Official Luthiers Forum!

Gentlemen,

Not so long ago I finished my modest basement shop and have been getting settled in.
Housing market dictated a move and just like that....no shop. : (

All is not lost. I am building a new home and hope to be in December.

It will be a basement shop again.
Looking for thoughts and ideas from others on what they would do or have done in this situation.

The only "shop oriented" feature I have added to the house is access from the shop to the garage via a staircase.
Figured that it would provide convenient entry to the garage and outside for dirty work.

.......Moving guitar wood is not fun...

thanks!
gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Dang that sucks!

I've enjoyed my basement shop very much, I've found it fairly easy to maintain RH year round in my build room with only a 30pint dehumidifier and a small London Drugs humidifier. But I'm also Pacific Northwest which is quite temperate.

The low ceilings are excellent for storing things between the joists, the joists are excellent clamp holders, and the low ceilings make it easy to light as they're literally right above your head.

The only thing I can think of to suggest is to try to have good and real separation between your shop and the rest of the house to mitigate dust. Build in an airlock if you can...

Wire the basement with plenty of 110V, 20amp and 220V, 30 amp circuits and maybe a 220V, 50amp circuit thrown in for good measure.
Put an oversized 4 foot wide door and heavy duty steel staircase from the garage to the basement that you can lay 2X's on, to slide heavy machinery into the basement (and winch it back out if necessary). Try to have part of the basement out of the ground with openable windows to provide ventilation and some natural light to the space.
Seal the walls and concrete floor by whatever means to reduce moisture infiltration from the soil.

That does suck but silver lining, you get to make it the way you want.

My wife is super tolerant of my shop shenanigans. She doesn’t complain about it, but I know for sure she would be happier if I had boxed in the dust collector and compressor to quiet them down. I build things other than guitars and sometimes the dust collector is running for a really long time. It’s right below our living room and I’m sure it’s annoying. So maybe choose a corner, under something that isn’t a common area if you can (like under a bathroom or closet) and box it in and insulate it.

I also have roomed off a smaller area, maybe 8x10, which is where I store wood and brace tops and backs. Makes it easier to keep the humidity in check.

I also put drilok flooring in the shop. This helps to keep the humidity under control in the main shop area and I have a better than zero chance of a part surviving a drop compared to when it was just concrete.

The one thing I don’t have but would love is to have finished walls. It’s just studs (and insulation on the exterior wall side ). Which is fine for being able to easily hang something on the wall but I think I would like a bright finished wall both for lighting purposes and so it doesn’t feel like I’m Geppetto whittling away in the dark basement.

Hope some of that helps.

Brad


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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One of the things you will have to decide with a basement shop is whether to heat, cool, and control relative humidity along with the rest of the house, or try to isolate the shop (as Ed suggests), which means you would need to heat, cool, and control humidity in that space separate from the rest of the house.

I chose to just heat, cool, and control humidity for the whole house. I control dust by capturing it at the source as much as possible, rather than letting it go wherever. This is often the easier choice, because the furnace/AC blower for most houses with a basement is in the basement, which makes it hard to isolate the basement as a separate environment.

Think about having an electrical sub panel installed just for the shop. I find that to be pretty handy. Think about how you will run power and install outlets. Do you want those at shin level, waist level, overhead, or someplace else?

What kind of floor do you want? If this is a new build, you won’t have any choice; it will be concrete, until the concrete cures enough for putting something on top. Since it is the basement, make it a flooring that can be wet without being ruined. Water from the whole house eventually winds up in the basement if there is a water problem.

Does your house design allow for some basement windows? I would try really hard to have some natural light near my workbench, if possible.

Do you have a cellar door to the outside world? It’s not fun getting large stationary tools up and down an inside staircase.

There are lots of other basement shop considerations, depending on what kind of basement you’re talking about. Good luck with the process of putting it all together!

Thanks for the responses guys.

Ed:
Basement shop for me is ideal I think as well. Unless I could fund a stand alone shop... I cant!
Unfortunately/Fortunately the basement will have 8ft+ ceiling. Will likely finish walls and ceiling completely as I did my previous attempt.
To date, my sanders and saws have been in the garage. Maybe I should attempt to bring things indoors this time. I do not have a DC system yet so that will have to go on the list.

Clay:
Certainly will wire in the 20A circuits, i did this previously as well. Hadn't thought much about bringing the bigger juice inside (30A), only because in my head it was all going out to the garage. Guess it wont hurt to drop a couple inside on the way out to the garage the I have either option. Windows are slightly above grade. I have (x2) down there both 3ft ft x 4ft. No possibility for others.
Foundation area is not too wet, so hopefully moisture is easy to control. Basement will have AC and air exchanger from the get go now that it is code in my area (not the AC).

Brad:
Good point, but I am right under the kitchen and living area! But as i mentioned, it will be framed, insulated, and sheeted so hopefully that will help.
I think humidity plan will have to wait until I get in and see how it is. The main infrastructure is place to start.
Come to think of it, I should have a drain placed in the shop to support dehumidifier draining and such. One for the Checklist!

