New Garage Build

[Captain Ahab]

I have a Hot Dawg NG heater in my man cave I have blowing towards the floor. I can honestly say I don't regret not doing floor heat as it is always comfortable in there. It is very well insulated, though.

 

[1bigfokker]

28x32 10' walls a hanging natural gas Mr Heater big maxx vented outside, floor drain (sump). Keep at 55 degrees in the winter to melt off snow plow. Economical to heat no moisture problem.

 

[eyexer]

I'd forgo the floor heat and just install 1-1/2" foam under the slab. The slab will take on the heat and hold it. The foam will prevent the heat from leaching into the ground. when the furnace is off the heat will want to rise into the building where it belongs. It's poor mans in floor heat. And the recovery is way faster with forced air heat

 

[Hookin8easy]

Scratch the floor heat, the amount of cost vs other means is substantial, if you have 10’ sidewalls, you want warm surfaces/concrete then take a look at schwank or equivalent type radiant tube heaters. Other than that yes on floor drain however I’m a fan of a good slope, have 32x36’ garage with center drain and 3” slope, no squeegee needed here. Outlets every 4-6’, you have to run the wire anyway what’s a box and outlet cost, $4?

 

[REY_off]

I'd forgo the floor heat and just install 1-1/2" foam under the slab. The slab will take on the heat and hold it. The foam will prevent the heat from leaching into the ground. when the furnace is off the heat will want to rise into the building where it belongs. It's poor mans in floor heat. And the recovery is way faster with forced air heat

So, lets spend 3/4 of the cost and then not finish the job. Sounds like a great idea. You'd be dumb not to spend a few hundred more at that point and install the pipe.

Floor heat is nice. I have it in my garage and I love it, but i still struggle to justify the cost. I did the whole project myself and it still ran me about 5k (1150 sq ft garage). The insulation, if you do it like you are supposed to, is a majority of the cost.

The one downfall to me is that I have to run a dehumidifier in my garage in the winter time after I wash vehicles because the radiant floor heat doesn't remove much moisture. Plus if you don't have your concrete floor coated, it is porus and absorbs moisture. With the foam insulation below the slab acting as a vapor barrier and not letting any moisture drain through, the slab is constantly releasing that water it absorbed back into the room. Plan on coating my floor soon so hopefully that issue gets a little better in the next few winters.

If you don't want to do the research to make sure you do the infloor heat the right way, I would either hire a plumber who has plenty of experience in installing in floor heat and a concrete contractor who has done a few of the slabs with tubing in it before, or forgo the project all together and hang a forced air heater in the corner of the shop. There are plenty of stories on the web of floor heat setups that people arent happy with or that have failed because the proper research wasnt done beforehand.

If you have questions feel free to PM me and I can steer you in the right direction.

 

[raider]

back when i was foaming, we put 3 1/2" of closed cell foam in a buddies walls and the same in his ceiling - R25 and a complete air seal... he is in town and put in small electric heater - his heat bill (separate meter) is $25 per month... bout a 28x32 i believe...

stays way cooler in the summer 2...

 

[JakeV]

Consider putting a single course of block around the perimeter of your garage to set your walls on top of. With the block, the bottom plate of your wall will be approximately 9" above your slab keeping it away from any moisture and it adds height to your wall for cheap. My dad talked me in to doing this in my garage and now I wouldn't do it any other way

 

[Hookin8easy]

So, lets spend 3/4 of the cost and then not finish the job. Sounds like a great idea. You'd be dumb not to spend a few hundred more at that point and install the pipe.

Floor heat is nice. I have it in my garage and I love it, but i still struggle to justify the cost. I did the whole project myself and it still ran me about 5k (1150 sq ft garage). The insulation, if you do it like you are supposed to, is a majority of the cost.

The one downfall to me is that I have to run a dehumidifier in my garage in the winter time after I wash vehicles because the radiant floor heat doesn't remove much moisture. Plus if you don't have your concrete floor coated, it is porus and absorbs moisture. With the foam insulation below the slab acting as a vapor barrier and not letting any moisture drain through, the slab is constantly releasing that water it absorbed back into the room. Plan on coating my floor soon so hopefully that issue gets a little better in the next few winters.

If you don't want to do the research to make sure you do the infloor heat the right way, I would either hire a plumber who has plenty of experience in installing in floor heat and a concrete contractor who has done a few of the slabs with tubing in it before, or forgo the project all together and hang a forced air heater in the corner of the shop. There are plenty of stories on the web of floor heat setups that people arent happy with or that have failed because the proper research wasnt done beforehand.

If you have questions feel free to PM me and I can steer you in the right direction.

5k?? You using a hot water heater for a boiler? Been in the trade for 20+ years, IF you want a condensing boiler(aka the RIGHT way) your boiler cost alone is over 3k, unless menards sells them now too? Then you can and should plan on some hefty repair bills over the course of its life span. Glad your happy with yours and it IS nice too have but cost and headaches WAY outweighed it for me, but just a service techs perspective, take it or leave it, we’re just the guys that get called when the system leaks and cant get accessed or the high efficiency/maintenance boiler is down

 

[eyexer]

So, lets spend 3/4 of the cost and then not finish the job. Sounds like a great idea. You'd be dumb not to spend a few hundred more at that point and install the pipe.

Floor heat is nice. I have it in my garage and I love it, but i still struggle to justify the cost. I did the whole project myself and it still ran me about 5k (1150 sq ft garage). The insulation, if you do it like you are supposed to, is a majority of the cost.

