ideas for putting garn in a new garage

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curtis

Burning Hunk
Dec 6, 2012
150
northern michigan
Im not sure if this is the right spot to put this but here is goes. After browsing the forum for some time and talking with some people i decided to go with a garn 1500. And to house it i want to put it in a garage in building this spring. I thought about making it 30x50 and on one end building a wall to make a 10x30 room for the garn and a little bit of wood storage. The rest of the building will have a hoist and be a workshop that will eventually have in floor heat. Do you guys think I should put a garage door on the 10x30 part so if i ever had too i could take the garn out easily? Or does anyone have a better idea on how to incorpoate a garn into a building?
 
In our store we have a room for all the refrigeration compressors. They are mounted/assembled on racks that are about 10 feet long and 7 feet tall. We know that some day they will have to come out of there so when we built the room that the racks are in we constructed an appropriately sized ssection of the wall to be easily removable. Basically we just installed a header in the wall like you would for any type of door and then built the 6ft wide by 7'6" high section in a way that it can just be unscrewed when/if the times comes that we have to slide one of the racks out. The removable section is built and insulated just as you would a normal wall. We just left a little hangover "flap" to screw onto the double studs that are on each side of the opening. If you get down this way give me a call and I'd be glad to show you.
 
Ya i thought about a way to build the wall so that if i did have to remove it i could. Although I dont really see any reason i would have to remove it. And then i could just put a big 4 ft. door so i could get wood into it with a cart/wheel barrow or somthing similair. Do you think a 10x30 room will be big enough for the garn a maybe 4-5 cord of wood?
 
I always tell people to leave at least 5' in front of a Garn for access and ease of loading if nothing else. So figure 10 feet for a Garn, about 1.5-2" behind it and 5 feet in front for a total length of about 17' minimum. That will leave you an honest 10-12' in front of the Garn for wood.
Personally I'd rather see any wood stored along the side of any wood burner and nowhere near the loading door. One can easily have an ember fall out of the firebox and not notice it roll into the wood pile. This can be a very bad thing. :(
 
Thats a good point about the wood being stack infront of the door. I could maybe put a little half wall with metal infront of the wood stack that would prevent any coals from rolling into the pile. Its hard to come up with a building design that houses the boiler and wood storage. Because i would love to be able to move all my wood in the fall to get it out of the weather. That may not be able to happen though with my budget.
 
Curtis, the far wall opposite the shed roof has two doors big enough for vehicles or a Garn. You can see where the boiler is in the corner, right near the door and a few steps from my wood. Sounds like your barn will be bigger than mine, but rather than explain the shed roof I thot a picture would be useful. In October the wood's stacked up from left up to the door. About 6'-8' from the left remaining now at the end of season. The shed roof is easy and cheap to add. BTW, my flue is short, but we always have a wind from the left. Enjoy

IMG_2693-2.JPG
 
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Curtis, the far wall opposite the shed roof has two doors big enough for vehicles or a Garn. You can see where the boiler is in the corner, right near the door and a few steps from my wood. Sounds like your barn will be bigger than mine, but rather than explain the shed roof I thot a picture would be useful. In October the wood's stacked up from left up to the door. About 6'-8' from the left remaining now at the end of season. The shed roof is easy and cheap to add. BTW, my flue is short, but we always have a wind from the left. Enjoy

View attachment 97778
Every time I see that pic I'm a bit envious. Great looking barn and land!
 
Curtis, you don't need to store wood inside the heated section. Just a nice addition, non insulated side building. If I had to build a boiler building, it would have a roofed area with enough room to store 2 yrs of wood, split in half. Walkway down the middle. I just hate re-handling wood. Fairly tight walls, but enough ventilation to help with the seasoning of wood.
 
Curtis, the far wall opposite the shed roof has two doors big enough for vehicles or a Garn. You can see where the boiler is in the corner, right near the door and a few steps from my wood. Sounds like your barn will be bigger than mine, but rather than explain the shed roof I thot a picture would be useful. In October the wood's stacked up from left up to the door. About 6'-8' from the left remaining now at the end of season. The shed roof is easy and cheap to add. BTW, my flue is short, but we always have a wind from the left. Enjoy

View attachment 97778
Wow Larry your getting to be a pro at posting pics! LOL
 
Yeah, Rob.... don't you miss the old days when I pleaded with you to post pics for me. Thanks, Mike I feel the same way when I see all ya'll's (that's southern for "everyone's") system pics with all the shiny copper going to storage, zone valves, radiant heat, etc. But... ya'll just wait... gonna have my own whiz bang storage stuff to show off in a few months. I'll never have radiant in the old house, but the stuff in the man cave will be finally on par with you storage folks. And, I agree on the land. We love our piece of Tennessee hills and blessed to the current caretaker.
 
Well im getting a price on a 30x60, wich i will seperate with a wall to make a 20x30 "boiler room" witch should be large enough for the garn and some wood storage.
 
Every time I see that pic I'm a bit envious. Great looking barn and land!


Mike every time I see this quote in your tag line Your boiler will obey the laws of physics even if you don't understand them it makes me smile. Even laugh out loud at some of the memories regarding people who thought those laws didn't apply to them.

Just wanted to say thanks for the grins. :)
 
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Well im getting a price on a 30x60, wich i will seperate with a wall to make a 20x30 "boiler room" witch should be large enough for the garn and some wood storage.


Just a thought regarding size for you Curtis........My son in law builds a lot of pole barns for the farmers and others around here. He has told me the cheapest per square foot is always going to be a building that is sized in increments of 8'. That's because of the spacing of the poles and keeping it at 8' means less waste of materials. So instead of 30x60 maybe think about a 32x56 or something like that.
 
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Curtis.... and a shed roof... your gonna like it.
 
Mike every time I see this quote in your tag line Your boiler will obey the laws of physics even if you don't understand them it makes me smile. Even laugh out loud at some of the memories regarding people who thought those laws didn't apply to them.

Just wanted to say thanks for the grins. :)


It's something that an old time ship's engineer turned heating contractor that I used to work for would say.

I wish I had some pics of the boilers he installed. Neatest looking installs I ever saw. Everything was straight, parallel and plumb and equally spaced etc. Cable ties had to be equally spaced and facing the exact direction. You could look at his installs and just see how everything was working. He's were I got my appreciation for simple and robust design. His background as an engineer probably played a part.

Reminds me I should give him a call.
 
Ok after finding out that the biggest garage im am going to be able to build is a 32x32, if i put the Garn in there it will basically turn it into a 1 car garage. So i was thinking that I could build a lean to on one side of the garage for the boiler. And then that would make my garage a 2 car. The only downside i see to having it not it the gargae is not being able to catch the heat that radiates of the boiler.
 
Ok after finding out that the biggest garage im am going to be able to build is a 32x32, if i put the Garn in there it will basically turn it into a 1 car garage. So i was thinking that I could build a lean to on one side of the garage for the boiler. And then that would make my garage a 2 car. The only downside i see to having it not it the gargae is not being able to catch the heat that radiates of the boiler.

Not a bad way to go Curtis.
 
Put a TV and a recliner beside the boiler, you'll catch any free heat.


YAH! The man cave. :) Add a small frig, stocked of course with the beverage of choice and you're all set.
 
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Having your own "get away" space is priceless. If you can keep the clutter out, you will alway have a safe retreat.
 
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