Tear it our, or live with it?

[krapie]

Tear it out, or live with it?

I currently have a pole building, 48' x 164', no heat, mainly storage. I would like to partition off 32' x 48' for use as a year round shop. I am stuck on what source to use for heating the area. It has a man door, and a 9' x 18' overhead with 14' ceilings. I am considering removal of the existing 5" concrete floor and gravel base, then dig a few inches deeper, install gravel then insulation, pex, etc.

Any suggestions, do's, don'ts, cost, etc.

Thanks,

Kent

 

[Rosco]

How much time will you be spending in there?

In my opinion, you would be better served with spending the money from the floor on really good wall/cieling insulation and installing a mini-split heat/AC unit. It is possible to just coat the floor to keep the moisture to a minimum.

I have a buddy who just carpeted his garage (over plastic membrane) and it makes a world of difference, and very comfortable to work on.

Just thoughts.

 

[rsanter]

how about install a 2' slab with pex over the exsisting

bob

 

[gearbuilder]

A vented gas fired infrared heater will heat the concrete and items in the barn. We had them at the machine shop where I used to work. They don't blow air and dust around the shop. They use external air for combustion. I also have seen them over the exits at Home Depot.

Grainger sells them and here is a link to a manufacture.

Jamie

http://www.reverberray.com/

 

[oldtractors]

Radiant tube heater. I just did the same thing - a 30 x 52 shop in the end of a 52 x 80 building. I used a Superior radiant 40 ft long, 80k BTU heater:
http://www.superiorradiant.com/page.asp?page_id=27

 

[gumbudah]

If you've got the wal height to work with, pouring another slab over it doesn't sound like a bad idea.
If you plan to do the labor yourself on this thing, it'd probably be worth your time if you want floor heat. I'd say if you plan on using it a lot, and plan on working on cars in the winter, a warm floor would be a huge plus.

 

[gumbudah]

If you've got the wal height to work with, pouring another slab over it doesn't sound like a bad idea.
If you plan to do the labor yourself on this thing, it'd probably be worth your time if you want floor heat. I'd say if you plan on using it a lot, and plan on working on cars in the winter, a warm floor would be a huge plus.

 

[krapie]

No work on cars, I play with antique steel wheeled tractors and steam traction engines. Weights range from 8,000-17,000 pounds. Will a thin pour over the pex be enough to protect it?

 

[jklingel]

A 17K lb machine may be a problem beyond DIY folks. You may want to see a good engineer. If the substrate below the original slab is well packed, then maybe a pour-over would work, but plan on lots of rebar, probably #5, 12" OC, both directions; again, that is engineer territory. Myself, I'd give serious thought to taking out the old floor to ensure that the substrate is right. Jack hammer, or cut into chunks and taken out w/ a loader. You would not need to take out all the floor, necessarily, either. Maybe you could leave 4' on the perimeter. ???? If you use radiant heat, you better insulate under the slab or you will be pumping lots of heat into the earth.

 

[trbomax]

I'd put down a poly vapor barrier and 4" plus fiber around the pex. I dont have the pex in my floor,but my point is that my floor is only 6" with fiber,the only rebar is around the 2 post hoist and that area is dished out to 10" thick. I run the jd8120t @ 26000# and the jd7730 @24000#,with the 8000# trail grooming drags on them in and out and dont have a crack anywhere.

 

[sdowney717]

I would put some nice indoor outdoor type carpet down on the existing concrete. The rubber backed stuf you can buy at lowes etc...
I have worked out on the driveway on a cold slab and laying out a piece of that makes a huge comfort difference for me. Drive the car right onto it.

 

[s_ontario]

whats the concrete floor condition if its good enough to leave why would you even consider removing it for radiant floor heat ?

put up a radiant tube heater and spend the money on insulation

sounds alot like my shop 48'x45' 15' ceiling of 120' building with 22' sliding door between heated and cold sides

 

[Snap50]

No work on cars, I play with antique steel wheeled tractors and steam traction engines. Weights range from 8,000-17,000 pounds. Will a thin pour over the pex be enough to protect it?

Wow, I bet those wheels are tough on the concrete. You definitely don't want a thin overpour. I'm thinking it's going to break up, delaminate and fall apart.
I think you need to do some research on the requirements for steel wheeled vehicles.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If you are constantly heating it during the winter, the concrete will retain the heat. If you have the mean, I'd suggest a woodburning stove.