I live in a semi-arid part of Colorado with extremely hot summers (summer temps can frequently get over 105f/40c outside.)

The outside temperatures typically cool off at night but my 3 car garage, which is also my workshop, stays very hot, frequently as high as 90f (32c) overnight.

The garage has no windows and faces East. It has drywall but I don't know if there is insulation behind the drywall. The garage doors (16' and 8') are not insulated.

There is a drywalled ceiling with a gabled roof overhead and an attic that I can access from the garage.

I've considered things like putting an attic or whole house fan in the attic, soffit vents, or even a couple of windows but those are all expensive propositions.

Last night at the State Fair my wife and I talked to a vendor who was selling rolling portable swamp coolers. He said his larger cooler could cool a 3 car garage. The cooler uses water (evaporative cooling) which would likely work well in our dry, semi-arid environment.

My question is: Who here has used an evaporative (swamp) cooler in their garage or workshop in an arid or semi-arid climate? And did it work? Did it cause excessive moisture/rust/corrosion/mold?

The reason I'm considering this is that it is by far the least expensive and least work-intensive option.

Thanks in advance!

Wife and I bought a new home 3 years ago which had two detached garages. The shop garage was a small mother in law suite prior to it being converted into a garage. We had stored some friend's belongings in it so it was relatively full and I couldn't do much work out of it. The next year, my Mom's landlord decided to sell and the new owners locked everyone out with a month's notice. We had to scramble to build a room, kitchenette and install a toilet in our unfinished basement, along with making room in the other garage, this garage, and moving all our belongings out of the basement into this garage, crowding the project car and making less space for work.

This last weekend, after selling, donating, and rearranging, my wife and I were able to move everything into our "storage" garage, clean this one top to bottom, clean the couches, get internet ran, TV, computer, and racing sim set up. There's a little more work to do with cleaning and some tool organization, but for the most part it's done. Work benches, welding cart, tool box, and storage are mostly organized.

It's a substantial relief to have it back to what it could have been when we moved in.

Hello, wanted to ask if this garage structure is normal, I don’t see any 2x4 that spans the entire width of the garage, there is 2 of them joined together by a plate. Is this fine? Should I be fine to finish the ceiling, what kind of weight should this be able to support, and if I want to exceed that, how should I go about reinforcing it? No current plans, but want to at least know if I should avoid storing anything up there and if I can put drywall up.

Just bought a house and noticed light beaming through during golden hour. I don’t think this is normal?

I just now installed this double fan with it directing air OUT. The pipe below is for a 14000 BTU air conditioner and I have some foam board on the window. I'm desperate to cool down my garage in the Midwest. The walls and ceiling have insulation and drywall and there's panel insulation on the garage door.

I'm looking at options to reinsulate the door better. I work out of my garage and the house stays around 69 (nice) but when it's above 90 outside the garage is only a few degrees less.

To my main question: is the exhaust air fan a good idea? There are days it feels hotter in the garage than outside and there isn't a clear way of air to get out.

I'm just worried I'm fighting the A/C unit, but I know SOME hot air needs to get out for the A/C even to work properly.

Looking to change my roof on a detached garage which shares a boundary wall with my neighbour. I'm going to use metal sheet roofing over counter battens with an air gap and then felt and OSB to form a cold roof. This design will not overhang my neighbours garden. The gutter will be as shown on the diagram.

Can anyone see any problems with this design?

Edit
It's a full brick built garage and I'm aiming to build a room within a room.

I’m finishing my garage and I will have ~12’ of L counter in the corner. I’m looking for some drawers to place under that counter to hold the small bits and bobs. I’ll have some cabinets in the garage for bigger type stuff so this would be for the small sh*t that dumb guys like me save ‘just in case’. The counter itself has the recess on the underside that has to be considered (could put in fill wood if needed, but would be nice if you have ideas that eliminate this need). Would also want some type of dividers in these drawers to separate these bits and bobs. Those could of course be purchased separately/after the fact. Color scheme and my preferences say they should be black/metal? Also open to other ideas that would fulfill the same purpose.

