Gotta Keep My Junk Warm

[justwantaroof]

Hey guys,
Im building a 24x30 garage warm. Just have the foundation down. 11' walls and thinking of rafters for max height for possible lift in future (2 post). My HVAC buddy really wants to get in on the action and is pushing a ductless split (couple grand at least). Everytime I ask him how much itll cost he asks me what my budget is lol.......its as little as possible.
Ive got natural gas to my house and fortis (supplier) is dropping prices of gas over the next couple years.
BC Hydro has never dropped prices as I can remember and theyre building a new something billion dam over the next decade so I don't expect the price of electricity to come down.........ever
So, Im really looking into radiant floor heating with maybe a gas boiler.
Still doing research, and theres a lot of info out there to digest which is why I like personal feedback from folks like yourselves.
Its pretty temperate here, below freezing is rare.
Im definitely insulating my floor and for the cost of the pex im thinking of running the piping regardless of using it.
Anyway that's enough outta me, time to read, read, ask questions, and read some more

 

[boo coo tracks]

Gas fired boiler would be my choice. Pex tubing gives you good steady heat.
My question would be, how many days do you need heat. Concrete takes a couple days to warm up. Heating air take 20 minutes.
Some thing to consider!
HTH
Tracks

 

[ADSR]

Just built the same size building in the same town, ha! Haven't got my floor up and running but it was pretty easy. It doesn't get very cold here, so i put 2" cheap white foam down. I've built a few houses this way and it works well. 4x8x2 from rona was like 15 bucks a sheet. The blue foam which was only 2.5 R-value more was over 50 per sheet.

Do not buy the o2 pex here in town, even with a discount from emco, the price was retarded.I bought 1000' and had like 150' left over i think. Emco wanted 800 bucks/1000' and i paid 250+shipping. Bought mine here....

http://www.pexuniverse.com/pex-pipe

I'll be using a Takagi TK4 natural gas on demand. With a floor as small as ours, it's overkill and it's cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057X265M/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Looking forward to your build!!

 

[ADSR]

BTW, here is my floor. I used the free version of LoopCad. Try it out and see what it comes up with.

 

[justwantaroof]

Looks cool lord! Whats up with the black tubes? What kind of insulation board did you use?
I got a quote from sleg type 4 2'' Styrofoam 30psi x 45 sheets for 1350 or some type 2 3'' x 45 for 790. Still not too sure what the diff is.

I've got the foundation done so I'll post some pics

 

[justwantaroof]

So I ended up applying for a variance for the accessory building height from 12'3'' (max) to 15'4'' and somehow got it. It was a very weird experience. Couple board members basically making me feel like they had the power of god. Anyway my hardship was that corner of my lot is 2'' lower than the rest of yard resulting in water issues and more excavation to make the slope for my entrance resulting more lost yard for the kids to play in. Then I asked for another foot so I could sneek my boat in a 10' foot door so the neighbors wouldn't have to look at it. Did I mention where I wanted to put it at the end of driveway which made the most sense BC hydro had a right of way because theres high tension lines that run close to my property but they have an additional 50' parallel that cuts thru my yard so couldn't build anything there (additional hardship).
The first pic was from my deck showing them it didn't block my neighbors view of anything but my yard. They req you to show them what it'd look like for proposed height and what your aloud.
The other pic is the 2' drop to average grade with my budies old case 580c that im using to move dirt around with. Shes a tired old hoe but beats renting and a shovel combined.

 

[ADSR]

Hey man. The black things are the autobody pull pots with the chain in them. I welded them up in a grid with 5/8 rebar.

