Give Shed

[Clinton1]

If I stay with concrete then my poor little footsies will get sore.
What is a man to do

Wear shoes??

Seriously, what thermal mass benefit will the slab give when there isn't enough sun to heat the slab in the first place?
i.e. when you want it to work best it will work at its worst.

Its a serious question, as I'm not sure what the slab will do when it is just a big mass of cold concrete.
I thought that in a cold climate that you had to heat the slab by use of a 'sun room' (greenhouse effect in a room that is partitioned off from the rest of the house), particularly one that has an additional heat source in it.
I'd have thought that the slab will act as a big heat sink, removing any heat in the room or your feet, and serving to be the "ice block" in the esky.

In this case it would be better to have the raised timber floor????

I started thinking about this after coming back to Qld after 9 days in Melb where it didn't get about 13 degrees and was overcast the whole time.
Please edumakate me.

[Grunt]

Solar passive works as long as you don't let the summer sun in. You have to the eves right.



Still, if you had a day like yesterday where it rained all day, you won't get any solar heating. However, a wood stove will still heat your slab, which will continue to radiate heat. You only need to use the wood heater occasionally rather than all the time.

It is almost manditory to have slab insulation in very cold climates like Northern U.S.A or Canada.

If the slab is insulated from the bottom as well you will not have the heat leach out into the ground below.

[Wild Dingo]

I would prefer a timber floor above the concrete floor (room to place D/C ducting and power cables to fixed machinery so no extension cords) but haven't the head height, so I have put foam rubber interlocking tiles in the workshop area and foam backed carpet in the finishing shed

Peter.

Now thats a bottler of an idea!! The timber flooring I meant... hadnt thought of that for the shed I was trying to think of a way of tunnelling the conduit for the power under the concrete then drilling down and putting a stand next to the machines... bit iffy I thought... but this this be good! this I can do!

I reckon all up Id loose what 2in? (1in for joists and 1in for floor) I can live with that!

I got some lengths of conveyor belting and just cut it (persistance and a sharp standley knife are the key here) to length in front of the benches... but I can now see even that is going to have to disappear as I floor the whole shed!! oops no I wont cause I put that ruddy loft in didnt I? duhh sorta a bit shy on head room in the bench area if I do that! :eek: But for the tool area bloody ripper idea Peter! Cheers mate!

So thanks Sturdee and thanks for the thread

[echnidna]

why bother with the concrete floor at all?

[Wild Dingo]

why bother with the concrete floor at all?

Cause the stinkin beaurecrats in the friggin anully retentive shire building section wouldnt pass it without one!... my preference was for rammed earth but they said "ooohh noooo cant have that gotta be concrete" blasted mongrel... sigh

Anyway the next shed will be rammed earth weather they like it or not!!

[ozwinner]

Cause the stinkin beaurecrats in the friggin anully retentive shire building section wouldnt pass it without one!... my preference was for rammed earth but they said "ooohh noooo cant have that gotta be concrete" blasted mongrel... sigh

Anyway the next shed will be rammed earth weather they like it or not!!

Ya have to use Oz blood like they do in native Africa to make it go hard.
Goes hard as a rock apperently..

Al

[TassieKiwi]

No insulation in my shed, ya big wuss. I do have a big Tassie Barrel though, and if going out there of an evening I whip out the #7 and see to whatever needs planing at the time, while the fire warms the place up. 20 mins of that and you're sweating.

I wonder about heat leaching out through the ground - I reckon the temperature gradient in a room would see the lowest 50mm of air pretty cold anyway:confused: Dunno. I too have 1m wide 20mm conveyor belts in front of the work benches. Very comfy, and if you stupidly drop your #20 it won't smash. Chisels bounce too. DAMHIK.

[Auld Bassoon]

Pity that you don't have a bit more headroom as it would be very useful to have the DC hosing under floor too - but that's 100mm and up

[Grunt]

All my ducting is 150mm.

I've thought about using a raised wooden floor but I'm doing this for practice for the real house, so I want as much the same as I can manage.
The house will have hydronic heating. See this


Chris

[Mulgabill]

Hey Grunt!

no boubt you have checked out the Earth Garden Mag mob at Tretham
http://www.earthgarden.com.au/ There big on Straw bale technology.