Got a garage below a family room. Want to use the garage as a shop. Was going to install an overhead garage door to allow maximum access in and out, but I want to avoid the major draft I`m expecting from the garage door…..both for the shop, as well as the room above.
Ever attention a similar circumstance? Whatcha got?
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
(Poster formerly known as Jaybird)
This floating home maximizes its waterfront location with seamless indoor-outdoor living, a unique two-story layout, and a design that prioritizes light and views.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
Weatherstripping?
Seriously though, can you "airlock" the entry into the living space?
Insulated overhead garage door plus steel exterior entry door works well for winter, nice to open the big door for a breeze in the summer.
I like the air lock idea ... along with the weatherstripping and insulation idea ...
howza bout ... ax the standard garage door ... as the head track will eat too much "length" ...
some nice outswings ... and ... inside the garage a coupla feet ....
a big slider on an overhead track. Could have a set of 2 ... 16ft wide ...
equals 4 4ft sections ... inner two are sliding doors ...
when opened ... equals 8ft of wide open space.
How much "depth" ya got? Build that interior wall a good 4ft or so in and yer good to go.
Summer time ... just leave the inner's open.
if .. U could work this into a plan with a real overhead garage door ... that'd be the best. A garage within a garage. It'd have to be plenty deep though.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Sinc we is in suthern draul, heer be some moore eyedeers - unequal door widths, lik in 5 fut and 3 fut durs.
Da pix is a shop attached (Hey, even without spelceeck, tis too hard to mistype the whole thing) to the barn. For a shop attached to the house you obviously would need to 'gussie up" the trim, but here is what I used for the wood heated shop, a semi fixed 5 ft wide door and a 3 foot overheight door. BTW, the door cost came in at about $12 INCLUDING the simplex combo lockset <G>. Note the pix with the top end latch made from a piece of pipe & cap and 1/2 rod, internal spring. Sorry, did not bother to annotate the individual pix, just now walked out back to givya eyedeers. Pased the first pix here, other details on the attachments.
eye evan hat too muve dat ol truk talegait to opum da dur fer da pix. .
View Image
Edited 8/23/2005 10:40 pm ET by junkhound
BTW, if anybody wonders about the wierd paint combos, DW usually lets me use what I get out of the free piles at garage sales for buildings more than 200 ft from the house<G> - aka - the side of the LH barn facing the house is bright red with white trim, while the rest is as you see .
I would insulate the ceiling of the garage and seal off the upstairs completely from the shop. I imagine that you are required to do that by code.
I would install a regular door for normal use. In the winter I would seal the door shut or build a removable wall out of 1x3's and polyethylene. I would do this only if the weatherstripping on my insulated garage door was not adequate.
i would copy schellings post word-for-word...
regular insulated steel overhead door..
insulated side entry door...
seal it up during heated use..
i'd blow the ceiling with densepak cells
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Although my shop is independent of the house. I have an overhead garage door (insulated), and it is no problem to heat in the winter.
The key, as other have mentioned is air sealing and insulation. The issue of isolation from the house, for dust and odor control, is easily addressed by treating the connecting door as if were an exterior door. Use a threshold and weather strip a solid core door of your choosing and you should be good to go. Just think of the total space as an independent structure from the house.
You are most likely heating it with the house HVAC system, so you need to select a design temperature, then figure out how much supply air and BTUs you need to maintain it. If you use return air runs to the house system, oversize them a little and add pleated filter racks over the return air grills in the shop. A better solution would be to use and exhaust fan sized to create a slight negative pressure in the shop, so that any dust and fumes you create go outside, and not back into the house environment. A manual damper control on the supply duct would let you reduce the amount of conditioned air you supply the shop, when you are not occupying it.
Dave
I've got a similar set up. My shop was the original garage/laundry room/+ one more room in the basement. The previous owner had turned it into living space and had installed two pairs of french doors in lieu of the overhead door. Gives me two six foot wide openings if needed and lots of natural light. Can't get my forklift in, but there's no room for it in the shop anyway. Head room is about the same as with an overhead door would have been (8 ft ceilings).
Birth, school, work, death.....................