Woodworking in the garage in Florida

We're moving to SW Florida, into a subtropical climate. We'll winter there as six-months residents, and go north for the rest of the year. The property won't permit a shop outside the house, and whatever I do if I do anything, it's going to be in the garage. The garage faces due north, and the garage doors will never see direct sunlight.

I checked a website for average high and low temps for the months November through April and the highs are 83-78-76-78-80-84, with lows looking like 62-56-53-55-58-62. Sort of comfortable, but I'll only know after getting there and experiencing things. It's a new house in an HOA controlled subdivision.

We spent a week there just recently with daytime highs in the middle 80s and dawn temps around 63, and in looking at a number of resale homes, all the garages I walked into felt comfortable, temperature-wise.

If you work in a garage in conditions like this, I'd like to hear about it.

I am on the left coast and do woodworking in my garage year round. My last house did not have HOA restrictions, but I still wanted to be comfortable. Those temps seem nice. I needed to run a small window AC in the summer and sometimes a 110V electric heater in the winter. The biggest factor improving my comfort level was insulation. The walls were already insulated, but it didn't help until I insulated the ceiling and the door. Insulation on the door should help reduce noise levels for your neighbors. Mine door was plain aluminum. I added 1.5" of foam insulation. It helped a lot.

My new house does have an HOA and I try to avoid early morning work or late evenings. If I hear lawn mowers outside, then I feel free to work. I rarely run the lunchbox planer and usually opt for the drum sander if possible.

It sounds a lot like where I recently moved from (Bradenton, FL. ). Winter woodworking in a garage is quite pleasant. Summer is absolutely brutal. Be sure and check the HOA rules. Some are so strict that you really won't be able to work. I know of one in Lakewood Ranch that will fine you $50 if your garage door is open more than 3 hours in a day.

I think it depends on the person. I used to live in Alabama and 80 and sunny made for a pretty hot sweaty mess once you add a respirator and such. It's not only the heat but the humidity that would get to me. So, if I wanted to be truly comfortable, I would get a small mini split which would be ideal in a Florida garage workshop. This also let's you work with the garage door closed which helps with neighbors.

Gene,

I had a shop in a garage in St Augustine for about 10 years. Temperature and humidity were usually comfortable November- April. It got colder that I liked a few mornings but nothing that would keep me out of the shop. I doubt that you, as a Coloradan, will find it too cold, especially in SW Florida. I second the suggestion from an earlier responder that you insulate the garage door and, if it has not already been done, the attic space above the garage.

Having made the reciprocal change from St Augustine to Golden, IMO the biggest change would have to be the humidity and rusting of steel. If you do not take serious rust prevention measures you may find a film of rust on a TS, jointer, or drill press table just from laying your hand on it. My big discovery was when I cut a piece of sheet goods with my TS and discovered rust stains on it. Hard to get rust stains off of veneered plywood. BTW my formula was Boeshield every month or so, buffed off hard and followed with Johnson's paste wax about every week. I kept a rag saturated with wax and Boeshield handy and wiped off every steel tool I touched. I had not thought that stainless steel rulers, squares, and such were worth the extra money but in Florida it makes sense to buy stainless. I bought Bullfrog rust prevention stickers for every drawer in my shop. In any case, if you leave your tools without rust prevention in April you may be in for a nasty surprise the following November when you return.

Locally acquired air-dried lumber will have 10-12% moisture. KD lumber will need a week or so to acclimate in your shop. Whereas we have to make drawers and such a little loose in Colorado, you can make then a bit tighter in Florida because the wood will already be about as swollen as it will get. Lumber laying on the garage floor should be stickered or it will acquire black mildew. Southern Yellow Pine is the SE equivalent of Douglas Fir. Cypress is readily available and cheaper than it is here. I really like the way it works.

Those are the high points. Hope they are useful to you.

Doug

Once you insulate, plan on having a good dehumidifier or air conditioner in your shop. The Florida humidity and salt air will be very hard on your iron tools without humidity control. Install it in a way that lets the condensate continually drain, either to the outdoors or to a plumbing connection to keep from needing to dump the condensate every 8-12 hours. Keep the shop humidity at about 50% and keeping the rust off your iron tools will be manageable. You will likely need humidity control 12 months per year.

Charley

I'm in NE FL but the principles are the same: "its not the heat, its the humdity". Applies to both your comfort, your tools and your lumber. Rust is a huge, huge issue especially if you are leaving them unused for 6 months of the year. You will need to look into some storage methods for this.

I am fortunate to have the room in my shop to build an air conditioned bench room where I keep all my valuable hand tools and, most importantly, my project wood. I use this room to acclimate lumber as well as store project parts etc when I'm done working with them in the machine area of the shop.

I know this wouldn't apply to you with a garage, but why not make the whole garage your studio? Insulated doors and check the ceilings and walls for insulation. You could install either a large window or mini split AC unit, at least for those days you need it, which in SW FL will be more often than not.

If you have to funds/motivation, I strongly recommend this not only for comfort factors, but to maintain a steady environment for your wood and (last but not least) keep the rust issue in control. I wouldn't think the HOA would object but you might face an issue.

[edit]Also this gives you a degree of soundproofing, not knowing what machines you have, but this could be a huge benefit for you.
My brother lives in the Naples, FL area. It can be in the 80's with humdity over 70% in December!!

I'm a little north in SC but we have similar heat and humidity issues. It's a little cooler here too. My shop is an extra 14x24 garage I had added to our house. It is insulated and has conditioned space above it but it is not heated, cooled or dehumidified. I have had rust issues but mainly when it flooded due to our downhill driveway and house construction across the street. My table saw and jointer have aluminum beds, however. Rust is definitely something to consider, my chisels have also had surface rust. But ambient temperature is rarely and issue. I cross ventilate with a back door and front garage door in the summer time and typically get a breeze off the lake. In the winter, sometimes I work in the shop with both doors closed because it is always a little warmer or cooler than the outside due to the conditioned space above. It works for me. I could use more space but heating/cooling is not a big issue.

Gene:

I have a garage workshop in SW Florida (St Petersburg). Winters are tolerable to work in the shop. There are even a few days of the year where I use my shop heater. I would strongly recommend getting a split A/C unit for your shop. Not too expensive, very energy efficient, and they do a great job of keeping down the humidity and making it comfortable to work.

A total necessity in the summers, where it gets to 94-95F each day with 300% humidity.

Rust is a real issue. You’ll need to get in the habit of spraying down your cast iron tables with good rust prevention spray.

Never open up the garage door in the rain. Especially with the AC on. Everything will get condensation and rust everywhere. Lesson learned the hard way.

Where are you moving to down here?

Alan

I'm in north Florida and I had my garage insulated to standards higher than my house. Spray in foam in walls, foil barrier in rafters and blow insulation above ceiling. Biggest issue is the large door. I have the standard foam inserts installed for insulation but the door just doesn't seal well. That said I have an 18k mini split Mitsubishi unit in there that will keep the room at 55 degrees if I want. :) it also has heat but it's never needed. As mentioned above I also have full time dehumidifier running set on 50 percent. My first unit ran full time the last 6 years and just died. It had a gravity drain to outside. Just picked up my next unit and it has a pump which I routed to my washing machine drain. It's a terrific setup for my 22x20 garage. I still spray my iron down with boshield a few times a year.

Naples is where we are going, about 10 miles in from the beach. The house is a tract-built thing, with no insulation above the ceiling, but there is ready access there for a contractor (or me) to go up there and either do batts or blown cellulose so as to reduce the heat transfer.

Impossible to do on the outside walls, which are built with 7-5/8" concrete block, 1/2" furring on probably 24" centers, then drywall. Those nothing-thickness furring strips probably mean if I am going to do any wall shelving, I am going to need to use tapcons or another solution for getting any good anchorage for brackets or hangers.

The entire front wall is studframed, as is one half of the left side wall, so those are my best opportunity for anything on the wall.

