Folks,
I built this house 4 years ago. I realized last year that my job really stinks. I am moving. I will be building the same house again. The basemnet is 38×38.
I have speced out ventilation, lighting and power outlets. What else do you think I should consider?
Thanks,
Frank
Replies
Frank, dont be suprised if no one gives you advice on your issues, But they will give you zoning answers.
Good luck, I'm in the same boat
-LMC
dust collection,compressed air,urinal,access,sound controll
Edited 1/15/2007 8:14 pm ET by loucarabasi
Urinal?
I guess that raises the age old question about whether it is too uncouth to pee in the slop sink?
I'm not quite sure what your asking for. Folks on this forum took a lad to task earlier for his use of less than formal english, and his failure to clearly convey his needs. If your lucky they won't lambaste you.
If you are rebuilding the same basic plan on a new site, I would expect that you have a pretty good knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the current configuration.
Did you have your shop put together long enough to use it in the current location?
I'm guessing here that you are going to build another basement shop. But you haven't really said so.
If I'm correct:
You need to be conscious of access in and out with raw materials and finished products. This could involve your choice of siting on the new property.
Materials storage.
A separate finish room that is isolated from the dusty area.
Are you concerned with natural light in any of the areas?
Sound Isolation from the upper floors?
A restroom facility with a shower?
Your own laundry area so you can wash out rags?
A minimum of structural partitions to increase the flexibility of the partitions you do install.
Floor surface material and finish.
Do you want in floor heating?
Paint scheme.
Built in storage.
An isolated area for drawing up plans and just relaxing without having to go upstairs with your grubbies on and get dust in the house?
Ceiling height, it doesn't cost much to make a concrete basement wall a couple of feet higher, and it is really nice to have the room to flop sheets of material around, assuming you will use sheet goods.
Fire alarms, and a sprinkler system.
Phone lines and an entertainment system? I like to listen to music when I'm doing hand work, or finishing.
Spare conduit in the walls, floor and ceiling for whatever might show up in a few more years.
A good drain system, just in case the plumbing upstairs breaks. Water shields above your big iron, for the same reason.
Lumber storage inside or out.
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it is hard to answer vague open questions with any thing specific. There are several really good books on planning a shop available, if your questions are general read one.
I'm pretty willing to give you my opinion if given a definite question or talk through what ifs, if that is what you need. Or, to tell you what is important to me, if that is what your after.
You hit the most crucial with power, venting, heating and lighting. I would ask if you have done a machinery and cabinets layout drawing, to verify the power is going to land where you need it, with sufficient capacity? Are the lights, and utility plug-ins, on separate circuits from the big iron? Is each piece of big iron on a dedicated circuit? Do those circuits have enough capacity to go with higher power demands in the future. Do you want to oversize conductors to any of the equipment, so you can make the move to bigger equipment at a later date?
I''m in the process of thinking through the rewiring of my shop. I want 240 and 120 down both walls with outlets every four feet, for future flexibility, but I might just put a box every four feet, and leave some slack conductor, so I can install plug-ins later if needed, with a minimum of fuss.
I want, dual lighting circuits in the areas with finger killing tools. Nothing quite as guaranteed to make you nervous as having the lights fail, while the table saw is still powered up and running, and your hands are within a few inches of the blade.
Jigs
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. This is a basement, walk out shop. I hope to have windows for natural light over my main bench. I speced out about six pairs of 8 foot flourescents. The 220 outlet is for the table saw. The other outlets are 20 amp cb for other tools. The lights run off a seperate breaker than the tools. I speced out a sink. My current shop has no indoor acess to the house as my first shop did have internal acess and dust would always get past the doors. The builder told me he could put in a weather tight exterior door.
I have some wall racks for lumber storage and a seperate turning area. A seperate finishing room would really be nice, though I usually use shellac which really dries fast.
I have been playing around with dust collector ducts in the slab, but I really don't want to compromise the slab .
My wife has never really complained about shop noise in the house. An intercom isn't a bad idea.
Music is a good idea. Dust has trashed my last boom box. I need to think about that.
What I really need is more time to get down there and just make sawdust.
Thanks again for the ideas.
Frank
Biscardi,
Laundry tub, nine foot ceiling, maybe some inbedded tubing in the floor to run wires?
"I have speced out ventilation, lighting and power outlets. What else do you think I should consider?"
A lot of woodworking tools!
(running and ducking)
Rich
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