The one downfall to me is that I have to run a dehumidifier in my garage in the winter time after I wash vehicles because the radiant floor heat doesn't remove much moisture. Plus if you don't have your concrete floor coated, it is porus and absorbs moisture. With the foam insulation below the slab acting as a vapor barrier and not letting any moisture drain through, the slab is constantly releasing that water it absorbed back into the room. Plan on coating my floor soon so hopefully that issue gets a little better in the next few winters.

If you don't want to do the research to make sure you do the infloor heat the right way, I would either hire a plumber who has plenty of experience in installing in floor heat and a concrete contractor who has done a few of the slabs with tubing in it before, or forgo the project all together and hang a forced air heater in the corner of the shop. There are plenty of stories on the web of floor heat setups that people arent happy with or that have failed because the proper research wasnt done beforehand.

If you have questions feel free to PM me and I can steer you in the right direction.

I"m not sure how you come up with the cost of foam being half. it's .80 cents a square foot. I'd love to know where you get in floor heat done for $1.20 a sq. ft. lol

 

[Auggie]

I like the ceiling fans too!

The cabin shop has ceiling fans and that dries out the boat quickly from a rainy day and speeds up deicing and drying an ice house after a long weekend.

- - - Updated - - -

Tall and wide doors. This will make backing a boat into much easier. If you can, a drive through garage would be the cat's meow for the boat. Kegerator and LED TV are also great. If you want an air compressor I'd pipe it into the place right away as well.

 

[Davy Crockett]

I'm watching this topic and learning, Has anyone built or been around a shome ? Almost had my bride talked into it once and she won . Now in our second childhood if the right piece of ground came up for sale I think I have her talked into it for a place to hang our hat away from home. I think they are pretty cool and I'd also have a separate smaller mechanic / hobby /storage shop.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Foam the walls with closed cell foam.
Pays for itself fast.

 

[raider]

I'm watching this topic and learning, Has anyone built or been around a shome ? Almost had my bride talked into it once and she won . Now in our second childhood if the right piece of ground came up for sale I think I have her talked into it for a place to hang our hat away from home. I think they are pretty cool and I'd also have a separate smaller mechanic / hobby /storage shop.

i have a builder who builds them and plans nearly complete... hope to find dirt and build next year or 2020...

 

[Davy Crockett]

I'd like to show her one sometime other than the ones we have "looked at" on the computer. Morton has some youtube videos but other than that there surprisingly isn't a whole lot of info online that I have found.

 

[eyexer]

I wonder if the shop homes are easier to finance now. They used to be damn hard

 

[REY_off]

https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...174-c-5779.htm?tid=6809529552799743510&ipos=8

That's the most common stuff used in floor heat applications, comes to 1.18 a sq ft, and thats not including the cost to insulate the stem walls to eliminate thermal bridging. When you are roughing in floor heat, the insulation is the majority of the cost. The pipe is cheap. Again, If you are going to insulate the floor, for a few hundred more, you would be dumb to not install the pipe incase you wanted to use it later on.

At that price, If I had to insulate my garage floor right now, It would be 1900 bucks. The pipe would cost 300.

- - - Updated - - -

5k?? You using a hot water heater for a boiler? Been in the trade for 20+ years, IF you want a condensing boiler(aka the RIGHT way) your boiler cost alone is over 3k, unless menards sells them now too? Then you can and should plan on some hefty repair bills over the course of its life span. Glad your happy with yours and it IS nice too have but cost and headaches WAY outweighed it for me, but just a service techs perspective, take it or leave it, we’re just the guys that get called when the system leaks and cant get accessed or the high efficiency/maintenance boiler is down

I went through Radaintec, a online company who specializes in designing radiant floor heat. They spec their systems with boilers and/or the only tankless hot water heaters that are warrantied for use in a radiant floor heat system (American Tankless). You are correct that condensing boilers are considerably more, and technically the "correct" way of going about it. I was skeptical and still have my doubts, but these guys sell a lot of these systems and as long as I had a warranty I was willing to take a chance. The company was great to work with before, during, and after the sale, which also made me more confident. It's been in service for 3 winters now with zero issues.

A good concrete prep and install should insure that you don't ever have a leak, but weird things do happen.

One thing for sure, is that you can't compare the two types of heating when it comes to heating a garage. Radiant floor heat is far and away the more comfortable way to heat that space. But, again I'm still not sure if I can justify the cost.

 

[Lycanthrope]

If you have the time and energy and space you can DYI geothermal fairly cheap without a lot of equipment, not to HEAT the garage in the winter but you should be able to keep it above freezing if its insulated fairly easily for pennies a day and also cool it in the summer just by running a few pipes in the ground and hooking a blower and thermostat to it. Ground temps around here arent great but I think they are about 42f in the winter and not a lot warmer in the summer, if I remember correctly....

 

[Taylorman55]

i have a builder who builds them and plans nearly complete... hope to find dirt and build next year or 2020...

Is this the same thing as a "Shouse"?

 

[Maddog]

some say po tay to
some say po taht o

 

[raider]

Is this the same thing as a "Shouse"?

don't know the official name, but a shop house is what i would call it...

looking at a 50x100 red iron steel building with 1/2 finished as house (50x50), and the other 1/2 as shop... 16' sidewalls with a 14' door along with smaller ones in the shop, and 5000 finished square feet (2 story) on the house side... will have floor heat and all insulated with floor drains in the shop...