Garage Conversion for Cabs?

[Amb47uk]

Hi All,

I'm moving house very soon, we have an unconverted garage attached to house with a bedroom over it. Large unpainted concrete floor.

Was looking at some old threads, but couldn't quite find the answer.

I was planning to

-Insulate outside wall
-Insulate ceiling (it hasn't any)
-Insulate garage door, draft proof, add thick curtain over
-Install multiple electric points (electrician)
- Stick commercial grade carpet tiles down straight onto exposed concrete
-Run dehumidifier to keep at 65% max
-Run an oil heater once a day during winter (might consider a proper radiator)

I want this to be a very quick job as I have to move my cabs in a month's time.
Ideally I would like it to be able to be a garage again one day if I can ever afford an alternative solution.

My key questions:

1) Do I really need to raise/insulate the floor before carpet?

2) Anyone utilise a power system where you can control individual power sockets to each machine from a single location? If not thinking I need to have all the power sockets up High to reach with a pool queue or similar.

Appreciate any other tips and tricks!

Adam

 

[chris2922]

‘Need to’ … no, but raising the floor and insulating it made a big difference to the temperature retention in my conversion.

Controlling power sockets could be achieved easily with smart plugs.

 

[shumps]

This is not mine, but found it an interesting read when I was looking into things : mancave Archives - agent4125

 

[DanP]

Yes to raising the floor, I believe it’s made a big difference. It also makes the floor a little more comfortable imo than carpet on bare concrete.

I do also have a single switch panel controlling each socket (20 of them) attached to its own RCD. It makes life so much easier, especially in those ‘turn it off quick’ situations

 

[TWB]

+ 1 for raising and insulating the floor.

I run my cabs off a smart plugs connected Alexa

 

[Mr20to5]

You can find my very very similar conversion on my blog (link below).

I didnt raise but instead laid a very high grade underlay and thick pile carpet, which you will see.

High up sockets for ease.

 

[muddymusic]

I would absolutely raise the floor. It's made a huge difference in my place to both the warmth and keeping the damp out. Floating floor took half a day to do.

Clear out everything, lay a DPC down and up the wall a foot or so. Layer of slab insulation and then chipboard flooring over. I fitted some high quality carpet tiles down on mine.

It's quick and easy, no need to fix anything down. You'll be really glad you did it, especially come winter when it's cold and wet out.

 

[Alpha1]

I would absolutely raise the floor.

 

[Amb47uk]

Thanks for the input guys, think you've convinced me I need to DPC then raise / insulate the floor.

Had an electrician around today to look.

Said we could do 2 x 9gang switches to 18 individual sockets which would be great.

I thought of smart switches, but not sure the Alexa plugs are suitable for the big power draw.

Now to figure how to best insulate garage door, and allow it to still be used as a garage door (to get the cabs in and out)

 

[Alpha1]

Have a look at Lightwave for smart sockets. Expensive though.

 

[Stickman]

I agree floor a must, you lose so much heat and it is not nice standing a freezing floor I did floor and roof on my cabins, I have seen some people insulate an up and over garage door, if you have the budget you could fit an insulated roller shutter garage door that is electric, you can get DIY installs for that.

I have a background heater in both my cabins, Office and Games room, that protect against <10 degrees, along with an aircon that can do heat and cool (very handy this summer!)

I also have my machines on SMART plugs, I do not group and start together via Google, usually I start them one after another and have had no issues (I use google hub and the app on my phone to control) the latest ones will even show you KWh so you can see how much per month you have used and what it is costing you (handy in these present times if you want to show it is not your machines but other devices that are costing a fortune to anyone that may question it )

 

[DanP]

For the garage door, I had a false wall put up in front of it. It's a just a wooden frame, insulated and plasterboarded each side. I also have a large 'fire wooden door' in it to allow for cabs to come in and out. I really helps keep the room cool in summer and warm in winter.

Have a think about any other wiring you might want before you get the walls done, doing them after will be a massive pain in the backside. As well as my switched sockets I had a few normal sockets with there own switch added (for things like hoovers, laptops, etc) to use ad-hoc. I also had speaker cables run to all 4 corners of the room which I ended up using later. I wish I'd had some ethernet cables run to some sockets now but it's too late!

 

[thegreathopper]

Thanks for the input guys, think you've convinced me I need to DPC then raise / insulate the floor.

Had an electrician around today to look.

Said we could do 2 x 9gang switches to 18 individual sockets which would be great.

I thought of smart switches, but not sure the Alexa plugs are suitable for the big power draw.

Now to figure how to best insulate garage door, and allow it to still be used as a garage door (to get the cabs in and out)

JPN Candy cabs like a Sega Astro take approx 0.6 amps per cab, you could have 18 of those on one Alexa socket without a problem, but I imagine some of the driving cabs take more.

 

[Flinnster]

Is that 0.6a per cab when running after initial power-on?

There is a spike when first powering up surely? I turn on multiple cabs one by one these days as I used to trigger the sensitive house trip when I tried to fire up a whole row in one go

 

[thegreathopper]

Yes that’s correct, the initial inrush of current will be for a very short time and shouldn’t cause a circuit breaker or RCBO to trip, maybe yours was dodgy - faulty.

 

[Shinydaz]

I built a wooden sub floor, underneath that I put superquilt, and on top I put chipboard with carpet tiles to finish.

 

[chris2922]

I built a wooden sub floor, underneath that I put superquilt, and on top I put chipboard with carpet tiles to finish.

Did the same but insulated the sub floor with rockwool. I’ve slept in there quite comfortably. Won’t go into why…

 

[thegreathopper]

Yes a definite on insulating the floor, A recent project I worked on we converted an outbuilding to a utility room, Architect advised to put 100mm Kingspan on the slab and the same on exterior walls to comply with building regs and to keep the room warm.

Rockwool can hold moisture so not so good to use on exterior walls.

 

[campbell87]

I did mine many years back. I applied insulated plasterboard and built a false wall to cover the garage door. Came out really good once painted and skirted

I got carpet for the floor. Used this underlay that is good for bare concrete. Not had any problems really. Even in the winter it's not really cold in there.

I just have a power bank that's got my cabs plugged into it, and that runs off a smart switch.

 

[Venom]

A similar thing was done in our extension b y a building company , Id recommend it. Not sure on the thickness but the kingspan slab was put direct on concrete, already had a damp proof layer, then chipboard slotted together direct on top. I was sceptical as no wood below it, and thought was odd at the time.

But no gaps, no damp and takes all the weight thrown at it, quite clever indeed.

Also a lot less hassle to lay. I know it is expensive, but so is wood these days for any sub frame. The insulated plasterboard was a god send for damp as we had a single skin wall in utillity room. Builder fitted insulated plasterboard and had no issues , its been in about 5 years now.