New Garage

[WildcatOne]

I tellya, Wheelz...you sure made the right call with this thread, man...
Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

.... and we want pics from the ground-breaking thru the the first car rolling in

[rock]

go with the in floor heat it is cheap to use i have it in my garage (24 by30 with 9ft ceilings) and didn't notice much differant on my heat bill and i keep it at 65 all winter long. i have a hot water heater most experts in the in floor heating biz don't recommend on demand heaters here is a couple of links http://www.radiantcompany.com/
http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/
http://www.wattsheatway.com/
when i did my garage about 3 years ago i had to order the pex tubing so it was more expensive but now you can get it at Menard's and i believe Lowe's.
i would paint the floors it makes it nice to clean up a spill i used u coat it http://www.ucoatit.com/ it is a water based epoxy so it is easy to clean up i would go with white it brightens up the shop. i agree with randy on lights never enough what i did is on the back wall put a couple of flood lights made for outdoors and put them on a separate switch so if you are working on a car with the hood up blocking the lights flip the switch and the flood lights shine to lighten up under the hood

[wheelzman]

Man, what a wealth of information. I hope that I can swing the foam insulation on the walls and that would be about 5 1/2" of insulation. That stuff really is wonderful and sound deadening too. I have about 30 double tube 8' fluorescent lights from the shop so it should look like the face of the sun inside. I also like the flood light idea. I use 300 watt incandescent bulbs for short times in the garage to find a bolt or nut. I have been told that it costs more to start an 8' foot fluorescent light than it does to run it for 4 hours so leave them on all day. Any experts on that?? I am going to put plastic on the ground before they pour the concrete to eliminate the moisture problems. I have metal gondola shelving from the store that I am going to cut off the back support leg then attach the 4' sections to the wall for storage and am contemplating welding them and stacking them up the wall. As a side note I have a friend that had an 8' high sidewall and overhead door garage that installed a 12' lift. The crew used regular trusses and when they left he cut out the trusses, at the 12' level, that were going to conflict with the vehicle on the lift then reinforced the sloping 2x4's with 2x6's, cut his garage door track and angled it up the slope of the roof, went and got a spring for a 12' door to pull it up the angled track and walla a full height lift in an 8' garage. I thought you guys with an 8' garage could use that idea. It works fine.

[jim sanders]

cool that you are getting great ideas from new contruction type -do-it yourself.make it work type idea's.. I have a couple of those tin coned sshaped laps with spring clamps for use when an open hood blocks the overhead floresant bulb... lots of great ideas to night !!

[jim sanders]

i put up 2 pics of Dale Smith's new shop over on the thread at Mike's joint... wow

[greenracing]

When we built our new shop we put steel exterior siding/roofing on the inside walls and ceilings. It comes pre-painted in white, so you get a nice bright interior with no painting required. Plus, if it gets dirty it'll spray or wipe off really easy.

We used blown-in insulation in the walls and ceiling, it seems to work pretty good. The old oil furnace is in the old part of the shop and the new part stays pretty comfy with no extra duct work.

The other thought I had for you - ceiling fans are great! I put 3 of them in the shop and they run all the time. Not only do they push the heat down off of the ceiling, but they keep the air moving so that things don't get wet when the humidity goes up.

Perry

[Bob Kraemer]

When you do your air line use 3/4 or 1in Schedule 80 PVC. Make sure you use primer before you glue it together. It is inexpensive and a snap to install. Some will tell you that you have to use black iron pipe or copper for air lines because of safety issues. Nonsense.
I installed the PVC air lines in a friends shop 6 years ago and the only problem they had is when some employees moved a work bench, they weren't being careful and broke a couple of fittings which put a good size hole in the drywall.

[Solid Rock]

I have to agree with the ceiling fans.
I used 3/4 copper for my air lines. I know people who have used the PVC successfully for air lines, but I have also seen pvc joints come apart in water service. That's why I used copper.

[Billy Mac]

my partner, Tim's shop has the pvc...(1-1/2") all around the shop with fittings aprox every 6 ft......works great...and is relatively inexpensive.
"might" be a good idea to have a drop down leg at the END of the air line...with a pet-cock to drain any moisture from the line, though.