I save a lot of money too by servicing my own cars. My garage doesn’t look anything like that. My cars don’t require a lot of servicing.
Second…what does that garage look like in the middle of winter??? If I had a garage like that here in NH…by January…it would be a mess.
If you live in the South then a heated/AC garage is GREAT. But here in the north the problems outweigh any niceties a heated garage offers.
Yum,Yum! nice garage makes you want to linger(always better when fingers no stick to metal)-Kevin
Sorry to hear that. I’ve heard other similar horror stories, which is why I suggested working with the building inspector him/herself. He/she is the one that’ll sign (or not sign) the certifiicate of occupancy.
I had MAJOR issues with our town and inspector.
I am in shock, Mike. IN SHOCK I SAY! Mike you are such a warm fuzzy guy I find it hard to believe you don’t get along with everyone you meet! 
That garage must have a fully stocked bar hidden somewhere!
That is nice, Tester. You must take a lot of pride in keeping it clean and organized.
I live in Minnesota. That’s why I have a heated garage. Also, this is the garage I do auto repairs out of.
Winter time can be a little messy with the snow melting off vehicles. But I tell people in the winter, if you want the vehicle serviced by me, bring it to a coin-opped car wash and blast the snow/ice out of the wheels wells. Nobody complains about doing it. Then whatever is left on the vehicle I let melt off. Then I take a floor squeegy and push the water/snow into the trough in the floor at the garage door and let it evaporate. (helps to humidify the air in the garage when the air is dry in the winter)
This garage heater isn’t on all the time. Only if I’m out there working. And I do have AC in the garage. (look at the exit door). At the end of the cooling season, that AC unit is removed and so is the door by pulling the hinge pins. They both go into the large shed I have,(the shed was built for storage to free up garage space) and I grab the winter door and put it on the hinges.
I just got tired of working in a dirty/unorganized/gloomy/uncomfortable work area. And after all the years I’ve been doing this, I finally looked at the wife and said, “If we can afford to sink money into a kitchen remodel so your task area is more pleasant/efficient, I want to spend money for my task area for the same reason”. She said okay, but with a budget. And it’s not that expensive, if you know where to look for the stuff.
Tester
Tester, That’s A Nice Shop! I Wish I Had Such A Place To Work.
CSA
To say that it is or is not a good idea to have a heated garage in a cold, snowy place would because it does or does not increase corrosion is probably way to general to be accurate. On any given winter day, the answer might be different. A small increase in temp will always decrease the relative humidity and could help keep things dryer.
The road salt on any car in the winter acts less severe with lower temperatures. An insulated, unheated garage, such as ours, has a just below freezing temperature most of the winter. Although the salt will still be active till about -5F, its effect is much less severe.
I have several plug-in electric heaters to heat up my garage if I need to do some work in it.
The worst place to park a car is in an underground garage in Detroit, with lots of salt and high humidity and temperature.
You didn’t say what reasons why you want to heat the garage, is it attached, what type of climate you live in, or if you plan on working inside. Your location may not have codes , but if you do check your city or county ispections dept.they have handouts . Most codes limit no closer than 18 inches from the floor to the flame of the heating appliance ( closed combustion units vary) check manufactures instructions they are vary helpfull. If you are in a code district you also can go to the library.
That doesn’t make any sense. If it’s not allowed, then you won’t get a permit and it won’t be insurable.
I have a insulated and finished garage.I purchased a 40,000 btu Mr.Heater that hangs from the ceiling.Requires only a natural gas line and no electric and comes with a thermostat.What is great about this heater is that it heats the contents such as the concrete.I can bring the car in full of snow and by morning everything is completely dry.I have experienced no rusting on any car as I also store my antique Mustang in here.I keep the thermostat at 50 degrees all the time unless I am in the garage and 65 when I am out there.I have a 3 car garage and this heater works great.I estimate the cost to be around $30 extra a month to heat the garage which is not to bad since I enjoy being in the garage.
Tax assessment value generally has nothing to do with resale value. Where I live, a swimminmg pool adds to your taxes, but is a liability when selling the house!
My garage is insulated, but unheated. It’s very easy to warm up with a couple of portable electric heaters if I want to do some work.
Tester; I was leafing through some old Popular Mechanics magazines and the model garages in there are no better than yours. On Motorweek, Pat Goss has such a neat studio garage, but I’ve never seen him actually doing any repairs in there.
which is why I suggested working with the building inspector him/herself.
Which is exactly what I tried to do…but the town wouldn’t let me.
Here’s an example.
Inspector comes out to approve our plans for the addition. Says everything is fine. I know we were close to the septic system and wondered how close we could be. He told is no closer then 10’.
Went to the town the following day to pull the permit. The guy at the permit office said because the addition is less the 15’ away from septic system I need a variance. I told him the inspector said 10’ was fine…Said he doesn’t care what the inspector says…HIS office approves permits. We redid the plans and moved the addition over 3’…that the angle the septic system was that gave us 16’ of clearance. Town approved plans.
One week later the inspector comes by to inspect the foundation and wanted to know why the plans were changed…I told him…That’s when I found out about the tif between him and the town planning dept.
This went on for months…and cost ME several thousand dollars and time in delays and rescheduling of subs.
"Mr.Heater that hangs from the ceiling. Requires only a natural gas line and no electric …"
No blower? Radiant only?
Would a blower be much more efficient?
I’d like to vent our basement furnace into the ground level garage.
Would install two carbon monoxide alarms.
Does the powered combustion furnace produce any CO?
Venting is a term usually applied to the exhaust gases not the heated air.
Absolutely, you want a blower to move the heated air into the work space. Even the electric radiant heaters typically have a blower.
There are two concerns when heating; carbon monoxide production and oxygen depletion. While some fuels produce little or no CO, they all consume oxygen. So the heated space should have some air exchange method to insure against a hypoxic condition.
If I understand you correctly, you want to add another branch to your forced air furnace to heat your garage space. Be sure that you do not upset the balance of the system and that it has the capacity for this additional space. Sizing of the branch and a restrictor will be necessary to insure that the home is not starved of flow and that the supplied heat is sufficient to overcome demand. Be aware that most garages have significant heat loss and unless your home furnace is way over sized, it might not be capable of meeting the demand without a lot of insulating, sealing etc. Even then, once you open the door, most of the heat will dissipate rapidly and a cold car is a major heat sink. Without a separate zone for the garage, the heat will not come on for this demand but only when the home thermostat demands it. This is why people often use dedicated heating sources for their garages.
Well I think you’re either lucky or you don’t get much snow/salt in your area. I’ve seen several cars that parked in heated garages and they were rusted out completely in 4 years…same car NOT stored in a heated garage were just show signs of rust after 4 years.
No. A heat duct would require a return air which could be laden with gasoline fumes, etc.
Worse: I want to pipe the furnace combustion gasses into the garage.
The furnace has a forced air combustion.
The combustion gasses are forced up the flue (vent). They don’t merely vent by convective flue draft.
Much air is pulled in to the furnace combustion and some of its O2 is converted to CO2. Doubt there is any CO produced but I would still have CO alarm in the garage.
So the exhaust gasses should be O2 and CO2 and water vapor.
I’d like that waste heat diverted into the garage to heat everything.
Then if I want to work in the garage, I open the door to vent the combustion gasses and close it and work.
I’d like to make use of all that waste heat.
how do i remove my heated garage question/conversation from this “car talk” site??? i’ve got enough feedback.