5 Ways to Save Money Building Your Garage Gym
Garage Gyms can be expensive. Like, absurdly expensive. A solid rack, bar, bench, and weights can put you well into 4 figures. If you splurge for some of the nicer options on the market we are talking 5 figures without blinking. But, I am here to tell you that it does not have to be this way. You can buy your equipment and stay within your budget by using the tricks today… 5 Ways to Save Money Building Your Garage Gym!
Plan Ahead
A lot of people buy what they want, not what they need. This is fine if you have a ton of space, extra cash, and want to have some fun doing it. You can customize your gym to match every aesthetic you have. Or just buy the tip of the top best equipment out there.
But if you are trying to save money building your garage gym, you need to make a plan. If we steal a piece from the Reddit r/HomeGym FAQ on Planning (which I wrote a decent chunk of).
Planning
You don’t want to be one of those people that buys equipment, gets really excited for a month, loses interest, gives up, then sells the equipment on Marketplace for 50%. So start off with some planning first to save money.
What do you want to be able to do in your gym?
If you simply want a space to be able to do yoga, don’t buy a rack, bar, and plates. Identify the main exercises and types of workouts you want to be able to do first. If you want to be a Powerlifter, Bodybuilder, Crossfit athlete, or do P90X… look around at what some of the others on the internet (or on Reddit) have that you feel you need.
How much space do you have?
The limiting factor for most home gyms is space. Unless you are building an add-on to your house for a gym, figure out what dimensions you have to work with. If you want 20 machines, but have a 10 x 10 room to work with, you are going to have to make some edits. Keep in mind the rooms length, width and height. You wouldn’t want to buy a power rack and then find out it doesn’t fit in your garage, or you can’t do your olympic lifts in there.
What is your budget?
Figure out what your budget is as a starting place, and then what you are comfortable spending after that. You may decide that you have 2000 dollars to start, and you’ll spend the savings of a gym membership each year on upgrades and additions. Whatever it is, figure it out so you can plan your purchases, feel good about what you bought, and hopefully not put yourself into debt trying to get this accomplished.
From there, the majority of your planning is going to depend on your local used market (try Search Tempest, Craigslist, eBay, plat-it-again sports, Marketplace and Kijiji) as well as local garage sales and classifieds. Ask friends, look for gyms closing down, etc. Then working in what you’ll buy new and going from there. Then get to work.
Resources for Planning
- http://powertecfitness.icovia.com/icovia.aspx . The site is set up for PowerTec equipment, but switching the tab to symbols gives you a large list of generic sized equipment. Set your room dimensions, start adding your equipment (adjust the dimensions as you figure out what equipment), and make sure you have the right space set up.
- (Rogue also has their Zeus Builder).
- This Planning Spreadsheet that will assist in planning your costs https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym/comments/65jytj/home_gym_planning_spreadsheet/
- Targeted talk here: https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym/comments/ejzf6m/monthly_targeted_talk_gym_planning/
- Discussion on Biggest Mistakes, to avoid any of these:https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym/comments/f0topv/monthly_targeted_talk_biggest_mistakes/
- Also check out the discussion on Budget Builds: https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym/comments/ns6sr4/targeted_talk_budget_builds/
- Check out my personal write ups on Planning: How Much Does A Home Gym Cost? & Is a Home Gym Right For You?
- And you can see how I planned my gym back in the day.
Buy Used
I mentioned in the previous planning stage, to consider buying used. This isn’t always an option depending on your location, but it is a great way to save money. You can often get nearly brand new equipment for close to half the price of retail, plus you save shipping and tax, AND there is no wait time. You can also show up and see it, feel it, test it, to make sure it’ll work for you. Considering that MOST online retailers only have a couple of showrooms around the entire country, this can be HUGE.
I wrote up an article years ago for Reddit r/HomeGym, that got published by Fringe Sport, and I have since added a few pieces to. If you are considering going down the used market rabbit hole, check out this write up: Build your Gym through Craigslist.
