Walls in work shop

[Mike Hill]

This Friday we are moving into our new home in Round Rock (Austin) Texas. The 2 car garage has taped drywall, but is otherwise unfinished. I am adding 220 for the table saw and several flourescents for lighting. Would anyone want to suggest finishing the walls? Not sure it needs it for a work shop, but wanted the thoughts of those on this board. Any other thoughts on additional power or other items you might like would be appreciated. The layout wil come as I add equipment and of course cabinets and storgae. Glad to get away from Florida and all the darn hurricanes!

Mike

[Don Abele]

Mike, I'm sure you are going to get a lot of responses to this one. But let me be the first by suggesting the easiest - paint the walls white. With each new shop I move into (and I do that a lot), that's the first thing I do. It makes it all that much brighter. Then I usually move on to adding a ton more of lighting (twice what I "think" it needs), then installing the outlets in conduit throughout the shop. I tend to always over install - "just in case". I don't put many cabinets or things up on the walls, but if you do, you may need something stronger than drywall.

Be well,

Doc

[Don Baer]

I'm with Doc on painting the walls white. I just did it to my garage/shop and it made a world of a differance. When we move to our new house thats the first thing I'm gonna do.

[Norman Hitt]

Mike, I'm sure you are going to get a lot of responses to this one. But let me be the first by suggesting the easiest - paint the walls white. With each new shop I move into (and I do that a lot), that's the first thing I do. It makes it all that much brighter. Then I usually move on to adding a ton more of lighting (twice what I "think" it needs), then installing the outlets in conduit throughout the shop. I tend to always over install - "just in case". I don't put many cabinets or things up on the walls, but if you do, you may need something stronger than drywall.

Be well,

Doc

I agree with everything Doc said, except that for hanging cabinets, etc from the walls, you will probably be ok, if you just make a hardwood "French Cleat Rail, and run it around the walls at the proper height and fasten it with heavy screws or lag bolts to each wall stud. You can then hang the cabinets on them and also have the flexibility to slide them either direction along the wall anytime you need to rearrange them, annnnnnnnd........should you move again and decide to take the cabinets with you, just empty them, and lift them off the cleats and take them with you. One other thing, if you want to make the whole thing much easier to keep clean, paint the floor with one of the new Epoxy floor paints, BEFORE you move everything in, (it is SO MUCH easier to do it NOW).:D

PS: A BIG Welcome to Texas. (Note: This move may get you into trouble with the LOYL though, 'cause you are sure close to the MiniMax Store).

[Cecil Arnold]

In addition to what Don & Don said (is that some kind of act?) you may want to start to consider some form of increased ventilation or A/C. There are not any cool Gulf breezes blowing in the hill country and it get hot in July and August,

[Ted Jay]

This Friday we are moving into our new home in Round Rock (Austin) Texas. The 2 car garage has taped drywall, but is otherwise unfinished. I am adding 220 for the table saw and several flourescents for lighting. Would anyone want to suggest finishing the walls? Not sure it needs it for a work shop, but wanted the thoughts of those on this board. Any other thoughts on additional power or other items you might like would be appreciated. The layout wil come as I add equipment and of course cabinets and storgae. Glad to get away from Florida and all the darn hurricanes!

Mike

Welcome to Texas Mike,
I would paint the walls white semi-gloss. Sawdust doesn't stick as well as it does to flat wall paint.

I would add at least a few 220 lines out there, or at least make sure you have the room for future breakers.

Now.... I don't know 'bout them fellars up north, and how they build houses..... but here in Texas... we usually put studs in behind that drywall. We find it helps to hold up the house a bit better!! (I'm just picking on you Don, no offense okay?):D

Ted

[Cody Colston]

Mike,

Welcome to Texas. :)

I second that comment about putting epoxy paint on the floor before you move in your tools. The white wall paint and french cleat are good suggestions, too, as is a decent 18k btu window A/C unit. It will be greatly appreciated about August.

[Jim O'Dell]

Yeah, say goodbye to the hurricanes, and hello to the hail and tornados!! Actually, I don't think Austin gets hit TOO hard with tornadoes. :p Welcome to Texas.
Yes paint the walls white. I like the idea of the french cleats for the cabinets, too. If it's not too late, make sure they insulate the attic above. Hopefully they insulated the walls before they did the drywall. It will help a lot. Jim.

