Garage & Workshop
Slabs, lighting and electrical planning for the hardest-working room of the house.
Calculators for This Category
- Room Lighting Calculator Garage & Workshop Room size and lux target in: total lumens and the count of fittings for general, workshop, detailed and precision work.
- Electrical Service Load Calculator Home Maintenance A North-American reference (NEC Article 220, both methods): square footage and appliance nameplates in, calculated amps and a suggested service size out.
The room comes before what's in it. Most garages start life as a concrete slab — thickness, volume and bag counts — and insulation decides whether January is a working month. Both live elsewhere on the site; this page covers what you can see and what you plug in.
Practical Guides
- How Many Lumens Does a Workshop Need? Lux targets by task, task lighting versus ambient, and why ceiling height and wall colour change the fitting count.
- NEC Article 220 Service Load, Explained Standard vs Optional Method, demand factors, when 100 A is enough and when 200 A or 320 A is the answer — worked for a 223 m² (2,400 sq ft) home.
- What Size Wire Do I Need? Ampacity, the 80% rule and voltage drop — 14 AWG to service entrance, with a worked garage feeder.
A garage workshop fails in a predictable order: it is too dim to work in, the outlets are on the wrong wall, and then the table saw and the compressor trip the breaker together. Lighting and electrical planning are easy on paper and disruptive after the lining goes up. The lux bands below are typical lighting-industry guidance, not code; the load calculator follows the NEC's North-American method, and other jurisdictions differ. Use these tools to plan — and a licensed electrician to wire.
Lighting Targets by Task
| Task | Typical target | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| General circulation | 150 lux | Walking around, finding things |
| Workshop and bench work | 300 lux | The default for a working garage |
| Detailed work | 500 lux | Fine assembly, finishing, sharpening |
| Precision work | 750 lux | Small parts, close inspection |
Typical lighting-industry guidance for ambient light — machines and benches still want localised task lighting on top, and dark walls or high ceilings take more lumens to hold the same lux.
What That Means in Fittings
| Room | Target | Lumens needed | 1,600 lm fittings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single garage, ~3.6 × 6 m (~22 m²) | 300 lux | ~6,500 lm | 5 |
| Double garage, 6 × 6 m (36 m²) | 300 lux | 10,800 lm | 7 |
| Workshop bay, 6 × 5 m (30 m²) | 500 lux | 15,000 lm | 10 |
Rounded up, assuming ceiling-mounted 1,600 lm LED fittings — the lighting calculator does the exact arithmetic for your room and target.