Slackerjpt
ArboristSite Operative
Mitsubishi Mr. slim heat pump sips electric. Check it out.
new garage heating ideas
- Thread starter blueoak
- Start date
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Where is galva? Got sun? Go passive solar if you can. That would be windows on the south facing side. I know of one garage here that has that feature to heat a workshop part. The car parking part holds heat when a car is driven in. Of course, they have a heater for our mostly cloudy climate.
Or (humor) go old fashioned and build two stories. Keep cows or horses on the first floor for heat....
Or (humor) go old fashioned and build two stories. Keep cows or horses on the first floor for heat....
UpOnTheHill
ArboristSite Guru
I wouldn't suggest a heat pump to heat a garage unless your climate is moderate. Heat pumps don't do well with a large heating load. I've hooked up controls to hundreds of heat pumps. I wouldn't put one in my garage if it was given to me for free. In my house, yep but only for days that are over 40 degrees outside or days when I want some mechanical cooling.
Johnny Yooper
ArboristSite Operative
blueoak,
a lot of great posts already; here's more info, hoping you find at least some of this helpful for your project.
I have a 24'x36' shop, 2x6 construction, 10' walls (three rows of block on the slab and 8' studs on top of that, keeps wood way above grade); fully insulated and finished. I didn't install in-floor heat as we were also in the process of building the house, so any extra funds went there (however, contrary to my wife's views, my priorities were straight as the shop went up first - a guy needs a place for his tools that's high and dry so you can work on the house, no?). I did install in-floor heat in the basement (plumber talked me into it while we were roughing in the sewer lines one day). I'd never touched a piece of pex before that so don't let that bother you. The first winter in the house, I came in the basement one December night after a late season bowhunting session, took off my boot and my sock came off with it, had a very pleasant surprise when my bare foot touched the concrete floor, wow was that nice. Nonetheless, you gotta weigh the time you plan to spend in the shop against the cost associated with in-floor.......if you're only going to use it one saturday a month, might not pay to do it, but if you're in there almost every weekend for hours at a time, plus some weeknights, and if it turns into a man cave with the flat screen, fridge, etc., well..... I fabricated a 24" x 24"modine type heater for the shop out of left over baseboard pieces from the house build, mounted it high on the wall angling down and placed a 20" box fan behind it, hot water is provided by an OWB located 35' away from the shop and 135' from the house; depending on the weather during the winter months, I run the water temperature anywhere between 180F and 195F. Couple of weekends ago I was wrenching on the wife's vehicle in the shop, was 66F inside and -11F outside, so I'm happy with the setup. If I were to build another shop though, I would bite the bullet and go with in-floor in a heartbeat. It doesn't have to be wood heat, could use natural gas or propane fired boiler or whatever works best in your situation. Another advantage of going hydronic for shop heat (whether in floor or baseboard/modine type heaters is that the maximum temperature of the entire heating system is well below the autoignition temperature of virtually any kind of gas, vapor, or dust you might encounter or generate in your shop, provided of course, that your heating source is either located outside or well sealed off from the main shop area.
Concerning the concrete floor, I read the comments from firebrick43 in post #30; my dad was a state highway inspector so I spent a lot of time as a young man learning about slump, air-entrainment, and all things associated with concrete pours, and firebrick43's info is dead on, so take his words to heart. We did a lot of pours on the side (patios, sidewalks, garages,) and our rule was to go with as dry of a mix (lower slump) as we could work with.....yes it sets up faster than mixes with a higher slump number, but you get a much stronger floor that way.....you can always have the truck driver add a little more water to the mix on site if need be, but damn hard to change it if it shows up too runny for your liking. As far as reinforcement, I'm a rebar fan to the core. During the first summer helping with pours I asked my dad why he always used rebar. He handed me a piece of wire mesh and a piece of rebar and asked me to bend each by hand; the mesh looked like a pretzel while the rebar was still as straight as a german shorthair's tail on point. He smiled and asked "what would you rather have in your floor?" I never forgot that lesson. Thirty years later I generate the floor drawing for my shop and hand it to a local contractor - floating slab....12" x 12" footing, 5 inch thick floor, monolithic pour, smooth/rounded transition between footing and floor, 1/2" rebar grid spaced 24" oc and tied to top of two rows of rebar in the footing; he looked at me and said "nobody builds like that anymore". That was just what I wanted to hear. Did a 24' x 24' building just like that next to the shop some years later (didn't someone on here mention your first shop is never big enough?) One other very critical item as firebrick43 mentioned is drainage/water run off, and another important point is using quality materials for the subgrade and darn good compaction (natural over time and/or by machine if you're unable to wait)...give that floor the best support possible. Definitely not a place to skimp with these first few steps as your entire building is resting on this.
