Rick Scully, Author at Garage Tailors

How to Safely Store Chemicals in Your Garage

February 25, 2014 by Rick Scully

Last time we talked about items that should never be stored in your garage. However, care must be exercised with another group of materials that often find a home in our garages—chemicals. Quick, think of all of the chemicals currently stored in your garage. There are probably household chemicals like cleaners; chemicals for the maintenance of your car, like anti-freeze and window washing fluid; and gardening chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizers. If you have a pool, you have a host of additional chemicals stored in your garage.

While all of the chemicals listed above are commonly found in garages, they can be the source of household accidents if not stored properly. Let’s consider a few precautions needed to protect your home and family when storing chemicals.

Keep Hazardous Chemicals Out of Reach

Animals and small children are notoriously curious. This can serve a child well in many ways. However, a child or pet’s natural curiosity combined with improper storage of chemicals in a garage can turn deadly. Therefore, all chemicals should be stored well out of reach of children and pets. Consider not only a child’s height, but children’s propensity to climb. Make sure that chemicals aren’t easily accessible if the child climbs on a shelf or nearby crate. This is especially true of chemicals like window washing fluid and antifreeze which resemble colorful drinks.

Keep chemicals off of the ground and well out of reach of children and pets to ensure their safety and prevent accidental poisoning.

Store Chemicals in the Proper Containers

As a general rule, chemicals should always be stored in their original containers. However, there might be an occasion when you need to store a chemical in another container. For instance, you might borrow paint thinner from your next door neighbor. Rather than taking the entire container, you pour a few ounces in an old water bottle or some other discarded food container. When you’re done with the project, you store what’s left of the chemical on a shelf in your garage. Doing so could potentially lead to accidental poisoning if a child mistakes that paint thinner for what’s actually on the label.

Additionally, certain chemicals can only be stored in particular types of containers. For instance some chemicals will corrode a metal container or eat through a thin plastic one. Read the label and store the chemical according the manufacturer’s instructions.

Properly Label Chemicals

Let’s say that you stored a clear liquid chemical in a suitable jar or bottle, but didn’t bother to label it. Now it’s two years later. You’re looking for paint thinner and you happen across the unmarked container. You think it’s paint solvent, but you’re not sure. Maybe it’s something else altogether. While many household chemicals have fairly distinct smells, others do not. Besides, sniffing a noxious chemical isn’t the safest way to determine what it is. Labeling all of the chemicals stored in your garage ensures that you know exactly what you’re dealing with.

Invest in a Lockable Chemical Storage Cabinet

Earlier, we talked about keeping chemicals stored out of the reach of children and pets. A high shelf can work well, but a lockable storage cabinet works better. It doesn’t have to be huge, or take up valuable garage floor space. There are a variety of options available, from cabinets with a small footprint to those that can be installed on a wall.

Poisonous, highly-flammable chemicals are found in most homes and garages. They play a critical role in keeping our homes clean, our cars well-maintained and our gardens lush and green. However, to protect your home and family, you must safely store such chemicals. Keep household and other chemicals out of the reach of children and pets. Store chemicals in appropriate containers, preferably the container in which it came. If the label on the original container loosens, secure it with tape. If you must store the chemical in another container, ensure that it is properly labelled. If possible, invest in a lockable cabinet suitable for storing chemicals.

If the configuration of your garage, or the volume of items you currently have stored in it, makes it difficult for you to properly store chemicals, contact a garage organization specialist who can help.

Five Things You Should Never Store in Your Garage

February 11, 2014 by Rick Scully

The garage often becomes a dumping ground for everything. Seasonal items, like Christmas lights and snow sleds. Items that have outlived their usefulness, like old tires and bikes children have outgrown. Items you never really wanted in the first place, like the table you inherited from your favorite aunt or materials for a project you always meant to get around to, but probably never will.

Storing the items listed above in your garage might not be aesthetically pleasing, but otherwise poses no problem. However, the garage often becomes home to a number of materials that shouldn’t be stored there. In some cases, it’s because the material poses a danger to your health and safety. In other cases, storing the item in the garage will render it useless. With that in mind, here are five things you should never store in your garage.

