Heating the garage

Bean_Counter

Hi,

Having recently moved home I now have a nice integral double garage. Apart from storing the usual junk in it, I was wanting to use part of it as a gym but also store things like the filing cabinet in it.

I would have thought that in the long term, the documents would deteriorate in a cold garage. Hence I guess I would need some some sort of heating.

Can anyone give me some advice on the most efficient way to heat the garage?

Thanks.

edgex

theres no point trying to heat a space that has no means to retain the heat your pumping into it.

do you still want to use the garage door to access it?
what sort of doors are they, is it just one door or 2 seperate doors?
do you still want to get a vehicle in it?

savemoney

We have a intregal garage

We do store papers in boxes in it along with freezer, dvd's, sewing materials etc

In fact in next few weeks I am going to lay a floor down like this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390103752721

and buy some large storage shelving.


I haven't had any problems in 2 1/2 years we been here, it does have radiator in but its usually switched off

Bean_Counter

edgex wrote: »

do you still want to use the garage door to access it?
what sort of doors are they, is it just one door or 2 seperate doors?
do you still want to get a vehicle in it?

There are two external garage doors which we would probably want to keep. There is also a door from the utility room into the garage.

There no chance of a vehicle ever being in the garage as there is too much clutter in there.

Bean_Counter

savemoney wrote: »

We have a intregal garage

We do store papers in boxes in it along with freezer, dvd's, sewing materials etc

So there is no degradation of the paperwork in the boxes?

edgex

Bean_Counter wrote: »

There are two external garage doors which we would probably want to keep. There is also a door from the utility room into the garage.

There no chance of a vehicle ever being in the garage as there is too much clutter in there.

do you want to actually use one of the doors for access to the garage?

if you dont, just get the whole front wall, where the doors are, boarded up with a stud wall, can even stuff some insulation in it.
if you want to use one of them, just board up the other one.

that will help to keep some heat in the room, so then the heating requirement is reduced.

youve said about using it as a gym, exercise creates body heat, so you may not actually need any heating.
or if it does get very cold, just use a small portable heater to put some heat into a small part of the garage.

savemoney

Not so far. I have a kids plastic toy storage box its consists of 3 sliding boxes that pull out I keep documents in there

I also have videos/photos in another box.

And dvd's we have in a old warddrobe (modern type) which was surplus when we moved and we used that every other day to watch dvd's etc

It does get cold in there but never freezing, if it does the rad would come on which I havent ever noticed it has

I was thinking of putting insulation under roof at some time but the bricks around garage are on one brick thick, its fairly new garage about 5-6 years old at most

27col

I have been storing workshop manuals and other stuff in my detached double garage for some years, without any appreciable deterioration. Not really possible to heat in the winter due to complete lack of insulation. So if I wanted to work on my old motorbikes it was necessary to wrap up warm.

Bean_Counter

edgex wrote: »

do you want to actually use one of the doors for access to the garage?

if you dont, just get the whole front wall, where the doors are, boarded up with a stud wall, can even stuff some insulation in it.
if you want to use one of them, just board up the other one.

that will help to keep some heat in the room, so then the heating requirement is reduced.

youve said about using it as a gym, exercise creates body heat, so you may not actually need any heating.
or if it does get very cold, just use a small portable heater to put some heat into a small part of the garage.

We do use the doors for access to the garage e.g. when needing electricity to hoover the car and water to wash it when on the drive, or get the lawnmower in and out without going through the house (no shed)but there would be ways around that.

I think in the short term I'll stick a thermometer in and monitor the temperature and use a small heater if necessary.

I'll bear in mind the stud wall idea for one or both doors for future.

Thanks for the responses.

27col

If you are going to go the expensive route of using an electric heater. Make sure that it has a frost stat, so that it only comes on when the temperature is below zero. Any other use of the heater in an uninsulated space would just prove that you had more money than sense and no green credentials whatever. What edgex suggests makes a lot of sense. If you do not want to use the whole of the space then building a smaller enclosed area for a gym and some paper storage would make good sense.

hartcjhart

yep just 'dry line' the walls and doors with insulation behind(£1 a roll at B&Q) and put some carpet down,then have a heater with a thermostat control set on low

dry lining the wall is a fairly easy diy job just pick up the leaflet from B&Q or diy store

put an outside water tap,and Caravan type electric socket for power