tell me how big your woodworking shops are! Heat and AC? why or why not heat / AC

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Ok peeps jump in and tell me how big your wood shops are. If you use heat and AC. If you don't or do why is that? I hear/ read about humidity issues so woldn't it make sense to have AC in shop in Areas that have higher humidity? And at what humidity point should you have/use one?

Just curious on shop sizes. I am looking at a 1250sq ft building to buy and want to know if it's over kill. Also where do you all store your wood at? In the same building or different area?
I am on a learning curve and trying to learn things from some of this!!

Thanks
Mike
 
My shop measures 24' by 36', so about 840sf accounting for walls. I have 8.5' ceiling in most of it. There is also a 24' by 16' loft area that we use for shop and house storage. Being in a fairly temperate area, it doesn't require much in the way of heating or cooling. I have a window unit AC of about 8,000btu and an electric heater of about 4,500btu. I'm not interested in keeping my shop at 72°F with 50% RH. I can work in there when it's in the 50s and in the 80s inside.
 
My shop is 26 x 26 x 10' with a 12x26x8' upstairs area.

I have a Modine Hot Dawg 60,000 BTU and a 7500 watt electric.

For A/C I have 2 window units - one at 8500 and the other at 7500 BTU.

When I work in the shop I like 68-72

I store materials in an outside wood storage shed 10x20
 
26 X 32, heated (gas radiant heater, 35,000 Btu) and a small window AC in the Summer.

It does have to share winters with the tractor, snow blower, & chainsaws, though.
 
Mine will be 894 square feet of walkout garage/basement. There is also another garage to actually park my car in! My shop space will be heated and cooled for year round use. Wood will be stored in one 'wing' of the space with a metal working/welding area in another wing, though if I can get away with one of my outdoor sheds on the property, the bulk of the wood and John Deere will got there. The main space is reserved for woodworking but between the CNC and the tablesaw it won't be all that roomy. An under the stair area will be enclosed for cool, dark storage for food stuffs. There will be a half bath and small furnace room with electronic ignition and ingesting outside air only. Water heaters will be point of use instant gas hot water heaters in the shop bathroom (and servicing the main bath directly above it) and in the kitchen. Again electronic ignition and ingesting outside air. There will be an insulated sealed room for the dust collector and air compressor, also vented to the outdoors, though I can't blow dust directly outside. LED's and Solatube lighting are planned. May not happen all at once, but that is the plan and what is currently on paper.
 
About 650 sf currently under construction - see here. I'm converting a 2 1/2 car garage. About 70 sf of that will be office space. The shop is heated by a 30,000 btu Modine Hot Dawg which I purchased used nearly 20 years ago and has hung in two shops. I keep the shop at 55 when it is unoccupied and bump it to 65 when I'm working. I use a programmable thermostat that has all the settings at 55 so if I forget to take it back down when I leave the shop it will turn itself down. It's an inexpensive 'one program' unit that was about $19.

I'll have a small portable electric heater in the office to suplement for two reasons. If I am only working in the office there is no reason to heat the shop and when working in the shop I will likely keep the door to the office closed to keep the dust off the computer, etc.

I don't yet have AC but I have set aside space to mount a unit through the wall and the wiring is in place. I'm thinking an 8,000 btu unit will keep the shop comfortable, not cold, just comfortable.
 
1250 square feet would be a sizeable shop for a hobbyist. If you're just starting out filling that up might seem like an endless task (it will get full, trust me). Mine has just been built and isn't finished, but the shop area will be 32x 30 (roughly), and that's a slice of a 32x50 building. It will be heated ( a 60K or so BTU ceiling heater, like a Hot Dawg) and will probably have a window AC, likely in the 12K BTU size. In my last 2 shops, I found I didn't use the AC all that often (doesn't get blistering hot in NW Ohio) and when i did it was more to dehumidify than to air condition. So the AC is still not committed. Up to now, I've always had my wood stored separately and that is a little unhandy. With this building it will be stored in the adjacent room (no heat/air) and whatever else winds up in there like the chain saws, lawn equipment, etc.
 