1. Propane Tanks

Who doesn’t love a good barbecue? After all, cooking outdoors with family and friends can be fun. You already know that you should never grill inside your garage—even in the winter. Maybe you didn’t know that when you store your grill in the garage for winter it’s best to leave that propane tank outside.

Frequently, the valve on a propane tank isn’t completely closed when stored. Occasionally, propane tanks leak. Propane gas leaking in your enclosed garage can cause a fire or explosion. Rather than risk it, consider storing your propane tank outside in a secure, enclosed space, like a backyard shed.

2. Clothing and Linens

There are many reasons clothing and linens might need to be stored. Sweaters and coats take up too much space in drawers and closets during spring and summer. Bedding, too, is often changed seasonally, requiring storage in off-seasons. However, your garage isn’t the place to store those items.

Especially in the colder months, animals seek cozy places to burrow and make nests. If a raccoon or skunk wanders into your garage, the last thing you want is for him to feel at home and bring his family and friends. A box of sweaters or bedding left on the floor of your garage could easily become home to a family of unwanted guests. Instead, find someplace inside your home to store clothing and linens.

Wherever you decide to keep seasonal clothing and bedding, consider storing it in sealed plastic containers that will keep animals and insects out.

3. Paper Products

A growing number of families are adopting an environmentally-conscious lifestyle, which is to be applauded. For many, going green includes recycling, which is beneficial for the planet and can have a positive impact on your family’s budget. However, if done improperly, recycling can cause headaches and an added expense—pest control.

Store stacks of old newspaper and other paper goods in your garage and you’re extending an invitation to mice and other pests to come on in and get cozy. Discarded newspapers, paper plates and any other paper goods make great building materials for nests or a ready-made, toasty warm spot to sleep and raise a rodent family.

4. Fresh Food

Looking for a cool place to store root vegetables, dog food, bird seed or foods packaged in cardboard boxes? The garage might seem like an ideal and convenient place for these food items. Problem is, animals and insects find it pretty convenient, too. If keeping the two previous items in your garage makes it a potential hotel for mice, stockpiling food there makes it a luxury hotel with a five-star restaurant. Good for pests; not so good for you. Find a place to store food items inside your home instead.

5. Temperature-Sensitive Items

While we’re on the subject of consumable items, wine is another that should never be stored in your garage. Wine is temperature-sensitive. Your garage might seem like the perfect place to store cases of wine. However, the temperature in an unheated garage can fluctuate substantially. Exposure to extreme heat can potentially damage the composition and color of wine stored in your garage, making it unpalatable. This makes for a disappointing and potentially expensive loss.

Wine is best stored in a climate-controlled space. However, it isn’t the only item that’s sensitive to temperature. House paints stored in your garage can also be ruined by extreme temperature fluctuation. The extreme heat and cold to which a typical Canadian garage is subject will cause a marked change in the consistency of the paint, ruining it. Some paints separate, like oil and vinegar in salad dressing. Only in the case of paint, you’ll be left with a curdled, unusable mess.

Leftover paint is best stored in a cool, dry basement. If that isn’t an option, look for another space inside your home that is temperature-controlled and has limited moisture. Before you put those cans of paint away, record the color information somewhere safe, in case you need to have another batch made.

There are a variety of items that can be safely stored in your garage. However, for your health and safety, it’s best not to store your propane tank, clothing and linens, paper goods, food or temperature-sensitive items like wine or paint among them.

Looking to maximize the storage space in your garage for items that do make the cut? Contact a garage renovation specialist to set your garage organizational project in motion.

Make Your New Year’s Resolution a New Year’s Reality

January 15, 2014 by Rick Scully

As the clock strikes twelve, signaling the New Year, our enthusiasm burns bright. We’re excited about the possibilities ahead of us and all of the positive changes we’ve resolved to make.

