randomly heated garage
 

moved up to the gold country from the bay area last spring purchasing a place in twain harte above sonora a couple months back. at about 4000' and was dumped on in the storm that is blowing through to the tune of 2 feet of snow over the last few days. it's cold this week with snow, yet will be mid 40's with rain next week meaning it can be either for the next few months, but mostly cold.

the place came with a killer shop that is equipped with a wood stove and enough wood to heat it from time to time. my wonder is am i doing more harm than good by heating it for a few days while ill be working on a project or the like, then it possibly going bone cold for a week more or less? I will not be battling freezing weather to work in the shop, but the temp swings could be extreme from say bone cold mid 20's to 50-60* if im doing stuff. I will keep the stove fired for a few days if ive got stuff to do in there.


i keep the 911 in there along with a couple motorcycles that sit all winter, in addition to a quad i manage snow with that will love starting warmed. I guess im mostly concerned about the car. the building is insulated in the roof trusses and formed pony walls off the cinder block retainer along the back n sides. ive winterized and hopefully have put measures in place to deter mice invasion into the car.

the CMU walls where the stove resides is another concern. stands to reason the woodstove will heat the cinder blocks in it's general vicinity where as 5-6 feet beyond will not be as warmed causing in my estimation differing expansion rates. might I expect there is an opportunity for cracking at the joints or blocks themselves from this localized heating? the stove is approx. 12" from said wall. the block wall is 8' tall and retaining to a point of 6' along the back. may be enough mass to not allow the heat to effect the wall much?

id love to here your thoughts on both of my concerns.

I live in a similar climate....My garage was 28 F when I went out to work today. Propane furnace warmed it to 48 and I got a few chores done.......Might be another week before I heat it up again....Been doing this for years........2 911 longhoods, my 190 SL and 12 motorcycles have never suffered.......Warm it only when you are out there......

Nothing in your garage will suffer by getting warmed up briefly and going back to cold. It will have no effect on anything.

Humidity in the shop is more of a concern than temp swings in my opinion . Not sure what is considered a " good range " for humidity but whatever it is I would try and maintain it .

When I built my free standing 28 X 30 garage 15 odd years ago I installed in floor heating using a 45 gal hot water heater as the heat source. There are small hot water heaters now available that are probably more efficient and certainly less bulky than my set up.
I turn my system ON in the fall and keep in ON until spring.
The inside of the garage stays at 16 to 18* C all winter long.
It is just as comfortable as the inside of my house and is perfect to do whatever guys want to do in the middle of winter, (that you aren't allowed to do in the house)
There are frugal people out there that think it's ridiculous to keep my garage that comfy all winter long but my argument is that at my age, the extra $125/ month for electricity isn't going to make any difference. Once you're gone, you're gone.

LOL...at least turn the heat off before ya go :)!

I keep mine just above freezing through the winter and will heat it up when working in the garage.
Easy to do with a Reznor unit heater. I wish that I had done the infloor heat but didn't have time before the pad was poured.
Don't think you will damage anything by letting the temperature swing unless you are storing paints or other stuff that is sensitive to freezing.

thanks for sharing your experiences. I will proceed with heating during planned work out there. will probably get a 4x8 sheet of the plywood used for sheeting roofs with the insulating foil material on it and put it behind the stove against the CMU wall before I get it really cooking.

Not sure how good of an idea it is to put wood and foam near the stove- maybe cement board and a fireproof reflective material?

Living in MI, my heated garage can get super humid in the spring and summer. I keep a dehumidifier in it at all times. Without it, the floor is wet and slippery. During the spring, when the weather warms, I have to empty the DH every day.
Dampness is an enemy to metal.

the plywood roof sheeting im talking about has no foam, just a foil like covering that faces down into the attic when installed. increases the fire rating of the roof sheeting significantly per a contractor buddy of mine. but i follow you especially after looking close the stove is w/i 6" of the CMU wall. maybe something like you suggest in wonder board tile backer away from the wall face an inch or so there's some dead air space between the backer and wall.

Build a gas powered forge. Propane. VERY hot. Will heat shop up very quickly, and won't need to be on all day. Used to heat a shop that way years ago.

