Cold weather finish drying / shop heating ?

Hi All,

Now that the colder weather is making an appearance here in Melbourne, the problem of drying finish is on my mind again.

Last winter I used an oil filled radiator to keep the ambient temperature up in the workshop when drying finish, however the power bills were enormous as a result. I'll probably get served with divorce papers if I try that solution again....

Has anyone got any good, cheap, non-flammable tricks for keeping the temperature in their workshops at a reasonable level ?

Perhaps there are also some finishes out there that don't mind curing at low temperatures, if there are I'd really like to know about them. Most finishes I know of want around 15-20 degrees celsius to cure.

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.


Cheers,


Justin.

Justin,

My workshop never gets cold enough to need a heater as it is built under the house and is insulated. I insulated it more for noise control than heating but in winter it stays warm and in summer cool.

Can you give some more details of the structure of your shop ( garage/tin shed, if insulated or not ) as heating may only be a very expensive stop gap solution instead of tackling the real problem.


Peter.

Hi Sturdee,

15mx4.5m single brick walls, with 3 x 1.2 square windows along one of the long walls. Tin (traydeck) roof interspersed with 4 x clear sections, insulated lightly with aluminium sheet insulation. Concrete slab floor and roller door at one end.

I've considered more thoroughly insulating under the roof, but the overhead storage afforded by not having batts&plasterboard up there is really handy. Maybe I'll just have to bite the bullet and do it. I can't see almost 70 sq.m being cheap to do though - I'm sure SWMBO would find other uses for the dough, especially with child #2 on way.

Cheers,


Justin.

Thanks Justin. From what I can see you will need to insulate not only the ceiling but also the walls and that may be too expensive to do all at once.

As your workshop is a long rectangular space have you thought of building a clean room within it for your finishing. It would be a lot cheaper to do and cheaper to heat as needed.

In any case you can keep working in the rest of your shop without affecting your work whilst the finish is drying. That is what I still plan to do myself.


Peter.

Justin

The best way to insulate the roof would be to lift the roofing and fit Bradford Anticon Blanket and foil onto the battens and refit the roof.

You may need to fit roofing wire under the blanket to support it.

You would need 4 rolls of Anticon and one roll of roofing wire.

Anticon would be about $120 to $130 a roll and the wire would be about $80 to $90 a roll.

An alternative is learn how to apply polyurethane as it will dry in the winter. If you heat poly in a hot water bath and apply it hot it dries very fast even in winter.
Just a beast to rub out, really needs to be wet rubbed.

Justin - my workshop is 6m x4m in Ballarat so I know how it feels to be cold in the winter. It is also a tin shed with little insulation. I toyed with the idea of a wood heater, gas heater or kero heater. In the end I decided the safest and cheapest way was to install two 1000W strip heaters. the heat is much more instant than oil radiators, and radiant heat is better in a drafty space. Yes - the power will be a bit, but when you do the maths it is not too bad during selected cold snaps.

However, I do have the benefit (this is about the only benefit I have thought of) of having a pretty small shop.

Hope this helps. Would also like to hear other feedback.

Steve