If you’ve ever been in a gym during the first week of the year, you know that it’s brimming with people eager to achieve their New Year’s resolutions. By the second or third week, the crowd begins to thin. That’s because it doesn’t take long for that glittery excitement to fade.

Maybe you’ve begun to experience this, too. Your intentions were good, but you no longer feel motivated. Suddenly, those resolutions feel less like an opportunity for growth and more like a burden. One simple change will bring you closer to achieving your goals. Rather than making a broad resolution, like wanting to lose weight, travel more or make more money, create a step-by-step plan for reaching very specific goals.

The goals mentioned above are indeed worthwhile. However, my expertise lies with another common resolution—the desire to get organized. Let’s look at a few ways to ensure that you realize your intention of getting organized this year.

Get Clear About Your Objective

Start by getting crystal clear about what you want to achieve. Set SMAC goals. Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Compatible. A goal like, “I want to get organized,” is admirable, but not specific or measurable. It is therefore less likely to be achieved. So be specific.

“I’m purging my closet of anything I haven’t worn in the past year.”

“I’m donating all of the toys and clothing my children have outgrown to a local shelter.”

“We’re going to organize the garage so that we can finally park the car inside.”

Now you have specific goals that can easily be measured. If the project still seems overwhelming, don’t panic. My three steps to ideal organization will help you simplify the process and achieve your desired results. Let’s apply those three steps to organizing your garage.

Step One: Get rid of everything you don’t want or need.

This is the step that sometimes hurts. Many of the items stored in your garage have some sentimental value. They represent special memories from your past or optimism about the future. Approach each item logically. Ask yourself if you’ve used it in the past year. If you haven’t, chances are you’ll never use it again. It’s simply clutter, and it’s standing between you and your ultimate objective of organizing your garage.

Don’t be afraid to let go of unused items. If anything is broken, outdated or unsafe, dispose of it. For items that are still in good shape and may be useful to someone else, arrange for a spring garage sale or donate them to a local charity. Don’t hold onto things because maybe one day you’ll need them. Recall the frustration you felt when you made your resolution to get organized. Stay focused and be ruthless. Purge, purge, then purge some more.

Step Two: Divide your stuff into manageable chunks.

Have you ever tried to do a small house repair only to discover that your hammer, wrench and screwdriver were in three separate places? It makes what might have been a simple job frustrating and time-consuming. That’s why it’s important to group all of your tools in one central location, like a toolbox.

Now, take the same approach when it comes to organizing your garage. Separate items by category. Group holiday decorations, gardening supplies, power tools, sporting goods and automotive products. You’ll save valuable time (and prevent needless aggravation) throughout the year.

Step Three: Organize your things according to themes, seasons or purpose.

Organize the garage in a way that makes accessing items intuitive. Place items used frequently where they are easily accessible. Seasonal items like Halloween or Christmas decorations don’t need priority placement. Such items are good candidates for high shelves or overhead storage racks. Winter weather equipment like shovels, ice melting products and antifreeze should be placed near the garage door and given a priority space during the winter.

Once you’re done purging and organizing your garage, you may discover that your current storage options don’t accommodate everything you own. However, a well-designed garage, tailored to fit your lifestyle needs, will provide the storage you need. Simply contact a garage organizational expert to find out how quick and affordable a custom garage transformation can be.

Getting organized requires time, effort and a lot of hard work. However, when your space is organized and clutter-free it will be well worth it.

To Insulate or Not to Insulate

December 17, 2013 by Rick Scully

When planning a garage renovation, customers often ask about adding insulation to the garage. After all, what better time is there to add insulation than while in the midst of a renovation? Yet, there is a more important question to consider.

Is insulating your garage a worthwhile investment?

Customers are often shocked by this question. The garage is one of the most insidious energy vampires in a home. Insulation, by its very nature, impedes costly heat loss. So how could adding insulation to your garage not be beneficial?

