Garage for Power Trac and Shop

[MossRoad]

The only thing about wood heat in the garage is that if you want to use any type of flammable, like spray paint or flour dust, you have to wait for the fire to go out. That's why, someday, when I build a shop or garage, I will be using radiant floor heat. The heat source for the water will be outside or possibly in a different building.

Have you ever worked in a shop with radiant floor heat? Oh, man, is it ever nice. We had an airplane hangar that had it. You could pull a snow covered vehicle in there and hose it off. Then squeegee the water to the floor drain. Within a half an hour, the floor was dry and you could lay on it to work under the vehicle. Just plain wonderful.

 

[BobRip]

WOW I am envious. My shop is only 14 x 24 with 8' ceiling and no attic. I also started with a wood stove but after loosing some stored liquids I added a MR Heater propane infrared heater. It cost me about $100.00 a year (the shop is well insulated) to keep the shop @ approximatley 45 deg. unoccupied and 60 deg wihen I am working. The wood stove is still in place but I have been told by my insurance carrier to remove it.

Why should you have to remove the wood stove? Maybe I should talk to my insurance agent.

 

[BobRip]

The only thing about wood heat in the garage is that if you want to use any type of flammable, like spray paint or flour dust, you have to wait for the fire to go out. That's why, someday, when I build a shop or garage, I will be using radiant floor heat. The heat source for the water will be outside or possibly in a different building.

Have you ever worked in a shop with radiant floor heat? Oh, man, is it ever nice. We had an airplane hangar that had it. You could pull a snow covered vehicle in there and hose it off. Then squeegee the water to the floor drain. Within a half an hour, the floor was dry and you could lay on it to work under the vehicle. Just plain wonderful.

The radiant floor heat sounds good. I could have the stove outside and get more room. What is the approximate cost of such a system. I need to decide this soon as the slab will go in as soon as we get the permit.

 

[MossRoad]

I have no idea of the price. You could probably get an estimate to have PEX installed in the slab in a couple of loops. Two runs in the main area and two runs in each shop area or room, etc... I was told to do two runs in parallel so that if one ever breaks, there is a second one. Run the ends of the circuits to a common area so that you could put in a manifold, and then hook it up some day. At least the runs are in place for the future. I'd check with a local contractor instead of taking my word for it, since I am, in no way, knowledgeable on this subject... just have read about it a bit.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Bring your gold card. Labor and materials are fierce and you want to make sure you get someone who has done this and has a rep of doing a good job.

This said I am not sure how much different the cost would be compared to a whole barn heating system, and they are much more efficient (once the concrete is warmed up it holds heat for a long time).

I have seen costco selling electric version. - Bathroom sized mats...

This all said , you may be able to do the work yourself and save some coin.

Carl

 

[ponytug]

FarmTek sells the pipe, as do many others. (They'll give you some help over the phone.) You can search for PEX-Al-PEX pipe. If you haven't done it before, I would get some local expert advice.

Once you have had a heat floor it is hard to live with anything else....

All the best,

Peter

 

[SpringHollow]

I have heat in the floor in my house - I did the retrofit installation myself. Usually, if you send a floor plan to a manufacturer (mine was Heatway at the time), they will send back a layout with tubing lengths, etc. for free.

It is an extremely comfortable way to heat your house of shop. In a house, it is a little more efficient since you typically set the thermostat a little lower since you and your feet are warm. You also save a little because there is less heat stratification of the air. However, the system is slow to respond so setback thermostat settings usually do not make sense.

The tubing is cheap. If I were building a barn/shop/garage with a concrete floor, I would install the tubing even if i thought i would not use it right away. However, it is probably not more efficient to use for a shop that is only used for an hour or two since it can take a while to heat up. I would be tempted to also install a fan coil unit in the same boiler system. A fan coil is basically a water to air heat exchanger (similar to a car's radiator) with a fan blowing across it. This would allow you to keep the barn at one set temperature with the heat in the floor but you could do a rapid boost with the fan coil. If you were going to work all weekend in the shop, you could raise the thermostat for the floor heat.

It would be extremely nice to be laying down on warm concrete while working underneath equipment!

I have an outside wood boiler and i like the idea of not having any combustion devices in the shop but one could also use a boiler that is ducted for outside air intake and exhaust. That way, there is less of a chance of a problem as compared to a unit that uses inside air for combustion. It is also more efficient.

I do not know if i would run a spare set of tubing or not. If the concrete does not heave, you should be good. A major heave is likely to ruin the spare pipe as well. The tubing lasts 75 years or more. If you know where a leak is, you can bust up the concrete at the leak and repair it. I might be tempted to oversize the pipe if the next size smaller pipe would fit inside it if necessary. But if something crushed/punctured the pex, i am not sure you could slide another pipe through it any ways. By the way, i am referring to PEX - do not use copper. PEX is MUCH better in this application and now with the cost of copper, you can not afford to use it even if you wanted to.

Just make sure to pressure test the tubing before you install the concrete and keep it pressurised duringthe concrete install. 99.9% of leaks are going to occur from someone doing something during installation of the tubing or concrete. If you isolate the tubing and monitor it with a pressure gauge, you will be able to see if there is a problem before it becomes a big problem.

Ken

 

[farm23]

If you do not mind the extra work and have a good source of wood the radiant floor / wood burning boilser is a very comfortable concept and safe. I have not installed such a system but a neighbor here did and claims the cost was about the same as a duct system. The down side for a home comes if you expect to add A/C. When I lived in Richmond I did have a window A/C unit for my shop, but it was not a large as yours will be.

 

[catsco]

Regarding radiant heat in garage/workshop. It's a GREAT idea, but no one mentioned the obvious "thing to remember"; use a PEX compatible antifreeze in the circuit in the floor for when the power is off. And it's 2 degrees outside. And you're on vacation.

Regards,
Mark H.

 

[SpringHollow]

Someone had better not be installing one of these systems just based on these posts - there are lots of obvious things missing! For example, an expansion tank is needed in a closed system, pressure relief valve, possibly air remover/vents, GFI, a way to fill the system, etc.

Ken