Garage Category
There are many reasons why a garage is a good thing to turn into an apartment: some people benefit from the extra income when they rent it out, while others enjoy the benefit of having grown children live close by while still giving them the responsibility and privacy that they need. Still others manage to convert a garage into living space for relatives who need a temporary space to stay for an extended period of time. Whatever your reasons, converting a garage into a cozy apartment is definitely something you can do with just a little extra work. For this project you will need a roll of insulation, a couple of sheets of wallboard or plywood for the walls, wall paint, paint roller, one medium and one small paint brush, hammer, handsaw, nails, floor covering, cleaning supplies, and a mask and gloves.
Step 1. Do a thorough sweep of the floor, following it up with a thorough scrubbing with laundry detergent. For floors that are not too soaked with grease, the broom may actually be used to work up the suds. Rinse the suds off with a few buckets of water, making sure to sweep the water outside. Dry off the floor for a couple of days before you start to install the flooring. While the floor dries, and as long as you can have solid footing by the walls, you can start painting the walls.
Step 2. With your mask and gloves put on, install the insulation into the garage-door space. Over the installation, fit the plywood panels, nailing them to the studs on what used to be the garage door. Install them in a way that you will have a normal-sized apartment door.
Step 3. When the paint dries, install the flooring you chose. Peel-and-stick floor tiles are pretty straightforward to install by just following the directions on their box; you can also opt for woven jute mats positioned where you need them to be, such as in places where you will put the bed or the sofa. You can also opt to paint the floor with matte enamel paint for a tighter budget.
Step 4. Run electrical wirings and plumbing through the exterior wall of the house towards the garage apartment. You can save on costs by placing the kitchen and bathroom closest to the wall shared with the main house. For a large garage, you can then section off different living areas, setting up plywood walls. A one-car garage will typically be better off left as a studio apartment.
Step 5. If the person who will use the garage apartment is actually a family member who can go in anytime to use the bathroom, you need not worry about installing a toilet. But if the apartment will be rented out to strangers, you can opt for a chemical toilet. You can check for a safe as well as legal space for regularly dumping the chemical toilet in line with sanitation and health laws. Camping equipment stores are good places to buy a chemical toilet.
Step 6. Now that you have gotten the necessary things in place, you can now start to furnish and decorate your new apartment!
Rock bands have been around for several decades, and while technology has changed the face of music on several counts, including the way it can be recorded and shared, the magic of forming a garage band remains. Even with the rise of the Internet, youngsters’ desire to get together and form a band remains unchanged. What do you do when your teen decides to convert your garage into a music studio? While you desire to support his musical interests, you doubt if the neighbors will be just as understanding. How do you make sure you can contain the sound enough so as not to disturb the neighbors without needing to put all the instruments on earphones? Soundproofing a garage is actually something you can do by yourself without needing the services of a professional acoustics specialist.
Step 1. Determine what kind of instruments will be used, as well as which part of the garage each one will be set up. If you already have a drum set in your garage, that should give you a general idea of how the setup will look. If you are unsure, do not hesitate to ask your teen.
Step 2. Cover all the walls with sound proofing materials. Egg trays are a very affordable choice for sound proofing, although some experts question whether they make any difference in keeping the sound in. A next choice would be to buy Styrofoam panels or a thick, heavy foam. You can typically get these for a low cost at factory outlets, as you can buy extra pieces from other people’s cut-ups. But the best choice by far would be to invest in acoustic boards. While these may be a bit more expensive, if you intend to keep the garage studio for a while, it would turn out to be a good investment.
Step 3. Drums are typically the loudest instrument in any band. Other instruments will generally be plugged into amplifiers, whose volumes can be easily turned down, but drums will have to played really softly or you will need to do something to keep the sound in. many experts swear by drum shields, although buying a drum shield may set you back a bit too much. Instead, you can purchase acrylic sheets joined together with hinges. A good size would be between four to six pieces of 2 feet wide panels, with height ranging from 4 to 6 feet. What the panels do is to bounce back the sound of the drums; as such, make sure you also attach acoustic boards all across the wall behind the drummer.
Step 4. Finally, do a quick check of the items left in the garage music studio. If you find many items made of a wide expanse of metal, try to transfer them to another room, the attic or the basement, maybe, as the material may cause the sound to reverberate, creating greater noise than you would like.
There are many advantages to adding a ceiling either to a room inside your home, or to a garage. For one, it helps cut down noise coming from the outside. It also adds an insulating effect, keeping you warm when it’s cold, and keeping the room cool when it’s too hot. While building a ceiling on your own is very possible, it is nevertheless a very difficult job. However, as long as you have all the resources and the planning and preparation needed, there’s no way that it cannot be done.
Step 1. Before you begin constructing the ceiling, see to it that there are enough joists to hold your drywall. An ideal joist should be 2×8 lumber and running 16 inch apart from each other. If there are no existing joists, you will need to add some joists first. Next, take measurements of the area you will be covering.
Step 2. Buy and prepare all the things you will need: Ceiling joists (optional), ladders/scaffoldings, pencil, tape measure, hammer, drywall nails, drill, drywall screws, drywall, fiberglass insulation, packaging tape, and drywall tape/mud.
Step 3. You will need to set up scaffolding or at least two or more ladders if you have some assistants to help you. See to it that you provide each of the individual who would help you with the right materials and tools they will need such as a hammer, some nails, screws, and a drywall knife. This will help speed up the construction of your ceiling. Furthermore, don’t forget to provide protective gloves and a helmet to ensure the safety of each individual working.
Step 4. Measure the area where you are going to lay your first insulation and drywall sheet. Take note that the insulation should be laid first before the drywall. Cut the first insulation blanket and apply a vapor barrier over it. Nail it to the joists in 16-inch intervals. To make things a lot easier for you, mark the spots before attaching the blanket. When you’re done attaching a sheet, take another one, lay it beside the first sheet, and attach it to the joist as well. Once you reach the far end of the wall, measure the space left and cut a sheet that would fit into it. Continue attaching sheets until you have covered the entire area and seal with packaging tape. If there are any fixtures or electrical outlet present, cut around them before laying a sheet in place. Follow the same step for laying the drywall sheets, carefully cutting around electrical outlets and other lighting features that may be present.
Step 5. Fill gaps between drywall sheets with drywall mud using a mud trough and a knife. Next, place the paper tape onto the mudded gap and cover it again with a thin layer of mud. Repeat until all joints and gaps are evenly filled. When the mud has completely dried, sand it for a smooth finish.
Now you have a newly constructed ceiling, perfectly insulated to keep your home free from noise and to keep it warm during winter and cool during summer.
