- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
I'm one of those people who refuses to pay for any service I can do myself, so of course I change the oil in both of our vehicles with good reason-an oil change in my truck alone costs $60 as it is with a Motorcraft filter and 15 quarts of 15W-40. By the time a shop gets done marking up the oil and filter and bangs you for the labor it can go north of $100. However, saving that $40 last night didn't feel as satisfying as it did during the winter months. 16 degrees, ice on the driveway (truck is too tall for the garage), and a steady breeze blowing made for less than ideal conditions. I swore to myself that our next home would have a heated garage. However, even though I plan on going with a gasifier and am not going to be throwing money away on propane or oil, the thought of committing the amount of BTUs it would take to keep the garage toasty during the winter months isn't all that palatable either. That's when I had an epiphany-why not build the house on top of the garage? My in-laws have a raised ranch with a two car garage occupying half of the basement-it's unheated however. My thinking was this-if I were to go with a heated slab for the basement/garage floor (well insulated) I could dump a bunch of heat into it knowing that it's not going to waste because the slab would heat the air which would rise and contribute to heating the entire house (which would also have radiant underfloor heat)-good idea/bad idea?