One more item: not sure if you're planning any overhead doors, but if you're considering single stall, may want to think about 10' x 8' vs the standard 9'x 7', yeah, yeah, they're a little more up front, but if you have a full size truck with decent side mirrors and a cap/topper, I guarantee you'll thank me later. I put 10 x 8's on our attached garage and the wife has yet to rip off a side mirror on the suburban in 15 years
Anyway, enough rambling. Good luck with your project!
a lot of great posts already; here's more info, hoping you find at least some of this helpful for your project.
I have a 24'x36' shop, 2x6 construction, 10' walls (three rows of block on the slab and 8' studs on top of that, keeps wood way above grade); fully insulated and finished. I didn't install in-floor heat as we were also in the process of building the house, so any extra funds went there (however, contrary to my wife's views, my priorities were straight as the shop went up first - a guy needs a place for his tools that's high and dry so you can work on the house, no?). I did install in-floor heat in the basement (plumber talked me into it while we were roughing in the sewer lines one day). I'd never touched a piece of pex before that so don't let that bother you. The first winter in the house, I came in the basement one December night after a late season bowhunting session, took off my boot and my sock came off with it, had a very pleasant surprise when my bare foot touched the concrete floor, wow was that nice. Nonetheless, you gotta weigh the time you plan to spend in the shop against the cost associated with in-floor.......if you're only going to use it one saturday a month, might not pay to do it, but if you're in there almost every weekend for hours at a time, plus some weeknights, and if it turns into a man cave with the flat screen, fridge, etc., well..... I fabricated a 24" x 24"modine type heater for the shop out of left over baseboard pieces from the house build, mounted it high on the wall angling down and placed a 20" box fan behind it, hot water is provided by an OWB located 35' away from the shop and 135' from the house; depending on the weather during the winter months, I run the water temperature anywhere between 180F and 195F. Couple of weekends ago I was wrenching on the wife's vehicle in the shop, was 66F inside and -11F outside, so I'm happy with the setup. If I were to build another shop though, I would bite the bullet and go with in-floor in a heartbeat. It doesn't have to be wood heat, could use natural gas or propane fired boiler or whatever works best in your situation. Another advantage of going hydronic for shop heat (whether in floor or baseboard/modine type heaters is that the maximum temperature of the entire heating system is well below the autoignition temperature of virtually any kind of gas, vapor, or dust you might encounter or generate in your shop, provided of course, that your heating source is either located outside or well sealed off from the main shop area.
Concerning the concrete floor, I read the comments from firebrick43 in post #30; my dad was a state highway inspector so I spent a lot of time as a young man learning about slump, air-entrainment, and all things associated with concrete pours, and firebrick43's info is dead on, so take his words to heart. We did a lot of pours on the side (patios, sidewalks, garages,) and our rule was to go with as dry of a mix (lower slump) as we could work with.....yes it sets up faster than mixes with a higher slump number, but you get a much stronger floor that way.....you can always have the truck driver add a little more water to the mix on site if need be, but damn hard to change it if it shows up too runny for your liking. As far as reinforcement, I'm a rebar fan to the core. During the first summer helping with pours I asked my dad why he always used rebar. He handed me a piece of wire mesh and a piece of rebar and asked me to bend each by hand; the mesh looked like a pretzel while the rebar was still as straight as a german shorthair's tail on point. He smiled and asked "what would you rather have in your floor?" I never forgot that lesson. Thirty years later I generate the floor drawing for my shop and hand it to a local contractor - floating slab....12" x 12" footing, 5 inch thick floor, monolithic pour, smooth/rounded transition between footing and floor, 1/2" rebar grid spaced 24" oc and tied to top of two rows of rebar in the footing; he looked at me and said "nobody builds like that anymore". That was just what I wanted to hear. Did a 24' x 24' building just like that next to the shop some years later (didn't someone on here mention your first shop is never big enough?) One other very critical item as firebrick43 mentioned is drainage/water run off, and another important point is using quality materials for the subgrade and darn good compaction (natural over time and/or by machine if you're unable to wait)...give that floor the best support possible. Definitely not a place to skimp with these first few steps as your entire building is resting on this.
One more item: not sure if you're planning any overhead doors, but if you're considering single stall, may want to think about 10' x 8' vs the standard 9'x 7', yeah, yeah, they're a little more up front, but if you have a full size truck with decent side mirrors and a cap/topper, I guarantee you'll thank me later. I put 10 x 8's on our attached garage and the wife has yet to rip off a side mirror on the suburban in 15 years
Anyway, enough rambling. Good luck with your project!
old_soul
ArboristSite Operative
Check out radiant tube heaters. I think Enerco is the name. Hangs from the ceiling and warms objects and the floor.
Heats my 40x60 shop with 16 f00t ceiling really well. I did go overboard with the insulation on walls and ceiling and sealed everything off real tight.
