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What's in Your Garage?

odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
Ok, my wife and I are building a new house (but thats not the point) and are going to have a larger than normal 2 car garage. Now my wife says the garage is just a place to put your car. I want to add the epoxy flooring (with speckles), full automotive work bench and tool system (you need to work on you mowers and stuff too). Anyway, I'm creating this discussion to see what kind of HOMES people have for their vehicles. Pictures would be neat also, but you don't need to. Lets see how elaborate us car people keep our garage's. This way I know I'm not alone in my thinking, that a garage is more that just a place to store your stuff, and a place to keep your car. Also if there is anything special that makes your garage your own, that would be neat to hear about it.

Odie
Odie's Carspace
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Comments

  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    My daily car lives in the parking garage of a low-rise apartment building. The fintail lives in a rented spot in a garage of a sprawling 60s rambler. Nothing personalized in either...in this wacked-out market, I can't afford a place with a 2 car garage, not to mention just a 1 car garage!
  • andys120andys120 Member Posts: 23,370
    it's just way too small, two not very big cars fill it right up to the point where they have to be parked just so to be able to open the doors properly.

    The odd thing is my house itself is very roomy but the garage sucks. I plan to have a barn built attached to what is now the garage that's big enough to comfortably house 3 or 4 cars with a small lounge so I can smoke cigars indoors. ;)

    2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93

  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    a couple weeks ago, and so far so good. You can kinda see it in this pic and in this pic. It went down pretty easily, but didn't come out as pretty as in the picture on the box.

    I ended up building a 24x40 foot garage that's separate from the house. You can see it, in various stages of construction here. I hate to say it, but in some ways I'm already starting to regret it. If I had it to do over again, I would've gone 40x27 (the most the county would let me do) and put in a gambrel second story that would have looked kinda like this.

    I'm thinking about building a carport addition to the garage, something maybe 12x40 or 15x40 or somewhere thereabouts, between the back of the garage and the woods.
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    yeah, where are ya gonna put that '56 Buick and that '62 Nova and that '63 Bel Air?

    BTW, your garage looks pretty nice. You're gonna dig it I think. Plenty of room for classic cars. If you would've built it with the Gambrel roofline you would've had room to store car parts and bikes and kayaks and snowmobiles upstairs from the '63 Bel Air's and '62 Chevy Nova SS's, eh?

    Looks like you've got plenty of room to throw tennis balls deep for the dogs to fetch, too. Ever considered opening up a car manufacturing facility there? You have?

    What kind of car are we gonna build? The 52 of us forum members could all come to work with you immediately. Let's work on it.

    Corvair? Triumph TR-4? Uh-huh.

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • michaellnomichaellno Member Posts: 4,120
    I've got an oversized 2 car garage attached to my house, so it's large enough to hold both my car (Saturn L300) as well as the wife's car (Saturn VUE) with enough room left for some of those metal shelving / work bench units on one side and at the front of the garage.

    In addition, I have a small niche that is large enough to store a refrigerator, my lawn mower and snow blower.

    However, my house does not have a basement, which is why I think the builder 'super sized' the garage area.

    Lots of the new houses being built where I live are starting to offer "tandem" 3 car garages, which means that one side of the garage is 2 cars deep.

    I've heard of houses in CA and AZ that come with 4, 5 and 6 car garages attached to the house! Of course, at the prices those homes are selling for, you'd have to have multiple people living there just to afford the mortgage!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    that this was a cool garage/loft plan. It's really just an oversized 2-car garage, but if you put a bay door in one of the side walls toward the back, you could make a 3-car garage out of it. And of course, you could always add onto either side if you needed more room!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    on my land that used to be a 1-car garage. You can barely see it out the right-side bay in this picture, up on the hill with the truck parked beside it. But, get this...it has double doors that open out onto the NEIGHBOR'S driveway, and it only sits about 5 feet off the property line over there!

    At one time the property was all joined together, but got split up, probably sometime between 1924 (when the house next door was built) and 1934 (the earliest back my Grandma can remember of this area) It's not a big building, maybe 10x20 feet, and was from that era where cars had narrow passenger cabins, small doors, and running boards. You could conceivably fit a car in there, but it wouldn't be fun. My condo had a 10x20 foot garage, and it was quite a maneuver to squeeze a '57 DeSoto or '67 Catalina in there and be able to open the door without hitting anything. I had a refrigerator in it too, which really made things tricky.