Assess the Benefits of Adding Insulation

The short answer is: adding insulation to any room does stem the loss of heat. Therefore, it is beneficial. However, the cost benefit of insulating a garage is situational. To make an accurate cost benefit analysis of the proposed insulation of a garage, you must first consider:

The current state of your garage;
What you hope to accomplish; and
How the space will be used.

The age of your home and whether it already has some insulation is a primary consideration. Older homes tend not to have any insulation. Installing it requires starting from scratch—a costly prospect. Newer builds usually have some insulation. However, it doesn’t always extend to exterior walls. The effectiveness of the insulation is dependent upon the quality of the product used.

Next, consider what you hope to accomplish by adding insulation. If you anticipate that insulation alone will raise the frigid temperature of your garage to one comparable to the interior of your home, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If, however, you simply want to raise the temperature of the garage interior several degrees, fully insulating the space may be the perfect solution.

Lastly, there is the matter of how you intend to use the space. If you’d like for your garage to be a bit cozier because you’re housing a collection of vintage automobiles, insulation alone may do the trick. If the space will serve as an extension of your home’s current living space, more than insulation alone will be needed.

To get a better sense of whether insulating your garage would be a good investment, let’s consider the three most typical scenarios we encounter during garage renovation projects:

There is a room above the garage that is consistently several degrees cooler the rest of the home.
The homeowner wants to protect a collection of vintage or exotic cars from the harsh winter temperatures.
The customer would like to expand the home’s living space by setting up a workshop in the garage.

Each situation must be assessed on the three criteria listed earlier: the state of the garage; what the homeowner wishes to accomplish; and how the space will be used. Let’s take a moment to break down each scenario.

A Cold Bedroom Above the Garage and The Battle of Thermodynamics

Take a moment and think about your garage space. There are uninsulated exterior walls (including the garage door itself). Additionally, the garage door is opened several times each day, allowing any warmth inside the garage to escape and be replaced by colder air. As a result, the garage is nearly as cold as the outdoors in winter. How does this affect any living space over the garage?

The science of thermodynamics tells us that two spaces which interact will eventually reach thermal equilibrium, or equal temperature. In this case the two spaces interacting are the interior of your garage and the bedroom above it. The heat from the bedroom elevates the temperature of the garage while the chilled garage air lowers the temperature of the bedroom. Seems like an open and shut case for insulation, but is it?

Adding insulation will stem the loss of energy in the bedroom. However, insulation alone will not increase the temperature of the bedroom to the level of the other rooms in your home. The extensive scope of work required to fully insulate the garage must also be considered. This may include insulating all exterior walls; insulating the garage ceiling; replacing the drafty garage door seal; and replacing the garage door with a highly-insulated model. This all comes at considerable cost.

Insulating the garage offers marginal heat benefit to the bedroom above. On the other hand, installing a baseboard heater in the bedroom is typically more cost effective. Investigate other options that will reduce your overall heating bill, like replacing drafty windows in the bedroom and elsewhere in the home. These methods are more efficient and offer a larger heat benefit than insulating the garage.

Making Your Garage Habitable—For Your Cars

Frigid temperatures can be tough on your car. The vehicle’s paint is vulnerable in colder temperatures. When oil and other lubricants get extremely cold, the engine and other systems are negatively impacted. A warmer garage not only protects your vehicles, it makes starting them much easier on cold winter mornings.

Not surprisingly, classic car enthusiasts often insulate their garages. The cost of thorough insulation, as described above, can be substantial. However, when you have a considerable investment to protect, the expense is worthwhile.

What if your garage is only used to store lawn furniture, recreational equipment and tools? The expense of insulation may not add up. Whether it makes sense for you depends on the cost, heat benefit and the value that you place on warming your garage.

Insulation is Only the First Step in Extending Your Living Space

When you think of a garage renovation do you envision a handy new workshop or a man cave complete with state-of-the-art electronics? Extending your home’s living space not only provides enjoyment for you and your family, it can significantly increase the resale value of your home. However, insulating the garage is just the first step.

