Ideas for the ultimate garage!

[Illinois]

what is the exact use of wood stove i am having an Iron one is there any problem?

 

[tallwelder81]

your question is worded confusingly.

a wood stove is very handy to have around in a workshop/garage.

 

its much better than electric heat in many ways. electric is less mess, dust, ash, etc.... but wood stoves absorb moisture, so they keep the garage much dryer. less rust, and mold. and they run on anything. bust up some worn out pallets or whatever. those odd and inconvenient scraps when you cut those 8ft 2x4s down to 7'8"? burn em, heat the garage. order a pizza when you and your buddy worked too late on the car, and now its too late to start cooking dinner, and you also wanna thank your buddy for helping? order a pizza. throw the pizza box in the stove. more heat. i grew up with one. all my life everyone had them in the house and another in the garage.

 

one tip, the stovepipe, the exhaust tube, its ALWAYS better to go straight up. an elbow going horizontal out the wall has lots of problems. more back pressure, causing the indoors to get smoky. harder to get the fire started because of less "draw". the horizontal exit is hard to seal up watertight, so when it rains hard, your wall starts to rot out.

 

your garage will just be cleaner, all those random odds and ends that add up over a week of projects, they just get tossed in the stove.

i dont like to burn plastic. but hey, some people do it. my grandpa always burned plastic. stinks like crap and very unhealthy. but thats your choice.

oh and p.s. the smaller size woodstoves designed specifically for a garage are often made of thinner steel or iron. if you want it to last more then 3-4 years, make sure to throw about 2 inches of clean sand inside to cover the whole bottom. it protects the metal, and it also makes the heat output steadier, because of thermal mass. a.k.a. the density absorbs heat at the peak temperature, and when the fire goes out later on, it keeps radiating a bit of heat for another hour or two.

 

if you are around seattle, i live outside of renton, i can weld up a small and crude stove, real quick, in maybe 4 hours. woodstoves are my specialty. also, i have a nicer one for sale, nice enough for your house, it has a 7x14 glass window in front. 200 dollars, if anyone is interested.

[hooziewhatsit]

In my future garage I plan to run heating loops in the cement before it's poured.

 

Then you can either use a hot water heater/boiler to heat the water and then the shop, or, you can build a solar thermal collector, and have essentially free heat (if you're in a place that gets any sun during the winter)

[davebugs]

I was gonna do this. My brother in law has done this method for years in car was's. They heat the floor so in the winter they can stay open.

 

I ended up spending the money on a lift instead. Both are good choices.

 

He recommended using good old Quest plastic pipe ratehr than the fance stuff made for floors. They have been using plastic pipe then quest for 30 years without issues.

 

My 40x40x10 pole building could have been heated by a 40 gal water heater.