    Over the years the neighbor has built up her driveway, to where it's at least a foot above the entrance to this old garage, so I couldn't easily get a car in there from that side, anyway.

    I'm thinking about refurbishing this old building, and busting through on the opposite end and putting in a garage door. I think the groundhogs that live in it won't be too pleased, though.

    At first glance it might seem to make sense to just tear it down and build a new one, but I don't think the county would let me rebuild it where it is. They made me put my new garage at least 90 feet from the road, and I don't think even the back wall of that old garage is 90 feet back from the road! It would probably be a lot less hoops to jump through if I just fixed it up, rather than tear down and start over.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    when you put down the epoxy, did you roll it (quick way) or brush it (P.I.T.A. way)?

    Here are 3 pictures of what my garage will look like (these are of the model)
    image
    image
    image

    If you want to see more check out my Family Homepage here.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    I put the stuff down with a roller, which made it really quick and easy. I think the instructions called for a roller with a 1/2-inch nap. And I had a 4-foot extension pole which made it really quick and easy.

    I'd say that once the floor was prepped and the paint was mixed, it only took about 20 minutes to do each section. The prep was the annoying part, though. First I had to wet down the floor, and since the concrete was still pretty young, just being poured around late March/early April, it soaked up the water like a sponge, so it took a lot of water to keep it wet. Then I had to put down this cleaning solution mixture that was this white crystally stuff that would've looked great on a marguerita glass. Scrub it in real good, rinse it off, squeegee it out. Then rinse again and squeegee it out. Then let it dry, run my fingers across it, and if any dust or anything showed up on my fingers, hose it down again, scrub it again, rinse it all out, and let it dry. And repeat until there's no dust.

    Fortunately my floor cleaned up pretty quickly the first time, so I didn't have to rinse and repeat too many times. And while I had been parking cars in there before I painted, I put plastic down, and then some T-111 scraps that were leftover from construction to catch any drippings from the cars.

    The most annoying part was that it took awhile for the garage floor to dry out. And also, the paint is very temperature-sensitive when you put it down. I think for maximum longevity you're only supposed to put it down when the outside temp is between 60-85 degrees, although the video tape that came with the paint said something like 60-90. And with the heat wave we'd been having, those times were few and far between. And to top it all off, my back went out on me and my roommate, who was going to help me paint the floor, went into the hospital with kidney failure! I tease him and tell him that the only reason he did that was to get out of helping me paint! :sick:
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    that floor plan of the 900+ foot garage on the bottom house is actually pretty nice use of available land square footage. I can see a lot of places where that plan would be great. You get 2 bedrooms out of it that are of decent size, kitchen, dining room and a decent, compact living room. I like the "country" look of it. The thing is, if a person built from the ground up a new design like that they would still have a lot of their land still available to throw a tennis ball to their dog, etc.

    Nice plan! And, of course, downstairs on entry you'd have plenty of room for the two rigs or one rig and a snowmobile or ride-em mower, etc. It's got me feeling like building something!

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • rorrrorr Member Posts: 3,630
    Two things to consider:

    First, if at ALL possible, see if that center support column can be eliminated. I know that it's in there to support the 2nd story room overhead, but that column is the cheap/easy way out for the builder. There's other ways to support the load. It could be replaced by using a deeper truss overhead (or using a steel truss).

    Second, as andre pointed out, he wished for a wider garage than 24'. Since you're going with double doors, if at all possible consider a wider garage with the doors spaced further apart (obviously constrained by the width of your lot). That way with two cars in the garage, you've still got ample room BETWEEN the cars as well as between the cars and the sides of the garage.

    I like the workshop/storage niche on the right side of the garage.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    unfortinatly per building code in the township where these houses are being build, they are required to have the center support in the garage. Believe, me if it was able to be removed, it would be gone. as for size, we got the 2ft expansion on the garage, and added a side door and 3 windows (one on rear wall, and one evenly spaced on each side of side access door. The pictures are only of the model and did not have the 2ft expansion. As for size, my '06 Pilot EX fits nicely inside. I tried it on the model, you can even see the tire marks on the stone. :shades:

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    here is a link to the what we would possibly be looking at for in the work area part.
    Garage Items

    I'm still not sure which to get, the Maximum or the O'Sul systems and then add pieces to it.