Insulation is designed to retain heat, so the insulated space will be warmer. However, insulation alone won’t transform your frosty garage into a cozy living or work space. If you plan to convert your garage to usable living space during the winter, a more active measure is required. A heat source, such as an electric or gas heater, must also be installed to make the space comfortable year-round.

Decide What Works Best for You

The best way to determine whether to insulate or not to insulate is by doing a cost benefit analysis. A garage renovation specialist can help you estimate the cost of insulating and/or heating your garage and any adjacent rooms. An experienced professional will also help you assess other factors, like estimated temperature improvement and heating and cooling costs. Once you fully understand the realities of what insulation can and cannot do for your space, you can confidently make the decision that is best for you.

7 Reasons You Need to Organize Your Garage

December 3, 2013 by Rick Scully

Everyone is familiar with the chaos and clutter found in a typical home garage. Sadly, too many people accept a cluttered garage as normal and simply put up with it. Have you ever stopped to consider how life-changing an organized garage could be?

A good place to understand the benefits of organizing your garage is with a clear definition of organize. Organize means to transform chaos into order. Literally, organize can be defined as the process of turning a messy, chaotic or unordered space into a structured coherent layout, often with specific grouping arrangements. You will see that there are 7 reasons you want to consider in organizing your garage.

1. Safety of Your Family

The primary reason to organize your garage is the safety of you and your family. Especially for families with children, an organized garage keeps dangerous tools and chemicals safely out of harm’s way. Additionally, by using carefully planned storage solutions you won’t risk the hazard of random objects falling upon you or your kids.

2. Cleanliness

A second reason to properly organize your garage is cleanliness. Cleanliness shows up in two ways. First, an organized garage is more visually appealing because it just looks cleaner overall. One issued related to cleanliness you need to be aware of concerns bare concrete floors. An unfinished concrete floor is prone to releasing concrete dust, especially as vehicles and heavy equipment like lawn mowers are moved in and out of the garage. This concrete dust can be especially bothersome to those who are prone to allergies. Note that concrete dust is not so much of an issue if there is a floor covering product installed. Secondly, an organized garage is easier to keep clean.

3. Protect Your Vehicle

Not surprisingly, the third reason to organize your garage is protection. By freeing up the clutter in your garage, you can store your vehicles, your sporting equipment and other valuables safely inside the garage where they belong. Look at it this way, is it better to store a couple hundred dollars worth of various clutter in and around your garage floor or are you better off parking that $45,000 car inside where its protected from the weather, from vandals or even theft?

4. Have More Quality Time

You will not be surprised to learn that the fourth reason for organizing your garage is your own time. There are only twenty four hours available each day. How much of that time do you want to spend scrounging around looking for stuff in your garage? It is so easy to discount a few minutes here and a few minutes there. However, if you ever took a moment and added up all of that extra time you spend desperately searching for something in your garage or worse added up the time you spend going to the store and getting something that you later learn you already owned, you would probably be shocked and dismayed.

5. Peace of Mind

Along the same theme, a fifth reason for organizing your garage is your own peace of mind. You may have heard about or read studies that suggest that clutter creates a low level stress every time you see it. Consciously or not, each and every time you walk through your cluttered garage you experience a mild level of stress. You know having an uncluttered space is more appealing yet a quick glance at most garages is enough to cause many people to give up in frustration. The task just looks too overwhelming to even consider. Of course, the best solution is to go ahead and make a decision to organize that garage space. The amazing fact is that once your garage space is organized you may well find yourself organizing other spaces in and around your home.

6. Save Money

A sixth and perhaps even more motivating reason to organize your garage is to consider how much money you will end up saving. For example, have you ever found yourself heading off to one of those big box stores to pick up a lawn tool only to discover later that you already had one of those tools buried under a pile of debris? Or what about those lawn and garden chemicals that may be scattered around your garage? Have you ever found yourself with more than one container? Have you ever factored in the time and money you spend driving back and forth to end up getting something you already have right there in your garage? Obviously, you wouldn’t have this expense if everything was stored in a logical organized way. So add up the cost of all those duplicate tools and supplies, add in the cost of the gas to go to the store and back and finally add in your time that you spend either scrounging around looking for your stuff or going back and forth to the store and the point is crystal clear; an organized garage is a huge money saver.

