building sump closet in garage, looking at door options

[RyanBrucks]

Hey Guys,
I've decided to move all my tanks equipment into the garage, and build a stand system to support misc tanks, and then an enclosure to insulate from temperature extremes, and provide ventilation.

Here's a scale model of the design.


This is NC, which during the summer reaches temperatures of 100F easily, and my garage is easily 10F hotter. Winter is not an issue generally, but we do have some pretty cold stints. I've never measured my garage temperature in the winter (haven't lived here that long yet!), but I'm guessing it gets damn cold too. Thankfully, there is a big fat air duct behind the sump room, in the crawlspace. I think I should be able to cut into this and put a small vent inside the tank stand, and the house fan will automatically cool it/heat it.

For doors, I am thinking of sliding doors since I park my car too close for swinging doors. Are sliding doors more difficult to seal for heating/cooling purposes? I wouldn't want much air leaking out since that could cost me alot in the summer.

I am considering using glass sliding doors - the kind that are used for the beer-isles of so many gas stations and grocery stores.

I went to Home Depot and Lowes with high hopes of seeing some glass sliding doors, but unfortunately they only sell doors that have 1 slider, and 1 fixed glass pane.

Does anybody know where to get some of these refrigeration-type glass doors? I could probably even make a patio-door work if there was one with both doors sliding.

Thanks,
Ryan

[dzeadow]

As far as sealing the door goes, all you'd need to do is put a bead of silicone around the flange that goes around the door.. however, being in a garage, if it came with one, you'd have to cut off the bottom flange or build up the floor with a 2x4 or something.. and silicone that as well. That's at least what we do here in MT and it gets cold obviously.. (I do construction here). As for dual sliders, I'm no help there.. sorry.

[Phoebe0715]

I am here in Raleigh as well! We've been in Raleigh 4 years now, but have always lived somewhere in NC.

For sliding doors I would suggest the mom and pop type lumber places that might be able to special order things. My favorite is Capital City Lumber near the fairgrounds. (Hillsborogh (sp) street). You also have Lumber 84 (or something close to that) in the Holly Springs/Apex area. There may be a few more. You could try googling lumber yards in the area.

For your electric bill - it should not cost you more because of heat or a/c loss because your thermostat is not in the garage so air only goes in whenever the house needs cooling or heating. The main problem would be not being able to keep the room hot or cold enough.

[45commando]

probably not the best option,but have you thought about using closet style mirrored sliding doors?If you hang them with the mirror side facing in,they will help to bounce the enclosed air back into the room.Also you could add a thin sheet of styrofoam to the back of each door & still have room for the doors to pass by eachother.You would,however need to add some type of foam seal at the bottom of these doors,as they hang about 3/4" above the floor.Just an idea,but HTH.

[GrandeGixxer]

That tank is way too small for that shark. :P I think most sliding doors dual slide, but there is usually a pin or screw that holds it shut isn't there?

[RyanBrucks]

I know there definitely ARE sliding doors that dual slide. I remember having one as kid in san diego. I remember we used a piece of sawed-off broom stick to act as a lock to keep the others ide in place

but for some reason the major hardware stores don't carry them. Not to worry, I will keep searching until I find a place.


Phoebe0715,
Cool to find another reefer in the raleigh area! I will definitely be calling some of the local places on monday, first thing. I've already learned that local shops are 2x cheaper for acrylic, so why not doors too

p.s. laser shark not to scale.

[RuhiA]

Originally posted by 45commando
If you hang them with the mirror side facing in,they will help to bounce the enclosed air back into the room.

You need to choose the right mirror for the job though. You need to get a mirror which only reflects the hot air molecules trying to escape into the room. Downside to this is, you need to replace them with the type of mirror which reflect the cold air molecules during the summer months. I think there are combination air bouncing mirrors too but they are not as efficient. There is also adjustable air bouncing reflective surface mirrors. You can program the micro reflective surface geometry to bounce back the air to the places where it's needed the most. It requires an air bouncer controller dedicated computer.




If you must insulate the doors, you can insulate the door sliding inside from inner side and the other one from outer side. It may not look pretty but would serve the purpose. Or just leave enough room for the thickness in between the tracks if you are custom building it.

[spi4life]

i know this is an older thread But I have had thoughts of doing the same thing with my house. My Garage for some reason isn't big enough to put a car in it so I was thinking about making an in wall tank there. I would build a room and insulate the room to help out with the temp some. Again living in NC the summers get pretty hot and in the winter it gets pretty cold in the winter for about 4-8 weeks. I was wondering if I did this I would build somewhat of a window in the room and put a little AC unit in the window to cool it during the summer and put a radiator style heater in the room for the cold parts of the winter. My next thing would be ventilation. My idea for this would be to put some kind of vent with a fan going out and also getting a dehumidifier for the room.

Does this sound like a bad idea? Do you have any different ideas? Any suggestions would be great! thanks!

[RyanBrucks]

haha, it may be 'old' already, but I just spent the past 2 weekends cleaning my garage and doing 'prep' work for this project. For one, I had to completely move the shelves off the wall where the closet will be and put them somewhere else, and remove TONS of trash boxes and crap, and also move a bunch of dirt/gravel/crap out to my shed. ....My back!!

pheobe:

"For your electric bill - it should not cost you more because of heat or a/c loss because your thermostat is not in the garage so air only goes in whenever the house needs cooling or heating. The main problem would be not being able to keep the room hot or cold enough."

that seems like a pretty valid concern, so I'm going to look into options for ventilation. I might be able to just run some kind of AC fan inline with the split air duct to keep air actively circulated between the house and sump closet, so that equilibrium between the house (specifically, guest bathroom and sump closet will be reached much faster even when the AC/Heat unit isn't running.

Check out my acrylic n00b thread

phoebe, the puppy you see at the end of my acrylic thread was named phoebe It wasn't me! it was my girlfriend caroline who picked it out

Now that I have a router (and soon to have a circular saw), I think I'll just buy custom-sized glass panes and take a stab at making the doors custom. I've found some sliding door tracks with built in ball bearings so that the door can simply sit on top of the track.

spi4life,
your post does give me some things to think about, but I'm still in the research phase for my project (just wait and see how 'old' this thread is before any real progress will be posted!!!). That said, the outside vent with dehumidifier does seem like what Fudge (TOTM) did., and it obviously worked!

How close is your garage to your house, is there any way you can piggy back off the main AC like I'm doing? it might simplify things but unfortunately I'm not in a real position to prove that yet!

RuhiA,
I am probably going to do what you suggest and just use weatherstriping. Should be a no-brainer after looking at the available shapes at home depot. I might need to lubricate to keep from squeaking on open/close though