Buying a house, getting a new workshop ....

[Tony Roun]

Hi All, I have enjoyed learning so much from this forum, and continue to put it to good use. My wife and I are in the process of buying a different house, and my future wood shop is a blank canvas, albeit a concrete one. Here's the scoop, the house has a walkout basement that daylights in the backyard. The garage actually has a room/basement underneath of it. It is a two car garage, and the garage concrete floor is supported with I-beams in this lower room that will become my work shop, also a 2 car garage size. That workshop as an exterior door that goes out to the back yard, and it also has a door that goes into the basement. The ceiling height to the bottom of the I-Beams is about 8 feet. The underside of the garage floor (i.e. the woodshop ceiling) appears to be sprayed with with foam insulation. The workshop room also has a concrete floor in it. Aside from one flood light, it has nothing else in it. Concrete walls, concrete floors, concrete ceiling. The 200 amp electric panel for the house is 4 ft from this workshop, which should facilitate easy electric work. Blank slate.

I am excited that it is a standalone work space and it is under the garage and should hopefully keep some of the noise contained. I have a lot of planning to do, and the house is not actually ours yet. But I am a planner and have the wheels already spinning on how to setup shop in the best manner. The first questions I have to resolve are: air quality, ceiling and wall construction (if needed), noise reduction, and heating if desired. Has anyone ever encountered a scenario like this? I have not historically done a ton of work in my current shop during the winter because it is not really setup for it, and I imagine the walls in this room would be a giant heat sink? Am I in "la-la land" thinking this concrete room is going to hold in the noise, or do you think I need to be incorporating some noise reduction in my plans for walls and ceiling? I will be adding specific questions as they arise to this thread, but I am starting it and will populate pictures and updates as I progress with it.

Thanks.

[Jamie Buxton]

The shop is under the garage? So why are you concerned about noise control? Noise getting up into the garage doesn't seem like it would annoy anybody.

[Don Jarvie]

I would put up walls and an insulated wood floor with a moisture barrier to keep the dampness at bay. Depending on where you live you may be able to use an electric heater to take the chill out in the winter. It will probably stay cool in the summer.

Consider having a few window cut out for some natural light. It won't feel like a dungeon plus it will be nice to open the windows for some air.

[Greg Parrish]

After changing my garage workshop around about 10 times over the past year to add new tools, the best advice I can offer is to keep the design for electrical and dust ducting as modular as possible so that it can flex and grow with your needs. It really sucks to have to rip down all of your duct work and put it back up just to get 1 new machine to fit the shop. LOL

Post pictures as you go.

[Tony Roun]

Great responses so far. I should definitely add a window or two to bring in some light and some fresh air.

I will monitor the moisture levels and if they are high I can look to add the moisture barrier in the floor as described. I was pleasantly surprised that the sump crock in the basement was bone dry despite getting 5" of rain in March, that's a good sign.

As it relates to the noise factor, certainly I don't have any concerns about noise in the garage, but instead was questioning if the noise would transmit into the house through the shared wall between the workshop and the basement. This also may need to be a wait and see decision.

Any suggestions on how to attach a ceiling to I-beams? Best I can come up with right now would be to use beam clamps, bolt 2x4's to the beam clamps, and then attach steel corrugated ceiling material to the 2x4's. From what I can recall, the I-beams are spaced about every six feet, which is a tad far for the steel material.

[Lornie McCullough]

I am going to go against the grain, and say do not bother to cut in any windows. You need light, but you do not need windows. My 1200 sqft shop has no windows, and there is not one square foot of wall space I would choose to give up in trade for a window.

I think the wall space is more valuable when used for storage. Noise, heat, and vandals, all pass more easily through glass than solid walls.

Lornie

[John K Jordan]

I am going to go against the grain, and say do not bother to cut in any windows. You need light, but you do not need windows. My 1200 sqft shop has no windows, and there is not one square foot of wall space I would choose to give up in trade for a window.
I think the wall space is more valuable when used for storage. Noise, heat, and vandals, all pass more easily through glass than solid walls.

I agree. I designed my shop with 5 windows in the wood section and ended up eliminating all but one. My walls are covered with shelves and things hanging everywhere. I put plywood up so I could fasten things anywhere. I installed good lighting so it's almost like a sunny day inside.

JKJ

[Frank Pratt]

I'm with Lornie & John on the windows. I love natural light & windows are great, but to me, the wall space is more valuable. If you get quality fluorescent or LED lighting in the 5000K temp & high CRI (90 or better) it'll be just like natural daylight.

As far as noise goes, concrete is pretty good at blocking it. The week point will be the door. My cyclone/compressor room is in the basement & I installed 2 exterior doors back to back. Each door has a layer of 3/4" MDF & Green Glue secured to it. 3' away from the door you cannot hear the cyclone at all.

[Von Bickley]

I am going to go against the grain, and say do not bother to cut in any windows. You need light, but you do not need windows. My 1200 sqft shop has no windows, and there is not one square foot of wall space I would choose to give up in trade for a window.

I think the wall space is more valuable when used for storage. Noise, heat, and vandals, all pass more easily through glass than solid walls.

Lornie

I agree 100%.... When I go in my shop, the first thing I do is turn on the lights and leave them on. Extra wall space would be better than windows.

[sean meltvedt]

I put up a suspended ceiling in my shop under the garage by using a Hilti gun to "shoot" in the anchors to the underside of the pan decking for the ceiling wires. Check with your local Hilti dealer to get the parts you need. Enjoy your new space!

[Tony Roun]

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[Tony Roun]

Great thoughts so far. I'll have to give the Windows some more thought, but either way the suggestion on lighting is great, and I put the recommended light levels in my current shop and it is amazing, so I'll do that in the new shop as well. Sean, great idea on the suspended ceiling, never done one of those, but I'll have to look into it.

1. So if it ends up that concrete keeps the noise out of the house pretty well, is there any major reason why I wouldn't just paint the concrete walls a nice bright white and call it good? I have a hammer drill and I know it takes a little longer to hang things from concrete, but any other reasons I should consider this a bad idea? In terms of heating, I don't think this will be heated all winter, but probably a space heater for cold days that I know I'll be there for a few hours.

2. In terms of air quality, I haven't given a ton of thought yet. I took the blower motor from my 2hp dust collector and just blew it outside currently but I am going to a more residential environment, and I am not sure if that will be OK, I'll have to wait and see. But in terms of getting fresh air turning over, are there any suggestions on how I could bring air in and exhaust it if I decide to forego Windows? I was thinking simply that I install a 6" pipe through the concrete wall in one end of the room as a fresh air intake from outside, and then either exhaust through the exterior door in the back, or install another 6" pipe with a fan in it and exhaust from there. I'd of course cap these when I wasn't in there. Any thoughts?

[Jamie Buxton]

So much of what to do about this shop depends upon where you are. You should fill in your profile so your location shows up in your posts.

[Tony Roun]

Jamie good suggestion, I just did that.

[Jim Becker]

While it's absolutely true that windows are not required, there's something to be said for having some natural light as well as the ventilation possible on a nice day when you do have windows. If space considerations are an issue, windows up high on the wall can still provide both light and ventilation while not interfering with machine and storage space.