House Update - Garage Storage

For those of you that don't know, I bought a townhouse recently. Now, I can work on improving the house instead of responding to email.

I enjoy doing work with my hands when I have time; meaning woodworking, automotive, metalworking, building computers, anything really. Pretty much all of those require a good workspace. For me, that means the garage. So naturally, the first area I picked to upgrade was the garage.

I knew I wanted a workbench and lots of storage space. In addition, I wanted to be able to disassemble whatever I used so I could move it to a new house if required. Tack onto that a requirement that the company and design be around for a little while so I could add more space if I needed to without having to worry about matching designs.

That left me a few options. I decided to go with Gorilla Rack, which has been around for a while. Their base design also hasn't changed, so it should be around if I want to add more matching space. I chose to go with 17" wide rack that was 72" tall. It sounds small, but I wanted to be able to fit most of the rack in the garage without encroaching on the garage door clear space. I could have went with the 96" tall, but one of the posts on each side would have had to have been cut to clear the beam over the garage. I decided to stick with 72" tall for now.

Gorilla Rack is purchased by the part, so you can design whatever you want. I decided to go with two 6' sections and one 4' section on each side. (they make 4', 6' and 8') Three 6' sections would have been about 1" too long when you factor in the space required for the garage door safety eyes and the width of the uprights. I decided to get three 4' shelves and nine 6' shelves. The workbench area would require an additional 6' and 4' shelf for the work space.

Then, I had to choose what I wanted for shelves. Gorilla rack sells precut pieces, but they were $3 for a 2' section, and you would need 3 of them for a 6' shelf. This is way too much when you can get the exact same thing in a 4x8 sheet for about 1/3rd the price. I decided to go with a water resistant OSB that was 3/4" thick and cut it up.

Total Shelf Materials: $544.60
17" x 72" uprights: 6 @ 24.99 Each
17" x 36" uprights: 2 @ 15.49 Each
72" rack beam (one side of a shelf): 20 @ 12.49 Each
48" rack beam (one side of a shelf): 8 @ 8.79 Each
48" x 96" 3/4" OSB: 4 @10.89 Each

Assembling the Rack
Assembly was a snap, just slide the beams into the uprights at the correct slot. The 6' beams required a tie in the middle that was assembled with a screwdriver and 10mm socket. The only 'gotcha' is that if your floor isn't level, it will be difficult to slide the beams together. I used scrap OSB under the legs to make up the height difference. Later, I will weld up some spacers out of some mild steel.

I planned out the shelving material when I was working on the layout of the garage. A 4'x8' piece was the cheapest, and gave me the least amount of waste with three 6' shelves and one 4' shelf per 4'x8' OSB sheet. I cut 15 3/16" off of one of the 4' ends of the sheet for a 4' shelf, then cut the remainder into three 6' shelves at 71 3/4" long by 15 3/16" wide. That left a 3"x96" and a 48"x9" piece of scrap per sheet of OSB. Using 4 complete sheets would give me four 4' shelves and twelve 6' shelves, which was 2 more than I needed. I decided to cut them anyway, and save them in case I decided to add more shelves later. In order to cut the sheets, I used an old craftsman circular saw, a drywall t-square to draw the liens and a 2x4x8 to space the OSB off the floor for when I was cutting it. I also used a 30' retractable extension cord that I bought specifically for my new garage about a year ago. I also picked up some safety glasses, as most of mine were getting pretty scratched up. Couldn't forget a broom to clean up the sawdust either.

Extra Planning Materials: $53.47
2x4x8: 1 @ 2.18 Each
7 1/4" 24 tooth sawblade 1 @ 14.38 Each Pack (3 pack)
x-lens safety glasses: 1 @ 8.97 Each
18" smooth surface broom: 1@ 9.96 - $4 rebate
Dustpan and dustpan broom: 1 @ 17.99
Folding Chair: 1 @ 5.99 - $2 rebate

Other Stuff:
Pen
Drywall T-Square
Circular saw
Measuring tape
Extension cord
#2 Philips screwdriver
10mm socket and wrench

Before and after shots: