Karl Winkler - Woodworking: Workshop Design and Helpful Tips for Beginners

A basement is a hole in the ground and attracts all manner of moisture, with questions such as mildew, rust, even small floods. Underground rooms arent flooded with natural sunlight, either; single incandescent fixtures are the norm, typically scattered where you dont require them. Additionally, basements are where household items go to die, so space is tight. Still, for lack of an alternative, numerous woodworkers set up shop in the basement and have to deal with any or all these dreads. To help them out, we asked our experienced friends for tips on making a basement workshop drier, brighter, and more space-efficient. We also asked folks how they prevent noise and dust from infiltrating the living areas above. The reaction was overpowering, and we got plenty of nifty solutions to common issues. We used those thoughts to create a virtual basement shop that is as comfortable to work in as it is inconspicuous to the rest of the household.

Basement walls are concrete, a absorbent material that allows moisture penetration if you dont take measures to stop that migration. Its well worth the effort, though. For instance, numerous basements are moist, and folks who have basements are familiar with the term musty. In summer, theres an odor in the basement thats impossible to miss but hard to pinpoint. In wintertime, the cold, moist air can chill even your fingernails. And the moisture does not just create a painful working atmosphere. It too will rust your tools and increase the moisture content of lumber to undesirable levels. In case you get standing water frequently, you may have issues that need to be addressed by a professional waterproofing contractor before placing expensive tools and supplies in harms way. Nonetheless if you simply have a damp space, there are numerous ways to fight the fog. If youre battling moisture, the cause may be rooted outside the house. Confirm that the house gutters are not stopped and that the downspouts are directed away from the foundation. Where conceivable, try to grade the appropriately so that it slopes away from the house. This may be easier said than done. One of the first things we heard from our online responders was to add a dehumidifier. You can get one at any home center. Dependent on the size, the cost will run from about $150 to $250. Once you install the dehumidifier, make a habit of emptying it regularly, especially during the humid summer months. You could decrease moisture by sealing the walls and floor with a moisture blocking paint, such Damplock. These thick coatings have the added benefit of giving the area a bright face-lift that reflects light. Last of all, you can fight rust directly by placing desiccants in tool drawers or coating exteriors lightly with paste wax. Dust is a known poison, so its vital to avoid as much of it as possible from floating around. In case you work in an underground room, the dust also becomes a nuisance upstairs, as it will migrate into living zones. So get a dust collector and an air cleaner to help keep the particles at bay. Youll too appreciate the fact that there will be less to sweep up. Along with dust, a woodworkers passion for building things comes with another inhospitable by product: noise. Once youre working below the living area of your home, you must be mindful of others above. We have uncovered some nuggets that helps drop the noise that can invade living areas. You can launch a systematic, all-out unpleasant against sound. Nonetheless there are smaller steps you can take to help turn down the volume. One way to decrease sound transmission is to separate the drywall from the edging. You can install resistant metal channel in the ceiling, yet a cheaper substitute is stapling polystyrene sill sealer to studs and ceiling joists to create a cushion between the wood and the drywall. Insulation between framing also will help decrease sound transmission; the higher the R-value, the superior the insulation will dampen sound. Though you cant put a muffler on your tools, you can decrease the output of two of the more annoying accessories in the shop: the compressor and the shop vacuum. By housing each of these in a soundproof chamber made of plywood and acoustic padding, you drop the noise level of each machine. Just ensure that the box has enough holes or vents for airflow out. One of the sole aspects of a basement shop is that theres often a door leading directly to the living zones of the household. Choosing the correct door, or adjusting your existing one, can help decrease the amount of noise and dust that enters the home. High-frequency noises produced by routers and shop vacuums get in through cracks, while low-frequency sounds, such as those generated by a deadblow mallet on a workpiece, migrate through mass. It is suggested treating the basement door as though it were an exterior entry, where you want to stop air infiltration. Your first option is install a weighty, prehung exterior door, with all the attendant weather-stripping in place. The weatherstripping will cut down on the high-frequency sound, and the mass of the door itself will soften the low-frequency noise. In case you dont want to add a new door, retrofit the basement door with weather-stripping along the door stops, and add a vinyl sweep to the door bottom. By their nature, basements dont get ordinary light, therefore you need a boost here. Naturally, basement lighting schemes are not well-thought-out by builders. You often get a small handful of single bulbs scattered here and there. Yet you can change the lighting scheme to generate a more inviting, happy workplace. The objective is to create uniform lighting from corner to corner, and fluorescent fixtures are the most economical way to do it. In case you have existing incandescent fixtures, replace them with banks of fluorescent lights to illuminate as much of the space as possible. If you dont have existing fixtures and wiring, its worth the investment to hire an electrician to run the wiring and install the fixtures. In order to help with light reflectivity, you can paint the walls white and coat the concrete floor with epoxy paint. An additional choice is to lay down light-colored vinyl tile. Looking after the floor not only helps with light reflection, yet it also fights moisture and makes it easier to sweep up any wreckage. In case you need to, add task lighting at your bench or at machines that cast shadows on their own tables, such as a floor-standing drill press or a bandsaw. Its also beneficial to illuminate storage zones. As with most woodworking workshops, a basement can get filled with tools fast. Yet basement areas can be small to start with, and often store stuff for everyone in the household, therefore storage for your lumber, tools, and accessories becomes even more of a contest. Numerous people recommended using narrow or oddly shaped areas, such as the space under stairs, to store lumber and scraps. Those with larger basements built separate storage rooms around their water heaters and furnaces. This resolution not only creates a neat storage selection, but it also separates the utilities from dust. Certain folks simply store most of their wood outside, bringing in stock as they require it. Other folks built wood stud walls over the concrete exteriors, making it easy to hang cabinets, lumber racks, or other storage systems. The bottom line: Use spaces smartly, and youll stay well organized and avoid mixing your lumber scraps with the laundry. A basement may not be the ideal place to set up shop, but for numerous folks its the best option. Instead of toiling in a dungeon, you can create a clean, well-lighted place. In the end, youll be more comfortable and so will your housematesa win-win for everyone.