7. Gain More Living Space

Finally, the seventh reason you want to organize your garage is that it will free up more space. It is all about making your space work. By properly organizing and structuring your garage storage needs you will end up with more available space. This will allow you to put more stuff in the garage that you may currently have stored in various locations around the home such as your basement. For example, consider a growing family. By optimizing the storage space in the garage, this family could free up enough space in the basement to construct another room. In other words, by taking the simple step of organizing their garage, this growing family actually created more living space.

As you can see organizing your garage has many more benefits than you might have considered. In many cases, setting up an organized garage could be a life changing event.

Seasonal Tire Storage

November 26, 2013 by Rick Scully

It’s that time of year again; time to move your tires in and out. Of course some choose to simply store their seasonal tires at an offsite location. However, a large majority choose to store their tires at home in their garages. At the same time, there are some homeowners who choose to do both, store the set of tires for one vehicle offsite and the tires for a second or third vehicle at home in the garage. This article is for those who choose to utilize their garage space for seasonal tire storage.

There are a few factors to consider when discussing tire storage. One of the most important issues you want to keep in mind is that of protecting the integrity of your tire. As you probably know, it is never a good idea to store the tire vertically in the same spot over an extended period of time. Storing a tire on its running surface (with or without rims) tends to leave a flat spot in your tire that may result in damage the tire.

Another factor to consider is the weight of the tire. Obviously a seasonal tire with rims is significantly heavier than a tire without rims. Even so, the weight of a tire without rims may be a bit much for some people to hoist up to an overhead platform. You want to tailor your storage solutions to your situation, especially with bulky or heavy items such as seasonal tire.

Tire storage options can be classified into two main categories: horizontal storage and vertical storage. Horizontal storage is exactly what it sounds like. You simply place your tires flat. The tires are either placed on a platform or they may even be stacked in the corner on the floor. Horizontal storage as an option applies to both tires with rims and tires without rims. Depending on your needs, you may decide you don’t like your tires sitting on the floor all winter and would feel much better if they were on a platform out of the way. Also remember that whatever tire storage solution you are pondering, at least moving them off of the floor frees up some more floor space for you to use.

One space-saving solution to examine if it works for your garage is that of vertical tire storage. Storing tires vertically means they are installed in a rack. The rack is then conveniently mounted in an optimum location to maximize your other storage options while still allowing access to your tires. Note that vertical storage is available both for tires with rims and for tires without rims. If you are looking around your garage and want to know if a vertical storage rack would work for you, simply take 4 times the width of your tires, which is the lateral distance or width of the rack (plus hardware needs). Then, measure the diameter of the tire, that number is the approximate depth you will need for a vertical tire storage rack. As you can see, the vertical tire storage option gets the tires out of the way in a compact and contained space.

Whichever option you choose for your seasonal tire storage needs, there is a storage solution that can fit your garage. When you decide to renovate your garage that is an excellent time to evaluate your tire storage needs and options.

Professional Storage Solutions – Overhead Storage

July 23, 2013 by Rick Scully

If you are a regular reader of my blogs, you’ll know that I write a lot about finding storage space in the garage that isn’t obvious. One of my favourite places to store things is on the ceiling. Many garages, especially in newly built homes, have high ceilings (10-14 feet) that can accommodate shelving and platforms. To conclude my series of blogs on doing it yourself versus hiring a professional garage company, I’ll talk about ways to create room for storage in this often neglected area of the garage.

The big box option

If you check out the offerings at the big box stores, you’ll likely find limited choice, if any at all. All I’ve found there is a 4-x4-foot steel rack that can be attached to the ceiling. This doesn’t provide much storage space and because it is open on all sides, this makes it difficult to reach items stored in the middle. Also, this option often doesn’t support a lot of weight.