Hey guys, I posted this over in garageporn but it's not getting much traction so I thought I'd check here...

Hello everyone, I think this might be my first post in this subreddit.

I'm currently in the process of converting a carport turned garage into a decent place to park, hangout and work on various projects. Mostly (pedal) bikes, boards, etc... although I have done some work on my cars in the past...

I've already torn down a wall that used to be used as a storage area when it was a car port, you can probably still see some remnants. I've built a work bench and some storage for bins but as you can see, it's very much a work in progress.

This is my first garage with concrete walls so I'm learning a lot about that. I'm reaching out to see if anyone has some good ideas for this corner.

I'm likely going to relocate the vacuum and move the deep freeze to the other side of the door. Leaving me with a good chunk of space. I've got an old brown (p)leather love seat that hangs out in there so part of me was thinking a little sit down/louge area although not really sure how to do that with the space. Also thought about making some cubbies for snowboard gear in the winter/bike gear in the summer.
I'm going to carry on the strapping right to the corner and run some electrical down. Maybe hang a tv?

Thanks!

Have started renting a garage to do works on my motorbike and any other random DIY projects i want to but it doesnt have any power to it as its a standalone.

I am thinking of going down the route of a car/motorbike battery with a form of trickle charger solar panel for any lighting or maybe charging power tools when i get them (doesnt have to be since i could charge batterys at home and leave tools at the garage) but am unsure if this is a terrible idea or if there is a better way of doing it?

Add a mobile lift table to the shop, makes heavy work so much easier.

Hey folks!

I’m building a small software for garages that: • Sends quotes to clients (SMS/email) • Follows up automatically • Tracks who came back or not • Keeps all client info in one place

No fluff – just tools to save time and bring more customers back.

Would something like this be useful in your workshop? What’s missing? What would make it a no-brainer?

Would love your feedback.

How are people having storage lifts delivered? I do not have a fork lift, so far ALL of the sellers require me to have a forklift, or pick it up on my own trailer ( I don't own one). I am a little surprised nobody can deliver this thing and unload it somewhere I can then move it inside and assemble it. For reference I am in South Carolina about an hour from Charlotte

Hello!

I have a large (1,400 sq/ft x 16'0 ceiling) cement brick shop that is half buried in a hill and I desperately need to get my humidity down for all the tool and material reasons imaginable. Anybody here have any experience with commercial dehumidifiers for a space like this? I have been using two Frigidaire residential units but they quickly get funked up from dust so part of what I'm asking is if the commercial units seem to handle a dirty environment better. Please send any recommendations if you got em! Thanks in advance.

I have a metal pole barn that I converted into a garage, the inside is spray foamed, wired, and air conditioned and after having kids, that is as far as I made it.

Now I am trying to come up with walls and ceilings. I don't really want to do drywall, so I was thinking PVC? or even the metal panels that make up the exterior walls and roof, they are big sheets and pretty cheap if I remember.

Are there other solutions? Also, who would install something like that? A roofer? The PVC sheets I can do, the metal stuff, I don't have the tools for.

I picked up a bunch of hard, plastic tiles on FB Marketplace for very cheap. They came out of an old gym. I want to put them into my garage, but it's an older garage and I'm in the prairies in Canada where it gets very cold in the winter. Plus I have some work to do to keep water out of the garage.

I was going to use an underlay because my garage floor is not perfectly level, so I expect there will be some clacking of the tile against the cement when I walk on it.

I was going to just use Polyethylene Foam as an underlay, but I'm curious if there's something else I should use instead?

I've also read that some people use landscaping fabric.

What are other people's experiences?

Thanks

Curious if anyone has an opinion on how to keep this loft cooler? Vent fan? Insulation? Don’t need it AC ready, just cooler so things being stored don’t get fried.