23 years · in and out of garages
Launch price · $49 $29 · ends in--:--:--
The Garage Handbook · First edition
72
First edition · 72 rules
The Garage Handbook
72 Rules from the Old-Timers' Shops
BW
Bud Whitaker23 years in the shop
$49$29
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Bud Whitaker · The Garage Handbook

The rules the old-timers never wrote down. I did.

I'm Bud Whitaker. I have spent twenty-three years in and out of garages, my own and other men's, fixing what bad advice and hot summers left behind. The men who taught me ran shops that are still standing forty years on. Dry floors, clear benches, tools you could find in the dark. This is every rule they kept, written the way I would say it across the workbench, with one thing you can do tonight.

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01 · The math

Your garage pays for the rules it doesn't know.

These are the small bills a garage runs up by breaking rules nobody taught it. A set of sockets gone orange. A battery that died sitting. A mower that would not start in May. A floor coating that peeled. None of them look like much. Together they are a truck payment.

The green ink is the same garage, after the rules. Every green number has its rule in the book.

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Estimates drawn from the book's own rules for a two-car garage. Your garage will differ.

An ordinary garage · one yearAfter the rules ↓
Tools replaced from rust Rules 25–29 · dry beats everything$180$20
Heating a leaky garage, Nov to Mar Rules 19–21 · seal before you heat$300$120
Tires worn early at the wrong pressure Rules 37–38 · the number on the door$200$0
A car battery run dead sitting Rule 39 · the tender$180$0
Mower carburetor from stale gas Rule 40 · full tank, stabilizer$90$10
Latex paint frozen and thrown out Rule 50 · what freezes is trash$120$0
One chewed wiring harness Rule 42 · the mice come for the wires$400$8
Tools bought twice Rules 56, 60 · every tool has a shadow$90$10
A floor coating that peeled Rule 33 · the bag test$300$40
Weekend clean-outs, hours a year Rules 67–72 · the habits40 hrs12 hrs
The year$1,860$208
≈ $1,650 a year, and your Saturdays
02 · What's inside

The whole garage, twelve chapters, seventy-two rules.

Every rule is written the same six ways, ends with one action for tonight, and never asks you to buy a system. Here is every rule by name.

01

The Line: what belongs in a garage

6 rules
  1. A garage is a shop, a car bay, and a store room, in that order.
  2. Some things never live in a garage.
  3. The landing zone is three feet wide, not the whole wall.
  4. One box comes in, one box goes out.
  5. The trash lives by the roll-out door.
  6. The garage door is the biggest thing on the front of your house.
02

Up off the floor

6 rules
  1. Nothing lives on the floor but the car and your feet.
  2. The bottom shelf starts four inches up.
  3. Cardboard is temporary.
  4. Long things hang, heavy things sit low, light things go high.
  5. A cleat beats a pegboard.
  6. Label the end, not the lid.
03

Heat: the garage that bakes

6 rules
  1. Heat comes through the door and down from the roof. Know which.
  2. Seal the door before you cool anything.
  3. Insulate the door panels.
  4. Air leaves high and comes in low.
  5. The attic above is the lid on the pot.
  6. Shade the wall that faces the afternoon.
04

Cold: heating without running up the bill

6 rules
  1. Seal before you heat.
  2. Heat the man, not the room.
  3. One heater, one outlet, no cord.
  4. No flame in a closed garage.
  5. The bench gets a floor.
  6. If someone sleeps above the garage, the ceiling gets insulated.
05

Damp and rust: how the old-timers kept a garage bone-dry

6 rules
  1. Know the number.
  2. Air moves on dry days, and the door stays down on wet ones.
  3. Nothing metal touches concrete.
  4. Tools wear a coat.
  5. The toolbox gets a keeper.
  6. Find the water before you buy the dehumidifier.
06

