New shop - nothing is set up

[sdkidaho]

Over the course of the last six months or so I had a shop built. 30' by 40' in size, one large garage type door in front (west side), one man door on the side (north side), three windows - two on the south side of the building, one on the north side of the building.

I don't have anything setup inside yet. Concrete floors, steel siding, nothing insulated and power is not ran yet. I have power in the building ready to go, but I've run nothing inside yet, no outlets, no lights. I also have a natural gas hook-up snubbed up on the outside of the building.

Running east to west it is 40 feet long, and north to south it is 30 feet wide. I plan to also use this space to store a few things, as well as having it as my wood working shop. I'm thinking that I want to build a room inside the shop to put some of my wood working stuff in, but not all, and maybe have in that area as well a place to do some reloading (ammunition reloading). My reason for that is that I don't really want to have to insulate and heat (or cool) the entire shop when I won't necessarily be using all of it.

My question is, is this a dumb idea? I was thinking maybe a room that was 30' long by 10' wide (not sure on width). I don't have a lot of wood working tools yet - a radial arm saw, a table saw, a chop saw, various drills and hand tools is about it right now. I'll have to make whatever work benches I want and whatever storage type stuff I'll want to use.

What do you guys think? Just looking for input from those of you that are already setup and going that have ideas or maybe have done what I'm considering.

[Karl Bauer]

I would hesitate to combine reloading and woodworking in the same space. Reloading requires a much cleaner environment then you are likely to be able to maintain in a woodworking space. I also reload and do woodworking. My reloading bench is in what used to be the coal room in my basement. The detached garage is the wood shop.

[sdkidaho]

That is a good point to be sure and I have been thinking about that. I guess I could keep the saws and things that would create dust out in the main area and then just have the reloading and any assembly type stuff in the room that would be insulated. Crud... just not sure how to set it all up. I need to figure out something though so I can get started on it and get it so I can even use it. Thanks for the reply, Karl. Much appreciated.

Darby

[petersb]

SKD,

If it will give you enough unheated storage, you could take 20'x30' and make that the heated woodshop area with another reloading room inside the heated area. A 10'x10' room should give a nice reloading space and still have a nice sized shop with heat, or whatever size suits your needs. So it's a room inside a room inside the whole building.

By the way, congratulations on the new shop! I bet it feels really nice to have something new and ready set up.

[Vic]

My shop is 30x40, fully heated and cooled. Very well sealed and insulated. Costs me very little to condition the space. It's built better than my house.

[sdkidaho]

So it's a room inside a room inside the whole building.

I've actually been thinking about maybe just a smaller room for reloading, just to keep all the dust out and then...

My shop is 30x40, fully heated and cooled. Very well sealed and insulated. Costs me very little to condition the space. It's built better than my house.

...doing what he said he did - insulate the whole place and have the space usable for wood working. Vic - how did you finish out the inside of your shop insulation wise, and the walls? I'll have to take pictures of mine so I can give you guys a better idea of what I have to work with.

Thanks,

Darby

[Vic]

I've actually been thinking about maybe just a smaller room for reloading, just to keep all the dust out and then...

...doing what he said he did - insulate the whole place and have the space usable for wood working. Vic - how did you finish out the inside of your shop insulation wise, and the walls? I'll have to take pictures of mine so I can give you guys a better idea of what I have to work with.

Thanks,

Darby

Darby, First, you have to know that in my day job, I'm an energy efficiency consultant, second my wife and I don't have kids to raise. That said, I went with polyurethane foam in the walls, which positively seals all airgaps and provides about R6 per inch. I did a nominal fill of 3 inches, which cost about $7000. That money also covered spraying the soffit, where without a raised heel truss, you can never get a proper R value.

A cheaper DIY version, but less effective, is to be EXTREMELY anal about airsealing all cracks, crevices, joints and all knockouts on your electrical boxes. Even run a bead of elastomeric caulk or expanding foam on either side of the studs where two exterior sheets meet. Then install your batt insulation, being careful to completely fill each bay so that the insulation has a friction fit, no more, no less. That includes how they fit around the outlets. When you hang your sheetrock, apply a generous and continuous bead of adhesive caulk along the side of the top plate. Blow at least R38 (R49 is better) cellulose into a well ventilated attic. When you are done accessing the attic, caulk the access lid shut ( this should have at least an R38 batt attached). If you do that, your shop should perform quite well. Then of course there is the floor to do and the methods depend on wether you go with a slab or crawlspace.

I hope that helps.

[Chester]

The 30' long is OK but I would go at least 14-16' wide. The floor space of my shop is 12 x 32 ... and the width is where I would most like to have more. Ideally, for me, I think that 20 x 40 would be perfect (with a 16 x 16 finishing room attached).

Chester

PS - on second thought ... 25 x 40!!!