New basement shop setup (looking for opinions)


scottyboy

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Hi all!

 

I'm setting up a new shop in the basement of my rented house, and would like to some feedback to make sure I have considered all the right things.

 

The basement is unfinished with a concrete slab.  The downstairs holds the laundry and the HVAC equipment.  My plan is to carve out about half of the basement, using 2x4's and plastic sheeting to create a dust barrier.  I want to make this knockdown so that it is easy to take apart when I move out in like 3 years, but don't want anything permanent for the same.  I will probably anchor the framed out space to the concrete and the joists above.  I am also thinking about putting some air filtration into the shop with box fans and filters to circulate air into and out of the shop.  I think I could create a framed opening with the fan blowing out of it, filtering that air, and have another opening in the shop with a filter over it, drawing in the fresh air.  The total dimensions probably work out to about 15' x 30', so this is a nice size for me.  

 

Appreciate any advice.

 

 

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I was in the same boat before I got my garage finished & did what you are suggesting. I had a big (maybe 30") box fan, taped a couple of really good HEPA furnace filters in front & set it up to exhaust filtered air out of the shop through a hole in the poly. Thus the shop was under negative pressure when ever the fan was running. Worked great. Never got a spec of dust in the rest of the basement.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've done the same in my current shop.  Just bought a home a couple months back and decided to have my shop in the basement since we plan on gutting the whole basement in a few years.  Took over a room that was once a living room (15' x 25') and put up plastic on the two entrances.  Then I did exactly what drzaius described, attached a filter to a box fan and mounted it "in" the wall to pull air out of the shop into another room.  Keeps the dust down quite well.  If I forget to turn it on when I'm in the shop, I just run it when I leave and it clears the air of dust quickly.

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If I was going to be doing this for a month or two, I'd hang heavy plastic sheeting. Working in there for 2 years, I'd be hanging up either Sheetrock or OSB on the shop side. If you don't cover the screws with joint compound, the panels will come off just as easily as they go up, would not be expensive. At least in my space, walls are valuable real estate for hanging things. The last thing you want is to have to throw a new sheet of plastic up if a board rips the plastic.

your air exchange sounds like a good idea. Pushing out filtered air should draw clean air back in.

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