Contest showers love on the lowly garage

Admit it! Your garage routinely takes a terrible beating.

It is often open to the elements, houses automobiles and other machinery that tend to track in dirt and drip oil — and it often ends up as the family's dumping ground for gardening items, toys, sports equipment and more.

So, most residential garages need an overhaul after a decade or two of just an occasional sweeping or hosing out. That is why, for the sixth time since 2014, the Garage Store of East Dundee and the Daily Herald are sponsoring the Great Garage Giveaway contest, launching today.

All entries must be received by April 13 at events.dailyherald.com/contests. Simply enter your name and ZIP code for a chance to win.

Ten finalists will be notified during the week of April 30 and asked to submit garage photos. Then the winner, who will receive a garage makeover that includes a flooring system, wall cabinet system and overhead storage valued at $5,000, will be announced May 5 with prize installation taking place during May or June.

Last summer, Matthew Joseph of Vernon Hills, a Honeywell UOP mechanical engineer, earned a total garage makeover thanks to this annual contest. He was chosen from a field of approximately 1,380 entries, said Jim Melchert, owner of Garage Store.

“I was shocked,” Joseph admitted at the time. “Before this, I had never even won a $1 scratch-off lottery ticket,” saying that a garage makeover was the stuff of his dreams because he loves to fix things and putter around in the garage.

“I am ‘that guy' who fixes everything because I don't want to have to buy something new,” he said. “I spend a lot of time working in my garage. This was the best thing that I could have won — other than maybe a Corvette!”

The prize allowed Joseph to have his garage floor coated with a polymer finish. Then a new work bench, two powder-coated steel storage cabinets, one overhead storage cabinet and two overhead storage racks were added.

He and his wife, Leena, removed rusting metal shelves they inherited when they moved in and invested in having the unfinished walls painted and additional lighting installed.

“A trait I picked up from my late father is to always be a hard worker and so I tend to spend as much time in my garage as the rest of my house,” Joseph said. “I love working and fixing all kinds of things. Having an organized garage makes a huge impact on how the job gets done. With the garage floor coating, I don't have to worry about surface stains, damaging the floor from dropping tools or worry about using harsh chemicals for cleaning up messes. The added traction from the coating will also make it a safe environment for my toddler who seems to have learned how to run before walking.”

And after the installation, Joseph was thrilled by how dust-free his garage had become and how friendly and courteous the installers had been.

“I am really nit-picky and I had absolutely no complaints,” he said. “That kind of quality and attention to detail is hard to find these days and I really appreciated it.”

Garage Store is the place to go when a homeowner wants either a full garage makeover or a minor tweak. Solutions range from $300 for an overhead storage rack to $10,000 for a total garage makeover with a polymer floor, wall system, cabinet system, etc.

“All of our products and services for the garage come a la carte so that homeowners can pick and choose what fits into their budget,” Melchert said. “We design, install and help them organize.”

For example, Garage Store carries several lines of cabinets and wall systems, as well as hooks, baskets, specialized sports racks and shelves. In fact, the company designs and installs Gladiator GarageWorks powder-coated steel cabinets, made by Whirlpool, which come in silver, red or white. They also carry ceiling-mounted bike pulley systems, SafeRacks and MonsterRax systems for overhead storage and car lifts for stacking and storing vehicles.

They can also re-claim unused attic space above garages, adding pull-down ladders and flooring the space above the garage to add as much as 250 to 300 square feet of storage space to the home, Melchert said.

For more information about Garage Store, call (847) 428-8862 or visit www.garage-store.com.