    The nice thing is I talked to the local warehouse manager, and I can have it sent to the local store and picked up, that way I don't need to pay the outragious S/H. :D

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • corvettecorvette Member Posts: 10,236
    A couple of nice things to have in a garage:
    Drain in the floor (can't add it later)
    Full insulation, including doors
    30-amp, 240-volt wiring for the future addition of a mini-split HVAC system--these things cost about $1000 plus labor and have a small outside heat pump/AC unit, and would give you a heated and cooled garage.

    The "nook" in the back is nice, but if you're storing a lawn mower there, you'll have to move a car to get it out.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,256
    'diamond plate' crown molding for your garage. you gotta love it!
    one of best things i did was to get 8 1/2 foot wide garage doors. wanted 9 foot but i had somewhat of a budget to stick to. i could drive my expedition in without folding in a mirror.
    also, some extra electrical outlets. it's easier and cheaper before the garage is built. you'll need one the 'fridge. ;)
    my garage is connected to the central vac, too.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    image

    Here's how the fintail sleeps (always under a cover). Not exactly an impressive garage, but it's dry and that's all I care about. The C43's living quarters are too dark and boring to photograph.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    there will be a large service door on the side of house for side entry into the garage / service area. I was told it is large enough to take a riding mower through. As for the plugs, it will already be wired with 6 standard outlets, cable, and phone. The house has an extra 240 outside for addition of hottub or swimming pool filter system. I will more than likely be adding a small ceiling fan in the service area in the garage, plus the 2 door openers. I will buy the door openers on my own, the builder wants 2 arms and a leg for their openers, but is pre-wired for Homelink openers. I am also going to have a exhaust port added onto the side door for tailpipe exhaust.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    I would have thought we would have gotten a few more pics from some of the die-hard car enthusiasts. As my house is being build and my garage takes shape, I will post some stuff. I did see a guy have a inflatable dome garage for his DeLorean when I was down in Knoxville for the Gators / Vols game. I just wish I had my camera.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • Kirstie_HKirstie_H Administrator Posts: 11,146
    I'd post mine, but my garage is embarrassingly untidy... maybe a little Photoshop work would help clean it up.

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  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    You can pretty much see what I've got between the goon squad photos on my Carspace page. I'm thinking of shuffling things around a bit: put one of those steel-frame awnings in front of the carport for the GMC, then throw down a layer of gravel beside the carport and park the Honda and Nissan in there sideways- one of the benefits of owning subcompacts :)
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    I checked at http://local.live.com, one of those Google Earth type sites, and it looks like they've updated the aerial photos of my neighborhood. Here's a shot of the area, which was probably taken back in February of this year I'm guessing. Here's a closer shot.

    Oh, and here's something that really breaks my heart. Back in the summer of '05, this place down the street from me sold for $490,000. 2 acres, all-brick rancher with a 2-car carport, and a detached cinderblock workshop that was big enough to hold 4 cars. This was before I had broken ground on my garage, so I really had a case of garage envy at the time!

    Well, whomever bought it subdivided the lot into 4 half-acre parcels! Tore down the cinder block workshop. And now they're trying to sell the house on a half-acre for $399K, and each of the 3 lots for $275-285K. As soon as I saw the notice go up about the county hearing, I knew the garage, at least, was doomed, because it pretty much sat right in the middle of the lot. Kind of a shame to see it go, though. Dang, I wish I had $490K lying around last year. Heck, I wish I had $490K lying around now! Maybe if the real estate market implodes badly enough, I could buy the house and the three other lots and piece it back together again. :P
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    the real estate market is surprisingly resilient and it is doubtful that it would drop that much. Then again, how much were you figuring it would drop? I mean, real estate almost never depreciates, unless it's a mobile home or a modular home.

    That home was nice, though, and the garage was nice. That price, though, ouch!