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Just light a little fire and see how you like it. Someone did this before you got there, and someone will do this after you left. Block heats slowly, and doesn't expand much. It is easily as impervious to heat as backer board.

It isn't like you are pouring cold tomato sauce into a pre heated Corning Ware casserole dish.

Store your gas can somewhere else, and pop open the garage door for a minute if you need to vent. Gas vapors tend to pool at the floor, and will flow right out the door.

I keep my garage at 58° throughout the winter and turn the heat up when I go out there to work. It’s nice having a relatively warm garage floor and tools when I go out there to work on something.

do you have any electronic devices in there that have cautions about avoiding a condensing atmosphere?

say, an old hp 5 digit multi-meter or laser interferometers?

otherwise, no problem

also a 'randomly heated garage' might seem to get you into trouble with Maxwell's Demon...

Heating and cooling (below freezing) I've seen causing flash rust on unprotected metal. I keep my shop around 50F at night and 62F when I'm working, higher if painting.
Humidity is more of an issue in the summer, I'm adding AC to my shop.

My brother heats and cools his shop only when he's in it working. Granted he lives in Northern Virginia so not quite a comparable climate but he does it and doesn't seem to have any adverse effects from it and his ship has finished drywall.

I threw an old wood stove in a garage for a few years. I would build a fire, have my breakfast and go out there. I threw some foil faced insulation up into the rafters. 60 or so is a nice working temperature for me.

It was very homespun, but a very pleasant working environment and a nice routine. Carburetors and such were rebuilt inside on the old kitchen table. OTOH, yesterday I was rebuilding the chute motor for my snowblower on my knees next to the open garage door, so what do I know? I had to bring the motor case into the house and warm it on the stove to glue the permanent magnet back into place. It was probably 20 out, and I was happy as a clam.

Heating up a garage space isn't about a roaring fire with flames licking up the flue pipe. It is just about creating a little heat and a little common sense without the need for perfection. It is a little winter adventure to get out of the house and maybe do something useful or engrossing.

The thing is, if it is just about doing something and spending time out of the house, you can always turn the workspace into a project in and of itself. What do you think you want to do ?

any brand names or manufacturers milt?


I will be receiving a snow blade for my quad Thursday and will get underway with that install asap. also working on an IROC bumper for the car and will be doing fiberglass work. will try those two projects to see how things go.

I used a woodstove extensively in my old bay area home so am versed in keeping things reasonable. if I ran it for a couple days even when out the house would stay warm for a day or more after getting the wood floors heated well.

I thought of one more item - any uncoated Mg parts will 'tarnish' (low level corrode) in just a single winter in a garage in the PNW

(don't ask my friend how he knows this...)

but you can coat Mg with Boeshield, Gibbs etc.

Nice.

And who would have thunked these caveman types needed heat ?

^^^

Right! I figured that Tobs's head to toe body rug would be more than enough to keep the bisch warm!

I have multiple rooms in my shop.... My main workshop room is where I spend a couple hours every day. It has a propane wall mount heater and I leave it on all winter long to keep the room 65-70. Don't care what it costs as it is my happy place. The larger "storage" portion of my shop has propane ceiling tube heaters. I leave them set at about 45 to keep the pipes from freezing and when I need to work out there, I simply turn the thermostat up and wear coveralls to work in. It takes an hour or two to heat up to maybe 60. All my seasonal cars, motorcycles, airplanes etc are in this big room and none have had any issues that I am aware of from the 45-60 random temp swings during the nearly 20 years I have been doing this.

I got rid of the snow blade on my Honda Rancher after one year. It was not maneuverable enough even after I disabled the front drive. I was frustrating and pissed of at how long it took every time I cleaned the lot with it.

ive got to give it a shot. I was unable to get out of my driveway after about 20" of snow. it's steep both up and down to get out. i got the 660 griz with 4x, high/low range and a locking rear diff that came with a second set of wheels with mud/snow tires on them. two of my buddies have kabota tractors, one with a blade and one with a blower and those are much less maneuverable than the quad in my estimation.

if it gets too bad i may at some point look into a unit for the jeep, but again that would be less maneuverable in my estimation. if i do ultimately outfit the jeep with one i will likely do some removal work on the side to have it pay for itself over time.

im retired so ive got more time than money and expect there to be a learning curve i will have to overcome before i get efficient at it.

