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New shop.

Joined
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Parkersburg, West Virginia
Congratulations! That will be a nice upgrade. Well insulated? Heat and ac?
Thanks. Not yet. The walls are insulated with plywood over. I am cleaning it out and will insulate the ceiling and plywood. I have a 55,000 BTU pellet stove from my last house I was going to install. Not sure about A/C yet
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2017
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Location
San Jose, CA
I’ve got shop envy! As my father would have said, “Wear it in good health Rusty!”
Oh, to have room to move around without bumping into everything….
Tell me about it!!
I had a 24 x 36 shop in WA until I moved to CA & had to settle for 1/2 of a 2-car garage . . . . then we moved to a 3-car garage and I still have only a 1-car space. It is really crowded. Barely room for all the tools, which are all on wheels [smartest thing I have done]. No room for anything more.
In spite of the lack of space, it is still a refuge for the soul.
 
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Went through the shelves and got a couple of truck loads ready to go to the dumps. I am going to build a room at the far end for storage. It will be 24 feet wide by 6 feet deep. I will be able to put 10 of those shelves in there and a clothes rack for my wife to change out her seasonal clothes. That will leave me three shelf units to store wood and drying bowls. I will also build a small room to hold my air compressor and dust collector.
472D77E3-C702-48E6-AB90-35D2897A5AED.jpegF443B694-F00F-4214-A4FB-771DF021D84E.jpeg
 

Dave Landers

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Amazing how much goes to the dump when you clean out a place like that. All that stuff that you were sure you wanted to keep (or was just easier to keep than deal with). When I moved out, my old shop belched out 2 pickup truck loads to the dump, one load to the recycle place, and another to the thrift store.

When you get everything out, and the rest of the plywood up - paint the walls. I'm thinking a matte white (or nearly-white) for mine. To let the light bounce around and fill in the shadows. My last place was mostly wood and wood-like colors around the lathe and the lighting was challenging.
 
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Lebanon, Missouri
Yes walls and ceiling will be painted white. I will also install LED lighting.
Was gonna recommend that. Sealing the floor is a good idea, keeps spilled liquids from absorbing. Mine is a light desert tan - a light color helps with reflecting light. Light colored walls, ceiling, floors makes a room appear larger.

Is there a man door? If you plan to heat and cool, you dont want to raise the garage door to go in/out, and a window or 2 are sure nice.
 
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Was gonna recommend that. Sealing the floor is a good idea, keeps spilled liquids from absorbing. Mine is a light desert tan - a light color helps with reflecting light. Light colored walls, ceiling, floors makes a room appear larger.

Is there a man door? If you plan to heat and cool, you dont want to raise the garage door to go in/out, and a window or 2 are sure nice.
Yes there is a man door. I was thinking of doing the floor with the epoxy garage floor paint.
 

odie

TOTW Team
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Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
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I have an epoxy floor but I put some stuff they sell in paint stores to reduce the slip. Like a grit. Also do not put clear sealer on top as that will make it slick again.
There are three kinds of epoxy paint, the water base, sold in HD, the solvent base sold or ordered from real paint stores or online and the real nasty stuff you want pro's to put down.

Stu
 
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Location
Camp Douglas, WI
Are you in a state that freezes
Did you put a footing down 4 feet or just go with a floating slab
Did you put in floor heating
To many questions cause I’m researching to build a new shop. Thanks
 
Joined
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Parkersburg, West Virginia
Are you in a state that freezes
Did you put a footing down 4 feet or just go with a floating slab
Did you put in floor heating
To many questions cause I’m researching to build a new shop. Thanks
Yes it freezes here.
Yes there is a footer.
Didn’t install floor heating because it was built to store a tractor and boat eight years ago. I sold the boat and will put the tractor in my old shop when I get everything moved out. I was planning on installing a 55,000 BTU pellet stove I have from an old house I once lived in. Not sure what to do about A/C yet. I will see how it goes and might end up with a mini-split.
 
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One of the advantages of the Mr. Cool mini split is that it can be turned on remotely with Wi-Fi from a phone app. For a building that’s not used all the time like my garage shop I can leave the system off, and when I anticipate going out, turn it on from the house 20 minutes before and it will be nice and warm (or cool) when I’m ready to start turning. Curiously, the more expensive Mitsubishi system we had installed in our house doesn’t have this remote feature.
 
