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Winterize your workshop with insulation and heat


Winterize your workshop with insulation and heat

A workshop with can be winterized with insulation and heat.

Photograph by: Thinkstock , Postmedia News

Q: I've been using my detached garage as a workshop for several years during the summer but now that I'm retired I plan to make winter use of it, too. Can I just insulate it and install heating?

A: I'd heat the garage provided it's insulated and so is the attic. The attic should also have good ventilation - both high up on the roof and in the soffits. You'll also want to provide some sort of good weather stripping and perhaps insulation to the overhead door.

The poured concrete floor is going to get cold during winter so you should consider laying in radiant electrical heating or another heat source in the areas where you plan to do the most of your work.

The heating panels have to be covered, so you'll get a chance to practise your ceramic tiling skills as a weekend project. As far as energy consumption goes, they plug into a 110-volt source and I'd put a switch on that to avoid waste. The tiles don't heat up to more than 35 C, so there should be no danger of burning your tootsies.

We renovated an old three-storey house and we put a full bathroom on the top floor. Our only opportunity for light and ventilation is a skylight. Ever since we've had so much condensation that the drywall had to be replaced a couple of times. We don't want to add a dormer as it would take the house out of its era. How do we get rid of the condensation?

You are now into a project that will force you to do a bit of dismantling inside the skylight well so that you can add a ceiling fan. You may even have to enlarge it because the smallest diameter ceiling fan I've seen requires just under 75 centimetres and you'll want a couple of centimetres of wiggle room all around it.

You'll need to take out at least two walls of the skylight well anyway and introduce a 4 X 4 beam firmly anchored to the wooden framework in the attic. This beam is made of four lengths of 1 X 4 (preferably cedar) clad in drywall with wiring to power your ceiling and exhaust fans.

Set the fan so it blows air upward. It should also be high enough in the well to keep the fan blades about 15 cm higher than the ceiling. Above the fan blades you can install a roof vented, 90-cfm (cubic feet per minute of air moved) bathroom exhaust fan that turns on and off simultaneously with the ceiling fan.

You are now ready to do the two projects I try hard to avoid - drywall taping/jointing and painting.

Q: We have an outdoor privy at the cottage and besides getting rid of the odour (deodorizing compounds don't always work well), cobwebs and spiders, etc., we want to make some improvements. The hole, too, has to be re-dug every couple of years and I'm getting too old to spend that much time on the banjo.

A: I use no deodorizer in mine because it's well ventilated so there's no need. A few years ago I had a backhoe in to do some other work and while he was there he dug a two-metre deep hole for the outhouse. The width was OK, but the length was more than the outhouse could cover so I rested it on two old railroad ties for support.

The back fit nicely, but at the front I had to build a small deck (also supported on railroad ties) for the approach. This has worked for about 20 years now.

The privy itself is made of roughcut 1 X 8 cedar in board and baton fashion but without the five-centimetre batons. The door has tight fitting 1 X 8s.

For more privacy, I lined the walls with ¼-inch plywood from the seat up four feet. That also provides all kinds of space for the graffiti our grandchildren seem to insist on displaying there. One of my favourites is: "Please mark your weight here so if you fall in we'll know how much to take out."

We don't have bees or other flying insects in there but a few spiders and cobwebs are always to be expected in a protected area such as this.

Ren Molnar is a home consultant and handyman. Send your questions to him at ren@on.aibn.com.

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