Basic Paint Room Setup (need input on quick clean up & basic ventilation)

[Illicit]

Need some suggestions and ideas for a paint room, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I have a room in my work shop that I need to occupy for basic paint work. Majority of my paint work is outsourced to my friends body shop, but sometimes I need to base coat small parts on premises before having it cleared at the body shop. I have a 8.5'x6' storage room, built like any basic room, sheet rock walls and ceiling with a basic closet door. The ceiling is reinforced with a sheet of plywood so I can use the top for storage.

I need to insulate the room as much as possible so the fumes don't escape into the work shop, have it ventilated enough just so the fumes don't burn my eyes and easy to way to clean the walls/floor from paint dust.

My first biggest issues is the ventilation that needs to be concealed well.

Here's what the room looks like in the shop:

The room to the left is the bathroom, the room to the right is the storage (soon to be paint) room. In between is another bathroom for the property next door. Both bathrooms have an exhaust fan that goes into one gutter looking pipe that pokes out from the top of my bathroom.

The land lord is going to route the exhaust pipe to the top right through the ceiling. Since he's going to cut out and weather seal the hole in the ceiling, I was thinking if there's any way I can merge my paint room exhaust fan into the same ceiling opening.

I never built a ventilation system before... so I don't even know how big of a fan or duct size will I need, but I'm trying to keep it as hidden as possible.

I wanted to put the fans and filters on top of the room up against the back wall, and run it to the left corner of the shop and up alongside with the bathroom ventilation.

What can I use to setup fans and filters, whats the smallest size ducting will I need? What type of exhaust fans?

Second Issue - Easy Clean-up

What should I use to line the walls, ceiling and floor with for an easy clean up? I need to be able to wipe it down with a damp towel, or in the future consider installing some type of drain that can be routed to my bathroom for a quick rinse with a hose.

I'm completely stumped and I don't even know where to begin, I don't have a budget but I want this to be as cost efficient as possible since I'm already way over budget on the entire shop.

I have so many other questions to ask but I don't want to clutter the first post with too many questions and end up missing the important ones.


ANY HELP OR SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. I promise to be an active and supportive member since I own a forum myself, I believe in helping one another and filling up the forum with as much valuable information as possible for the future members.

 

[mad57]

Hi welcome aboard with that being said this post will have the safety police all over you with good reason im sure but i understand that some times you cant bring everything to your buddys shop, Heres what i did for my home spraying: first thing a good explosion proof fan some will say they use a box fan ect but get the right fan for the job has to be a sealed motor with no exposed sparking or a seperate pully operated fan with duct work, next will be explosion proof lighting wether you recess floursents into the wall and glass over them and seal thats what i did, next will be a good sealed floor and man door pretty east to seal with weather stripping and a vent to let fresh air in, a drain in the floor will be cool but not really needed base will blow that room up either way so expect to repaint often, and wet down your floor before painting. if you get caught well theres gonna be problems but if your just doing it for the once in a while car part for your hot rod you should be fine, but again it only takes one neighbor with a good nose to ruin all the hard work you just did. good luck.

 

[richtersrodz]

And you can smell it from far away.. There was a body shop on my way home,
and you could smell the paint from up on the highway, just driving by.

 

[Illicit]

My warehouse is in a commercial area, no residential houses for at least 100 feet, besides... theres a bodyshop pretty much behind my warehouse that's been in business for over 20 years.

What smells the most is when you lay down clear, base paint doesn't smell as bad as clear does.

The lighting in the room is already installed, 2x 2x4' florescent lamps, but they're exposed. I'm sure I can cover them somehow, is a tight seal important?

How big of a fan would I need to brin fresh air in? What's a good spot to mount it? Top? Bottom? Ceiling?

 

[CARS]

I guess I am a little baffled.

You say you paint. You would/should know what cleanup is like. You don't just "wipe it down". Paint the walls every once in a while???

Best advice I can give you is to study small paint booths. Some only have a few filters and a small explosion proof fan (you should look up what "explosion proof" means someday, it really has nothing to do with not lighting the paint on fire). You will want intake filters too, but that depends on the cfm of your fan.

Edit: thought of something else. Why have a room?? You can have an open front system. Just keep your shop clean. Just run the small (16"???) duct up and out!

 

[e-tek]

Paint it white now and again in a year or two - that's booth cleanup in a nutshell. Make a box-hole in one wall to fit a filter and get a fan with a reostat for exhaust. Done.

 

[Illicit]

I guess I am a little baffled.

You say you paint. You would/should know what cleanup is like. You don't just "wipe it down". Paint the walls every once in a while???

Best advice I can give you is to study small paint booths. Some only have a few filters and a small explosion proof fan (you should look up what "explosion proof" means someday, it really has nothing to do with not lighting the paint on fire). You will want intake filters too, but that depends on the cfm of your fan.

Edit: thought of something else. Why have a room?? You can have an open front system. Just keep your shop clean. Just run the small (16"???) duct up and out!

Yeah now that I think about it... I guess there wouldn't be a reason for a clean up as long as all the paint dust is sucked and filtered out.

I don't paint professionally. I used to have an office space, and used to spray small items inside a big walk in closet with zero ventilation, so every few days I would just sweep the floor, wipe the walls and start all over again.

I've only been spraying with aerosol spray cans for plastic adhesive, and base coats then hand it to my friend to clear inside his booth so my experience in paint is just that. I planned on getting a small airbrush kit to learn with also, but being that I'm trying so hard to keep my shop clean.... I want all the paint work to be done in a concealed room.

I'm not trying to build a vacuum in the room, or even being to try and keep dust out, I just want it ventilated enough so that when I'm spraying inside the room... my eyes don't begin to burn, and the fumes don't pollute the entire shop when I walk in and out of the room.

I just need some pointers on the fan size, and how much CFM it can push, how big the ducting, or how small it can be without having to replace filters every time I paint...

Since I'm trying to keep the room stealthy, I don't have any walls I can use for an intake fan without the fan being noticeable by anybody... would it be alright if I had a fan located on one side of the room for an intake in the ceiling, and place the exhaust fan(s) on the other end of the ceiling?

Or would it just be a lot easier to build a paint box inside the room? The biggest items I would need to paint is a car grille.

 

[Illicit]

Ok after hours of research...

I decided my idea was stupid lol. I'll just build a small paint booth instead and save a ton of space, this way the entire room isn't used up for a small painting area.

I decided to go with the downdraft design and incorporate the paint booth box into a nice sturdy table that I have.

Only issue I'm worried about now is what to use for an exhaust fan that's going to push 1200+ CFM not including the static pressure that will need to be calculated from 35 feet of ducts with five 90 degree bends.

Will a 8" duct be too much or should I use a 6" duct?

I'm thinking since the room is well sealed off, I'll use an additional fan for the ceiling and put an intake filter in front of it.

Here's a quick diagram I jotted up...