29/7/2018: Having got these two half ton lathe and milling machines home and rearranged my garage I was alarmed to see how quickly everything cast iron went rusty. Now the summer is here it is time for a plan to stop this happening over the winter to come. This involves after some research insulating the walls and then lining it with a vapour barrier and finally some sort of OSB3/Ply internal lining. After sitting on the hedge for a while and looking at options like loft insulation, hard insulation and cost and all the while selling stuff for the coffers pot I finally came across an end of line offer at Wickes for some silver foil based insulation. It’s still current as other suppliers still sell it but the price was ok so I drove 50 miles to the nearest Wickes that had stock and returned with a car chock full with 10 rolls, 5 inside and 5 on the roof rack. This is what it all looks like (well, 9 rolls anyway) stored in my temporary shed.

Next came the cursing myself bit: I should have done this when the garage was empty even though it was not possible for a multitude of good reasons, doesn’t stop me looking back and thinking how easy it might have been.

Then:

Now:

Seems I may have set myself quite a task………………..

Anyway, we are making progress:

I have decided to attach the lining to studwork that I have in turn attached to the concrete panels using cross braces slotted onto the ends of the existing bolts.

First I fitted the attachment points and then made the boards to fit. Then remove the boards, add the insulation and vapour barrier and finally put it all back up again. The first 6 foot or so is taking a long time as I have to make jigs for various tasks and cut the insulation then seal to fit. Other sections are all the correct width for the insulation so should be a lot quicker.

More soon as I hopefully make progress. The recent hot weather has meant very limited working windows as it is just too hot in there.

Update: I’m not sure when I finished this but it is pretty much done now. The walls and ceiling are completely covered as detailed above and the only other thing I did was the floor. Here I laid some more of the damp proofing and covered it with 18mm OSB3 board. This has made it massively easier to move the machines around and sweep the floor etc. The biggest win was it was an easy and effective way of keeping the concrete dust down, a 100% win there.

We have now been through a summer and winter and are heading back into summer again. The concrete garage is now a brilliant place to work and storage of tools and equipment is second only to indoors. The temperature maintained in there is always a few degrees off from the extremes outside. It also tracks behind the outdoor temperatures by several hours. Any heating or cooling I apply is massively more efficient and lasts longer than I had any right to expect.

The only down side is being wood based I have to be careful not to get it wet or suffer other spillages as I am sure it would not be good for it. Never mind, if I do have a disaster I can always just replace the affected sheet(s).

So, the summary: expensive, hard work but just so worth it now I’m using it.

1/11/2019: It’s just over a year on now and we are heading rapidly into winter again. The garage and its installation etc. are performing extremely well. Everything except the main up and over door is now insulated and lined, the main door will follow as soon as I can afford it. It turns out the biggest problem now is running out of space, I’ll have to get rid of some of the less useful items laying around and become more organised. I wish myself good luck with that.

14/04/2020: It’s been a while now but the main door is now insulated. I chose to leave it uncovered i.e. no osb covering. There were two reasons, one practical and the other functional. The practical one was simply that the motor, belt etc.. of the opener couldn’t cope with the weight of the osb covering (I know, I tried it). The second reason is that the insulation is highly reflective and it helps with the lighting under all circumstances. I don’t see myself doing anything more other than the odd shelf and other minor reorganisation activities. All well worth the pain and the cost of doing this

Thank you