[Allen Bookout]

Well Mike,

We are sure going to miss you this next hurricane season which is only four weeks away.

Watch out for the tornadoes. little or no warning with those things.

Good luck and enjoy the Austin area. A great place to live!

From a displaced Texan, Allen

P.S. Oh! I forgot about the question. I will just agree with everyone else, white paint and coated floor. I seem to stay out of trouble that way.

[Larry Cooke]

Mike,

Jay beat me to it. I painted mine with a semi-gloss white and it stays very clean. If any sawdust sticks to it, a simple brushing with one of them soft tipped brooms takes it right off.

Larry

[Don Abele]

Now.... I don't know 'bout them fellars up north, and how they build houses..... but here in Texas... we usually put studs in behind that drywall. We find it helps to hold up the house a bit better!! (I'm just picking on you Don, no offense okay?):D
Ted

Nope...just straw and mud...that's all we got...:D Holds up real well, when the wind don't blew 'er away!!! :p

What I meant by "you would need more than the drywall", was something like the french cleat method, as mentioned.

Personally, the garage I have now is framed with 4x6's in the walls and doubled-up 2x12's as rafters (don't ask me why) and is currently covered with homesote. I'm not settled in enough to have the time to rip all that junk off the walls yet - looking at a long Memorial Day weekend to "get 'r done".

Be well,

Doc

[Mike Zattau]

Mike,

Here is food for thought. I my shop I stapled 2X4 accustical ceiling tile across the ceiling and down the walls to abate sound. Boy does that work. It will protect both your ears and your family from noise. Just an alternative for you to think about.

Good Luck

[Larry Norton]

I have a different suggestion. When I built my new shop in the basement of our new house, I used white pegboard with sheet rock screws holding it to the studs. I can remove any sheet if I need to get behind it.

The pic shows one side of the shop. I was in the process of setting the shop up, it is 24 by 32.

[Jim Becker]

Yup...white walls and a French cleat system like Norm mentioned...Wood Magazine's Idea Shop #5 (http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/463.xml&catref=wd8) has a bunch of things designed around this and it's very, very flexible over time! (They didn't do the white walls, sadly...)

[Don Abele]

Larry, do you have insulation behind that? If you did (just plain fiberglass batting), that would be similar to the stuff we use on submarines for acoustical insulation between decks. It's essentially fiberglass covered with a stiff coating that has holes in it - works really well.

Be well,

Doc

[Ted Jay]

Nope...just straw and mud...that's all we got...:D Holds up real well, when the wind don't blew 'er away!!! :p

What I meant by "you would need more than the drywall", was something like the french cleat method, as mentioned.

Personally, the garage I have now is framed with 4x6's in the walls and doubled-up 2x12's as rafters (don't ask me why) and is currently covered with homesote. I'm not settled in enough to have the time to rip all that junk off the walls yet - looking at a long Memorial Day weekend to "get 'r done".

Be well,

Doc
Isn't that supposed to be a soundproofing material? Can't you just put drywall on top of it if it's not damaged in any way?

[Don Abele]

Ted, I can tell you that the homesote works well right now at deadening the sound. The problem is that the walls are not insulated and New England winters mandate insulation if I am going to work out there. Soooo....it has to come down. Also the wall between the garage and the house has to be rocked with 5/8 type X for fire safety.

Or where you talking about the straw and mud??? :p

Be well,

Doc

[Mark Pruitt]

I'd paint 'em white. You'll never get a better opportunity than now IMHO.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Austin has a very well developed music scene.

Ummm paint? Whatever so long as it's white

[Ted Jay]

Ted, I can tell you that the homesote works well right now at deadening the sound. The problem is that the walls are not insulated and New England winters mandate insulation if I am going to work out there. Soooo....it has to come down. Also the wall between the garage and the house has to be rocked with 5/8 type X for fire safety.

Or where you talking about the straw and mud??? :p

Be well,

Doc

couldn't you cut a hole at the top and blow in insulation?

[Norman Hitt]

Ted, I can tell you that the homesote works well right now at deadening the sound. The problem is that the walls are not insulated and New England winters mandate insulation if I am going to work out there. Soooo....it has to come down. Also the wall between the garage and the house has to be rocked with 5/8 type X for fire safety.

