Office conversion

davelinde

Well-known member
We bought our 3210 with the intent of converting the garage to a bedroom/office. I can work on the road and the kids are home-schooled and we think this floorplan can be ideal for us. At this point I have not touched anything (I like to plan a lot before I start to buy materials, cut and drill...) and next week we will be doing our first 2 week trip - but it's a vacation so I won't be working and the kids won't be in school.

After the shakedown trip I'll have a couple months until we're off to FL for a longer working trip.

So... has anyone done a garage office conversion? I'm thinking I can frame out the floor to be level to the back and put down a carpet to soften it up a bit. My son can use an air mattress on the floor to start and we'll use totes for storage. I've got a nice folding table and that's about it...

Seems I'll need a good chair. It might be nice to rig something to get the totes off floor and near the (nice high) ceiling. So far we have been OK, but I might need to put another AC unit in the garage (probably with a heat strip since I can't find a furnace duct back there...)

What else? Pictures please?

For the storage.... How have you attached to the wall/ceiling and how much weight are you carrying up there?

THANKS!
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Hey Dave,

Just a wild thought here - inspired by the news this week of comfort capsules for the brass flying in military cargo planes.

This would cost you more weight, but since you won't have toys in the back of the TH, you can probably afford the weight.

Consider making your office as a slide-in module. A module that you could make in the driveway at home, then use a fork-lift or some-such to lift it up and into the garage space.

Tons of complications to be sure but could be a cool, fun and useful project. And, you slide it out when you are ready to have the TH garage be just a garage.

On the front wall where the module meets the back wall of the RV, you could have a hatch that opens to reveal the electrical (AC, DC, TV, Tel, Internet) connections - pass them through and plug them in.

In the roof of the garage, you could install a Dometic or Carrier 13.5 low-pro AC with heat-pump and with a hand-held remote control. Then have a square (a couple inches larger than the AC down-draft trim) water-tight removable-from-the-outside hatch on the roof of the module that can be removed "before" sliding the module into the garage. Slide the module in, bolt it down, plug it in, add a dense foam rubber baffle strip around the open roof hatch to insulate around the AC trim.

And viola! At least it seems that fun and easy in my mind. Of course you need a door. And a window to the exiting windows. Maybe an emergency exit. Access to other things in the garage. Material to use for the exterior if you want to leave it outside when not in the trailer. The cost......

Okay - maybe it's my own dream :)

Jim
 

davelinde

Well-known member
Jim! I LIKE the way you think. Now... I'm not even tempted to try doing this - but it's a way cool idea. Key issues would be that I don't have a place to store it or a forklift to move it. And... although my FW can hold the load, my truck is on a strict diet.
 

davelinde

Well-known member
OK... today I built a little triangle to make my floor level, came out exactly as I'd hoped. Next step to having an office/bedroom/storage will be to put down a carpet. After that I need to choose a bed, desk and chair and I'd say we are functional.

Will be fine tuning after that. Advise always welcome.

(not sure how to post pics... will do that later)
 

landp

Well-known member
My wife and I did the same thing for different reasons. She works from home often and I am starting an insurance agency that I can also work from home. so when we want to travel, we can keep working.


I had an a/c added to the garage part. It keeps it nice a cool and since we have the bunk beds we can also use the back as a bed room.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
Landp
Aren't you actually telling us you made you a place to go when the DW gets upset with you.. No couch for you huh... :D Hee Hee !!!
 

davelinde

Well-known member
At this point my RV office is functional.
The level floor was a must. After that we put down some carpet. The extra level space let us organize the totes better which helped a lot. I'm using a 4 foot folding Sam's Club table as a desk and a folding chair. I've worked here a full week and so far... OK.

I'm thinking my next step will be a better chair. After that, maybe some shelving. Still open to ideas here - but in FL I've got fewer tools so I won't be able to build again until we get to NJ in the Spring.
 

Geode

Member
We have a new 3914 and are planning to replace the bottom bunk with a U-shaped desk top mounted on the existing rails and have wheeled cabinets underneath. When we're in toyhauler mode we plan to wheel the cabinets forward (or leave in storage), raise the desktop and load up the toys. We'll still have the top bunk for guests, might add a cutout and air mattress if we still need the bottom bunk on occasion.
 

davelinde

Well-known member
So the update after 5 months in the office.
It works great - we are very pleased with the amount of flexible space a garage give us in a TH vs any other type of FW.

The only downside has been that the garage is not insulated and we've had temps ranging from abou 28 to 90 outside. An electric heater did the job at 28 and as long as there's a breeze I have not minded it up to 90 (although it's a LOT hotter out here than in the main living space).

Other than organizing my clutter into totes better I am not looking at any big office upgrades over the basic work I did to get it usable.
 
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