Plan for short term heating?

[TBoone]

I have a 22x22' semi detached 2 car garage with 8'6" ceiling and an attic above. I have no insulation/drywall, open rafters and currently no heat. I use this space in the evenings and occasional weekends fabricating roll cages and such for primarily jeeps. For a few years now I have endured the winters with long johns and have lost alot of productivity. This year I have a couple projects to complete and would like to be a bit more comfortable which will hopefully yeild motivation. I live in western Washington where it on occasion gets into the high teens at night but for the most part high 30s to low 40s are the norm. I use this space for only a few hours(3-5) at a time and am only expecting to retain the heat for the time period I am in there.

So far points of my plan which I am confident are:

Purchase/install Farenheat 5k heater (Dayton G73 copy as I have read)

Drywall the ceiling with installing a vapor barrier between the drywall and the rafters so I can add either unfaced batts or blow in after the fact and funds allow.

Eventually insulate the walls with faced batts and drywall.

Parts not so clear:

Ceiling insulation, considering my short heating cycle is it worth it to insulate past R13 considering my rafters are 2x4 and I am possibly going to be using a portion for storage(currently have plywood sitting on top of the rafters)

Do the faced batts provide vapor barrier?

How will sealing this space effect moisture within the garage given a drastic temp change? say from one of those 15* cold snaps to a 50* rainy day? Or 5 hours at 60* back to 35* for a few days.. Currently the moisture can build up pretty bad on metal surfaces like tools or material. An exhaust fan will eventually be installed to remove welding/cutting fumes but should there be any focus on this to deal with moisture?

Thanks for any advice, I only want to do this once even if it takes a few extra steps to get it done.

 

[Provincial]

Have you thought about radiant heat? They heat you and not the air, so unless you are painting, you can keep the heating cost low. To experiment, Costco has a parabolic 120V unit at a reasonable price. It uses 1000 watts and the only drawback is that if you tip it or move it without turning it off first, it emits a loud buzzing noise. It will cook you out if you set it too close!

 

[TBoone]

Thought about something like that however, I am all over the work space, cutting, bending fitting installing etc and if I am thinking of the right thing it would work great if I could stay in a close proximity. One of the points I found apealing to the heater I mentioned was the strong circulation fan. IIRC it specs at being able to through air 16' which seems to me would help out quite a bit.

 

[Falcon67]

Caveat - this climate is fairly dry. My old shop did not have vapor barrier anywhere. Not behind the siding, or the ceiling. The ceiling was exposed kraft back R-13 batts. Walls were about 1/2 exposed R-13 batt and some 1/4" OSB. Size was 20x24. I never had any issue with moisture, whether running a dual burner propane heater or the G73. Electric heat doesn't generate moisture. One guy moving around, in some days not others, not a continually conditioned space - should not be a problem. houses have moisture because of cooking, showers and typically several people living and breathing in there many hours a day, every day. The typical small shop, not so much. Several exceptions on this board!

 

[ptschram]

I use a diesel-fired salamander to heat my shop. $400 goes a long way toward heating one's shop with nothing more than plugging it into the wall and filling with fuel.

 

[deuces2]

I have the dayton heater you reference for a stick built 24x28 with wall and ceiling batting insulated and Iam very satisfied with the performance of the heater and I think you will be very happy with it,insulation or not.I have had mine for 3 years with no probs

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'd get the place insulated first. No reason to waste any heat you're generating. Buy the heater you plan to use but I'd also buy a oil filled electric radiator heater. They run about 45-50 bucks.

Keep that smaller heater running all winter, and let it maintain the heat in the garage around 50*. Once the concrete gets warm, it'll hold the heat and make it more comfortable to work out there, especially kneeling down on the concrete floor or keep your feet warm too. The garage will come up to temperature with the bigger heater faster having the concrete warm.

Another benefit of keeping it 50* (give or take a couple of degrees) is your metal should sweat less, preventing rust. A freind of mine uses one in a similar sized garage (race car shop as he calls it) and figured the cost to use it was less than 30 dollars a month. . . . a dollar a day to keep it warm.

 

[DCarr]

A freind of mine uses a propane ( or NG ) heater for a chicken coop to heat his 30'x40 garage and spray booth. It heats up both rooms from 20* to 70* in 25-30 min. and then keeps it there easily.

I use a kerosene torpedo heater for my 40x30x13 shop for right now. Last year w/ insulated walls and NO ceiling ( blocked off the soffets ) it would heat it up from 20* to 55*-60* in 30 min. or so.

I have a ceiling installed in mine now and it heats it up much quicker, hasnt gotten below 38* yet ( when I used it ) so I cant make a comparison ... but it makde a huge difference in holding the heat in and I still have to have the insulation blown in.

