Garage interior finish

[ryans69chevy]

Just wondering what thickness of plywood I should finish off my walls and ceiling with in my detached garage. It's 24'x32' with 8' walls with a 20'x15' and 10' walls on the back. It looks stupid I'm not sure why someone did it like that. I'm fixing everything up so it's nicer in there. Rotting wood on the bottom plate and such. Also I'm making the ceiling 2' on center. Going to insulate the ceiling with R-19 and then the walls with R-13 or possibly R-11. I'm going to plywood cuz it's my garage and I want more durability. And also I'm not gonna heat it fully all winter just when I wanna go out there and work. Or else have it at a certain temp just to keep the bite away. But since I'm doing that I don't want rock since over time the mud will start cracking... So I'm gonna do BC plywood. I'm thinking 3/8" on walls and ceiling. I'm not sure if that's too much or not enough. What are your guys take on the thickness??

Thanks,
Ryan

[Old Money]

3/8 ply on ceiling 24 inch on center will sag with the weight of insulation on it. use 1/2 inch ply. all around and you will be much happier. old money.

[ryans69chevy]

What's the reason for 1/2 on the walls? You think 3/8 is too skimpy? Thanks for the input by the way.

[71swb4x4]

Plywood is expensive. Have you looked into the first 4' of the walls being plywood and the rest of the walls and ceiling being Sheetrock? That would slow a fire down as well.

[ryans69chevy]

I know that would be a lot cheaper. I just don't want to have the Sheetrock mud and tape start to crack over a couple years of that much temp change. It happened in my parents garage. It took 5 years or so I think but it looks kinda crappy now. And that's because they don't have it heated thought the winter. I don't have the money to keep it heated all winter. I suppose it should be at a constant 40 or so.

[In The Ten Ring]

I am glad you asked this ryans69chevy. I hope to insulate my garage ceiling this summer too but I don't think I am going to finish it with anything...just leave the insulation visible. I do want to floor the attic though. I plan to use 5/8th inch for the attic flooring.

How about you hitting this thread with some pics of what you have now?

[motornut]

We just closed a deal on a house with a unfinished garage.
I got till fall to finish the inside up.
I was planning at least 1/2 inch ply too,need to nail stuff on it

[grumpyolddog]

Hey Ryan how abound precolored steel for the walls, it stands up great to grinding sparks and is easy to install.

[Old Money]

3/8 bc ply is actually 5/16 thick and the center ply has knot holes in it. it will not take a hit of a runaway tool box or a car door. i used 7/16 osb walls and ceiling, cheaper and stronger,painted white ceiling and light gray walls with exterior paint to withstand heat and cool cycles. old money.

[Willowrun]

If you want to hang things on the wall, 1/2 inch thick is the only way to go. I still find the studs when hanging heavier stuff though.

[ryans69chevy]

Any websites I can check that colored steel on or pics of what it looks like in garages? I thought ply would be stronger than osb. I guess I'd rather have BC than osb though since it would take a lot of work to get the osb finished the way if like it. So 1/2 BC is prob what I'm gonna have to do on the walls? Ceiling could still be 3/8 couldn't it? Or?? I'll try and get some pics tom night after work! I should have been taking some of what it looked like before I did some of this stuff. Or some of the crazy stuff I've found when tearing everything apart. There was open electrical boxes buried in the wall, open air splices, and just shotty work. It makes me laugh a little bit how stupid people are... Thanks for all the input of this stuff!

[earl84]

Hmmm, Casselton, ND, huh? That's where I grew up. Small world. Still have family there and will be there for my 30 year HS reunion in July.

[71swb4x4]

IMO 3/8" on the ceiling will sag over time, especially if you insulate it.

[magicoolbus]

How about FRP on the walls?

[motornut]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

IMO 3/8" on the ceiling will sag over time, especially if you insulate it.

humidity will prob help this too

[motornut]

A friend and his father did the walls in particale board back in the 80s
It's all still good,he said they can remove and alter under it easly.

[motornut]

this is the new garage
we were told a new roof.....
nobody said new wood under it,means old tiles removed
then i noticed new outer walls,walked out to see new sideing too.
also not mentioned lol
and it has power,needs more tho
outlined my workbench area

[ryans69chevy]

Trying to upload more than one pic for one post but can't... Or else I'm incompetent lol! This is outside of garage. This window and the one directly on other side need replacing. They were spray painted on the inside I guess? Pretty strange... You can see where I was taking about 8' walls then jumping to 10' walls. Not sure why...

[ryans69chevy]

Now you can see a better idea what I was talking about. They bumped it in two feet on each side. Still trying to figure that one out... Figured it would have been way easier to tie into the existing roof line and just continue it on. Any ideas why someone might do this??

[ryans69chevy]

The garage door weather stripping is kinda crappy right at this end of the door so when it rains heavy it gets in the garage and pools along that wall causing the wood to rot over idk how many years. I jacked up the wall and got the bottom plate out in MANY pieces. It literally fell apart into many pieces after I hit it with the claw of the hammer. It was easy getting it out but putting a new green treat under there was a bit tough! There is still some of the top on the bottom plate I have to fix. It rotted all the way through. Trying to think of a cheap remedy to keep that dry for the time being. Planning on a new garage door this fall.

[ryans69chevy]

This was a fun project! This is right at the addition. All they did was open up wall a bit bigger than the size of a standard walk in door. And they had shelves galore back there! I decided I wanted that wall tore down so I could have two cars parked in the garage plus my truck frame parked perpendicular to the cars so it's pretty much gonna be where I put in that header. That header is 2- 2x12's laminated nailed together. That opening went from about 3'6" to 15'8"! Gonna feel a lot more open in there now!

[ryans69chevy]

This is just somewhat showing my next big project which wasn't expected... After I gutted the inside under the Sheetrock on the ceiling I found the ceiling joists were 4' on center for about half the garage the other half is 2' on center. Where they had 4' on center they cut 2x's perpendicular to the joists for the Sheetrock to screw into. I tore all those out and going to buy 24' 2x6's and making it 2' on center. I think I have to get 7 of them. Then at the same time I'll have to throw a laser up and make sure none of the other joists are sagging or else I'll have to fix some of the uprights which I'm sure I'll have to!

I'm hoping to get my truck frame here before the snow hits. So I have a busy summer/fall ahead of me and a bit of a money drain! I prob won't be able to cover the walls this year because of monies. But my plans are to finish the ceiling, re-wire and add a new sub panel, sand the floor, epoxy the floor, insulate everything, plywood the ceiling, paint the ceiling, and get a new garage door. Only thing I'm not doing personally is installing a new garage door. They look tough to get aligned!

Thanks for the input and checking out my garage! Feel free to comment on whatever!

Thanks,
Ryan

[donthekawguy]

My dad used T1-11 on the bottom four feet and sheetrock up from there. He painted the 1-11 blue and the sheetrock white. He had a four inch board screwed in horizontaly where the two met and it was painted red. Looked really cool and he never had a problem with the drywall. He also put up dry erase board everywhere with pens stuck on so in case he thought of something or needed to write down a measurment he could.

[Truckseats]

I used 7/16" OSB. I'm very happy with the finished product.

[donthekawguy]

Originally Posted by Truckseats

I used 7/16" OSB. I'm very happy with the finished product.

Paint 3x3 black and white checker board on the floor and thats what my dads shop looked like.