Sealing sawdust from rest of the house

[Wes Billups]

My wife and I are getting ready to move into our new house where my shop will be relegated to the basement. Having never had a shop in the house I wanted to ask how everyone keeps the dust from migrating into the rest of the living spaces, especially the furnace room. Right now my plan is to have the dust collector in the garage with the return air filter placed in the shop. I will be furring out the walls for drywall and was thinking of having the closed cell foam insulation sprayed into the wall cavities as well as the ceiling to try to seal the shop from the rest of the house. Any other ideas or additional things to think about would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Wes Billups

[Lee Schierer]

Right now my plan is to have the dust collector in the garage with the return air filter placed in the shop. Any other ideas or additional things to think about would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Wes Billups

Just a bit of caution. Sucking air from your basement and turning it loose in the garage will create a negative pressure sitiuation that may cause you to suck Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide, both of which can make you sick or kill you, from your furnace and hot water heater. You cannot suck air from a closed off room, so you will need to add an adequate air inlet in your shop from outside (brrr cold...) for make up air. Thcarbon monoxide may not be a problem if you have a sealed air type furnace and hot water heater with sealed inlet and exhaust air piping. You still need to let air back into the room from the garage or other outside space for the dust collector to work properly.

[Art Mulder]

Wes, my shop is in the basement, with the exception of my planer, which I keep in the garage. Always do my planing there or on the driveway.

For the past 5 years, my dust collecting has pretty much been either a shop-vac on the Tablesaw (or router table, or bandsaw) or it has been a ceiling mounted small Ridgid air cleaner.

Now, to be sure, I am a hobbiest, so I'm only cutting on evenings or weekends, and I don't have a huge volume. Still, I've had no real issues with dust migrating through the house. I hadn't even closed off the joist spaces above the wall that separates the shop from the rest of the basement. until a few weeks ago.

I have now bought myself a 2HP DC, and upgraded bags, and will be hooking that up over the next few weeks. My main goal there is my own health, and the cleanliness of the shop. (and that jointer that I bought - almost forgot about that... :-)

So in summary, I think you're on the right track by putting in a DC right from the beginning. I wouldn't bother with the foam insulation unless noise is really a concern. I *would* seal up the joist cavities. I don't even have weatherstripping on my door, I just have a mat in front of it to catch stuff from my shoes.

hope this helps

[Chip Charnley]

Lee,

Good point but Wes already said the return air filter would be in the shop so he already will be returning the air so no negative air pressure.

Wes,

I have pretty much the same setup although I built a small room for the DC in the corner of the shop. What seems to have helped me is that, in addition to the DC/Cyclone, I have a Delta air filter that 'cycles the shop air several times an hour) hanging on the ceiling near the door from the shop to the rest of the basement and the house. It seems to be keeping the dust that doesn't get caught in the DC from getting out of the room. One key point, make sure there are no HVAC cold air return vents inside the shop area. If there are bad things will happen to your HVAC filter system.

[Andy Fox]

I've been in my basement shop for about 2 months. My gas furnace and water heater are also down there at one end of the shop. They're about 10 feet from the nearest dust producer, my table saw.

I do all sanding and finishing outside or in the garage.

My DC is currently a shopvac. It seems to capture much of the fine dust which would be thrown into the air, but I have to vacuum the tools and floor thoroughly to keep dust contained to the basement. I try to vacuum around every tool as soon as I finish using it. This has worked pretty well so far.

Make sure your furnace return ducts are well-sealed, but don't use duct tape. Use a special duct sealing mastic or UL-approved foil tape. Seal your furnace filter slots. One side of the slot can be have a hinged "tape door" of two pieces of tape stuck to each other for filter access. Suction from the blower will seal the tape against the slot. Make it impossible for any piece of tape to be sucked into the ducts or blower compartment.

[Donnie Raines]

Full shop in the basement. I do my planig in the garage with a sepearte dust collector. I used that expandeding foam around any and all corners seams etc. I get very little residule any where outside the shop.

[JayStPeter]

If you drywall the walls and ceiling, just be sure the door into the shop has a good seal. I added some weather stripping and all's well.

A link to my basement shop build is right here

Jay

[Lee Schierer]

Lee,

Good point but Wes already said the return air filter would be in the shop so he already will be returning the air so no negative air pressure.

By return air, I was assuming he meant the return air for the furnace. Most garages are unheated, so pulling air from the house into the garage is problematic.

I have my shop on the same heat system as the house. My DC system returns the air back into the shop. I also have air filters on the cold air returns back into the house heating system. Other that what sticks to my feet I do not have a problem with dust getting into the house. LOML would have let me know if I did.

[Bob Rufener]

I also have my shop in the basement. I ran 4 inch sewer pipe and drops to my router, RAS, table saw and a few other drops for other equipment. I use my planer and drum sander in the basement as well. If you have a good dust collector, it does wonders as far as controlling dust. My table saw seems to be the biggest culprit for dust. I have now made some zero clearance inserts and am trying to enclose the back of the saw as much as possible. I also made a suspended air cleaner out of a dual squirrel cage blower I had from an old range hood and some furnace filters. Using both of them really cuts down on dust. My wife hasn't complained about dust in the house so it must be effective. Sometimes, you can pick up old furnace blowers from a local HVAC installer for little or nothing. Boxing them in isn't that difficult. I really notice dust being drawn to the filters and, every so often, I take them outside and blow them off with my air compressor.

[Rob Blaustein]

Basement shop with many features already mentioned above:

HVAC handler in basement in a separate room--shop has a door (but not well sealed). Only have a supply duct to shop, no return from shop to air handler. I just started using these 3M furnace filters--highly rated by Consumer Reports, and great price at Hope Depot.
Mobile Jet DC1200 with cartridge filter.
When using TS (cabinet saw, which helps, plus zero clearance insert), Jet DC collects from saw and also from overarm blade guard when possible.
JEt air filter mounted to ceiling.
I use a Festool sander and circ saw which minimize dust production.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I also try to change out of my shop clothes in the basement so I don't track dust (what dust?) upstairs and expose it to our little baby.

[James Biddle]

The dust collection is doable and preventing the dust from entering the cold air return is the key, as the previous posts suggest. The bigger problem is in finishing. Even with a respirator, you're limited to how long you can be exposed. Plus, by the time you open enough windows for ventilation, your winter heating bill will slap you in the face (DAMHIKT). A separate, insulated, vented to the outside, and sealed from the rest of the house finishing room would be nice.

[Wes Billups]

Thanks to everyone that has given me suggestions. I may have been over engineering the solution as it sounds like dust migrating through cracks in the flooring shouldn't be an issue. We may do the spray in foam just for noise abatement. I do have a furnace blower that I plan on building an air filter with which it sounds like will do a lot to control migrating nuisance dust.

In response to Lee's comments. I meant to say the return air for the dust collector will be sent to the shop not into the garage. Doing the calculations I would dump all my basement heat in a matter of minutes if I didn't return it. I also thought this would make emptying the dust collector easier as I could just wheel the drum to the curb rather than hauling it upstairs and through the house. If anyone else has links to their basement shop projects I would love to see them as I am always looking for ideas.

Thanks again for all the help, there will probably be many more questions before this project is done.

Wes Billups