Used But Without The Hassle
Another excellent option to save money is to go the route of working with a company like Freedom Fitness Equipment. They buy primarily used equipment from a number of sources. Because they buy SO much of it, they get it at incredibly low prices. They then insure it is ready to be used, and sell it for a small mark up. Often times you are paying what you’d pay for the item on Marketplace, but without all the hassle.
Ashton at Freedom does some awesome stuff too. Space planning, flooring options, barbells, dumbbells, cardio, and a TON more. And their stock is constantly changing, so if they don’t have what you want today, they might tomorrow. Here you can see the 2D and 3D renders of before and after his work with our Spring 2022 Garage Gym Competition Winner. She took home a $3,000 custom home gym design package from Freedom Fitness Equipment. This landed her a cable set-up, dumbbells, trap bar, dip attachment, bumpers, plyo box and more! Oh, and you can use code GRAYMATTER to save 5% off the already excellent used price.
Horse Stall Mats
Something that everyone with a garage gym knows, but most people looking do not. Flooring for a gym can be EXPENSIVE. Like, several thousands of dollars to lay down adequate flooring for a standard two car garage. No one wants to spend $2k on their floor, if their entire budget is under $5k to begin with. Enter, the Horse Stall Mat. Typically sold by places like Tractor Supply Co for the purpose of… yeah, horses. They have been commandeered by the home gym community as the budget friendly option for actual solid flooring.
There is a LOT of flooring options that are “for gyms” that straight up suck. Stuff sold at the local home improvement store that can handle a light yoga workout, but toss it down for any kind of weights or fast movement and it tears. Horse stall mats aren’t what I would call the BEST option, they have little crumb pieces that come off after time, they can smell bad, they shift and move, don’t have super tight cutting tolerances, you name it. But their price, outside of finding a used roll of rubber flooring, is unmatched. And they are ready for heavy deadlifts, olympics lifts, and more.
They have historically gone on sale for Black Friday.
DIY Some Stuff
I mentioned in the customization article that you can always resort to DIY. You obviously need a set of tools, DIY requires skills, and you need some ideas/plans. But the cool thing here is that you can often repurpose items that were meant to be trash for other needs. I’ll use myself as an example.
I ordered a GHD a few years back which got delivered on a pallet. The pallet was broken in a few places so it wasn’t usable as a pallet anymore. I tore it apart and took the wood that was still good, and used it as a wall storage solution in my gym. Cost me a couple bucks in lag screws and my time to get it up there, and I’m not even super handy. You can DIY a platform, shelves for storage, barbell storage, or even make your own equipment. There are a LOT of people doing cool DIY stuff in the home gym space, but most of it ends up at Kaizen DIY.
Use Discount Codes
Ok, this one is a little bit of a cop out… But seriously, look around enough and a lot of retailers offer discount codes. Hell, the Garage Gym Competition has a laundry list of Sponsor Discount Codes that range from 15% to 5% off on everything from supplements, to bars, benches, racks, storage options, and more. If you follow some of our friends like Garage Gym Experiment, Garage Gym Lab, and Basement Brandon, you’ll find a code for a HUGE assortment of companies.
Even the best of us in the used market often have to buy something new. About half of my gym is used, more would have been if I had found this article before starting my gym, but even then I have still had to buy brand new for a number of items. Specific stuff doesn’t pop up often, and when you NEED that one item, well, best to just go for it instead of wait forever for it to be used.
Wrap Up
Whether you are brand new to the home gym scene, or a seasoned veteran, the above advice can have an impact on your pocket book in a positive way. I’m not saying that these things have to apply all the time, but if you can save $50 on a few purchases with a discount code, snag a bar used for half price, or make your own solution out of leftovers, you have MORE money to buy that next toy, or put food on your table for some real gainz!
I hope you find the 5 Ways to Save Money Building Your Garage Gym helpful. If you are looking to expand your gym, or start from scratch, you can check out our dedicated page of the sponsors that keep the lights on here. Discounts, product details, and a bunch of recommendations available… all in one place:
