Spray Finishing Area

[Steve Kohn]

3 years ago I had built a 30X30 foot shop beside my attached 2 car garage. I have tried spraying in the shop (tarps hung from ceiling/walls) but find it is too dark and dusty to work well. I also didn't like the overspray clean up even though I was using a cheapo HVLP system.

So I cast my eyes at my old shop. It still has a ventless gas heater and home made air cleaner in it. Since the shop has moved next door it sits empty except for lawn tools and my wife's car.

I asked my wife and she is ok with leaving her car out when I am finishing a project. I immediately went into design mode on how I could convert one bay of the garage into a spray booth that could be easily broken down and set back up. It was then I realized that I really don't know anything about spray booths and though I would ask.

I would plan on spraying only waterbased solutions, with the exception of sealcoats of shellac. I would get the garage warmed up with the heater and then turn it off while spraying and for several hours afterwards. Since the garage is insulated and surrounded on 3 sides by heated spaces, it doesn't cool off that quickly in the winter. As mentioned it has 2 bays, both with overhead garage doors. I have both 110V and 220V power in the garage. I also have 6 double tube 4 foot long flourescent lights in the garage.

I was thinking of making or buying curtains to cover the sides, doing something to cover the garage door and leaving one of the garage doors open by 6 inches spraying against that. That leaves me with the problem of ventilation.

Any suggestions/comments?

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to set this up.

[Matt Meiser]

I bought a large fan (18" IIRC) Grainger fan with a TEFC motor off Ebay and installed that in the wall of my shop. From there, I built a permanent open face "booth" around it with top and side lighting and a frame in front of the fan to hold four furnace filters. That has worked great for me. When the fan is running, I crack a window across the shop and it move a LOT of air. When I do something bigger that won't fit in the booth, I just spray it in the middle of the shop and don't get much overspray with the fan running. What overspray there is gets quickly pulled away by the fan.

[Sue Wise]

You could use inexpensive clear shower curtain liners for the curtains.

[george wilson]

You need to have filters in front of the fan,or over time,the blades will get fouled up with sucessive coatings of fuzzy paint. Motor,too.

[Steve Kohn]

Sorry I wasn't totally clear on the garage positioning.

Unfortunately I don't have an outside wall to vent through. The house is on 2 sides, the new shop is on the third side, and the garage doors (surrounded by brick veneer) is the front. I really don't want to go thru the roof since this is the street side of the house and SWMBO wouldn't appreciate the looks.

Any other good ideas for ventilation? Could I somehow prop one of the garage doors open partially and vent underneath it? How would I then seal the rest of the opening to keep heat in, and provide make up air?

Also, for the curtains is there anyone who can supply links to hardware to make plastic sheeting into some sort of a rolling curtain and a source for like 10 mil plastic by the roll?