 

[fitz11]

I use a 70k btu kerosene turbo heater in my 10x20 uninsulated garage. I cut 1.5" foamboard to fit between the rafters to stop the heat from escaping up too fast. I can get the garage from -15 to 60 degrees in about 15minutes and then it runs about 5min every 15.

 

[atk406]

I would go with nuttsgt on this one. Insulate asap, even if it just the ceiling, and get the heater you plan to buy, it should be more than adequate with some insulation. And I'm a big fan of oil filled radiators if you need something cheap, temporary, and effective, but be conscious of where you plug it in and what setting you have it on. If it's a 1500 watt heater running on high, you can't use much of anything else on that circuit. I wouldn't worry too much about sealing and vapor barriers in a semi-detached. Insulate it and heat it, and you will be golden.

 

[Agent1320]

I rent a 1200sqft warehouse, so I can't make any permanent modifications. It's just a metal building with 16' ceilings. Insulation is just 4'x8'x1" styrofoam sheets on the walls & ceiling. Here in South Texas, we have short winters, and we don't usually see temps into the teens except maybe a few days a year. Still, being from down here, we don't like anything below 50-degrees! So working in the shop when it's in the 20's-40's really limits the motivation to get out of the heated house.

Anyhow, I didn't want to invest in an expensive heater. I looked all over for the kero/diesel heaters, but couldn't justify spending a couple hundred on something I'll use maybe 15 days a year. I bought a propane cylinder with a dual head heating element. It works great if you're working in one spot. If the shop is 40-degrees, leaving the heater on for 1 hour will raise them shop temp to about 46-degrees. That's pretty good, but not really noticeable. Since I'm all over the shop fabricating I need something that warms the shop better and cheaper... The propane heater lasts maybe 10 hours per bottle, and the bottles cost about $18 to refill or $30 outright.

I decided to buy a barrel heater kit. One of the 55-gallon types. I bought a kit off ebay for like $60 shipped. Found a clean 55-gallon drum for $15. Installed the kit to the drum, added some scrap inside with some scrap expanded metal to keep the fire off the bottom of the drum. I made some 2x2" angle iron legs with caster wheels on all four. A friend's dad has a muffler shop and gave me a bunch of new scrap 4" exhaust tubing to make the flue, and I used a 4" v-band clamp I had in the bottom of the toolbox from my turbo diesel days to attach the flue extension pipe.

Now I go to the building behind mine where they have a dumpster full of trash pallets. I grab a few pallets, knock them into pieces, toss them in the drum and light it off. I roll the whole thing towards the walk-through door at my shop. I connect the flue-extension pipe with the v-band clamp and point it through the door. It sticks up and out about 6' outside the door. Then I use a sheet of that 1" thick insulation (forget the name of it). This insulated sheet is cut in two sections. 1 piece fits the top of the door, and the other fits the bottom half. The two pieces have half circles cut in them where the flue pipe comes out. I used the casters because I need to be able to roll this thing into the corner of the shop when the short cold season is over. When the shop is about 40-degrees inside, leaving the heater on for 1 hour, the shop temp goes up to around 65-degrees (measured from a thermometer at other end of shop). I have to peel out of my layers of clothing to continue working. It works REALLY good.

When I'm done working in the shop, I'll roll the whole thing outside, put the fire out and close up shop.

All in all, I've got less than $100 in the whole thing. That includes the heater kit, drum, casters, scrap metal, and the sheet of insulation. It costs me nothing to operate as the trashed pallets are free!


EDIT: I found one of my old design drawings (MS Paint, haha) of my heater setup...

 

[Chaz]

T-Boone ... Insulation is your best money. Lots of it if you live in W.Washington.
Insulate the hell out of everything! In one of my buildings I framed a dropped ceiling out of 2x2 to hold batt insulation up near the roof slope . That way you can maintain your rafter storage. I'd still insulate with 3 1/2 across the ceiling rafters . no sense heating storage any more than you have to....

 

[fromnwmt]

We are currently using a propane sheet rock heater 30,000 btu but it is adjustable we run it wide open for 20min or so then turn it down once things are warm to touch it makes getting out and doing more finish work in the garage more pleasant..

 

[Briguy_123]

I have a 22x22' semi detached 2 car garage with 8'6" ceiling and an attic above.

Does this mean that it is semi-attached and you are parking vehicles and welding out there.

If so most places require fire rated walls and ceiling as well as an approved heat source.

If this building is any where near your house do yourself a favor and spend the small amount of money to protect your family and home from a terrible loss that the insurance company may not cover.

Temporary heating sources, exposed building materials, welding, grinding the insurance company would not be your friend if god forbid something happened.