A better use for a garage

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

Trithor

Chico (..... the clown)
Joined
Feb 19, 2013
Messages
4,667
Reaction score
8
Location
Sandton, South Africa
When I got back from the farm, I was struck by a thought that surely there must be a better use for a two-car garage at home, than just parking cars. Surely a car will be just as happy parked on the driveway rather than locked up in a garage? Oh boy, did that thought spin out of control!
Monday morning the garage was emptied onto the lawn, and by afternoon the roof was off.
Tuesday I chopped and repaired the floor. (At that stage my thinking was to convert it to another greenhouse and I ordered polycarb sheets to fit as a new roof.
Wednesday I changed my mind and managed to cancell the polycarb sheets and bought new galvanised roof sheets, I had decided to convert it to a flasking room. By lunch the roof was on and I was starting the grid for a plaster ceiling.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we will finish the ceiling, build a drywall infront of the garage door to close and seal it, and apply primer paint and first coat of PVA. Then my favourite activitym ... shopping, this time for porcelain floor tiles. I am hoping to have a shell of approx 6m x 6m with a celing height of 2,4m. This is where I was hoping to get some advice from everyone on how to divide it up to make a small flasking set-up.

Any suggestions?
 
Well you'll need water, sewer, heat/AC, electric, storage space and don't forget the music! It can get pretty boring doing nothing but flasks! I had all of this in a 8 X 16 foot out building (plus natural gas for a flame in my hood and gas heat)
 
Oh man, have you got ambition and energy to spare! A great idea and
I'd love to see photos too. As an aside, I've always thought building a house for a car was a bit goofy, although we have two for various machinery
for the nursery and two barns as well. You've given me an idea that nobody
is going to like...HA!
 


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Roof on, grid for ceiling nearly complete,
Today the job is to complete the ceiling, wire for lights and power points, and partition in front of the garage door to seal it off.
I will draw a plan of what I think it should look like, and perhaps ST can make suggestions?
 
No my boys are writing exams, so she is very occupied making sure they are studying and fetching and dropping them off. It kind of gave me a bit of space to start another project. (The last time she went out of town she got home to discover that I had started digging a fish pond in the lounge, and was busy building a bridge over it to access the guest WC. Now as a rule she does not leave me alone for too long)

Today went quite well, The flush plaster suspended ceiling is complete, the drywall infront of the garage door is complete, I have wired in 12 power points, and three light points. I have run a water supply to one corner and fitted a waste water return to sewer (It helps running a game ranch in Africa, you learn how to be a plumber, electrician and builder very quickly)

Tomorrow we will paint out the whole interior and then I can start planning the internal walls and general layout. I will lay the floortiles over the weekend that my shell is redy for Monday.
 
If you install aircon make sure the air current from the aircon does not blow into the hood or across the face of it as this can cause contamination problems...

You will need a fridge/freezer, a magnetic stirrer, pH meter and autoclave. The flasks will need lighting and I think you can't go wrong with those LED strips for efficiency.

Glass jars and screw-cap lids are pain. I use H2O2 surface sterilized plastic food tubs with snap-fast lids. No problems so far whatsoever. I sow green pod as I never manage to surface sterilize the dry seed without killing them. My bad luck I guess... I've tried several methods. Either the flask erupts in fungus or nothing ever germinates.

Best of luck.
 
First of all do not despair if you only get flasks full of white fungus during the first weeks... The contamination is a problem that can be controlled depurating your technique.
If you can, make 2 different rooms: one for the kitchen and laminar flowhood and a second one as growing room... it is not comfortable to work at 22°C (at least for me).
Another advice was said before: use led lights for eficiency and the low heat production ...if the temperature of the growing room goes too high or too low you might loose lots of seedlings, so a heat/AC system is very important to maintain the same temperature during the light-darkness cycles (this also prevents contamination).
My Growing room is set at 23°C with AC system set on 16h/day (same cycle than lighting system)...

Another advice... be prepared for a very high power bill...
 
OK, so let me see if I understand this, the shopping list in order of priority is;
beer fridge
music
comfortable seating
flat screen TV
climate control
food tubs
power supply
lights
lab assistant
equipment
supply of pods and seed?
deep pockets to pay the power bill
 
With a lab assistant I wont have to be concerned about being the one that is distracted. A family proof security door is definitely worth thinking about ......
Today I fitted most of the floor tiles (I think I am getting too old to be crawling arround on my hands and knees) Tomorrow I will finish the tiling and grout the floor, then I will post a picture and dimensions and perhaps I can get some ideas on where to fit the fridge and comfy seating?
 
Of your list I've marked the ones in red most important once you're really to go. PS. I can send you pods
beer fridge
music
comfortable seating
flat screen TV
climate control
food tubs
power supply
lights
lab assistant
equipment
supply of pods and seed?
deep pockets to pay the power bill
 

Similar threads

orchid527
orchid527's greenhouse
Replies
17
Views
3K
orchid527
orchid527

Latest posts

Back
Top