Garage Gym Conversion

[greenmug]

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice and wondering if there is a step by step guide I can get somewhere for this type of project?

I have a detatched garage, concrete base and brick walls. Built about 20 years ago it has a flat felt roof and a canopy door to the front. I know I need to replace the felt and probably the wooden boards too as its leaking a little at the moment towards one corner, so I'll be doing that first.. But before I get carried away with myself, I want to know what I need to do to make the garage a bit more comfortable for my gym. I want to plasterboard the walls and ceiling, so I'd imagne I'd have to construct a wooden batton/frame to the garage walls. I think the garage has a DPC as I can see black lining about two bricks up on the outside.. If I want to put some flooring down inside the garage, should I construct a false floor frame and then lie chipboard onto this, perhaps with some insulation? If so, how would I secure it, do I put plastic down then insultaion, then the boards?

I'm not going to start this project until I can answer all my questions, so would appreciate a little help.. thanks

 

[Maxxy]

Regarding the floor, what sort of equipment do you want in there?

Ive done the same, converted a pre-fab garage to the gym. I used batterns for the walls (with wood preserver on, incase of damp), then insulating foam (isover i think, came in packs of 10, pretty much the right size with a little trim, slotted inbetween the batterns) then panelled it out with plywood. Didnt use mdf incase it got damp out there

On the floor i used a tin of some kind of bitumen around the edges (to protect from damp seeping in) and then i laid floor tiles. I didnt go with a carpet idea, as it would be too squishy under foot, whereas tiles keep the floor nice and solid for weight machines, running machine etc

I havent done anything with the roof, but then mine is corrugated asbestos, so not a lot i could do. Paneling the roof would have meant it would be too low (lowest end is about 6ft 5, and im just over 6ft)

Problems ive found with mine: Cracks formed between the wooden boards on the walls, probably my fault as i didnt tape them, but used a polyfiller. Maybe the only way to prevent this though is to get them plastered?

Finger marks on the walls. Maybe using a gloss would prevent this, or make it easy to wipe clean

Thats about it really.. I left some natural ventilation in there, but filled some of the gaps to stop it getting too cold in the winter.

 

[Maxxy]

My topic and pics are about 2/3 of the way down the page if you want to see them.

 

[Maxxy]

Oh and if you use floor tiles, the way i did it was to make sure one row lines up with the door. This way, people will always walk on the same strip of tiles as they enter, rather than walking across 2 rows. So when they get worn out,or really dirty, you only have to replace one row, not two.

 

[greenmug]

thanks

I'll be buying my timber and DPC sheeting soon.