Questions about detached garage shop

[strgraw]

Hey all!

 

Well, recently I moved into a place with a detached garage shop. I had a few questions about it, and some pictures of the fun new place :)

 

Here is the shop, in it's currently chaotic state:

 

 

First off, when we moved in, the shop had an office area since it was previously used as a business. I didn't want the office space up as I felt it limited the amount of space in the garage, so I tore it down. In the process, when we got to ripping up the carpet, a lot of the cross thatching threading on the bottom of the carpet got stuck behind, as well as the glue.

 

My first question is, would it be ok to forge over that or should I just rent a heavy duty floor scraper to get all that glue off?

 

 

This is the area I plan to blacksmith in - the dry walled area was the office:

 

 

Next question I have is about ventilation. There is a window on each side of the shop, which is nice for air flow through it, however, in the winter here in Minnesota we're talking -10 out so I don't really want to put a box fan up in the window.

 

The furnace in the back area is a natural gas furnace, you can see the picture below that the intake for the combustion chamber isn't vented outside and instead just takes air inside. I figured I would leave this for now, but any thoughts on this?

 

 

So as for air ventilation, I was debating on making a hood right over the forging area and venting that outside.. Not ideal, since I'll be venting hot air outside, but I do want to be safe with Carbon Monoxide. I have two carbon monoxide testers that I have yet to put up.

 

Oh.. I will be running propane.

 

One final question I have is that the far corner of the shop where the "closet" is right now is about 20 feet from a neighbor. They are super nice, but I definitely want to dampen some noise if possible just out of respect. The walls are not staggered stud, what could help dampen the noise towards their house?

 

Thanks in advance guys, excited to become a more active member of the community!

[SoCal Dave]

Wow, lots of issues.  #1 you have electricity to the shop and that is good.  Without knowing how you are going to use the garage, blacksmithing only, welding, fabrication, etc, you've got to remove the old carpet that is left.  That will definitely catch fire and cause toxic fumes.  Cement or dirt is good for a shop.  If you have a large garage door to open, that will be great for ventilation but not good for the winter cold.  If you could tap into your natural gas supply line, and convert your forge to natural gas, you would be very happy.  I would sit down and plan out your best, ideal, placement of your equipment and see where you need electricity, ventilation, heater, anvil, forge, tools and metal storage, etc.  By planning ahead, you will save yourself a lot of work, and grief in the future.  Take the time to do this and some things will work themselves out in the process.  Make priorities and start at the top.  Give yourself room for expansion in the future as you acquire more tools and equipment.  I would love to have an office/desk/computer area in my shop but that is not possible in my configuration. Good luck.    

[Stephen Olivo]

I agree with dave.  End grain wood is also a nice shop floor.   Yeah minnesota can be harsh :D but I still love it here.  

[DSW]

You can usually rent a power scraper for floors at local rental places. They use it to remove VCT tile typically, but it also works on carpet that has been glued down. It may help if you can get it warmer. The glues often get really hard when they are cold. Remember heat rises and the floor may be quite colder than the room is.

 

 

Sound. They often use double layer drywall to help deaden sound transmission.  2 back to back layers of drywall is better at killing sound transmission that the 4" of fiberglass home shows often tout as "sound proofing". If you don't mind loosing some space, you can off set the 2nd layer and create a dead space between the layers as well, though back to back you gain the mass to deaden sound. Steel studs turned sideways would work to help isolate the layers, so would foam insulation board.  The added advantage of the foam would be to increase your insulation value in the winter.

 

 

I would definitely do an overhead hood for ventilation. You can always add a damper to help keep the heat in when not in use. CO poisoning would be my biggest concern without a hood. The CO monitor is a definite. Remember CO is HEAVIER than air.  Having one on the ceiling is a bit pointless from my standpoint.  I always thought those smoke alarm/ CO monitors were sort of stupid. Get it high enough to detect smoke, and it's too high to be useful with carbon monoxide. Get it low enough to detect the CO, and it's not useful as a smoke detector. I have seen automated fans with  CO monitors in garages. If the CO level reaches a certain level, the fans kick on and vent the place. Probably pretty pricy vs a manual system, but to me my life is worth quite a bit of money. I'd rather "waste" money on heat and run a manual fan when I forge vs die because I'm cheap. keep in mind when running the forge you are pumping added heat into the structure as well , so that offsets the heat lost to the fan.

[strgraw]

Thanks for the suggestions! They have been great so far.

 

I did find a nice floor scraper at a local rental and tested it out yesterday, worked real nice! Got most of the glue off, but I believe that an excessive amount was used (especially near the walls) and it just wasn't doing much effect.. I only had the machine for 4 hours so had to take it back before I got all the glue up near the walls. I think I am just going to lay some shelving there since the stuff seems stubborn.. Either that or try some sort of glue remover. I read that any future glue won't adhere to the floor after doing that.

 

Also thanks for the suggestion of double layering the drywall! For now, I will leave the single layer, but likely throw a double layer up at some point in the direction of my neighbors.

 

It would be nice to have the natural gas line to a forge, but my forges are propane currently and the natural gas line coming in doesn't provide enough PSI. In the future, maybe, but for now, I'll stick with propane :)

 

Thanks again for all the suggestions guys, really appreciate the help