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What do you seal with?
I used a concrete stain (sherwin williams). Aggressive solvents, like gasoline or lacquer thinner will dissolve it, so just let them evaporate, no harm done. Less volatile stuff doesn't bother it. Went with stain because of ease of application, cost, and risk of peeling vs paint or epoxy - there are some great coating but they come with a great (hi) price. Been ~20 years since I did it, and would do the same again.

My floor is painted and it is slick when I get shavings. Depending on my shoes.
I used a grit, from SW, believe it was called shark skin. I only put 1/2 the recommended amount. Fine dust or lots of chips built up on the floor will still be a bit slippery. It works well for standing liquid, ie spilled water or something that you arent aware of.
 
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For a quick fix on mine, where I stand in front of the lathe I made some stripes with super glue and then covered with that grit you put in porch paint. (looks like fine sand)
 
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Eugene, OR
Is your ceiling insulated? I had a pole barn shop for my last one, and it had some craft paper between the metal roof and the inside of the shop. Almost went deaf the first time I was in there and it was raining. I priced out the insulation, and then contacted an insulation company. The insulation company bid was $50 more than the supplies, and they put a white plastic covering over the insulation. They got the job. Have fun in your new play area....

robo hippy
 
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Is your ceiling insulated? I had a pole barn shop for my last one, and it had some craft paper between the metal roof and the inside of the shop. Almost went deaf the first time I was in there and it was raining. I priced out the insulation, and then contacted an insulation company. The insulation company bid was $50 more than the supplies, and they put a white plastic covering over the insulation. They got the job. Have fun in your new play area....

robo hippy
There is a thin layer of foam insulation between the metal roofing and the studs. I am going to insulate, add a plastic vapor barrier under the ceiling joists and then finish with 1/2” OSB. Then I will paint the walls and ceiling white.
 
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Tell me about it!!
I had a 24 x 36 shop in WA until I moved to CA & had to settle for 1/2 of a 2-car garage . . . . then we moved to a 3-car garage and I still have only a 1-car space. It is really crowded. Barely room for all the tools, which are all on wheels [smartest thing I have done]. No room for anything more.
In spite of the lack of space, it is still a refuge for the soul.
That would be real hard to go from big to small. How are things in San Jose? I moved out of Hayward 27 years ago. I would probably have trouble finding my way around there now.
 
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Mesa, AZ
I see the iconic blue dillion over yonder. I'm still not kicking myself for purchasing full cartons of CCI and gold-match LRM, LR, SR and LP when the supply was plenty and the demand wasn't inhuman.

Back on topic.... not sure if it's even worth the bother, but I wonder whether the seasonal storage portion you mentioned could be sans insulation and ceiling to keep rafter storage space... granted this comes from someone like many, who timeshares the woodshop with the better half's van.
 
Joined
Mar 23, 2023
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Monroeville, AL
In my last two shops I used sheet foam for the ceiling. Costs about the same as sheetrock or wood but is much easier to put up plus adds some insulation value. I used foil backed foam in my current shop and it really helps spread the light too. If your overhead door isn't insulated (doesn't look like it) you might consider getting one that is or adding some insulation to the one you have. With reasonable insulation your pellet stove will be plenty of heat. My current shop is about 2900 sq/ft, half with 10' ceilings and the other half 12'. For A/C I have two window units, one on either end, one 12,000 btu and the other 18,000. I set them in the mid 70s, and even in the mid summer S Alabama heat they will hold a temp. I really expected them to be running constantly during peak summer but surprisingly they dont.

Trippling your floor space!! Gonna feel huge! For a while.......... I threw out a TON of stuff in my last move and moved into a shop twice as big as the one I left. Two years later it's full.....
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2019
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Chassell, MI
Another thing to consider is using EMT surface mounted so any possible future electrical needs can be easily added.
We have a small farm with several outbuildings, and despite hardcore barn cats still have rodent issues. I'm only an amateur electrician, probably crippled with an EE degree, and do all the outbuildings in surface mount conduit. Those tricky little rodent buggers really want to electrocute themselves, learned the hard way that a missing knockout has to be plugged or there will be a little skeleton inside. If they really want to suicide themselves we can provide traps...

And like Don says it's easy to modify when you discover you need another outlet for the latest new machine or convert a machine from 120 to 240. Outlets are like Cheetos, you can't have too many
 
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