Speaking from experience – if you have a dry basement – no water from the ground or gutters and you can put base board heat on at least 3 of the walls – it can work!
All situations are different but it should be fine. Below ground basements tend not to get too cold anyway. The addition of heat is necessary
Good Luck,
SA
Replies
When you say base board heat, do you mean the electric, plug in kind?
Many thanks for the response.
Mike
I have a two car drive in garage under the house and a 1/2 basement. The house is on a slope. The garage is a decicated shop which I heat with a space heater directed off a 1/2" gas line going to the fireplace stater.
The 1/2 basement is cool in summer with the central A/C system located there. In winter, I add the additional heat from a small ceramic heater. I'm talking the kind that is about 8"h x 6"w with small fan and a thermosatic control on-board. It keeps it toasty all winter with a little leak off of heat from the gas furnace. I have my wood-rack back there and several assembly tables.
I should note that I am in Atlanta where we don't get extreme cold weather. High 20's or 30's at nite and 40's to 50's in the day. The basement has natural insulation with the back-filling outside the walls. The walls are poured concrete and I have absolutely no moisture.
Hope this is some help, even though the differences in the temperatures between Atlanta and NJ.
Luck...
sarge..jt
Mike,
It really does depend on several factors. I had a large basement like that (32x50) which I did not use as a workshop but spent quite a bit of time down there for other things...in NW Indiana...not to different from NJ.
Our home was hot air and centrally air conditioned. I could open a couple of vents if heat was needed..but I don't remember ever needing to do that. We had a dehumidifier but turned that on very infrequently.
What ever he needs to do he can do it afterwards. He should not circulate the air from his shop into the central system ..the dust will destroy the filters and possibly be hazardess to the heating system..
Is there any ground contact with the outside of the block walls? My shop (once a garage) has ground contact on the outside up to about 3 feet in places, built into a hillside. When I was clearing it out and preparing to build my lumber-rack, there was clear evidence of moisture invasion from the outside -- a piece of extra sheetrock had mold on it, there was some kind of mineral crystal stuff that I was told on Breaktime and by local builder's supply was due to moisture moving through the block.
Would your BIL be opposed to just putting up some roofing paper behind the sheetrock? That's what I did and it's working quite well, wasn't all that expensive.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Mike,
Ya might want to take this thread to BreakTime.
Jon
To All:
Many thanks for the feedback. His basement is below ground which I now see helps a lot. His basement is also dry except for that damp kind of smell which can be cleared up by a humidifier.
Sarge, I have used those ceramic heaters too and except for the fact that my garage has a high peak, they work quite well.
I feel much better now . I think it will be cold down there but nothing he can't remedy.
Many thanks to all for your info.
P.S. I did post this over at Homebuilding but last time I checked there were no responses. Guess woodworkers are just more helpful by nature <G> perhaps spare time has something to do with it.
Again, many thanks.
Mike, I've gotten very timely help over at Breaktime, but was posting in the dead of winter. Like you say, spare time!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I'm going to disagree with most of the other posters to this question, leaving out insulation will be penny wise and pound foolish.
This is your only chance to insulate the walls, once the sheetrock is up you can't go back to insulate without ripping the walls out. The shop will be warmer and more comfortable to work in, and someday fuel oil will likely be far more expensive. I'd use foam board insulation, no vapor barrier and the moisture resistant dry wall meant for bathrooms.
John W.
To JohnW and All
Many thanks for the helpful info. I'll pass it along
MikeE,
If you get a musty smell you will need to take measures to stop the moisture migration thru the block. Musty means moisture. Block is very porous and will wick water from the dirt. Spend the money on a moisture barrier.
Joe Phillips
Plastics pay the bills, Woodworking keeps me sane!
I have exactly that kind of basement shop in NJ and it's fine.
With forced air heat and air conditioning, I don't even want ducts into and out of the shop, because they'd spread the dust through the house and my wife would be even more unhappy.
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