Having a sweet home gym has been a dream of ours for as long as we can remember. Throughout the years we accumulated a fair bit of workout equipment, but always longed for the day that we could have a truly dedicated workout space. When we finally moved into our own house (no more apartments or rentals!), making our gym a reality was a top priority. Our garage was a prime candidate for creating such a space. As a visual, here’s what we were starting with.
Not being too keen on working out on a concrete floor, we installed some rubber floor mats before our garage became too cluttered. We had used various flooring options previously; foam tiles, stalls mats, etc. Those options didn’t sound like a good fit for our space, so we gravitated towards rubber rolls. They arrived on a pallet, and were surprisingly easy to install once you maneuvered the rolls into position.
Next came an update to the walls. The existing cinder block was a little more spartan than we wanted the space to feel. We’d seen some people do neat things with old rusted tin, so we found a local site selling their used tin cheap. A quick family road trip later, and we had another project.
The tin needed to be cut to size to fit the height of the cinder block, which was easier in theory than it was in practice, as the garage floor slopes down towards the drive requiring each piece from the back of the garage to the front to be cut at a different height and at a slight angle. We also didn’t want the rust from the tin coming off when our kids inevitably ran into them with their bikes or kicked them with a soccer ball, so we scrubbed down each piece and then sprayed a clear coat on each before installing them. The cinder block also stuck out a few inches from the wall, so we decided to install a wood ledge overtop to hide the cinder block, as well as cover any sharp edges from the cut tin.
The final update to our garage was to increase the height of our garage doors to take advantage of the 14-foot ceilings. This was one project we didn’t want to attempt ourselves, but we were very pleased with the outcome. Here’s a before and after.
The only thing missing now was the centerpiece of our gym: the power rack. After a fair amount of research, we settled on Sorinex for making the power rack of our dreams. They make incredible equipment, have some very creative attachments for their line of racks and rigs, and being located in Lexington, SC they are fairly local to us. I got connected with Shedrick, and hence began a several month-long process of exchanging ideas and checking quotes for various setups. We seriously exchanged dozens of emails and phone calls before we settled on the final build.
Then the toughest part… waiting for it to arrive. As it so happened, our family was quite busy between the time we placed the order for the Sorinex rack to the time it arrived. The day of arrival was still highly anticipated. As luck would have it, Kara happened to catch the attention of a worker from a nearby construction site, who kindly unloaded the pallets for us using his forklift. I have no idea how we would have done it otherwise. This thing was MASSIVE. It took hours just to unpack and unload it all.
The end product exceeded our expectations.
We really couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Shedrick and the Sorinex team did an amazing job taking our vision and turning it into a reality. Every step of the way their commitment to their product and their customer service was top notch. There were a couple relatively minor discrepancies between what we had ordered and what arrived with the shipment, and without fail all issues were resolved quickly and without any hesitation, further reinforcing our decision to go with Sorinex. Our garage gym has quickly become a space for our entire family to enjoy each other’s company. While Mom and Dad work out, V and Blaise see what mischief they can get into, or try to emulate their parents. This is undoubtedly the start of many fond family memories… and hopefully some sweet gains to go with it. 😉
Wow! What an amazing project! You will indeed make many memories in your new “family room!”