Jeff B wrote:

I have a newer home that has garages *barely* deep enough for the cars
themselves. I also have neighborhood covenants forbidding any kind of
outside shed, shop, etc. So basically, if I want a place to play it looks
like it's going to have to be in the basement.

My question is, am I crazy to think about building an enclosed room in my
(currently unfinished) basement? The space I have that I could allocate to
this is about 12' x 15'. I was thinking that I'd leave the floor concrete
and put up drywall all the way around... sound isolation would be a major
concern. It would almost be pointless to have this workshop if I could use
it late at night while the family is sleep (2 floor up). I guess before I
go on too much more I should mention what I actually want to do in it! It
will mainly be for Tig welding, which I'm not concerned about excessive
noise or dirt/debris levels, but I will also be prepping/making the pieces
that will be welded in this room as well. This means grinding, drilling,
cutting, etc. I won't have any air ducts going to this room, so hopefully
the mess would stay enclosed in there, but basically I'm looking for a real
world sanity from anybody else that has done this. If I'm shop-vaccing the
room twice a week, can I actually pull this off without ruining my house?
If anyone else has built something like this, I'd love to see some pictures.
I am just trying to prepare my "case" for when I tell the wife "oh yeah, I'm
going to start welding in the basement, but don't worry, the whole house
won't be covered in aluminum shavings" :-)


If you have no ventilation, it may get unbearably hot in there.

I have a metal shop in a part of my basement. For noise reasons, I
put the big machines at the opposite end of the ranch house from the
bedrooms. I can run a shop vac, which is about the noisiest things
I have, without disturbing the family at night.

I have a homemade fume hood for spray painting and TIG work, with an
outdoor vent. Basically made with dryer vent parts through the foundation
wall.

We do have a slight problem with people picking up metal slivers in their
(bare) feet somewhere in the house. I do as best as I can to clean up swarf
on the floor and brush off my shoes when I leave the shop. And,
sometimes the
kids visit me barefoot in the shop, and I warn them every time they are
risking a sliver or even a trip to the emergency room. Aluminum is no
problem, the thin slivers are weaker than skin, and crumple rather than
penetrate deeply into the foot. Steel slivers are an entirely different
matter,
they will plunge WAY deep into the toughest flesh on occasion.

So, if you take some basic precautions with an astroturf-type welcome mat
to brush your feet off on, and generally clean up whenever you are done
making chips, it will NOT destroy your house. (Don't go and get $9000
worth of wall-to-wall Berber carpet, either.)

The biggest complaint I get is SMELLS! Especially, I have to paint when
the rest of the family is away. If I absolutely have to paint something
while
they are there, I get a bunch of static, even with the fume hood.
Without that,
the fumes would drive me out, too, unless they made me PASS out. Hmm,
that reminds me - you really CAN'T TIG weld in a closed space. The Argon
will drive out all the oxygen after a while, and you'll slowly croak.

Jon