Cold!

[Bushbaby]

Brrrrrrr!!!!
The first time in 9 years of living at my present house that I've actually come indoors because its too cold in the garage (its very cold and wet here in Essex at the mo.)

I've a frost tube heater and 2.4kW convector heater but neither appears to be doing anything and the temp in the garage hasn't risen above 15 degrees (yes I'm a softy southerner I know).

Can anyone recommend a decent heater to use (that wont break the bank either)? Now that I have my lathe and have made the garage more workable (i've actually had a clean out David at long last) I would like to work in the garage a bit more.

Thanks and now warming up.

Rob

[pwdrive]

Hello Rob. I am guessing that the heater will have to = loss in watts per square meter and then some, sounds like an insulation job first, in my experience there is little difference in electric heater efficiency, watts = power = heat and all that heat is released into the space unless it is directly sinked to the floor or wall, nightstore might be cheaper to run possibly. There is always my favourite...a wood burner or do what my dad used to do, stick old newspapers up the trouser legs then tie off trouser bottoms with some baler twine, he used to do that in the house!

Lawrence.

[Bushbaby]

Hi Lawerence,
I've had the walls insulated as this is an internal garage. The floor is just a concrete slab so it has no insulation at all. I've tried covering the gaps around the up and over garage door. To be honest I'm probably at the tipping point whether to convert the garage into a workshop but i don't quite have the cash to do it at the moment.

Regards

Rob

[pwdrive]

Yep, it's usually all or nothing when it comes to keeping warm, I never used to feel the cold at all I have been in some serious sub zero temps in the past, could not hack that now, mind you tapping around on the PC hardly aids circulation except the brain maybe.

Good luck whichever way.

Lawrence.

[Mark Hennessy]

A timber floor makes a huge difference to a cold garage, assuming it's able to deal with any heavy machinery you might have. A simple frame made from 2 by 4 timbers and cheap and cheerful chipboard will do - a plastic membrane on the floor first, then some insulation between the timbers. When I did that in my last garage, the frame sat directly on the floor - as opposed to being suspended from the sides - and I used odd bits of hardboard where necessary to shim the frame level. For almost no money, it was very effective. And when you come to do the proper conversion, you might well be able to leave it in place, or at least re-use the materials.

The other thing I did was to divide the workshop into two areas with a simple partition wall. The room on the side facing the up and over door was used for "mechanical" things, and the other space was warm and cosy for electronics and computing. Worked very well, and I miss that space greatly now... http://www.mhennessy.f9.co.uk/workshop/index.htm

On the subject of heating, have you tried an infra-red heater? We bought a cheap one a few years back, and find that it's quite effective - it's a bit of a trick because the radiation warms you rather than the air in the space. These things can be found for less than £20.

All the best,

Mark

[Joe]

Old-fashioned 'bar' fires are radiant and if you find an old one without too paranoid a guard on it you can use it to make toast too. :D Just don't let the folk touch the element. :omg:

Old pallets would be a good base for the floor.

As for heating, the obvious thing would seem to be to tap a radiator off your central heating - you could probably get one out of a skip if you can beat the skip-divers or buy one off them cheap. Never mind the BTUs - just get the biggest you can and bung a TRV on it. Leave it low all the time and then whack it up when you're in there. This was my tactic in my back room and I is well cosy.

- Joe

[Skywave]

You're probably aware of what follows, but I feel I should mention it anyway. Whatever form of heating you settle for you must avoid portable gas heaters and paraffin stoves. They each produce copious amounts of water vapour which does electronics equipment absolutely no good whatsoever! :@

As you have an internal garage, if you have a CH system in the house with radiators, extending the pipes so that you can fit one - or maybe two - HW radiators in the garage seems the ideal solution and not that difficult a task for the average D-I-Y-er.

Al.

[pwdrive]

Hello Rob, if you ever decide to put an insulated floor in then providing there are no sharp protrusions in the concrete surface you could lay a floating floor if you so wish, this would not require any timber battens at all.
Method:
Sweep and hoover floor, then lay polythene DPM, turn up at walls.
Lay slab insulation staight on top right up to walls, fold excsess DPM over the edges of the insulation and over the top a few inches, cut off any excess and tack down with bits of gaffer tape.
Place some 12 mm wooden or plastic spacers on top of the insulation where the insulation butts the longest wall.
Lay flooring chipboard length ways along that wall and butted up against the spacers, PVA glue (not to much) the ends of the joints as you join them, make sure there is a 12 mm gap at the two far ends if they butt up against the returning walls.
Before glues goes off run a string line along the line outside of the boards ( the edge that the next row will join to) align the glued boards dead straight against the string line by packing out out the spacers or reducing there thickness, try and aim for a minimum 8 mm gap or maximum 15 mm gap between the boards and the wall.
Wait for glue to set (1hr or so, longer if colder) then do the next row and so on glueing all edges, stagger joints.
Aim for 8 to 15 mm gap all round the edges where they meet the walls.
If you find the joints are stiff to engage completely but there are no obstructions then you can sprag them in from the opposite wall using an offcut to protect the edge and a couple legths of timber, the other way which we always used on site is to jump up, both feet together and as you come down on the board shuffle both feet forward on the board at impact, your body weight will squeeze the joint up tight.
We always use Celotex/Kingspan foil backed insulation as it is a better type but you can use the cheaper white stuff it will still support a floating floor no problem.
Cover the gap round the walls with standard 18 - 21 mm thick skirting fixed to the wall.
It sounds a lot but for the average garage with materials on site then typically 4 hr max job plus an hour or two to fix the skirting. If fixing skirting then scribe any internal angles and mitre any external ones.

Hope this is of some use, or for other projects maybe.

Lawrence.

[Bushbaby]

Hi All,
Yep, a radiator is the ideal solution in the longer term. I've also thought that for the time being some foram flooring mats will take the edge off the coldness of the floor.

Regards

Rob