I keep it 45-50 degrees when Im gone and kick it up to 65 or so when we're working out there. Only adds 50-100 dollars to the gas bill in winter months.
I wanted wood burner too, but there was no way I could get that big of a space to heat without maintaining a fire all the time, and too many flammables to worry about also
UpOnTheHill
ArboristSite Guru
Great suggestion! I didn't even think of that. CoRayVac is another well known name for gas fired radiant heaters. Many shops/bus garages have them.
fearofpavement
Trying them all
Well, I won't tell others what to do but I have a 40' x 60' x 16' tall steel building shop. It has the standard steel building white faced fiberglass insulation (two or three inches thick before being compressed between steel and girts/purlins.)
I have two 14' tall 12' wide commercial type sectional doors with insulation. I heat this building with a double barrel stove. I burn any kind of junk wood, lumber scraps, bark, pine, punky wood, or whatever. Being in Georgia, we don't get sub zero temperatures. A typical winter morning in January is 20 degrees and occasionally down in the teens. I don't spend every day in the shop and when I am out there, it's usually not more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. Thus I need a lot of heat in a hurry for while I am in there. The barrel stove works fine for that. I have it sitting on some 8 inch concrete blocks and have no qualms about the flammables in there such as dozens of chainsaws, other OPE, cars, tractors or whatever else I'm working on. This barrel stove with a 20" fan behind it to move the air around suits my needs perfectly. and I can have a comfy environment to get some stuff done in the less nice times of the year. The chimney is just single wall black stove pipe that goes straight up though the steel roof. I've never cleaned it. This whole set up cost less than $300 and I've been using it now for 14 years.
I have two 14' tall 12' wide commercial type sectional doors with insulation. I heat this building with a double barrel stove. I burn any kind of junk wood, lumber scraps, bark, pine, punky wood, or whatever. Being in Georgia, we don't get sub zero temperatures. A typical winter morning in January is 20 degrees and occasionally down in the teens. I don't spend every day in the shop and when I am out there, it's usually not more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. Thus I need a lot of heat in a hurry for while I am in there. The barrel stove works fine for that. I have it sitting on some 8 inch concrete blocks and have no qualms about the flammables in there such as dozens of chainsaws, other OPE, cars, tractors or whatever else I'm working on. This barrel stove with a 20" fan behind it to move the air around suits my needs perfectly. and I can have a comfy environment to get some stuff done in the less nice times of the year. The chimney is just single wall black stove pipe that goes straight up though the steel roof. I've never cleaned it. This whole set up cost less than $300 and I've been using it now for 14 years.
I have an OWB and built my attached garage, 36' x '50 with radiant floor heat. My shop is separate and was built on existing floor. First off I love the radiant floor heat and have no problems after over 10 years of use. Everything is fully insulated. On the garage floor I went 6 inches thick with 1/2" rebar 16" on center. DON"T skimp here as ANY slab crack,shift and you're done. I'm leary of fiber or mesh as it can shift. rebar? it can't.
I have a add on wood furnace in my garage and do NOT care for it. Open flame part is bad if you want to paint in the winter. My current insurance company does cover me and they know it is in there. I got a quote from another and they say no go as it does not have a UL tag on it. It's a Clayton add on bought new 15 years ago.
My shop is fully insulated sides, roof and door. Doesn't take much to heat. It is 25' x 50' with 14' ceiling. I get a bucket of coals from boiler, toss them in and add wood. 20 minutes max you are in a T shirt.
Minuses on stove in shop. Open flame, all the wasted space for the stove AND wood needed to fuel. You also have some wasted time in there since you are having 2 fires in 2 places.
What I will eventually do since the floor is allready there will be to add and overhead radiator with a thermastatically controlled fan. Use the boiler with antifreeze in that separate run so if I'm not heating, no problems. Overhead so no wasted space, no open flame and insurance is happy.
Here you can see the wasted space
I have a add on wood furnace in my garage and do NOT care for it. Open flame part is bad if you want to paint in the winter. My current insurance company does cover me and they know it is in there. I got a quote from another and they say no go as it does not have a UL tag on it. It's a Clayton add on bought new 15 years ago.
My shop is fully insulated sides, roof and door. Doesn't take much to heat. It is 25' x 50' with 14' ceiling. I get a bucket of coals from boiler, toss them in and add wood. 20 minutes max you are in a T shirt.
Minuses on stove in shop. Open flame, all the wasted space for the stove AND wood needed to fuel. You also have some wasted time in there since you are having 2 fires in 2 places.
What I will eventually do since the floor is allready there will be to add and overhead radiator with a thermastatically controlled fan. Use the boiler with antifreeze in that separate run so if I'm not heating, no problems. Overhead so no wasted space, no open flame and insurance is happy.
Here you can see the wasted space
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