you plan out space accordingly.
Clear Out the Garage
After you have the layout in your mind, and maybe drawn out on paper, it’s time for the most labor-intensive part of the renovation, clearing the space. This clean-up could take a day or two, depending on how much was inside before starting. An important and crucial part of the task to the rest of the job and executed correctly. Think of it as a two-pronged cleaning plan, you clear out space from the garage and toss out no longer wanted items.
Take Stock of the Area
Similar to how you would check your car after a hailstorm for any ding, dents, and damages, you would do the same in your garage. Take note of any substantial holes and cracks in the walls and floor. If the garage is bare, with only beams and plywood visible, insulation will be needed if the wall connects to any living space before adding drywall. If the garage is a standalone building insulation completely optional.
High Priority Projects
This step will encompass the idea you had and the damages you’ve found to organize and list the tasks that are more important to your result. For instance, if there is a big hole along the wall, you can replace the section with a new patch of drywall or repurpose it as a storage nook. Also important if you plan on revisiting the garage for more renovations later on. If that’s the case, take care of the areas that need handling immediately.
With this list, efficiently take down tasks in and around the garage once it’s time to start tearing down, replacing, or rebuilding certain areas.
List of Materials
Up to this point, a lot of the tips are how to better optimize your time on doing this home improvement project. Time is money, and wasting any more time needed to get a job done is a waste of money. But now is the point where you can dollar differences in prices and save money on material costs.
With this process, you would list out all the material you need to complete the project. For example, list how many sheets of drywall you would need, the number of drywall screws, how much drywall compound you need, sandpaper, paint if needed, and a breathing mask, to name a couple of items. After compiling the list, you can compare prices online to find the best deal. The best thing with this method is that if you find a great deal online, you can have it delivered for you saving you a trip to the hardware store.
After the gathering all the materials, the garage is cleaned out, and the plan is fresh in your mind, you can start fixing and repairing. The garage is often the most underutilized places in a home where items go and can stay for years. With the renovation, you can change that space from garage storage to an impromptu man cave or she cave where you can work on the car or crafts. At the very least, optimize the space to hold all the items you have and leave plenty of space for your vehicle.
When the renovation completed, you will be amazed by what a little bit of work can do to a room. The best thing about renovating a garage is that even if you make mistakes, it will always be better then how it was before. For the aspiring DIYers, this task and basement renovation are great ways to try your want at drywalling without creating significant damage to a highly visible area in the home. When completing this small home improvement, what’s left is a job that increases the value of the house and gives you a sense of a job well done.