Or where you talking about the straw and mud??? :p

Be well,

Doc

Don, I guess it would get a little expensive, :eek: But.......with those 2 x 6 studs you've got, just think if you pumped some of that low expansion foam in there and put drywall on top of that homesote, man would you have Soooooooome kind of insulation.:D Heck, you could probably heat the place with a candle.:rolleyes: :D

[Bob Marino]

Yup...white walls and a French cleat system like Norm mentioned...Wood Magazine's Idea Shop #5 (http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/463.xml&catref=wd8) has a bunch of things designed around this and it's very, very flexible over time! (They didn't do the white walls, sadly...)

Jim,

Great link! Can those cleats be made of MDF?

Bob

[Bill Lewis]

Ok, enough about the white (semigloss) walls! Which I agree whole-heartedly bythe way.

What about the floor! Don't forget the floor! Paint it too! Painting the floor will also aid in lighting, and "sweepability". You'll also never have a better chance than now to do so, DAMHIK. Since it's also a garage, I'd suggest going with the U-coat-it (http://www.ucoatit.com/) epoxy systems.

[Ken Belisle]

Guess I'm in the minority here, but I went with T111 in my basement shop. Cost more, but much easier & quicker installation and I can hang anything, anywhere. French cleats work great for cabinets, but I have found a lot of things that I want to hang on the walls (like clamps) that aren't really adaptable to that mounting method.

Just an opinion.......

[Larry Browning]

Ok, we now have him painting the walls and the floor, which are both excellent ideas. But I must add that painting the ceiling will do more for boosting and distributing the lighting than adding paint to either the wall or the floor. So what you need to do is just paint every flat surface in the entire room. You will be saying "I should have listened to those SMC guys!" if you don't

[chester stidham]

I would paint the walls first but don't use flat wall use somthing you can wipe off then paint the floor it makes cleaning soo much faster and trying to do it the floor later is such a pain moveing everything out then back in with a painted floor you can do a quick wet mop and it looks new.:D

[Allen Bookout]

Ok, enough about the white (semigloss) walls! Which I agree whole-heartedly bythe way.

What about the floor! Don't forget the floor! Paint it too! Painting the floor will also aid in lighting, and "sweepability". You'll also never have a better chance than now to do so, DAMHIK. Since it's also a garage, I'd suggest going with the U-coat-it (http://www.ucoatit.com/) epoxy systems.

I also had very good luck with U-Coat-It.

[Christian Aufreiter]

Drywall, painted white and French Cleat mounted OSB tool panels.


http://home.eduhi.at/user/holzwerkstatt/index.htm/pictures.htm/Werkstattreorganisation/OSB_Leuchten/Befestigung_OSB01.jpg

http://home.eduhi.at/user/holzwerkstatt/index.htm/pictures.htm/Werkstattreorganisation/OSB_Leuchten/Befestigung_OSB02.jpg

http://home.eduhi.at/user/holzwerkstatt/index.htm/pictures.htm/Werkstattreorganisation/OSB_Leuchten/Befestigung_OSB03.jpg

http://home.eduhi.at/user/holzwerkstatt/index.htm/pictures.htm/Werkstattreorganisation/OSB_Leuchten/Halterungen05.JPG

Regards,

Christian

[Lincoln Myers]

Drywall, painted white and French Cleat mounted OSB tool panels.

Nice solution Christian. I like it.

-Linc

[Tim Solley]

Mike,

I live in Round Rock also and when I bought my house new five years ago, there was a guy going around doing plaster and paint in peoples' garages for $100 a piece. Doesn't seem like a bad deal to save yourself some time if you don't mind parting with $100.

If you're interested, let me know and I'll ask one of my neighbors who had it done, I'm sure I can come up with the guys name. As for me, I still have drywall and tape. I haven't had a chance to run electrical around the walls. I did install about 8 shop lights and now my shop is a landing pad for mutant june bugs at night.

I desperately need to get my electrical done. Drop me a line, we can't be more than a couple miles apart.

Tim

[Mike Hill]

I posted this thread in the process of moving and did not get back on to the discussion until now. What great suggestions! I am going to incorporate several in my work to get the shop ready. Since the equipment is all in, I will have to move things around to get it painted etc. BTW, a 2 car garage with all this equipment is getting smaller and smaller! My biggest problem in the afternoon is, as suggested by some, HEAT. I tried a large fan, but A.C. is definitly in the future :-)

Thanks to all who posted.