I'm going to try and scale my woodworking back to much more a hand tool approach. Sold the planer, jointer, and bandsaw yesterday, and the drill press and the contractor-style tablesaw are going to be sold also. I'll keep a 12" mitersaw which sits on a stand but will fold up the stand and open only when using. The benchtop Delta mortiser will be sold.

Am giving serious thought to getting a Festool tracksaw and their MFT/3 table setup for being able to cut parts. That and my torsion-box bench with its front vise and end vise, some folding sawhorses, and I should be good for doing small fun projects. I'll keep the Festool Domino 500 and the 5" Rotex RO125 sander plus the Festool dust collector I have now. The dust collector can connect to their tracksaw.

I have half a three-car garage for space, as Mrs won't give up the space for her SUV. We've too many vehicles, and I won't give up my almost-20-year-old Porsche, which will be in stall 3 unless I am doing a little project work. The pickup will be in the driveway, and thank goodness, it is allowed to be left outside.

The HOA will allow me a minisplit for AC but I don't think I'll need it. We will only be there winters, like Nov thru April, and from what I can see, the highs and lows are OK then.

I'll need to pay far more attention to rust prevention for the tools, but it'll be planes, chisels, and saws mostly. All of which will be packed away in Tupperware boxes and sealed up, those types of rust-prevent pucks inside, when we head out each spring. And the boxes will go inside the house into fully air-conditioned space.

I think a track saw is a great thing but I use a Ron Paulk style work surface instead of a MFT. I've never used a MFT but I like my Paulk inspired surface. For the setup you describe, one of his 3x6 combination miter saw station, router table, track saw table, and small table saw setup would work well - and store away easily when not in use. While I like my track saw (a DeWalt) I would not want to be without a small table saw. A track saw will do narrow rips but they are much more easily accomplished with a table saw. Cutting up big pieces of wood or making tapered cuts is the opposite. Easy on a track saw, possible on a table saw. Nice to have both options. I think Ron Paulk has upgraded to a SawStop portable saw now on it's own stand but he used to use a plastic DeWalt saw hanging off one of his workbenches. Not the kind of thing most of us would want to be limited to but adequate when paired with a good tracksaw.

I am about 60 miles north of your intended location, and I air condition year round with less needs in the fall and winter. Humidity will be your problem and will sneak up on you. A simple method is to leave the house-garage door open if you are not making a lot of dust. The north facing garage door means the garage inside may be more damp than you would like. Paint will take longer to dry. Minor rust can start easily.

I think Naples has an active woodworking club if you are interested.

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Originally Posted by Andrew DiLorenzo

I think Naples has an active woodworking club if you are interested.

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Yes! Please give me a lead.

This is a woodturners club. They may know more about that area than I do.
http://www.swflwoodturners.org/

I attend the Westcoast Florida Woodworkers meetings, which center around the Sarasota-Bradenton locale and we are fortunate enough to have both a woodturners and a woodworkers club in the area. Right now Kasperksy anti virus flags the site as unsafe dispite our webmaster as saying he has fixed the problem. Here is the site: www.floridawoodworkers.com, or search on sarasota woodworkers in Yahoo.

Some people are members of both clubs, and the woodworkers club has many woodturners.

There is a woodworking show coming to Tampa during the end of January, and my club will have a booth there. The Tampa clubs are well represented, but I am not sure about the Naples area.

Hey Andrew, I used to go to that club years ago. Back then, it was still meeting at the home of the widow of one of the late founders.

I tried to reply with a link to an active club in the Naples area, and something must have gone wrong. In the process, I included a link to my club site site only to find out our site is down due to some mal ware. We host at blue host and so far can't fix it. We are working on it.

Too bad sawmill creek cant have a topic of woodworking and or woodturning clubs and their websites.

There is a woodturners club in Naples and they may be able to hook you up with some woodworkers, To find the Florida Westcoast Woodworkers site, do a google or Yahoo search on those terms, but you might as well wait until we fix our site, as right now it is down. In a similar vein, do the same for a woodworker club in the Naples, Fort Meyers area. Good luck and sorry I could not just provide a direct link.