Do-it-yourself

If you want to store a lot of items overhead, you can do it yourself by building wooden shelves and platforms. It’s do-able, but you need to be confident in your skills. You need to understand weight and load to ensure it’s safe. You’ll also need the right tools and a vehicle big enough to transport wood and sheets of plywood. The other option is to order overhead storage from an online retailer, but then you run into the costs of shipping and duty if it has to come across the border.

Consult a professional

Using a professional garage company, such as Garage Tailors Garage, provides multiple options. If you want to go with ready-made, we offer a sturdy 4-x-8 foot steel storage rack. We install it securely into the ceiling joists and the poles can extend from 16 to 34 inches. It will take up to 750 lbs of weight.

Steel racks are great for spaces such as over the garage door and for storing seasonal items that you don’t need access to on a regular basis. But they are also limiting because the size will not adjust to use all of the available space. If you choose customized overhead storage, the possibilities are almost endless.

Custom overhead wood platforms allow us to design and build shelving that is safe and can store many heavy items such as tires. We can design shelving or platforms to make use of odd-shaped corners and maximize cubic storage area of any garage. Our custom platforms are attached to the ceiling with aircraft cable. This allows the shelf to support significantly more weight than anything you could purchase retail. We can then finish the underside with melamine or drywall, and even install pot lights to add focused lighting.

If you’re thinking about renovating your garage, decide on your budget and weigh your options carefully. If you’re handy at all, doing it yourself may seem like an obvious choice. But doing a full garage renovation can be as much work as a basement or kitchen, so a professional can help you save time as well as a headache or two.

Professional Storage Solutions – Cabinets

July 16, 2013 by Rick Scully

Slatwall is great for storing tools and equipment that you want visible, but it’s nice to also have the option of a place to keep things behind closed, and possibly locked, doors. Have a look at my blog on open versus closed storage. When it comes to choosing cabinets, all is not created equal.

You can go to the big box store and purchase cabinetry and install it yourself, but you might not be thrilled with the finished product. Let’s talk about the benefits of professionally sourced and installed cabinetry.

Variety

At retail stores, the choices are limited. You’ll either find fabricated wood, plastic or steel cabinets. Fabricated wood is not built to stand up to our Canadian climate. Plastic is not sturdy. It’s prone to cracking and just won’t hold up to long-term use. The steel cabinets available are a low-grade metal.

Garage Tailors Garage offers three levels of metal cabinetry, which I call good, better and best. Hercke is basic but it is durable, functional and attractive. Onex is a mid-range customizable cabinetry, and CTECH is a beautiful, high-end, lightweight but extremely durable product.

Flexiblity

At the big box stores, what you see is what you get. There’s not much choice in colour, size or customization.

The Hercke brand cabinets Garage Tailors Garage offers has the least flexibility in choice, but is still more versatile than the big box offerings. The big difference comes in the Onex and CTECH brands. Onex comes in 21 different colours and CTECH comes in 9 colours. But both can create a custom-mixed colour for you. Onex and CTECH are also highly customizable. Unlike standard big-box style fixtures, these professional brands don’t just stock standard sized cabinets. This is particularly useful as most garages are not a standard size or shape. The Onex and CTECH cabinets can be custom ordered to fit perfectly along the length of your wall without leaving that annoying 5 inches of unusable wall at the end. In addition, these cabinets can be customized with hardware, lighting, locks and workshop tabletops to enhance the functionality of a garage.

Quality

Online reviews of the metal cabinet brand offered by the big box guys generally repeat the same complaints: They are attractive at first glance, but are flimsy metal, the screws don’t fit nicely and the finish stains easily.

Hercke, Onex and CTECH are all made of very high quality materials. Hercke, the lowest cost offering, is made of high-quality steel that stands up to heavy use in the garage. Onex is also made of steel but is a lower gauge, which is even stronger. CTECH is aluminum. It’s not quite as strong as the Onex steel but it’s more than strong enough for residential use.