Mike

[tod evans]

mike, here`s a suggestion based on commercial set-ups. for your electrical run a "raceway" right down the center of your shop. this is a metal box usually 4x6 on smaller set-ups that all of your wiring is pulled through then you just pull emt off the raceway to where you need power. this type of system allows for easy changes and cuts conduit costs substantially. mine is run in the attic along side the dust collector trunk...02 tod

[Larry Norton]

Don, Yes, there is insulation. The builder studded the walls and insulated them, then used a foil vapor barrier. Believe it or not, I'm running out of places to hang things, and the shop is 24 by 32. I'll try to remember to take some new pictures today, my Lovely gave me a new digital camera last week for our 25th anniversary.

[Doug Whitson]

Looks like the fellas have the walls and floors covered pretty well, guess that leaves the electrical. I put a small 60 amp sub panel in the garage that controls all the iron. The box is lockable so when the neighbor hood kids get together with the grandkids, I can lock out most of the equipment in one fell swoop. When placing your 110 volt boxes around the shop, try to keep them above the four foot level, this way when you lean sheet goods against the wall you can get to them. I ran conduit and a 30 amp circuit to the center of the ceiling and put one of those retractable reel, 30 amp, 10 guage, 3 outlet gizmos, think I got it from sears. This has been a life saver for me. I can plug the vac/jointer or the vac/router etc....when the work is done, just let the cord go back in the reel. If you go with conduit, use 3/4", you can get two 14-3/s in them in case you decide to add another run/circuit. I would stay away from jacketed/romex type wire, you can do alot more with single wires. If you can, leave a pull string in the longer runs to aid in pulling a new run for the lathe on the other side of the shop. DAMHIKT. Good luck in your new shop and your new home.
Later,
Doug in AZ.

[glenn bradley]

Another vote for white walls! I was actually able to reduce the number of lights in the shop by throwing some paint at the walls.

[lou sansone]

Welcome to Texas Mike,
I would paint the walls white semi-gloss. Sawdust doesn't stick as well as it does to flat wall paint.

I would add at least a few 220 lines out there, or at least make sure you have the room for future breakers.

Now.... I don't know 'bout them fellars up north, and how they build houses..... but here in Texas... we usually put studs in behind that drywall. We find it helps to hold up the house a bit better!! (I'm just picking on you Don, no offense okay?):D

Ted

Hi ted
actually up north in real old homes built in the late 1600's to the mid 1700's we did not use studs at all. My home was built ~ 1730 and is known as a "plank frame" home. The house is built with a traditional post and beam construction, and then the outside was sheathed with 11/4 " thick oak planks. On the outside of the planks were nailed clapboards, and on the inside of the planks ( the interior of the home) was nailed lath and then plaster on top of that. There are no studs at all. So if you were to ask " hey, are there studs behind them there walls? " In this Yankee's home the answer would be "nope" :)

Lou

[Mike Hill]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread. We have been so busy moving in, I did not get a chance to read everything until yesterday. White walls, painted floor and yes, something for air conditioning it is. Looks like we are in for a hot summer and I want to get some work done. This week I start on wood floors in the Living/great room and then on to projects.

It's not surprising that with the table saw, out-feed table, jointer, planer, sander, workbench, Dust collector, chop saw, router table, fan, band saw etc. I am finding arranging everything a problem. Most are on mobile bases, so my current theory is to push what is not in use against a wall :-)

Thanks Again for the ideas.
Mike

[Hank Knight]

Mike,

I used white pegboard on my workshop walls above the workbench and machine level. The top stringer to which the pegboard is attached is a french cleat. It runs all the way around the shop. Several years ago Wood magazine published plans for workshop cabinets that have open backs and hang on a French cleat. The wall material behind the cabinet effectively becomes the cabinet back. I've used this idea with the pegboard in my shop and it works great. It gives you all the advantages of movable cabinets plus the utility of pegboard. I often hang stuff inside the cabinets from peg hooks, something you can't do with solid back cabinets. The pegboard is white: Voila! White walls.

Here are some pictures of my shop walls and cabinets in their current configuration Ive' moved them several times and will probably do so again as well as make additional cabinets. My current need is for a saw till which will work just fine with a Fench cleat. I tried to get a decent shot of the French Cleat (last photo) but it didn't turn out well, but you get the idea.

Good luck with your new shop.

Hank