Setting up shop...

[Kevin Post]

I've been a bit of a stranger around her for the past few months. Busy, busy, busy... I'm building a new shop with an attached house. :D I'm very excited about the new space but it's been a challenging process.

The biggest issue so far is we've sold our current home and the buyers want in by July 31st. The new house will not be ready until October. This leaves me without a shop until then and throws a big wrench into my plans to build cabinets and mill-work for the new place. We'll be living in an apartment or duplex. I'm trying to find a warehouse or somewhere I can move all my tools with enough space and electrical power to permit me to work. I may buy a generator and rent one of those self-storage places. A friend has offered a vacant airplane hangar but he doesn't think I'll be able to work there due to rules at the airport.

I'm getting close to the point where I need to decide on how to heat the shop at the new place. I've been considering hydronic heat for the garage as I'll be putting that in the basement of the house. The other option for the shop is a HotDawg type heater. Has anyone done this in their garage/shop? How are the heating bills? Is it worth the additional expense?

Here's a picture of the place so far. We set the roof trusses yesterday but I don't have photos yet. My wife has the digital camera.

http://home.centurytel.net/rockyroad/house1.jpg

The garage is 24' x 44'. Half will be garage and the other half shop. The wall height in the garage is is over 10' with 8' high garage doors. My current shop has only 8' ceilings and is pretty crammed because of all the other non-woodworking items stored there. I can't wait...

I'm certain you guys will have tons of ideas for the shop space. I'm interested in hearing all of them.

-Kevin

[Jim Becker]

Very nice, Kevin! Hey, see if you can devise a way to make the "shop doors" match the "garage doors" without having the hassle of an overhead door...they get in the way of duct work and lighting when open.

Bummer about the quick move, but right now, the way the market is, take the deal. Hopefully, you can find some short-term space. Keep your eye out for smaller commercial/flex properties...you may be able to get a short term rental on something with the premise that "some income" is better than "no income" if the space isn't moving and the willingness to move out with a reasonable notice if they clinch a real tenant. You never know!

[lou sansone]

I love it

"Building a shop with an attached house" priceless

best wishes
lou

[Paul B. Cresti]

Kevin,
I just love the building process...can't wait until I do my addition or new shop building someday. I would seriously suggest you look into doing the hydronic/ base board heaters in the shop. I did and all it required was adding an additional zone to my current boiler but then again I was rezoning the whole house at the time. My current shop has my house attached to it to.

[Kevin Post]

If I do the hydronic heat in the garage, I'll put the PEX tubing under the concrete floor. That way, the whole floor becomes a radiator. The tubing is filled with antifreeze instead of water I won't crack the floor if it gets too cold.

I'd have the extra expense of 2" of foam insulation under the concrete, tubing and an extra zone with manifolds and the rest of the goodies required. We're still uncertain where we'll end up in terms of our budget. The price of materials has changed several times since we started. Some things go up, some down... It makes it difficult to keep track.

I like your idea about the doors, Jim. Unfortunately, we don't have the time nor the budget for anything special in that area. The doors will be ordinary overhead insulated garage doors with windows to let in some daylight. I'll just need to layout the shop accordingly.

Early in the planning process, I was looking at a seperate shop, ala Norm and even investigated a pre-stressed concrete floor in the garage with the shop underneath. Because of time, money and zoning restrictions, this is where we landed.

[Mike Wilkins]

Congrats on the new crib/shop/playhouse.
As for temp. shop space; I rented a mini storage facility which was used to store excees household goods, and was used as a shop space. A very small shop space. But I was able to make lots of furniture there until we got out of the the apartment and into a home.
Look around the yellow pages at the various storage facilities in your area, and inquire about space that is powered. You will not likely find one with 240 volt power for the larger machines, but I ran lots of machines with only 120V with only an occasional popped breaker(TS, lunchbox planer, bandsaw).
Now is the time to plan the ideal shop layout.

[Julio Navarro]

...they get in the way of duct work and lighting when open.



I'll second that! Very important point, Jim.

My duct work and lighting needed to be designed around the garage door and its a pain.

[Joe Mioux]

Kevin, I am a big fan of infloor heat and using concrete is a great way to achieve a big thermal mass.

The biggest benefit over forced hot air is that you will have a consistent temperature, not a continuous hot, cold, hot cold as you get with forced hot air.

Once your boiler shuts off and the pump stops circulating your floor will continue radiating heat.

From your original post, I didn't read anything about floor drains. If you haven't considered that, do. When you pull your cars inside during the winter you will appreciate the melted snow flowing to a drain. Also makes cleaning really nice.

HTH
Joe

[Kevin Post]

Kevin, I am a big fan of infloor heat and using concrete is a great way to achieve a big thermal mass.
...

From your original post, I didn't read anything about floor drains. If you haven't considered that, do.

Yeah, I'm doing floor-drains.

While overhead doors are not ideal, they're the most practical in this case. I don't have time to make doors on top of all the other stuff I need to do. I can't afford to pay someone to make them for me, either. Also, the garage enters from the side and faces the neighbor's house about 50 feet away. As a courtesy to them, I expect the garage doors will stay closed most of the time while I work in the shop to minimize noise. I'll just need to plan my layout and lighting accordingly.

All of my stuff is on wheels. I expect to have a few trial layouts before finding the one that works best for me. I saw another thread with some cool tools for shop layout. I tried playing with SketchUp this weekend. Someone watching me would have been laughing pretty hard. I drew a space for the shop and added walls. When I placed the tools in the space, they were all levitating above the floor. :o When the time comes, I'll figure it out. :rolleyes:

I'm pretty sure I'll be doing the hydronic heat as well. Cost is the biggest factor... I'll be speaking with the GC this week to get an idea of where we are with our budget. Then meeting with the plumbing and heating people. I'll install the foam and the PEX tubing myself to save on some of the labor.

Regarding temporary space, I'm looking into purchasing a generator to use at a self-storage place. Nobody has electricity... especially 220.