Heating/insulating a new workshop

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm just building a new workshop (shed) at the bottom of my garden. Its a heavy duty 14x10 shed bought from my local sawmill and I'm quite happy with the build quality etc. The shed is in a sheltered location and will have its own 60A 240V supply, but I'm concerned about putting all my toys (tools) into it from my heated garage into a potentially cold & damp shed. I'm thinking about cladding it with 11mm strand board (cheaper than ply or MDF) and filling the 4" gap with rolls of loft insulation. I would also staple insulation to the roof space. Is this a wise idea? Also, I'm considering a installing a false floor with 2" expanded polystryrene sheets underneath to help insulate the floor. Any thoughts? Do I need a heater in it?

thanks in advance
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

Chris,

Sounds good to me. If you don't fancy wrestling with the loft insulation stuff, the big rolls of bubble wrap sold to insulate greenhouses works very well. If you take a goof around my website you should come across some details of what we did. I think here is where you need to go.

My only reservation about the floor is load bearing. If you have any machines you may find that a particular problem. Otherwise an excellent idea and I wish my (concrete) floor was insulated. Oh, watch out for too much spring in the floor, that can be very tiring on the legs.

As for a heater? I reckon you'll want one, but with all that insulation it should be very economical I would have thought.

Anyway, good luck. I'll just "sneeze" at this point :wink: (Charley'll know what I mean) and suggest it might be worth asking over at UK Woodworking too.

Cheers, Jester

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't thought of bubble-wrap, but the loft insulation "fell off the back of a lorry"...

The existing shed floor is 3/4" planks, raised off the patio by crossed sets of 3x2's, so I have a 4" air gap underneath. I am going to fit duck-boards to reduce (but not eliminate the air-flow underneath.

For the floor, I am planning to lay 2x1's on top of the existing floor, spaced at about 10-12", then lay 1/2" board over that. The gap would be filled by either loft insulation (if any spare) or else expanded polystyrene blocks. Should make the floor pretty "warm" and it allows me to run electrics to the centre of the shed for the router table & table saw

As to a heater, what sort of minimum temperature should I be aiming for? Any recomendations as as to make/model. The shed is in a sheltered area, surrounded on 3 1/2 sides by fences/hedges

thanks again