How to heat a freezing workshop?

[Jack F.]

Jon Matcho said:

[*]seal cracks

This is a must do.

Jon Matcho said:

[*]cut slots in walls, run batting through, and replace slots

Are you talking vertical slots? This would be difficult to repair. If we are only talking temporary here. I would cut a horizontal slot at the top of each stud bay and blow in insulation. The problem with that stuff is its low "R" value and it settles.

Jon Matcho said:

[*]glue cheap foam to walls

Please do not leave any highly flammable materials exposed.

Jon Matcho said:

[*]apply cheap foil to walls

Not sure about this one.

If you are trully going to rehab your shop from top down, then just bear with it until then.

Jack Fairchild

[Jon Matcho]

Jack Fairchild said:

Are you talking vertical slots?

Horizontal slots so I could pull batting insulation down, but I've decided not to do this.

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...blow in insulation. The problem with that stuff is its low "R" value and it settles.

It's also a mess if you ever need to open up the wall for whatever reason.

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Please do not leave any highly flammable materials exposed.

Urethane based foams burn like wood (polyisocyanulate), which is what I've used on my garage doors. I've read that some other foams will melt into blobs and actually accelerate a fire.

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If you are trully going to rehab your shop from top down, then just bear with it until then.

Yep, I'm just going to seal things up, move the crap into the shed, and get busy while I plan the design of my "real" shop.

I have to catch up to Carlos and others that are leaving me in the dust!

[CFernandez]

Jon Matcho said:

I have to catch up to Carlos and others that are leaving me in the dust!

Don't worry Jon, my garage is now cold, it's snowing outside and the build has moved inside (don't tell my wife I laying glass in our finished basement).

I'm working on the small stuff like the seat back brace and heat duct.

Do you have any pics of your shop improvements? I would like to be able to continue building up the fuse sides but it's cold out there.

I hope you can get back to building soon!

[Jon Matcho]

CFernandez said:

Do you have any pics of your shop improvements?

I'll try to take some this weekend. I want to make some overhead shelves in my shed so I can remove ladders and stuff.

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I hope you can get back to building soon!

Me too. I'm starting to realize that setting up shop is a substantial project, and one that would benefit from some project management. Taking some advice from Mark Beduhn, I've started to identify the critical path I have to follow to get things done. Otherwise it just seems overwhelming.

[CFernandez]

I couldn't stand it anymore. Last night I built a room in the two car garage out of aluminum lined foam board so I can work during the winter months.

The room is about 10' x 10'. The walls (foam board) are hinged at the ceiling so they can be moved up and out of the way when the snow is falling outside and I want to park the car inside. I know it's not a big space but it is better than not being able to build at all during the winter months.

I have a small oil filled heater that keeps the room at 55 on the lowest setting and have yet to see what it will take to get 70 degrees.

I'm excited...

[Jon Matcho]

Cool! I made a breakthrough last night as well, managing to get a friend over to help me make a loft in my new shed using 2x6s. I'm now ready to empty out all the non-essential (non-canard) stuff out of the garage/shop and into the shed.

That insulation is good stuff. I put the 2" type on my garage doors and sealed the edges for drafts. It made a HUGE improvement. with the heater I have I managed to get the temperature up to 64 degrees F while it was 15F outside! However, I do wonder if that's as warm as I'll get it, so I've been thinking to drape plastic down half of the garage to keep things toasty! Might even let my wife put her car in the garage after that (on the cold side of course).

I'll try to get a good set of pics and Web update after this weekend's work.

[jschuber]

I put this 30 gallon double drum heater together in about 1982 and I don't see any signs of it rusting through or doing anything bad.  The garage is 26' x 26' with a 11' ceiling and I can get most any temp I want in there.  I ran it up to 110 for 6-8 hrs to sort of post cure my wings but I'd not do that again.  The walls felt hot!  They probably should have at 110 but I was really nervous about it.

 

The 55 gal drums are monsters and good for heating cattle barns, I'd think.

