LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Workshop

Tags
plan workshop
3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Tikka 
#1 ·
Getting started...

Now me and my family have moved to a new home. It's an old house built after war.. (1950 or something) As we moved in i discovered, that here is a small room at basement that used to be someones workshop. It even has the workbench there!! Let's see how I have the time and the energy to make it a decent shop for me. First I have resolve the heating problem. The room has only concrete walls with no insulation… If I heat the place up with some kind of electrical thing, I will use my all money to pay the electric bills! And I dont have that much money! =)

So any ideas considering the heating and everything else about starting an own shop. Throw them to me!!

Karri
 
#2 ·
There are gas heaters that can be used in shops that are pretty efficient there in the $600 range in the US plus installation cost and there radiant heaters the cost more to run but but are plug in unit that are $200 give or take in the Us. It all depends on the space you want to heat and the budget you have.
 
#5 ·
I would use solid foam insulation (the big sheets) and then drywall, or solid foam, framed wall, and then fill in between studs with fiberglass insulation. I wouldn't use just a framed wall and fiberglass because you might have problems with moisture build up and then mold growth. I just finished re-framing a wall in my basement because a previous owner framed a 2×4 wall and then insulated with fiberglass. Unfortunately, there were numerous gaps in the wall where warm air from the room could infiltrate the wall and then water condensed on the concrete. The wall was pretty new but there was already significant mold growth on the wall and the back of the drywall. You can't leave the foam exposed because it's very flammable and releases toxic fumes when it burns (it's against code to leave the foam exposed). Drywall mitigates the danger and gives you a better surface to look at. I would look at www.thisoldhouse.com and search for "insulate basement walls". They had a good demonstration of how to do it.
 
#7 ·
Karri.

Congadulation on the new house. The fuel costs are your greatest problem here. Secondly ventilation and exhaust of fumes, if burning a naked flame. It is not all doom and gloom - The heat generated in the basement will heat up the floor above (Kitchen/Living room) so the cost of heating those rooms will be reduced and you will also have warm feet - Just think of it as under floor heating :)

Once the concrete walls heat up, they will retain the heat somwhat, the biggest problem I have seen here is the dampness of the walls in older basements. This will be a big problem if you are bringing in and storing Kiln dried wood the MC will rise rapidly.

Once you have resolved the heating problem, look at the lighting (lots and lots), how about access for the finished projects and getting ltools and equipment into the basement does it have an external door or is access through the house and up some stairs?

Once you have these problems resolved on paper at least, then you can start to look at the layout of the tools and benches etcetera. What about dust extraction? Electrical supply - the list goes on and on.

If you are passing the workshop, call in and we can discuss it more over a coffee or two.
 
#8 ·
I found the workbench...

Finally I had little time to spend in my workshop. I took some photos of the room. I also tried to heat up the space with little electric heater. Outside it's -10 degrees celsius and inside the basement there is +5°C. With the heater the room heated up pretty easily to +10°C. So maybe it's possible to maintain the basic heat at the workshop with electric heater.

I also cleared out the top of the workbench. The top is in ok condition. I think it has been used as a multi-workbench, cleaning up some motor parts, painting etc. I have to check if there's any need to slice a little bit of the surface with a plane to get it clean.

The room is 2,8m x 6m and the height is no more than 2 meters… I have to do some brainstorming to get my machines to fit and function there. =)

Link to the picasa gallery of the workshop
 
#9 ·
great bench you got there when you moved in to that house
it´s looking pretty desent not too bad
the bench look better than mine when I started to restore it
yours is just wider than mine
good luck with the cleaning of it
but start to clean the room and isolate it
before anything else or you will never have it done

Dennis
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top