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    In the opinions of many, the real estate market in many places (my area included) is speculative and not realistic. It's being kept alive by creative (to put it nicely) financing and people already in the market trading up - it's pretty difficult to enter the market with reasonable terms. Speculative markets always collapse. At that time one might be able to land a cheap garage.

    Around here condos are the new "in" thing...I suspect developers will get greedy and in several years supply will exceed demand.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,256
    when we were looking for our first house, my only requirement was that it had a 2 car garage.
    next house, 3 car garage. too bad i have 4 cars.
    real estate has cycles. i'll just leave it at that.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    Nice aerial shot there. Looks like you have a lot of room to add-on if you wanted to.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    is already starting to have a bit of a soft landing. I sold my condo about 9 miles away in December 2004. I got $185K which, at the time, set a record for our condo community. And it sold fast. Well, the first time, I had a cash offer within a week, but the guy bailed. Then, a couple guys got into a bidding war over it and ran it up into the low $190's, but neither one could get their bank to approve a loan that high on the place at the time, so it settled back to $185K, which was $1000 more than what the first guy was going to give me.

    By the summer of '05, these places were going for about $245K. Guess I should've held onto it, but I wanted it gone and didn't want it to sit empty over the winter. There's a siilar place on the market now for $245K, but it's been on the market for a few months now, and I think they're offering something like $9,000 in closing help. The only thing I offered was a homeowner's warranty, which cost me maybe $350.

    In late 2005, a house up the street from me went on the market for $350K. It was an older bungalow with a decrepit 1 car garage and an even more decrepit 1-car carport attached to it. It was overshadowed by a couple of McMansions that sprung up right behind it. It sat on the market for several months and according to state records, ultimately sold for $330K. So people aren't getting above their asking price anymore it appears, at least not around here.

    Even that place I mentioned earlier that had the 4-car cinderblock garage has come down a bit. Earlier this year they tried to sell off the house and a half-acre for $529K! Now it's down to $399K. And the lots were around $325-335K, and now down to $275-285K. Still too much IMO, but things are cooling.

    The place two doors down from me is on the market now, too. A developer bought it a couple years ago, thinking he was going to be able to put 6 McMansions on it. It's a 4.28 acre lot with an old farmhouse, which they were just going to tear down. Well, the environmental dept stepped in, declared much of the lot wetlands, and reduced him to 3 houses, PLUS wanted to make him pay for improvements to the road. Then, because another developer with more money was in bed with some local politicians and wanted to get approval to build a high-density senior citizens' community in our zipcode, they came through recently and spot-zoned us, in an effort to reduce overall maximum density for the entire area. Now they can only subdivide that lot into two smaller lots. So needless to say, it's back on the market. They paid $475K for it back in early '05, and it's on the market now for $599K. And basically it's a teardown special. There are bb holes in some of the windows, and in sitting vacant the house has taken on other damage. So basically they're trying to sell it for the land.

    I figure if the price ever gets down to about $250K, I'd buy it, just to help preserve the area and keep it a bit more country. Plus, the house that's on it is larger than mine, so if I wanted to, I could build a larger garage there than I can in my own yard! :) They have this silly rule about the garage not having more square footage than the house. I could get a 1500 square foot garage on that plot very easily! I figure that with some creative parking, that would be about a 7 car garage.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    Nice aerial shot there. Looks like you have a lot of room to add-on if you wanted to.

    Thanks. Yeah, I do have a lot of room, but unfortunately the zoning dept is pretty picky about where I can build. The garage is little over 90 feet back from property line up front, and that's as close as they'll let me build toward the road. Normally they'll let you put the house 25 feet from the road and any outbuilding 60 feet, but it's been on the books since the 70's that they want to widen the road's right-of-way from 30 feet to 60 feet...all of it on my side! :mad: The only way it'll ever happen will be if a developer buys up the whole area and decides to build...the county's not going to foot the bill. So suffice to say that, as long as I'm living there, that road probably won't get widened. Of course now I've probably put a curse on my place in saying that!

    Then, to make matters worse, I have to get permission to cut down any trees. I didn't need permission to let the damn things grow up, but I need permission to chop them down!