I have a blade for my Polaris 300 4x4 quad.... It works great until the snow banks are high on each side of the drive and then it drifts across completely filling the trough. With the blade angled one can throw snow like the big county trucks provided you have room to push it to the side. It works way better than my old garden tractor with chains or my old ford 9N with back blade.

With that said, we get a lot of drifting where I live and now I typically just use my newer JD compact 4wd tractor with a front end loader bucket up front and a blade on the back. It is not as fast as the quad after a fresh snowfall, but once the big drifts start happening the bucket is king.

fortunately I live on top of a hill and should be able to push the snow off the banks. I need to get to tractor supply and buy some T stakes to mark the point of no return before the next snow event. I imagine as noted above im going to have learn how to best manage the snow early in the season as to not paint myself into a corner and run out of room to "store" it. the plan is to get it as far as I can away from the road at the outset and keep with that approach.

im at 4000 feet and got two feet over the holiday, but a southern storm dumped like 6" of rain over the last couple days with temps in the high 40's all of it has melted so ill get a fresh slate next snow. it arrives this thursdee so I will take a couple photos of it being, and installed here this weekend. with the woodstove in the background all lit up of course..:D



im a flat lander raw so ive got heated grips en route too. a couple of threads ive read on quad blade work suggests they are mandatory. ive got good snow clothes from snowmobiling the last couple winters with my buddy who has four of them. still learning my way up here for sure.

Tobie do I need to teach you the ways of mountain living? Hey will we see you at the 25 hours of TG this weekend?

saw some hints you were driving again this year. best of luck to you and the team and stay safe n warm. I will not make it and I must say im sorry for not making it to sears in October. with the fire up that way and the PG&E power shutdown I thought better of traversing the state. as it turned out the track due to the power being out did not host Gary Walton's celebration of life sat night and I heard they sent you guys all home sundee canceling the day's racing program.

I stayed home and ran the generator every 3 hours or so to keep the fridge contents cold.... im getting equipped for the mountain life, but any hints do tell my brother....

t

Tobs, I think you should get some snow bunnies to help you keep warm in your mountain cave!!!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/0e...ea6c152f9b.jpg

^^^^I always preferred the "Chest Thread" myself, but this picture hits all the bases !

Your plowing problem will probably be the capability to carry the snow. I have a Cub Challenger 550 with a six foot blade. I put box ends on it to help carry the snow rather than just allow it to roll out the sides of the plow. I used to plow my drive with a 4x4 Honda 450 Foreman. That got old quick but faced with using the 450 or a shovel, the 450 won. Power angle would be nice even on a quad. Now that I've added box ends to make my blade a pusher box I don't think I'll want power angle as much . But with a blade it's a nice feature that can be achieved with a 12 volt linear actuator.
A couple bags of sand on the front and rear of the quad will be your friend. I used to put two bags of softener salt on the front and rear racks of my 450 and it helped a lot with traction.

Tractors are nice but not really all that maneuverable. Everyone (well you might not) knows where i'm going here... There's one tool that will run circles around anything mentioned so far for snow removal. But it's "spendy"

Mmmm... snow blowers... :D BTW, I'm calling FAKE NEWS! Not a single one with their headlights on.

id leave the plow parked and hope to be snowed in as long as possible if those snow bunnies were here...

You said it not me!!:D

Bring on the blizzard!!

I just had to put sunscreen on - no seasons here in the land of burn ass!

Josh Brolin from your neck of the woods?
https://www.health.com/mind-body/josh-brolin-sunburn-butt-sunning

Don't know if that butt tanning bisch is from these here parts, but I do know that Toby could not go around bare-assed, or the wimminz would be lined up for blocks trying to get a bite of that thang! :eek: Bisch wouldn't be able to get any peace and quiet with his badonkadonk on display!!! :eek:

I appreciate the faith you have in my game raw....


last snow event

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1576371228.jpg

got the blade after a ton of fed ex ground drama and have installed it. wish id gone with the 60" blade now that I have mounted it. got a 54" and it seems slim.... just need some snow now.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1576371326.jpg


note the fighting cocks my great aunt left me when she passed in the window sill...