Did you know that changing your car oil can cost you between $35 to $75, depending on where you live? Funny enough, you can do a simple DIY oil change for a fraction of that cost.
First, you need space though, which brings us to the beauty of creating your own home mechanic garage. If you’ve never even heard of a garage setup, no worries. You’ve come to the right place.
Read on for tips on how to arrange your garage so that you have enough space for a work area as well as for storing the tools and equipment you’ll need to work on your car maintenance.
Car-Tailored Construction: Understanding What You Need
You’re probably itching to get started on your garage workshop, and all this preparation is getting in the way. However, there is extra pre-construction work to incorporate into your project, notably, what sort of workshop does your car need?
Taking your car or bike to weekend events requires a lot of storage space and other equipment. If you want to break into modifications, you’ll need the right gear, including protective clothing and pneumatic equipment.
Your garage layout will be unique from anybody else’s.
Choosing Space for a Home Mechanic Garage
Some people have huge garages that can easily accommodate several cars and a sizable workshop.
The majority of people undoubtedly have to deal with one or two-vehicle garages, which don’t give much room for other features. You may simply add mechanical touches to your garage without compromising its practicality, regardless of your current space. The amount of mess that makes a garage useless is the determining factor in achieving the ideal configuration.
The element is totally subjective, depending on the individual’s tastes. In order to have a clearer picture, you should ask yourself things like, “What am I ready to give up or do without?”
Developing a Wide-Ranging Strategy
When you’ve thought over your possibilities for garage dimensions, it’s time to make a detailed layout.
This degree of building is a time-consuming and labor-intensive undertaking that cannot be done without proper planning. You shouldn’t let this deter you from creating the best setting possible. Instead, use this time to prepare for what’s coming in the next few weeks or months.
Set a Budget
After settling on a budget, it’s time to start thinking about the features you’d want to have.
After doing some investigating, you’ll see that there are other choices for some areas of your workshop, while others aren’t really doable within your budget. When you’ve worked out the logistics of getting supplies, you may turn your attention to human resources.
Certain conveniences are best installed by a professional, which adds to the overall expense of construction, which may span anywhere from a few weeks to an entire year.
Obtaining the Right Mechanical Tools
You can construct workbenches and other storage solutions in a short amount of time at home.
That’s great news for the budget, but it also means you’ll need the highest-quality equipment available. Most gearheads will already have some of these handy.
Less common but essential tools include floor jacks, car lifts, magnetic sweepers, air compressors, and shop vacs. The same level of planning should go into assembling your toolkit as was put into developing your strategy.
Keeping Things Tidy
Is it now time to start digging for your workshop? Hold your horsepower! (Yes, it’s a pun. And, we’re very sorry).
Although cleanliness and order are fundamental to any garage renovation job, cleaning up is often a considerable part of the work involved.
Getting started cleaning is easy; just move anything that doesn’t belong in the vehicle to another room. After the area has been cleared, a brief cleanup is done to keep things neat and organized throughout construction.
The first clean-up takes a lot of effort. You’ll have to make sure everything is perfect before you can begin installing things. Next, you’ll need to give it a good scrub down.
In order to do this, you will need to organize your workspace by removing any unnecessary items, cleaning the floor, washing the surfaces, and rearranging the furniture.
Creating a Workbench
A workbench is a must in every workshop. However, it has even more significance when you consider how much time you will be spending there throughout a construction project.
Choose a spot in your garage that can accommodate a large table and put it there. While a larger table is preferable, these workbenches will do so in a pinch. This is a matter of individual taste and practicality.
Upgrading to Extras
By “luxury extras,” we mean those features that aren’t typically seen in a garage workshop.
Elevators, painting tents, and revolving platforms are just some of the new features. Although these extras aren’t strictly necessary, they certainly simplify things.
To avoid the hassle of using floor jacks, jack stands, transmission jacks, and creepers, a portable car lift is the safest and most convenient solution for making large adjustments and repairs. You can simply view these portable car lifts, as they’re of the highest quality.
Nevertheless, automobile lifts demand large, open areas and a heftier investment. This is also true of ventilated painting tents and the much sought-after spinning platform common in showrooms.
The Perfect Garage Setup: Explained
The ideal home mechanic garage is the one that meets your needs, objectives, and personal preferences.
Preparation and forethought are, unsurprisingly, the most important factors in any DIY building project. Putting up the perfect mechanic’s setup in your garage might be a daunting task, but we hope this guide will make it easier (and more fun!) for you to do what you need to do.
Also, before starting your planning, you’ll want to check out what the market has to offer in garage tools. Head straight to our automotive section for the latest news, and tips on car maintenance, and much more.