Shop heat?

[Corwin]

If everything works out this next week, I may be putting together a new shop this summer -- something around 1200 sq ft.  Space will include shop, one garage bay and a half bath.  I'm thinking of only the garage portion of floor in concrete slab, with rest in wood -- not sure.

So, what would be the best way to provide heat?  I will have propane available.  Radiant floor?  Forced air?

Corwin

 

[mysterium]

Corwin,

I'm not sure where your located...

But if A/C is not a issue...  then hands down radiant heat!!!

jim

 

[Lou Miller]

I agree with Jim, radiant is the best. The problem is the initial cost is much higher, but its worth it in the long run. I hate any type of forced air heating in a house, let alone a shop. In a house, forced air just stirs up dust and so forth, even in a clean house. In a shop, there's far more possibilities to have dust around. The forced air can make things a real pain.

I have a small electric heater with a fan on it in my shop right now. It works really well in terms of heating the shop (its only 13x21), but the fan causes issues with dust and I hate it.

Since you're going with a wood floor, you have the option of something like warmboard if you want it. Its not cheap, but its a great product. I've used it on several large additions and renovations over the last few years and its outstanding. There are cheaper ways to go than warmboard, but I just thought I'd throw it out there for you. The advatnage to warmboard, or some form of equivalent, is the response time is dramatically faster than in slab radiant heat. You can actually get away with turning off the heat when you're not using the shop and still be able to get the shop up to a comfortable temp in a reasonable amount of time. With an in the slab system, it takes a long time to raise the temps and turning it off isn't really advisable.

Good luck with everything. I'm really hoping to be able to do the same as you this year, but its still not a go for me yet.

 

[Corwin]

I live in the Pacific Northwest (North of Seattle) where the winter months are typically around the mid 40's during the day and in the 30's over night -- Usually never colder than the mid 20's.  Don't think I'll be needing air conditioning in the shop too much for the summer.

If this house deal goes together, I will be putting up a new shop and will have the ability to do things how I would want.  But, until now I was simply working within the space I have -- hadn't been thinking of the perfect shop space...  Lots of things to consider.

My current basement shop has a concrete slab floor.  For the new shop/garage I could either do the slab for the whole thing or go with a concrete slab in the garage portion and wood for the rest.  Maybe I could only heat the shop portion and leave the garage part.  Then again, could just heat it all.  Hmmm.

Thanks for any help! 
Corwin

 

[Kevin Johnson]

Corwin,

My vote would be for Radiant as well.  You can embed the tubes in your slab.  There are DYI suppliers for the design work and equipment to install it.  If I were building a shop that is the way I would go.  Unfortunately, that is not what I have, but I feel that it is best for comfort and to run.  My shop is heated with a 45K BTU forced hot air heater that hangs from the ceiling.  It is made by Mr Heater and is hooked to the main propane line in the house.  It works, but is noisy.

Lou, my wife and I are thinking about getting Warmboard for an addition that we are building.  However, the pricing is outrageous.  I was wondering if you would not mind sharing what you paid per sheet for yours?  You can PM if you like.

Thanks

 

[Lou Miller]

Lou, my wife and I are thinking about getting Warmboard for an addition that we are building.  However, the pricing is outrageous.  I was wondering if you would not mind sharing what you paid per sheet for yours?  You can PM if you like.

Thanks

No need for PMs... I can't give you an exact number on what it cost. Warmboard is always purchased by one of my subs and I don't get them to do material cost breakdowns for me. Of course, I don't know what his mark up is on it either. Based on his quotes to me, I'd say its around $120 a sheet. I could be wrong on that though. Whatever the cost, I thought it was worth it. Its kind of like Festool, there's an initial sticker shock, but when you factor in all that you are getting with it, its a great product. The Home owners were extremely happy with it. I know that when I finally get around to building my shop, I'm using it no questions asked. I was that impressed with the performance of it.

If you think its out of your range, there are other products out there that offer close to the same performance, but with a lot lower up front investment. Warmboard is the best of them by a fair amount, IMO though. Wisbro makes something that I remember being roughly around 60% of the cost of  Warmboard. The performance levels were lower, but its still a decent prouct. Sorry, I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but a search on Wisbro and their prouct line should get it for you rather easily.

 

[Corwin]

I'd say its around $120 a sheet. I could be wrong on that though. Whatever the cost, I thought it was worth it. Its kind of like Festool, there's an initial sticker shock, but when you factor in all that you are getting with it, its a great product. The Home owners were extremely happy with it. I know that when I finally get around to building my shop, I'm using it no questions asked. I was that impressed with the performance of it.

Thanks for the great info!  $120 a sheet, are we talking a 4'x8' sheet? 

As it stands now, I can choose between 2 similar homes -- home A has nicer land w/space for shop, home B has nicer floorplan and already has shop on concrete slab w/power but w/o 1/2 bath.  I'm thinking of placing an offer on Home A on Tuesday... already have source for contractor for shop.  Should be an interesting week!

Thanks,
Corwin

On Edit:  Thanks again for the tip on Warmboard!  I did a quick check and found the answers to my immediate questions and will probably look into this further -- the radiant floor option does look best, glad to see your recommendations in this direction.  Lumber store called to say my Baltic Birch order would be in on Monday...  Way too distracted to think about working on my project this week -- but the thought of a new shop makes it all worth the wait!

 

[Lou Miller]

Corwin and Kevin,

One drawback I forgot to mention with the Warmboard is that contractors typically hate working with it. Most of them will whine throughout the entire course of the job because of the Warmboard. Reason for it is there are protection issues that have to be attended to during the course of the job. All of my different subs whined like little babies from start to finish over it. Its really no big deal, you just can't be sloppy with nails and screws around the Warmboard. Also dropping tools can be a problem too if you don't have it covered up. Its not the Warmboard that is the issue, its the pex tubing that is in the Warmboard. We just keep it covered with either OSB or hardboard all the time. Its important that nails and screws aren't left laying around on the floor throughout the course of the job too. Keeping a clean jobsite with it is a must, IMO.