A Shop! I'm finally getting a real Shop!

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Had my offer accepted on a house today. And one of the best parts is this is in the back yard..

269571

20 x 24. Wood floor. Just stud walls inside at the moment so I can set everything up the way I want it, electrical, insulation, heat. I need to figure out how to handle all of the above but that's all part of the fun.

After working out of a 1 car garage for so long this will seem like heaven :D!

Cliff

[Ralph Butts]

Congratulations Cliff! I did the same thing just this last Thanksgiving. Still lots of work to be done.

[Dave Zellers]

After working out of a 1 car garage for so long this will seem like heaven :D!

Cliff
Dang, dude. That will BE Heaven.

[johnny means]

SWEEEEEEEET!:)

I would think this qualifies for big

YOU SUCK

[Bill Huber]

I would love to have that, I am sure you will have fun setting it up.

[Bill White]

Just be sure to put in PLENTY of elec. and insulation.
You're gonna love the size.
Bill

[Cliff Polubinsky]

In the continuing saga...

The inspection turned up water under the downdraft furnace. Seems the seller had noticed this a couple of years ago and had a sump pump installed next to the furnace to remove what water accumulated. Talking to my HVAC vendor the concern is that if the pump dies and the ductwork fills with water the furnace won't be able to push air past and then there's no heating or cooling. I don't know where the water is coming from so if there's a power outage that lasts a few days this could be problematic.

I have my HVAC vendor coming Monday to look things over. Turns out they were the ones who did the original install 4 years ago (the sump is around 2 years old) so they should be able to tell me if this is a real problem or not. Hope not. If it is, the solution is to replace the furnace with an updraft model and new ducting. I doubt the seller will go that far. Hope it doesn't come to that. I really like the house (more importantly my wife likes it) and would love to have the separate shop instead of working out of the garage.

Wish me luck.

Cliff

[Gordon Eyre]

I hope this all works out for you Cliff. The shop looks great.

[Roy Harding]

Best of luck to you.

[Paul Symchych]

Something I learned while living in New England: never buy a house with a sump pump. We didn't heed that and learned the lesson during a couple of major storms with power outages.
Hope it works out for you.

[Lloyd McKinlay]

I'm probably missing something but wouldn't a battery backup pump provide peace of mind?

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Lloyd,

The issue for me is why is there water in the duct work in the first place, and where is it coming from in such quantities that he needed to install a sump pit and pump to take care of it. The house was built in 1988 and the sump pit and pump were put in 2 years ago.

Just makes me wonder what's going on, and then there is also the possibility of mold in the ducts.

I hope this is nothing. This is probably going to be my last house and I'd rather not be fighting problems if I can avoid it. Granted, I could just walk away but I've always wanted a stand-alone shop, rather than taking over the garage. And finding another place my wife likes wouldn't be that easy.

Cliff

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congratulations on the new house and shop Cliff!

[Robert Chapman]

Cliff - two thoughts 1. Looks like the garage sits on posts rather than a concrete slab or foundation - maybe you could jack it up to avoid the water if the water is coming from below. 2. I didn't do this and wish I had when I built my shop - take about an 8X10 part of that floor space and partition it into a finishing room. Then finished stuff can dry while you still make sawdust.

[Matt Meiser]

On the pump...we've had a Basement Watchdog system for almost 10 years now after our basement flooded about 4" deep due to a failed pump right after we moved in. There was lots of stuff in the basement still in boxes. Luckily we caught it fast and very little got wet and don't remember anything getting ruined. Turns out cardboard will hold back water for at least a bit.

The system works well. I'm not satisfied with their batteries however. We were going through them once every year or two. I finally went to a local battery specialty place and got a Deka deep cycle battery which is going on 4 years old. I just had to add water to it the first time and I've been using my fancy charger's desulpherization setting to rejuvenate it (during a dry period.)

We actually have 2 sumps that are interconnected. Only one had a pump and now both do, plus the backup in one, plus a float switch that goes to our alarm. We now have a standby generator so the backup is less important but I still maintain it.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Whew.

HVAC guy came yesterday and everything is ok. He told me that having water in below grade duct work is not uncommon and the sump pump is the best method to deal with things. Since I had never run across this before it was reassuring that I wasn't buying a problem I'd regret.

So now to start some serious planning on how to wire it.

Cliff