    I do have a field in the back that's oh, about 350 feet long and varies between 60-90 feet wide. But anything I built back there, they'd make me build a driveway to it. I don't know if they'd let me just run one out to the neighbor's driveway or not. The first ~200 feet of that driveway is right-of-way though, and part of its bridge is actually on my property, so it might not be THAT annoying if I ever wanted to build back there.

    I have thought about building a lean-to on the back of the garage. Maybe something that's the whole 40 foot length, and comes out 12 feet or maybe 15 if I'm feeling adventurous. That would put the edge of it almost at the trees though
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    "I have to get permission to cut down any trees. I didn't need permission to let the damn things grow up, but I need permission to chop them down!"

    Sounds like your dealling with the TVA. My mother has to have permission to remove any trees that have fallen down due to storms and what-not, but they ARE NOT allowed to remove any tree that is standing. By the way my mother lives near Louden, TN.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    McMansions are an abomination!

    Get/build a house and detached garage with some design integrity. Design integrity with some room to enjoy your property in.

    So many McMansions are stuck right next to each other, looking exactly the same. Big Mac, Big Mac, Big Mac, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder...ooops! We can't have that...a Quarter Pounder next to a Big Mac.

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    with those McMansions is when they squeeze them on such tiny lots. For instance, here's an aerial shot of a crop of them that sprung up down the street from me a few years back. For the most part, they're on ~10,000 square foot lots. I guess to many people they're not "true" McMansions, as their square footage only runs from about 2500-4000 square feet. Still, they make them tall, imposing, and pretentious. I think if they spread them out on at least half-acre lots, they wouldn't be so bad.

    There is another community going up about a mile away where they do have them on acre lots. At first I didn't believe those truly WERE acre lots. My grandmother's house is on 1 1/4 acres, and her yard looked about twice as big. But once I saw them up close, I could tell what was going on. It's just that the houses were so danged big and tall that they managed to even overpower those larger lots!

    Now I'll admit, these things are nice inside. But I just wouldn't want that much house to have to take care of. And I just prefer having more outdoor space.
  • corvettecorvette Member Posts: 10,236
    Get/build a house and detached garage with some design integrity.

    I see a handful of older homes with attached garages that have the garage door in the rear and windows in the front and side. I like those.

    Most of the McMansions that Andre posted looked like they had a single garage door for the "2-car" garage. All of the "2-car" garages I've seen like that would technically hold two cars but were uncomfortably tight to the point of making it hard to get in and out of the cars.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    that looks like a good neighborhood for some serious Trick-R-Treating, I would say 45 min tops = whole neighborhood.
    Speaking of the T-R-T, I'm glad we will have the side door and 2 front bay doors, this way I can make a decent haunted pass through for the T-R-T's that will visit. I'm a major Halloween buff, you know Hi-Fi with speakers out front / back of house (can hear through-out the neighborhood), smoke machine, the works. But I also feel kids should not be jipped either. They get full sized candy bars at our house, plus there choice of soda / juice box (T-R-Ting is hard and hot work). Too bad I need to wait until next halloween for the garage, but I still have fun in our current location. Of coarse living near Hershey, Everyone gives out Full sized candy bars.

    Talking about halloween, I wonder if anyone does up their car to look like something out of the Munsters or Addams Family...lol. :shades:

    Odie
    Odie's Garage
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    Ok, I looked on both versions of the garage floor expoy that they sell at a local hardware (not saying name) store and did not see anywhere on the box what temp it should be before applying. I figured I will need to keep the doors open while putting down because of fumes. The 2 types were Rust-Oleum Epoxy and Quikrete Epoxy both require mixing part A with part B and then rolling in 4'x4' sections (making it easier to place the flakes down). I just wish I knew what the outside temp should be before putting down. We want to put down while the painters are doing the house and before we move anything in. The Rust-Oleum one reads that it is walkable in 12 - 16 hours, driveable in 24-36 hours, & to be fully cured (recommended to be at its' strongest) to give 7 days. I know the week sounds long, but we will have other entrances into the house.

    Odie
    Odie's Carsapce
  • 1racefan1racefan Member Posts: 932
    "I just wish I knew what the outside temp should be before putting down"

    I checked in to this a couple years ago when I was shopping around. According to the info I got from Rust-Oleum back then was that outside temp needed to be between 60-90 degrees, and relative humidity below 80%. It also said it is best if the day previous to application had also been at least 60 degrees. The info went on to say min floor temperature needs to be 55 degrees, and that painting in mid afternoon was best.