The floor

6 rules
  1. Sweep dry before you wash wet.
  2. A crack gets one product, and it is not the one you think.
  3. Do the bag test before you coat.
  4. The drip zone gets a mat.
  5. Salt leaves in March.
  6. Water has to have somewhere to go.
07

The car that sits

6 rules
  1. The number on the door, not the number on the tire.
  2. Check them cold, on the first of the month.
  3. A sitting battery dies. Give it a tender.
  4. A sitting tank is full, with stabilizer in it.
  5. A cover breathes, or there is no cover.
  6. The mice come for the wires.
08

Fire, fumes, and the things that can hurt you

6 rules
  1. Gasoline lives in a red can, and the can lives away from the flame.
  2. The water heater is an open flame.
  3. Oily rags go flat, or into water.
  4. An extension cord is not a wire.
  5. An engine never runs in the garage. Not with the door open either.
  6. The extinguisher lives by the way out.
09

Chemicals, paint, and the pool shed

6 rules
  1. Pool chemicals do not live in the garage.
  2. What freezes is trash.
  3. One product, by itself, with the door up.
  4. Oxidizers away from fuels. Acids away from everything.
  5. Old chemicals leave on hazardous waste day.
  6. The top shelf locks.
10

The bench and the tools: old-timer shop tricks

6 rules
  1. A bench holds the job, not the shop.
  2. Every tool has a shadow.
  3. Hardware lives in jars, and the jars have lids.
  4. Light where the hands are.
  5. Sharp things wear a sheath.
  6. Buy the one tool, not the set.
11

The attic and overhead

6 rules
  1. The attic is an oven in July and a freezer in January.
  2. Weight sits on the joists, not the drywall.
  3. Overhead racks go over the hood, not over your head.
  4. Insulation is not a floor.
  5. Four things never go up: gas, propane, paint, and anything that eats.
  6. Once a year, look up.
12

The habits: why some garages never need a weekend

6 rules + the back of the book
  1. The five-minute close.
  2. One shelf a month.
  3. The box by the door leaves on Saturday.
  4. Two walk-arounds a year: the first warm Saturday and the first cold one.
  5. Everything has a home and a return time.
  6. The door test.
  7. The Four Laws: the whole book in four lines.
  8. The three-question test for any corner of the garage.
  9. The seasonal calendar, month by month.
  10. A glossary of the words the old-timers used.
  11. Twelve printable checklists, one per chapter.
  12. A last word from the bench.
03 · How every rule is written

Six parts. Never a lecture.

You will know the shape by the second rule. What it is, how the old-timers did it, how most of us do it, what it quietly costs you, why they kept it, and what to do tonight.

  1. 1
    The ruleOne sentence. If you forget everything else, keep this line.
  2. 2
    The old-timers' wayWhat it looked like in the shops that lasted, with real objects so you can picture it.
  3. 3
    The way most of us do itWhat I have seen in twenty-three years of other men's garages. I say this with respect.
  4. 4
    What it costs youA number. Minutes, dollars, or the tool you replace every three years.
  5. 5
    What the old-timers knewOne sentence, as close to their words as I can get.
  6. 6
    TonightOne action, how long it takes, what it costs. Almost always under twenty minutes and twenty dollars.

Rule 37. The number on the door, not the number on the tire.

The old-timers' way. Every man who taught me set his tires to the number on the sticker inside the driver's door jamb. That number is what the people who built the car want in those tires on that car. The number stamped on the tire's sidewall is the most the tire can hold, and it is not a recommendation.

The way most of us do it. Fill to the sidewall number, because it is bigger and it is right there. Or fill to thirty-two because that was the number on the last car. The tire runs hard, the middle of the tread wears out first, and the ride gets harsh.

What it costs you. Tires at the wrong pressure wear unevenly, and a set of four is five hundred to a thousand dollars.

What the old-timers knew. The tire company built the tire. The car company built the car. Listen to the one that built the car.