 

For more even heating, I have a 20" box fan on low to circulate the heat.  Using the double drum really improves the efficiency and lowers the stack temp.  I run the triple wall stainless chimney at 400F when staring the first fire and warming the place.  After that initial demand, the chimney temp for maintenance runs about 250 on a zero day - depends on insulation & leaks.  I'd not make a habit of running pine as the resin accumulates and you have to clean the chimney out   to prevent a chimney fire.  400f temps seem to keep the resin hot enough that it leaves the chimney before it is cool enough to deposit on the chimney ID.  If you are not familiar with running a wood stove you might want to read up on all that before spending money on something that you do have to fiddle with occasionally.  It isn't like natural gas where you set it and forget it.  There is VERY little ash to ever clean out.  I used to clean it out every summer and there was maybe 2-3 5 gal buckets of fine ash by then.  It is good to leave at least 1" of ash in the bottom as it insulates the drum from the heat , they say?? 

 

Pic is in my dirty area and I'm starting to contour a cowl mod.  - very dusty & dirty!

 

[magnum]

Boy I remember those days when I lived up north. Using up your energy to stay warm when you wanted to focus on getting something done. Ya have to do what you have to do. Good luck on those cowls.

~~~tg~~~

[Jon Matcho]

I posted this "two houses ago" but was still a good read with lots of good advice -- thank you!  

Things that are important for a productive workshop:

1. Air conditioning (warm and cold) -- I cannot deal with cold working conditions.
2. Ample space.
3. Close to home.
4. Clean and semi-organized with the essential tools.

I am now in a new house and am committed to staying in it for a good while.  I have all but #1 covered above, well, #4 is always a thing.  I have started to share my new workshop progress in my blog here.  I am insulating the sides and preparing for spray-foaming the ceiling.

[Kent Ashton]

Jon, I don't know what you have for heat and AC but I have installed a couple of mini-splits.  Very happy with their capability.  There is minimal work to install them and they come precharged with R410 although a vacuum-down is recommended prior to releasing the charge.  Mitsubishi is a good brand.  I installed a chinese brand once and it split a coil

[Jon Matcho]

1 hour ago, Kent Ashton said:

Jon, I don't know what you have for heat and AC...

Just a propane torpedo heater and no cooling right now because of near-zero insulation.  I was actually thinking of a small wood stove (yeah, I know, but I have a lot of wood).

1 hour ago, Kent Ashton said:

...I have installed a couple of mini-splits.  Very happy with their capability.  There is minimal work to install them and they come precharged with R410 although a vacuum-down is recommended prior to releasing the charge.  Mitsubishi is a good brand.  I installed a chinese brand once and it split a coil

I'll check that out.  How well does it do at heating?

[Kent Ashton]

1 hour ago, Jon Matcho said:

 How well does it do at heating?

They are heat pumps so you don’t the quick, hot heat you’d get from gas/propane but very efficient. It doesn’t take much power to run them 24 hours.  You need a 220v switch box on the shop.   The rest you can install yourself.

[Jon Matcho]

11 hours ago, Kent Ashton said:

...but very efficient.

I like that.  I have 220 so I'm good to go.  Thanks, I'll look into this!

[Jon Matcho]

I was about to post this on the "what did you do today" thread, but then I remembered this one as a better place for this topic.  And then I remembered I had posted some shop progress in order to test out the Blogs feature here: https://www.canardzone.com/blogs (which I stopped using because I was not happy with the functionality, for which there's a major upgrade in the works from the software vendor -- I plan to get back to this and make available for members as well).

I shared some of my follow-up in the "what did you do today" thread on my pursuit to have an insulated, heated, cooled, and organized shop, but this is a better place. I am going to do a mini-split as @Kent Ashton suggested, but first need to button up the shop so that the wind and small critters are not freely entering the shop (I have explored several mouse trap devices and have accidentally caught a chipmunk).

Here's the next wall that I will be working on. It's been an accomplishment to have even managed the necessary approvals from "the boss" as this is a shared space. While there are no cars in here, there's quite a bit of gardening and household supplies that will need their own space. This wall is after having moved some things around, and am happy that I can look at this and see that I can make quick work of getting all the stuff out and better organized elsewhere. The closet thing will remain here, but to the left as the freezer will be moved there from the other corner in the garage. The brooms and poles in the corner will go "away", and that shelving unit will be moved into our storage tent. The wall will be insulated and covered in the same 1/4" plywood as the other walls shown in the blog posts above.

Small steps, but still progress in my book -- if you saw the 360-view in here you might appreciate why all this must be done. It's been a long time coming for me to have an orderly and functioning shop.