    By the way, all of this came from the rustoleum.com website, and if you dig around, there are .pdf instructions that you can print off.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    Odie, from what I remember, the stuff I bought didn't have temperature recommendations on the outside of the box. But once you buy it, there's a pamphlet that gives detailed instructions in like 2 or 3 different languages, and it gives a breakdown of how much time you have for a given temperature. Basically, the hotter it is, the less time you have to let the mixture cure, but at the same time the less time you have to put it down.

    The stuff I bought also came with a videotape that's pretty straighforward. I had to take it to my grandmother's house to watch it though, as I haven't had a functional VCR in my house in ages now, thanks to Tivo and the DVD players.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    I wonder if I write to the company (e-mail) and see if they will send me a dvd because I am thinking about using their product. But I will need to write to each company and maybe even end up getting a coupon for their product.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    I got a reply from both companies about the floor Epoxy. Both sent me a $25.00 off coupon for there product (limit 4 per coupon). Since I will need 3 sets, this will save me $75.00. Unfortinately neither sent me a DVD / VHS to pre-view, but Rust-Oleum did send me a copy of their instructions.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    looks like I have some critters that have taken up residence in my garage. I first noticed that something wasn't right the Monday before Thanksgiving. I had that day off from work, and drove my '76 LeMans around the neighborhood and then down to the liquor store. When I went to open the trunk to put the beer in it, I noticed what looked like tiny little critter tracks on the plastic valance panel between the chrome bumper and the body of the car, with a scattering of what appeared to be, at a quick glance, chocolate sprinkles! So it looks like I have mice!

    Yesterday I went down to the garage to move the LeMans so I could get to my convertible, and when I dropped the LeMans into reverse, I heard something drop out of the undercarriage of the car and plop down onto the concrete. In the rear view mirror I caught a glimpse of a very fat mouse trying to scurry across the floor. More like waddling, it was so fat. Heck, it would probably make a nice Thanksgiving dinner for a family of four in some parts of the world! With my luck, the danged thing is probably preggers!

    So, does anybody have any advice for eradicating mice from a garage? I could always put some traps around to get them, but is there anything you can sprinkle around that would scare them off? I've heard that some critters are sensitive to cayenne pepper and it keeps them away...is there anything you can put down for mice?
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    when I had mice in my A/C unit out behind my house, I found that a shop vac did wonders in relocating the little friends, just suck them up and launch them away at the same time. Check with Tractor Supply or a local Farm Machinery Company (if you have one). Either that or get an outside Cat to live around your garage.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • stmssstmss Member Posts: 206
    My brother, a mechanic and Mopar nut, uses open boxes of moth balls. He has a classic cuda - puts them in the trunk, a couple of balls up each exhaust pipe, in the engine bay and a few in trays in the interior when he lays it up for winter. Also others throughout his garage.

    He says they work. I have never tried them. Says they keep the squirrels away too. Worth a try.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    but I heard that you need to use them in moderation. I heard one extreme story where someone put them up in the attic of their townhouse to keep out the squirrels, but went way overboard, and as soon as the hot weather came, a Hazmat team had to be called out to clean it up!

    On Tuesday I went out to the garage to fire up my '79 New Yorker to drive, because my pickup had to go in the body shop to get its rear bumper fixed (second rear-ender in about 2 months).

    Well, as soon as I put the car into reverse and started backing out, a mouse jumped out from under the hood, and tried to climb up the windshield! It would hop up, and kept sliding back down, and stayed on the car until I backed out, and then it hopped off and ran into the woods.

    That whole day though, while driving that car, I swear I kept hearing critter noises. Now it could just be the car. After all, it's a Chrysler from the disco era, so squeaks and rattles were standard equipment, but for a moment I smelled something dead/rotten coming from the heater vents, and then for a bit the heater started blowing cold, like either a vent or vent door got blocked, or perhaps something was being chewed through. I was getting a bit paranoid, and started feeling like Willard or something! :surprise:

    I parked the NYer outside of the garage on Tuesday night, and last night put it back in, and set a trap. I've been seeing fresh droppings on the valance panel of my LeMans, that part that runs between the bumper and the body of the car, so I just set it there. I didn't go out in the garage this morning, since I have my truck back, but I'll check it tonite.
  • 1racefan1racefan Member Posts: 932
    Remember - caulk is your friend.