My shop seems to be the midget in the group... I'm in a 12 x 24 x 7' at the rafters, 10' at the peak of the roof... 288 square foot of floor space... I have 3 storage racks I got from WalMart at the end of the shop, about 24" deep by 12' across the end that I store cut bowl and turning blanks... also use about same area on the floor for larger woods waiting to be processed... the rest of the logs are stacked around the shop outside under tarps (when I can keep the wind from blowing them off)... No AC, just fans in summer, (the walls and roof are corrugated tin and there are air vents(holes where the corrugation rest on the wall tops) at each end of the shop)... no heat, no insulation, so if I'm working on cold day, may use a little oil radiator type heater....
 
to quote the monolith, "as large as necessary". heat? yup, in mid-summer there is all the heat you'll ever want. a/c? starting around late september, early october it comes on naturally. :D
 
My shop is a one car garage. (300sq.ft.) I live in the FL Keys so heat is never a problem (avg. low 65), but cooling is another story. I can't afford to cool it all the time but I use a window A/C unit for anything above 80 F / humidity 85%. Humidity is a problem but I learned a long time ago to keep by tools oiled up or sprayed with some kind of top coat sealer, and never leave a piece of wood on the cast iron top of any tool or you have fine rust in just one night. I long for day that I can set up all my tools so that I can use each one without moving another tool out of the way. A 2 cars garage would be wonderful, but for now I just keep wishing.
 
I have a 32 X 60 morton type building, about 2/3rds of it has concrete floor, gravel in the rest. It is currently naturally heated/cooled, just like Dan's. ;) I do have a 8' x 8' office that is heated/cooled, but I usually won't work out in the shop when it's below 20 or above 95.

My wife and I were talking about it just this morning and thinking we should go ahead and get it insulated and finished inside (she wants to use some of it as storage ;) ).
 
18 X 32 X 12 insulated shop. Not big enough, never seems to be anyway. This is a natural law that comes into play. Woodworkers will always outgrow their shops.

I can not stress enough the value of insulation. Anytime you can slow heat loss/gain you will have more temperature control for less $. If/when I build a new shop it will have an insulation budget.
I do have lofted lumber storage in the unheated part of the barn. I also store lumber over the shop above the trusses. I have run out of storage space and so I also have lumber stored in friends barns.

I have been considering a 5hp cyclone style dust collector. One concern I have is the amount of heat this will pull out of the shop during the Winter. So ideally, the cyclone would be located in a heated space outside the wood shop so heated air is not lost, with make up air drawn from that space. The other thought would be to pipe the filters from the cyclone back into the wood shop and hopefully keep the noise out.

I had my heat source fail a year and a half ago and decided that I would not go another Winter without shop heat. The poor shop suffered enough from rust because of this lack of heat. So I picked up a little 4500 btu/hr. electric heater and am surprised at how well it is keeping the well insulated wood shop warm. It was supposed to be a short term cheap solution until I installed a larger heater. I will have to wait for the electric bill before making that call.
 
OK a little bit of thought for you guys on this....hopefully good advice for me from you!
I am looking at buying a 24x52 building. It was a laundromat. Cinder block walls 9' ceiling. asphalt shingle roof which is falling in. concrete floors that are dead level not heaving or cracking. has 2 hanging gas heaters, no AC. Sitting on a 104 x 82 lot. has plenty of juice to building, water,sewer etc.....

I think the roof to replace is going to run 12k-15k. I am getting estimates. I am 50 years old. I do not sell wood working stuff. I do it for myself family and friends. It will also double as man cave.
Asking price $35k My wife thinks I am nuts. Is that too much? Assessed value for taxes is $39k. My thought is offering 20-25k cuz of roof.
Any thoughts on this for me? I need outside opinions.
 
