Garage heating

I'm building a 40 x 60 ft garage. I'm putting radiant heat in the floor. I haven't made up my mind on how or what heating system to use for the the garage. Wood? Propane? What are you using? Any of your ideas will be welcomed.

Also any do's or don't when building this garage. I have different ideas, but I open to your ideas.

Thanks. Al

the big thing is the insulation under the floor next is amount of the piping grid cheapest fuel would be propane unless you have your own wood and local views on burning wood along with your insurance company and will you be able to maintain fire. Wood boilers are pretty good now days.

deeredriver,

I recommend lots of digital photos of any infloor heat tubes. Make it with a scale/measure/something/reference. You can look at it later and figure out whre things were.

D.

Would not use wood. Buddy has one and it is a pain, boiler leaks, creosote, let alone a wood source.

Two of them built around here recently. Both burn propane. I wouldn't use anything else.

One is 60x60x18, and the boiler sits in a corner. It's no bigger than the tiny boiler in my little house. The temp is set at 60F. I've worked in there, and it's wonderful. The other building is similar in size, and the boiler hangs on the wall! What a neat installation.

I built a smaller shop than you, 20X40 in Wi. 20 yrs ago and put tubes in the floor. The most important thing is insulation and lots of it Under the slab and around the perimeter use POLYSTYRENE sheets, the pink stuff that snaps when you bend it. Mine had sand under the floor about a foot deep with the polystyrene on it, a vapor barrier and 1/2" reinforcing rod 1 foot from the outside wall around the outside and then another at 12"OC then we went to 24 "OC That's what the guy I bought the rod from told me and that's how his was built. His bldg was full of tons and tons of steel. His never cracked and neither did mine. Don't use any old wire you have laying around to tie the tubes to the rods, spring for plastic cable ties. I hooked two thirty gallon water heaters into the lines, and used one at a time to keep the temperature up. I could park a truck in there at night covered in ice and snow and next morning,no ice snow or water standing on the floor. I didn't put any floor drains in the floor, no need for it.
My son was helped by Mennonites to build his 40X40 and they put a 2ft. by 4ft 8" deep in the floor to collect the water and drain it out What a pain in the ars cleaning that thing out all the time. NO FLOOR DRAINs
So, lots of insulation and no floor drains. I got a pamphlet from North Dakota St university and did mine according to their instructions The 30x30 2 car garage I have now is heated with tubes in the floor and an 18 gallon electric water heater always warm and dry in their.

'

i just installed radiant heat in my house basement it is run off geothermal. big shop i have is heated with lp radiant tube heaters. like those. only had house going last week so to soon to tell.

I used cattle panels in our house basement- easy to tie the lines to the grid, keep the lines straight, and the 6x6 inch pattern makes it easy to judge distance in the photos I took.

Dave, where you are in NY? I'm in Montrose PA just south of Binghamton.

You may want to read advantages and disadvantages of radiant floor heat.

As for me, I don't live in my garage. I want it to heat up real fast when I'm there, and not pay for heating it when I'm not.
interesting read

Go to Dan Holohans website, heatinghelp.com and order his book on radiant heat. He answers all the questions you would have on installation. It's written for the lay person...

Do you need to heat the whole thing? A couple of work bays divided off would make it easier and cheaper to heat.

If you have natural gas, I would put a radiant tube heater in the ceiling. They work great and are cheap to operate.

Mine is like 4wdTom is suggesting. It is 40x50 with 17 ft walls. I have an inner room that is 16x22x10. I keep the inner room at 50 then bump the heater up to about 60 when I go in. The inner room is fully insulated, but the heat that escapes from it keeps my water in the outer room from freezing. I have a salamander to heat the outer part for that once a year event when I need it. I burn about 200 GAL OF PROPANE PER YEAR

My handle says it all, 60 miles north of binghamton

With good insulation, you may not need any additional heat with the in-floor radiant system. Since you can add in an aux heating system later, I'd try the floor heat first if you are already going with that.

I heat my shop (abt 25x40') with wood stove--a large one. Gets very warm.

An ordinary LP or NG water heater with an ordinary electric water heater run series as backup.

i heat my floor (32x40) with a used boiler running NG.2" high density, insulation under slab, around outside slab, 6" walls with fiberglass, foot blowin in attic. keep at 55 all winter, cheap to heat