Daily Herald, Garage Store contest kicks off for 2020

Drive down the street of your average neighborhood, gazing into garages as you pass and you will likely see that even those that are able to accommodate a car or two are a messy disaster. Items are placed here and there, the walls are either unpainted or long ago painted and in need of a roller, and the floors are usually a disaster.

Garages are open to the elements and are generally the last part of the house that a family thinks about organizing. Consequently, most residential garages need an overhaul after a decade or two of just an occasional sweeping or hosing out.

That is why, for the seventh time since 2014, Garage Store of East Dundee and the Daily Herald will sponsor The Great Garage Giveaway contest, which launches today. All entries must be received by April 11 at events.dailyherald.com. Simply enter your name and ZIP code for a chance to win.

Ten finalists will be notified during the week of April 24 and asked to submit garage photos. Then the winner, who will receive a garage makeover valued at $5,000, will be announced May 3 with prize installation taking place by July. The winner will receive a garage flooring system, wall and cabinet system and overhead storage.

Last summer, Stephanie Piszkiewicz had her Arlington Heights garage renovated thanks to the contest.

Piszkiewicz, a project controls specialist with the construction engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, won the coveted home improvement from a field of more than 3,000 entries, according to Jim Melchert, owner of Garage Store.

"The job that Garage Store did in my garage was a drastic improvement," said Piszkiewicz. "This house was built in 1963 and I bought it from my parents last spring. They had lived here for decades and the garage needed work."

The prize allowed her to have her garage floor coated with a textured gray flake system with a UV-stable top coat finish. Her garage walls were painted and a Gladiator GearWall storage system with hooks and baskets was installed, along with a large powder-coated steel cabinet she uses to store gardening chemicals, automotive items and other things.

"I'm really excited about this opportunity to organize and improve my garage. I'm an avid gardener with all the associated rakes, shovels, sheers, hand tools, sprinklers, chemicals and more - some of which aren't stored in my garage anymore because I can't get to them quickly enough when working in the yard," Piszkiewicz wrote in her entry letter.

Piszkiewicz wrote, however that what she really needed was a repair of her 56-year-old concrete garage floor. "Decades of wear and salt damage have taken their toll on the floor. I can sweep leaves and debris from my garage, but fine particulates just stick around. Blowing out the debris only makes the dust airborne. Getting a smooth, sealed surface to sweep out would make me so happy."

So, when she won, Piszkiewicz admits that she was thrilled. "To win the floor alone would have been worth entering the contest. I would do it again in a heartbeat," she said.

Garage Store staff members also installed the GearWall system with roomy plug-in hooks for hanging multiple tools and a two-door, solid-weld cabinet that is suspended from the GearWall system to prevent damage from water.

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 instance, Garage Store carries several lines of cabinets and wall systems, as well as hooks, baskets, specialized sports racks and shelves. In fact, the company is the region's designer and installer for Gladiator GarageWorks and its powder-coated steel cabinets, made by Whirlpool, which come in silver, red or white. Garage Store also carries ceiling-mounted bike pulley systems, overhead storage racks and car lifts for stacking and storing vehicles.

The company can also re-claim unused attic space above garages, adding pull-down ladders and flooring rafters 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.