    I would go inch by inch around that garage looking for any possible opening that a mouse could squeeze through, and fill it with either caulk, or that expandable foam in a can - even up in the attic portion of the garage if it has one. However, I guess they could also be squeezing in around the garage door itself - in which case you could see if the door has any adjuability built in to it, or call the installer to see if they can do anything to hel lessen any gaps.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    I think I have an idea where they're coming through. There's a spot in the Southeast corner of the garage that has a little gap in it. During the summer when I had lizards, they'd always run for that spot whenever I'd enter the garage. And a couple weeks ago, when I started to back my LeMans out, and I heard a mouse jump off of it, it ran for that same spot.

    The garage doors actually seal up pretty tight. I was impressed. The garage at my old condo had about two inches of play in it at some points.

    Too bad I couldn't just get some snakes and let 'em loose in there! But it's cold enough now that the snakes would either hibernate or die.
  • 1racefan1racefan Member Posts: 932
    "Too bad I couldn't just get some snakes and let 'em loose in there! But it's cold enough now that the snakes would either hibernate or die"

    Or just get a "garage cat" (de clawed of course for when it jumps up on your cars).
  • stmssstmss Member Posts: 206
    I don't have mice in my garage - but I do have a 62 Jaguar - maybe that cat is the trick ;)
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    yesterday, and finally caught something. But I don't know what it was. It was small and furry, but didn't look quite like a mouse. It was dark grayish brown and had short little legs and a really short, furry tail. It also had a really tiny head and a plump body. It was kind of a cute little thing, cuter than the mice I get at the pet store to feed my snakes.

    It had a softer looking fur than what mice usually have, too. More like the velour you might find in an '80's LeSabre Limited, rather than a base Monte Carlo. :P

    So, any idea on what this little sucker was? Maybe just a different breed of mouse from what I'm used to seeing?

    Edit: I did some digging around, and I think I identified it. I think it's a vole. Cute little sucker, and I almost feel kinda bad, but I've heard they can also be destructive little things. I'm surprised it could jump high enough to get up into a car...it didn't look like the little legs were built for jumping.
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    Voles are really nasty. I have seen them eat through tires and make nests inside cars that have been parked for a good bit.

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    Voles are really nasty. I have seen them eat through tires and make nests inside cars that have been parked for a good bit.

    Okay, now I don't feel so bad about snuffing the little sucker. :shades: Now that I think about it, about 10 years ago I caught one of these things in the garage under my grandmother's house. This was soon after my divorce, when I had to move in with her. I had the snake in that garage, unknown to my grandmother. I forget how I caught the thing, but I threw it in with the snake, thinking it was just a weird mouse, to see if it would eat it. Hey, I figured it would save me a trip to the store. Well, that thing stayed in one corner and the snake stayed in another, and wouldn't go anywhere near it. After awhile, I just gave up and let the danged thing go. I wonder if the vole would have been aggressive enough to kill the snake?
  • odie6lodie6l Member Posts: 1,173
    I have black racers that live out behind our house along the stream, and they won't even mess with them. Make sure if you get a live one, watch out for the teeth, they are very sharp (I know from experience).

    Odie
    Odie's Carspace
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,655
    oh cool, you have a stream behind your place, too?

    Yeah, I learned a long time ago to watch out for the mice. I've been bitten a few times by the mice, and a few times by one of my snakes. The mice, cute as they are, pack a much meaner bite! They really sink their teeth in, whereas with the snake I guess there's just that primal fear. When they strike, I probably hurt myself more trying to pull my hand away (hitting the side of the cage, elbowing a wall, etc) then the actual bite!

    On the garage front, I've reset the trap, but I haven't caught anything else. Maybe it was just the one vole? I thought it was an odd coincidence though, that on two separate occasions, I started up two different cars, and it just happened to be in THAT car! Somehow, I think there are more than just one.
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