What Do You Have To Do When You Renovate A Garage?

Renovating your garage can add anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 to your property value, but even if you’re not looking to sell now, it’s still well worth your investment. When you renovate a garage, you can create a functional workspace or even an addition to your home.

Although it can be overwhelming to renovate a garage, you just need to decide if you want to go the DIY route or hire professionals for the job. The best part is you can begin by taking small steps and doing what you can; you just need to know where to begin.

Keep reading this guide to learn everything you need to know about how to renovate your garage!

Prepare Your Garage

Before you do any renovations, you’ll need to declutter your garage. Chances are you have a lot of items that have accumulated over the years. You’ll need to look through tools and other equipment and place everything in your yard or driveway. Go through all your items and determine what you should keep, sell, or donate.

It’s best to rent a dumpster and get friends and family together to help you finish this part quickly.

Once you do this, you’ll be able to accurately see how much storage you need and won’t waste time during your renovation. You should also sweep out your garage, clean off the walls and get any stains off your floor. This makes updating the floors and walls much more manageable.

New Flooring

New garage flooring is essential when it comes to garage renovations. Having a new garage floor will completely change the overall look of your garage. So, you’ll need to decide how to renovate your floor.

First, if you want to update your garage flooring, you’ll need to decide on the type of floor you want. You should start by assessing your floor for cracks and other damage. If it’s a concrete floor, you’ll want to get it resurfaced.

You can buy epoxy floor coating kits from the store to seal the floors yourself. Expoxy forms a tough coating and will protect your floor better than paint. You’ll need to clean the floors thoroughly and follow the directions on the kit.

If you’re looking for a more involved floor makeover, it’s best to use professionals like Garage Force. You’ll get to choose from a full chip or a decorative chip system consisting of multiple layers of polyurea concrete coating.

Paint the Walls

Painting the walls can significantly transform your garage, so you’ll want to include this in your garage makeover plans. While painting your garage walls is easy to do on your own, there are some steps you’ll need to take first.

Before doing anything else, you’ll need to take the time to clean the garage walls. Garage walls are usually unfinished and just consist of drywall. You’ll also have dirt, debris, and stains from car fumes and other outdoor elements accumulated on your walls.

All you need to do is take a shop vac to eliminate excess debris and dirt. Then, use dish soap and water to clean off the walls. Once the walls are dry, you can move on to prepping the wall surfaces.

The prep you need to do depends on the type of walls you have. For drywall, you’ll need to fill in any dents or chips with a drywall compound and sand until the walls are completely smooth. If you have concrete walls, you must fill any cracks and clean the surface. Finally, wood walls require sanding and cleaning, while brick walls should be cleaned with a wire brush and borax.

After this, you’ll need to apply primer. Primer is essential if you have drywall since it’s a porous material. Due to this, you’ll need a quality drywall primer to make your paint last. If you don’t use primer on drywall, the finish will be uneven and bumpy.

Finally, you’ll need to find high-quality latex paint to use. You don’t have to spend much money; just be sure you find paint suited for garages.

Add Storage Space

You’ll need storage space, so you’ll want to consider building shelves or installing cabinets. How you decide to do this depends on if you’ll be doing this yourself or calling a professional company to do the work.

If you want to take this part of the renovation on yourself, consider installing storage shelves. Simple wooden shelves work best, and you can put them up fairly quickly. You can also find companies online that allow you to design your space and order cabinets that will fit perfectly.

Another option is measuring the space and visiting a local home hardware store to find cabinets that suit your needs.

Be sure to think about your budget and how much storage you actually need. For example, if you plan to turn your garage into a workspace, you’ll need to ensure you have plenty of storage for your tools and other items.

Insulate Your Garage

It’s important not to forget about insulation during your garage renovation. It’s essential to insulate your garage whether or not it’s attached or detached.

Keep in mind that attached garages share ceilings and walls with various rooms in your home, which can affect the room temperatures. Having an uninsulated garage can make it more difficult to conserve energy and reduce your utility bills every month.

While detached garages don’t share rooms with your home, you still use them to store your car and other items. Therefore, having less extreme temperatures will help to protect your items.

Additionally, insulating your garage can help prepare you for a garage conversion in the future.

You may be able to insulate your garage on your own, depending on the type of insulation you choose. Fiberglass is good for garages and is relatively inexpensive and easy to install. You’ll typically need professional assistance if you use spray foam or cellulose.

Learning How to Renovate a Garage

Now that you know more about how to renovate a garage, you can start putting your garage renovation plans into place.

Remember, the key is figuring out what you can do independently and what you’ll need professional help with. You should also continue your research to learn more garage renovation tips and tricks.

For more helpful and informative articles, be sure to check out the rest of our blog today!