I used the cheap white foam called Plastispan from rona. I can't remember the exact price, but i know all the sheets out the door was under 500 bucks. My concrete finisher said no one is using the more expensive foam on the island. I was told by one inspector i had to use blue foam by code. I just used what i wanted and told them what they wanted to hear. The cheap foam is R-5 and the blue stuff is R-7.5. I don't think in our climate it's going to matter.

http://www.rona.ca/en/plastispan-0510004--1

 

[ADSR]

So I ended up applying for a variance for the accessory building height from 12'3'' (max) to 15'4'' and somehow got it. It was a very weird experience. Couple board members basically making me feel like they had the power of god. Anyway my hardship was that corner of my lot is 2'' lower than the rest of yard resulting in water issues and more excavation to make the slope for my entrance resulting more lost yard for the kids to play in. Then I asked for another foot so I could sneek my boat in a 10' foot door so the neighbors wouldn't have to look at it. Did I mention where I wanted to put it at the end of driveway which made the most sense BC hydro had a right of way because theres high tension lines that run close to my property but they have an additional 50' parallel that cuts thru my yard so couldn't build anything there (additional hardship).
The first pic was from my deck showing them it didn't block my neighbors view of anything but my yard. They req you to show them what it'd look like for proposed height and what your aloud.
The other pic is the 2' drop to average grade with my budies old case 580c that im using to move dirt around with. Shes a tired old hoe but beats renting and a shovel combined.

That's a great start! Looks like a good pour too. Didn't expect to see an old hoe on the site like that. Was looking for a don mann sticker!

 

[justwantaroof]

Ya that's another thing that was suggested to me were the pull pots. Very cool. Im just wondering if that's something i'd need. Ive heard you can always put them in after but would be a bit more exciting with pex in the floor.

 

[justwantaroof]

That sticker was there and probably will be again when a real operator is req lol

 

[ADSR]

That sticker was there and probably will be again when a real operator is req lol

Some of mann's ops aren't bad. Some are really bad! I've had to patch a couple dings in a new foundation from backfilling. But, anyone can have a bad day


Here is a link to the pots that i bought....And yes, much easier to put in beforehand.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Champ-Floor...0737988600&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr

 

[justwantaroof]

Dude-you are a wealth of information at this point! I appreciate learning from your experiences.
In that pic it looks like you have another massive garage you adding on to?

 

[ADSR]

Dude-you are a wealth of information at this point! I appreciate learning from your experiences.
In that pic it looks like you have another massive garage you adding on to?

Been building houses for 14 year and did automotive before that. I think i'm going back to automotive. (Custom Fab only)

The other building is a 120 year old barn. I built the wing on it last winter. I'm sure as your project moves along, maybe we'll meet up and grab a beer. I like to help people out and it's fun to brainstorm to make our shops work as efficiently as possible!

 

[justwantaroof]

Been building houses for 14 year and did automotive before that. I think i'm going back to automotive. (Custom Fab only)

The other building is a 120 year old barn. I built the wing on it last winter. I'm sure as your project moves along, maybe we'll meet up and grab a beer. I like to help people out and it's fun to brainstorm to make our shops work as efficiently as possible!

Absolutely!

 

[Bighead38]

If its real cold I'll wear thermal long johns under my jeans to keep my junk warm.




Jk I couldn't resist.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

I live in a similar climate but a little more rain than you, as I'm in Langley BC across the water.
I have both my garage and workshop with radiant heated floors, the workshop 40' X 40' uses a Gas Fired hot water on demand system as the heat source and the main 3 car garage uses a gas fired standard water tank heater with a heat exchanger system.

Both systems are closed loop and the water doesn't mix with the main supply as there is a one way back flow preventer installed.

The one negative that I did not expect from this system was the water evaporation from the wet cars, it makes the garage really humid, 2 cars going in and out 2-3 times in a day can drop a lot of water on the floor and the warmer the garage the faster the evaporation.

I leave the bathroom fan on 24/7 to clear the moisture and have reduced the floor temp to around 15-16 Celcius as this takes the edge off the cold floor and slows the evaporation rate.

I also have a big squeege and I use that when a lot of snow or water has been dropped and it's pooling up under the cars.

So if your garage is going to be used for cars, you may need some sort of extractor fan to help remove the extra moisture.

Good luck.