in floor heating??

[500blue]

OK I have a 1.5 car garage with a high roof/ceiling height - am looking to do the whole garage, got a couple of questions...
1. my floor has a couple of cracks and does have a bit of slope separation - i was thinking of ripping the old floor out and puoring a new proper rebarred pad with in-floor heating - what do you reccommend for the heat.
2.I work on atv's and othe cars and trucks - what do you think would be the best floor - I will be installing a hoist but will still have jacks and rollersed equipment.
3.What should the walls be - drywall? or what - I will have cabinets and other stuff hanging - I just built a shed that hold all the garden stuff and the kids toys etcc so I will only have tool and such - what should i cover the wall material in?
4.With the in-floor heating will I still need an alternate source of heat do you think??Like a furnace or something??
Any suggestiond would be appreciated - thanks.

 

[Wardrum]

Radiant heat in the floor is wonderful if you are going to keep it heated all winter. For occassional heating, however, it is close to useless because it takes quite a while to heat up the concrete.

No matter what type of heat you do decide to use, install one or more ceiling fans to keep the heat down where you need it.

 

[EvilEye]

Radiant heat in the floor is wonderful if you are going to keep it heated all winter. For occassional heating, however, it is close to useless because it takes quite a while to heat up the concrete.

No matter what type of heat you do decide to use, install one or more ceiling fans to keep the heat down where you need it.

I installed Pex tubing under ( in ) the concrete floor of my 28x36 Garage.
It is heated with a 40 gal electric hot water heater.
the contractor put insulation down over the stone base, they heavy wire mesh and the pex was fastened to it with plastic ties.
the concrete is minimum 4" over all , there are 4 areas were the concrete was poured at about 8" thick with no pex. these areas are for the lift to be fastened to the floor.
I used dow therm sr1 antifreeze (25 gals) in the system which is about a 50/50 mix with water. this probably was for my mental comfort more than anything else, but if I let the garage sit for a month with no heat I don't have to worry about anything freezing up and breaking.
The Thermostat is set at 40-45 degrees. When I want to work, I can go in turn it up to 60-65 degrees and within 20 mins I can feel the heat coming from the floor.
If your building is insulated well and has a perimeter insulation like mine, you dont have to worry about it freezing .

The water heater is set at 75 degrees tank temp - you dont need much more than that and it doesn't kill the electric bill.

I love this heat I can sit on the floor and it feels good, walking and working on a heated floor is a real pleasure.