Real estate is all about location. Where is this located? But given your numbers, $39K assessed value minus $15K for the roof equals $24K offer tops. The wild card is your wife. How much is continued grief from her over this purchase? And exactly what is her concern? Can you show her it is a good investment monetarily? Not at the numbers you quoted.

Here is maybe her worst nightmare. Something happens to you and she has to unload something she knows nothing about and is certain she is going to lose a boatload of money. Where does she want to see the money you want to put into this building go? Savings? Retirement? If you can show hereit is a wise investment and all your bases (and hers) are covered, you're golden.

Here is another thought. If she has a space invasive hobby (quilting comes to mind, as an example) perhaps the building could be partitioned into a man cave and a she cave.

Just musing here.

BTW, I'd offer $20K with no contingencies against full price and the seller takes care of everything that needs replacement or improvement. That's what an investor does. And it works. You want equity in the property after the purchase that exceeds the money you have in it. Example. You purchase at $20K, put $15 more into it. Total $35K. It is worth $4K more based on the assessed price. And you will want to know the assessed price after your improvements. That may change so the property taxes can be higher.

Learned from my Dad who bought and sold property for a living and left us 4 kids with a healthy inheritance. Also how I bought my first house, and the three in between. The old buy low, sell high philosophy.
 
You mention it was an old laundromat, is it a commercial building along with others in a street ?
What about permits and neighboring businesses if this was case?
What are the town taxes related to the building?
What would your monthly running costs be? If you have a space like that and are wanting to use it throughout year consider the running costs its not a small space to heat and light.
Carols points are excellent, big thing to think of buying something like this is your exit strategy. We all have a sell by date and at some point need to exit our hobby and at that point who would be your buyer.
Roof may not be the biggest issue.
Also check with town zoning regulations as to permitted use for building. Some years back a local thriving custom woodworking business was driven out of business by the town i was in. Residential home building gradually crept up on this business and then neighbors started to complain about dust (not that there was any) and noise.
Now the building is a kids daycare.
I felt for that small bus owner. He was there dozens of years prior but this is how things change.
Btw valuations for commercial property are based on likely rental income.
This building may be zoned for commercial use but from sounds of it now may only be worth the vacant land value and if area is in similar condition, that may not be much at all, so also consider security.
 
Rob and Carol may some really good points to be considered. But I can tell you I spent that much just on a stick built 32x50x10 building for a shop and some storage space, and that doesn't include the finishing I need to do (wiring, insulation, heat, etc.). So I guess I don't think you're nuts, the value equation is something you need to assess for yourself. The other thing I didn't see was the distance from home to your new digs....too far and that might make it a lot less attractive. Be sure to ask your insurance agent about it as well, insuring such a place might be a little tricky.
 
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About 24x36 with 14' high ceilings at the eaves, probably 16' in the center. Naturally heated an cooled like a couple of the others. I never minded working when it was hot, it takes me more coaxing to go out there when its cold but I found wearing a stocking hat and coat isn't as bad a I thought, usually shed the coat after I have moved around a bit and the dust collector has been running, that usually helps heat up a little. The only thing I haven't liked about the cold is finishing, seems like everything needs to be above 65 or so, might just have to save winter projects and finish them in warm weather.

If I ever added anything to the shop it would be something to heat it.
 
Location is the most important consideration and the determinant on perceived value. I looked at a commercial location in a city where I operate a business. Assessed value was something like $57,000. Asking price from the owner was $250,000. The issue is available space in this local. A lot depends on the local economic growth, and the level of competition among commercial real estate brokers. I can go 30 miles away and pay for a building at or less than assessed value. So it's all relative to what the market will bear.

If there isn't much demand for that type of building then you might be ok on the deal. On the other hand if you want to flip the property down the road it might be hard to move. And lastly, It's going to be more expensive than you think. At least I'm guessing on that, given the human norm of underestimating cost of project. You can find deals, it just takes some legwork and luck.
 
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