Garage or basement workshop.

[Chris Barrett]

yeah I don't have any neighbors close enough that they would get a plume of dust or anything. I'll run a cyclone first.

[Chris Barrett]

I am in WI. I'm running a dehumidifier in the basement right now, which is currently where almost all the tools and lumber is.

[Jim Dwight]

Definitely basement if garage has to be shared with other things (especially if that includes cars). I'm in my third shop. First was the front of a 28 feet deep 2 car garage. I backed the cars out to do bigger jobs. My late wife hated the dust I tracked into the house (I thought a nice layer of sawdust made the concrete floor much more comfortable). It was a lot better than nothing.

Second shop was a basement garage. I had a 2 car upstairs and finished about 400 ft2 of the basement to be a shop garage. It was wired, insulated, and had lights. Ceiling was about 8.5 feet. I built a lot of furniture in it over 15 years. It was my shop until late 2013. It never had any heat or AC run to it but it didn't need it. The insulated walls and having conditioned space above it and on one long side kept it fine for me. It had it's own driveway and garage door.

Current shop was built last year and is a separate but attached 14x24 garage. It isn't close to done but has lights and outlets and some insulation and walls. It also isn't heated or cooled and gets hot at the moment. The room above it is only conditioned when one of the girls is home from college which isn't often enough. I still like to work in it but it flooded once due to high rain and not enough drain and I've had some rusting and minor mold. I routed the gutters and some of the ground runoff differently and I think that is now resolved.

My bottom line is a separate space is the key thing. My current wife doesn't want my mess tracking into the house either. And I don't want to spend all my time cleaning up. And I really don't want to talk about it. If your wife or significant other will have to move through the space, you want a different one if possible.

[Chris Barrett]

While reading your reply I was thinking: "When
I started here, all there was was swamp. All the kings said I was daft
to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show
'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the
swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank
into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. An' that's what your gonna
get, lad -- the strongest castle in these islands."

:-D I'm still going to go with the garage for now.

[Rick Potter]

My cars are as important as my tools, and a larger investment, so my choice would be basement, giving you both places to use. Never understood some of my neighbors who have nice cars sitting outside, and $100 worth of yard sale junk in the garage. One was a brand new BMW, which sat outside for several years, before they got another...which sits outside.

[Jim Dwight]

Around here, it is very common to get only one car in a two car garage due to all the other stuff stored there. Right now we have my wife's riding lawn mower and cart, which we cannot use due to our small yard with gates to the back, in one side of the two car with my convertible in the other. Her BMW convertible sits outside. I want her to get rid of the mower but she hasn't, yet. She also puts shelves and tubs in the garage, they can't possibly go into the walk-in attic storage area.

[Chris Barrett]

Both our cars are 2004. I'll let the wife park in the other side of the garage during the winter, but it's a long walk to the house anyway so it's not like it helps that much in the winter anyway. The only reason I'd want to park both cars in the garage in the winter is so I don't have to move one out of the way to plow the parking/driveway.

[Ole Anderson]

Both our cars are 2004. I'll let the wife park in the other side of the garage during the winter, but it's a long walk to the house anyway so it's not like it helps that much in the winter anyway. The only reason I'd want to park both cars in the garage in the winter is so I don't have to move one out of the way to plow the parking/driveway.

So you enjoy scraping frost, ice and snow off every morning and opening the car door and having the fluffy stuff blow all over your seat? That is exactly why I have a garage and keep both cars in and heat it to 42 degrees.

[Rick Potter]

If your garage is a long walk from the house, you might consider building a new garage attached or adjacent to the house, and use the old garage as a shop. More expensive but it would make everybody happy.

[Chris Barrett]

I was actually pondering that earlier. Not in the cards anytime soon though.

[Jeff Heil]

I vote basement shop, as that has worked best for me. Built a new house 2 years ago with a 15'x42' basement shop divided off from rest of the basement. After carrying plywood though the kitchen at the old house, and having to move the table to get down the stairs, built this house with stairs in the garage direct to the basement. My shop is exposed to the south with two huge windows for natural light and fresh air. I have an insulated 3 car garage, but like keeping the dust away from the cars and stuff stored there and ability to leave tools and projects in place. Dedicated workshop beats space shared with cars and kids stuff in my view. Winter temperatures also factor into my opinion. Biggest frustration is needing tools in garage that are in basement, got over much of that by having duplicate hand tools and two air compressors for nail guns in shop and filling bike tires and car tires in garage.