Tonight. Open the driver's door and read the sticker. Write the front and rear numbers on a strip of tape on the air compressor or the tire gauge. Two minutes. Zero dollars.

04 · The honest part

What this book will never ask you to do.

✕
Touch a spring, a panel, or a gas line

No step-by-step for garage door springs or cables, the electrical panel, anything at 240 volts, gas lines or gas heaters, or anything holding up the house. The book gives you the warning signs, a rough cost, and the words “this is when you call someone.”

✕
Mix two products

Not bleach with anything. Not two pool chemicals in one bucket. Not one cleaner with another to make it stronger. If a rule uses a product, it uses one, by itself, with the door up.

✕
Treat anything

Where I talk about carbon monoxide, fumes, or damp, I am telling you what the danger is and when to get help. I am not a doctor and the book gives no medical advice.

— Bud

Bud Whitaker in his garage Bud Whitaker
at the bench
Keep it dry · keep it off the floor
05 · A note from the author
“The first shop I ever worked in was a two-bay cinder block building at the edge of town, and the man who ran it did not own a label maker.”

He owned a broom, a can of paste wax, a wall of hooks he had made himself, and a set of rules he never once said out loud. His shop was never clean and it was never dirty. It was ready. You could walk in on a Tuesday in February and find the tool you needed in the dark, and it would not be rusted, and it would not be on the floor.

I have spent twenty-three years in and out of garages since then. I have been called to garages where the tools had rusted to the pegboard, garages that hit a hundred and twenty degrees in August, garages where the mice had eaten the wiring harness for lunch. That first shop is still standing. Forty years on, its bench is still clear and its floor is still dry.

If your garage feels like a losing battle, hear this first. Your garage was never the problem. Nobody taught you the rules. That is all. We can fix that in a few evenings.

Bud Whitaker

23 years in and out of garages · learned from the old-timers

06 · Early readers

The first people through it.

What the first readers wrote back.

★★★★★

[Reader quote, two or three sentences, in their own words.]

First name L. · state · early reader
★★★★★

[Reader quote.]

First name L. · state · early reader
★★★★★

[Reader quote.]

First name L. · state · early reader
07 · Order the book

If your garage is not easier to live with, I do not want your money.

Read it for seven days. If your garage is not easier to live with, or the book just is not for you, reply to the receipt and you will be refunded in full. Keep the book. Pay once and it is yours, on your phone, your tablet, your computer, forever. No subscription. No upsells.

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08 · Questions

Questions people ask.

Is this the same as the videos?

The videos each cover one topic. The book is the whole system in order, with the seasonal calendar, the twelve checklists, and the three-question test that the videos do not have. Every rule teased in a video is written out in full here.

Do I need to buy anything?

No. A few rules suggest a humidity gauge, a tire gauge, a can of paste wax, or a battery tender. Every one is under fifty dollars and most are under fifteen. Nothing in the book asks you to buy a storage system, a coating kit, or anything with a brand name.

Is this a printed book?

It is a PDF you can read on a phone, tablet or computer, or print at home. It is set in large, clear type, about eighty-five pages, with a checklist page for every chapter that you can print on its own and nail inside the door.

Will this work in my climate?

The rules cover both ends. The heat chapter is for garages that bake in August, the cold chapter is for garages that freeze in January, and the damp chapter is for the river towns in between. The seasonal calendar runs the whole year.

Is the advice safe?

The book never asks you to mix products and never gives step-by-step instructions for garage door springs, electrical, gas, or structural work. For a door that is hard to lift, a warm plug, any smell of gas, mold bigger than a bath towel, or pests that need poison, it tells you the warning signs and to call a professional. It gives no medical advice.

What if it is not for me?

Reply to your receipt within seven days and you are refunded in full, no questions. You keep the book.

Start at the door

Your garage was never the problem. Nobody taught you the rules.

Seventy-two of them, written down once, for the garage you have. One book. $29, once.

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