Don:
As mentioned above, I will have heating, cooling, airexchage, and portable dehumidifier. I should be able to make some combination work. The house will have a mechanical room isolated from my shop, so that should keep things clean.
I will time to figure out the flooring, as my wallet wont allow me to do everything all at once. My last subfloor was 1" rigid foam under 3/4 tongue and groove plywood. It was excellent, so I might follow that path again.
Windows check.
Staircase to garage, check.


Another plus at this point is I am only building one large bedroom in the basement for my son. So I have the remainder of the 2000sqft footprint to make my shop as I like. Much larger opportunity than my last shop which was only 12x16' with some funky unusable wall spaces.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

2k2 is a lot of space!

I will not be using it all, but new shop will certainly carve out a lot more of the basement than the last one. : )

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

No matter how big you build your shop, there will come a time when you realize that you should have built it twice that size.

Contrary to some of the advice above, I like a high ceiling allowing for shelves, cabinets, and other storage overhead—more wall space=more storage. Mine is a basement shop and the ceiling is just under 8 feet. I wish it were a couple of feet higher.

A few folks from my local woodworking club conducted in-person shop tours yesterday. This same sentiment was expressed several times. Another layer of cinder blocks for the foundation would make a big difference in any later conversion of basement space to useable space, whether it is a workshop or something else.

On the other hand, there are worse problems than a low ceiling. Of the five shops shown, two were in basements and three were in garages. I prefer the basement shops, but I'm short, and I like good climate control. In two of the three garage shops, we might as well have been outside. Miserable in the hot summer and the cold winter. No thanks. If I ever have a garage shop, I'll have to spend real money on the HVAC system, insulation, etc.

One advantage of a garage workshop is if you put your machines on mobile bases you can wheel them outside to do some of the dusty stuff, and when the weather is fair and fine working al Fresco beats being holed up in a basement. With the basement shop having access to the garage, Gregor could have both.

For sure Clay.
I have always done sanding and cutting in the garage/outside.
Perhaps this time around I invest in some good DC so I can do these things inside and not make a mess.
Plenty of time at this point to start planning that out.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

When I designed my basement shop (under an addition to the house), I insisted that it have a walkout double door. Several steps were still needed up to the ground level. I hadn’t anticipated how heavy some of the machinery I would later buy would be. I ended up hiring a tow truck to lower the 18” bandsaw I bought down to the floor level. I was glad I had that wide stairwell and wide door. It was hard convincing a tow truck driver to do it—I called several before one agreed. And, I put in a lot of windows.

I'd agree that higher is better on ceilings, and it sounds like you've maxed out your natural light already.... though if you could build steps up to ground level and put in a set of glass French doors that would be worth cost in wall space.

I also agree that 30 amp power is very wise. I wouldn't do more than that unless you have plans for larger equipment in the foreseeable future... or you will have a difficult time running new lines from your box.

For reference I ended up with 10' ceilings in my shop and like that quite a bit, though if I only ever made guitars I could probably do with 8. The exception would be if I was buying my own raw lumber from a mill. In that case 10' for sure! I was also fortunate enough to have an above ground space where I could put lots of windows. Ended up with 5 and a set of glass French doors to the outside. Would be difficult to put a price on that natural light. Finally, I did have two dedicated 50 amp lines run for specific equipment (12" powermatic jointer and a 20" powermatic planer). Everything else I have in the shop is large but doesn't need special power. I was also able to put some floor outlets where I knew my cabinet saw and router table would live. But that required me to be very careful about laying out the shop before the foundation went in.

In any case, it sounds like a fantastic opportunity you have! I'll be moving in the next month as well, but don't know where we are going yet. Maybe a rental house, maybe an apartment.... maybe a 5th wheel?

Not looking forward to moving my tools :-/ as most of them are north of 250 pounds. The jointer is 800.

Thanks Terrance.
I do have steps out, but they exit into the garage so there is no extra light to be had there really.
I will make a point of running more power.
My sympathies to your back when the time comes!
Good luck with your move as well.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

It's already been mentioned, but sound proof as much as possible. Even the bass from my little bluetooth speaker goes right through the ceiling, and the tv sounds come right through the floor. As soon as I finish up my long list of remodel tasks on the main house, I plan on pulling the ceiling tiles, insulating with RockWool soundproofing insulation (I've had good luck with this in the past), and I'll probably hang the drywall ceiling using isolation strips. I'm also going to put a dividing wall in with a large picture window to create a dirty and clean side of the shop.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoy having a basement shop. So easy to step downstairs and do a quick task. Especially during the winter! And with this heat wave, it's nice and cool down there!

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

I love my garage shop especially when I have had to move multiple machines weighing more than a Thousand pounds into it.

when I built a bedroom addition I made another ground level room adjoining the garage which has a regular door on it

It is well insulated and heated/air conditioned.

I wish the ceilings were higher than 8 feet, though.

Thought I would give a small update to this thread.
Things have actually started moving.
Included a couple pictures that show basement area and access from garage.
Since my buddy owns the concrete pumping company, I got to participate in the foundation pour.
Yeah...thats me in my pajamas! : )

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

And the cement head.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Look like a lot of FT2