Car enthusiasts are drawn to CTECH because of the quality in the design. Its look is derived from the world of professional car racing and provides a truly unique and stylish look to a garage renovation. Also, little things such as the drawer closing mechanisms of a CTECH MotionLatch make your cabinet drawers much more enjoyable to use as opposed to low quality steel doors, which probably creak, shift and become a chore to close over time.

Along with variety, flexibility and quality, another advantage of hiring a professional is we’ll arrange the delivery and installation of your cabinets. So, if you’re planning a renovation, do some research and consider your options. In my opinion, for the money, the long lasting quality, beauty and enjoyment of professionally designed and installed cabinets far outweigh the do-it-yourself option.

Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Garage Sale

August 21, 2012 by Rick Scully

When people embark on a garage transformation, the question they’re faced with is “How do I make room for the cars and get rid of the mess?” In a previous blog post, seasonal garage anxiety disorder, I discussed an easy way to sort through the clutter. A lot of what you’re storing may not be of use to you, but it may be useful to someone else.

A garage sale can be an effective way to sell some of the stuff that’s in your garage and generate some money to put towards your transformation, but it has to be done right! Here are some tips on holding an successful garage sale:

Before the sale:

Advertise. Keep the posters simple with your address, dates and times. Many realtors will have signs they’ll loan out that you can prop up around the neighbourhood to direct traffic, but you can also put posters up on lamp posts. Don’t discount an ad in the paper – many people still check the local newspaper for garage sale listings.
Price your items in advance and keep the prices realistic. Often people think their stuff is more valuable than it is. The people that go to garage sales are mostly bargain hunters. For things that are clean and in good shape, try pricing it at about a fifth of retail value. If it’s new or almost new, the piece could command a third. Repair something if it needs it. Wash it if it’s dirty.
If you’re unsure about an older appliance or baby product, check with Health Canada’s Product Recalls
Be prepared for early birds who will arrive before the scheduled opening time!

During the sale

Be friendly. Nobody likes a silent shopkeeper.
Have lots of change ready (10 fives, one roll each of quarters, loonies and toonies should do).
Don’t use a cashbox, it’s too easy to forget. A money belt or fanny pack is better.
Designate one person as the cashier, that way there’s no confusion over what’s been sold and for how much.
Selling electronics? Make it easy for people to test these items by having an extension cord or putting in fresh batteries.

Exit Strategy

In the early afternoon, start reducing prices.
Have a plan for the items that go unsold. You can drop them off at a charity at the end of the day (some will do a pick up).

You’ve now freed up space in your garage, gotten rid of the clutter that’s been holding you back and the garage is now ready to do the job it was designed to do.

Creating a Man Cave in Your Garage

August 7, 2012 by Rick Scully

Man caves have grown in popularity over the past few years, and while most guys have them in a basement or spare room, don’t discount the garage as a possibility, especially if you’ve got a car that you want to show off while you watch the game.

The garage man cave isn’t just for car enthusiasts. An empty bay can be a great place for a poker game with a table that folds up at the end of the night. However, chances are the client who’s looking for this is a car enthusiast, because he’s looking to convert his garage into an extension of his living space. In order to create a garage like this, there are a few factors we take into consideration when planning storage solutions.

Exotic car lovers generally like to take care of their own vehicles, which means we need to figure out storage for cleaning supplies and wax.

Because the garage is being used as a living space, we want to minimize dust. This means completely finishing the walls with drywall or slatwall and finishing the floors with a polyaspartic floor system.

If the client is going to use the space in the winter, a heater is a necessity. There are many options for either gas or electric heaters and an added bonus is that a steady temperature is better for the paint and the oil.

Tire storage is also a consideration as a car enthusiast may have multiple sets, including winter or sports tires.

If a television is included in your plans, you’ll have to have a cable connection. We can hide the cable and wires behind cabinets so that they are accessible but remain out of sight.

The beauty of creating a man cave in your garage is that the space can still pull double duty. It can fulfill all your storage needs – just park one car on your driveway until the end of the fourth quarter.

Click here for a recent transformation where we included space for a bar fridge and a plasma TV in the cabinets.