Shops and shop stoves, lets see em!

As I sit in my house in the city, I dream if some property, a shop, and most important a nice stove in my shop.

Show us your "home away from home" and help me with the I wants!

I built this shed last year. 30x60 with 14 foot tall ceilings. Sitting just inside is a new, to me, fisher grandpa bear shop stove. I'll be setting a 6" all vertical class A chimney in before too long.

I need the big barn for the RV. Three 12x12 overhead doors. 5" thick slab on top of 2" of foam with 1800LF of radiant heat tubing installed for floor heat.

Nice set up!

Nice barn.

Highbeam, what's powering the radiant setup?

Nice job, the radiant lay out looks pin neat, like it! When I did my old garage years back, my friend who helped who did it for a living had us roll out two rolls side by side, that way if one loop failed you still had another loop in that same area. I thought that was a clever idea. Hands down the nicest heat there is. Great job! I like the way you necked all your tubes under the foam board.

Nothing yet, you only have one chance to install the tubes so I have them in place and that's it for this year unless I get really bored over the winter months. There are 6 loops of 300 feet each. Heating the water will most likely be done with a propane boiler and in order to avoid wasting propane I don't want to fire it up until the building is insulated and sealed. Right now I only have housewrap between the metal skin and the interior. Lots of heat loss.

The tubes are still buried out of sight of the building inspector! The foam block where all the tubes go in the picture is a knock out so that I can dig that foam out and properly bring the tubes up into the room. You may notice other knock out blocks where I roughed in plumbing connections under the slab.

A little update since I was alerted to this thread again. Got the radiant tubes up into the slab and organized properly. Now tilting up walls within the walls to allow insulation. Those walls are heavy, 14 feet tall and 12 feet wide, 2x6 16" on center. Can't wait to insulate and sheet.

Nice work Highbeam. That is a really sweet building. Have you ever thought about a wood gassification boiler to heat heat that shop building and others? It is amazing what you can save in the long run and still enjoy burning wood. Heat multiple buildings and your domestic hot water for showers, dishes, laundry. High efficiency wood burners.

Guess you could call my Englander a "shop stove" since it's in my basement shop:

Don't worry-this pic was taken in the middle of Summer right after I put the workbench in-I just stacked the wood up there temporarily. Note how rusty the old Englander was:


I'd like to say that the toolboard still looks that neat-it doesn't


The best part of having the Englander in the "shop":


Until my wife yells down and says "What are you doing down there!?"

Badfish, that is when you say working on a Christmas or birthday present for you! Then she can not come in your shop from that point until you give her the present. Just have to make sure you actually make her something at some point.

Please note that Highbeam already has the most important piece of shop equipment installed, the stereo!

Yeah, the stereo...and at the height it is at, I hope he has a remote control!!

No shortage of outlets in that shop, either! You can NEVER have too many outlets in the shop!!

That is brilliant. I am totally stealing that idea.

I, sir, hate you! Or envy you in a sick way.

No stove in my shop/garage,but there is a NG furnace that keeps it at least 55-60 when it can be 15 below zero outside that big door....

Sorry about the mess,you know what they say about large flat surfaces - just something else to stack your crap on....

Ha. My place is a diaster right now. But with a foot + of snow on the way tonight, don't think I'll be hauling everything out to clean up anytime soon.

Highbeam, very nice job. what was the reasoning behind building a pole building then framing inside walls??? why not just build a complete frame building?? code? taxes? permits?

I think he was looking for maximum R-value in the walls.

A few factors really. Time was a big one. I was able to build it quickly myself with a little bit of help and then finish it out as time allows. The pole structures are very accomodating of phased building. Another is strength, since each of the short walls has big overhead doors I would get no shear strength and the whole thing may fold up in a wind. The pole style results in frames at each pole that resist the sideloads.

In the end, maybe I should have gone stick for the whole thing. Doing it myself saved a huge amount of money and this is the first big building I've done myself. All of the stick framing for the interior will only cost a couple thousand bucks. It's just a pile of boards after all.

Could you imagine trying to tip up a 60 foot long wall 14 feet tall? The only alternative I seriously considered was a steel building but again, cost was so high.

Wood heat in the shop was vetoed by the insurance company. I haven't decided if I'll do it anyway. The county would permit a shop stove which ticks me off.

Oh and that stereo is that high to hide a framing deficiency from the inspector. Note that the girt behind the stereo is 6" higher than on the wall beside it. I knew it wasn't perfect and I knew it would be okay but an inspector might jerk me around. I have a remote for the stereo.

My shop was built pre 50's and was my family's blueberry packing house. Needless to say i've slowly sorted through LOTS of old stuff over the years. I bought the property 8yrs ago and it's still a work in progress inside lol.

It's roughly 25x70. I wish it were taller but a full size pickup still clears the ceiling.


The front half of the shop is heated and separated from the back by a large swingin door.


Here's the wood monster. It's an old air tank converted into a stove. It's heavy wall steel so it stays hot for hrs even after the fire's gone out. Keeps the shop 70+ even in the teens.


My huntin and fishin workbench in the back half.

Piney Power! Awesome stove!

Nice shops!!

When can I move in?