Sump room in garage

[cdub]

I am in the process of buying a house and by doing so my sump will move from behind my tank out into my garage. I'm trying to get a list of all things that will need to be completed to make this a successful transition.

I was considering building a small drywall framework around the sump and connecting it to the house ac/heating ducts. I had also considered plumbing this room into a attic vent.

I'm looking for any advice that anyone can provide.

 

[izib]

I'm about finished with your what your talking about and had the same thoughts. I ended up using a cheap $11 bathroom vent from Lowe's. Its connected to a hose that goes up through my attic and out the side of the house. the room stays fairly nice and very little humidity. I do have a chiller though.

 

[cameron]

If you have garage doors, you can just insulate those. I would run the AC out to the garage via flexible ducting and use a fan as well. You don't need to keep it the same temp as the house, but you probably need to lower it several degrees. If you can keep the light out and move air into pretty constantly, that will be sufficient. Insulated dry wall would be better, but more work than you need.

 

[cdub]

do you think i could get by with just running the ac into the "sump room"?

if i did do that and added a fan running from the room to the outside wouldn't i just be blowing out cold air?

 

[jessezm]

Cory--where are you buying? Congratulations! You just missed me and Jaime installing his new 300g tank you weasel!

 

[cdub]

sorry jesse, its been a rough weekend trying to get ready to go to kansas for work and getting the contract ready for my house. i owe both of you big time, sorry i couldn't help.

i'm buying one a house in the carlton ridge sub division on 41 between 96 and russel parkway.

 

[izib]

I like the idea of actually building a room in the garage due to things like cars, cans of gas, and most bothersome, bugs.

As for the AC, I was going to go that route but was still worried about humidity so I went with the fan instead. If you insulated the room and added a vent fan, I don't think you would need AC.

 

[james s_]

Depends on how hot your garage gets in the summer.Which side of the house gets the most Sun during the day.You may find out that you need to install a AC vent and a return to keep cool air circulating.If you have duct's close by the room then it would not be much trouble to tie into them.Then you could also close them off for the days that you dont need them.

If you go the Vent fan method,remember you need to have a fan blowing in air also,if you seal the room off from the garage.Or cut a air vent into the wall down low so that it evens out the air pressure in the room.Of course if the room is not going to be completely sealed off,which IMO it should be to keep unwanted gasses,etc.. out,then you wont have to worry about a vent down low,you can just run exhaust fans.

 

[james s_]

cdub;50441 wrote: do you think i could get by with just running the ac into the "sump room"?

if i did do that and added a fan running from the room to the outside wouldn't i just be blowing out cold air?

Keep in mind that hot air rises,so in turn you would be sucking out the hot unwanted air from the tank and not ALL of the AC.
Im still in the process of making these same decisions for my fish room,so I look forward to more advice from people.There are some good threads on RC about humidity and running AC,Returns,etc...

 

[cdub]

the garage will get the brunt of the sun throughout the day which might be a problem. it does have an attic so i may tie the fish room into the ac, then go ahead and vent the rest of the garage through the attic vent to keep it cool.

i'm planning on parking a 50 gallon rubbermaid tub next to the tank for a few weeks until i can get my sump all plumbed and figure out the temp/humidity fix.

 

[cameron]

Good catch finga on the sun. Our garage doesn't get direct sunlight and without any AC it stays relatively cool. However, like he said sun beating down on the wall could drasitically change the temp.

 

[jessezm]

cdub;50449 wrote: sorry jesse, its been a rough weekend trying to get ready to go to kansas for work and getting the contract ready for my house. i owe both of you big time, sorry i couldn't help.

i'm buying one a house in the carlton ridge sub division on 41 between 96 and russel parkway.

Oh, man, I was just ribbing you, don't worry about it--we had 9 other guys to help lift the thing! Have a good trip--call me when you're back

 

[mojo]

One word of advice- be very very careful about the amount of evaporation you have. I have my sump in my basement, and have recently discovered that everything (even outside of the sump room) is covered in salt spray- even things two rooms away. I've lost plenty of tools and electronics.... I'd be scared to death to have this happen to a place where my cars lived....

 

[james s_]

mojo;50546 wrote: One word of advice- be very very careful about the amount of evaporation you have. I have my sump in my basement, and have recently discovered that everything (even outside of the sump room) is covered in salt spray- even things two rooms away. I've lost plenty of tools and electronics.... I'd be scared to death to have this happen to a place where my cars lived....

Exactly,that why I would seriously recomend you to seal the room completely off from the rest of the garage. Im using an exterior door with threshold and all for my fish room and plan to completely seal the room from the rest of my basement with sheet rock,insulation,and siliconing all the joints.Keeps the salt and the smell from the rest of the house.Fortunately I have a window in my fish room that I can open if need be.

 

[slayer]

i second that... come over to my place corey and i'll show you how not to do it... all my tools have rusted out, trying to build the new tank this weekend all my tools were rusted, even the drill... definatly dont keep my baby in the garage (the stang).. even my weight set in the garage has rusted.. i have a bathroom extractor fan in the ceiling to draw out the hot air , and i mounted a gable attic fan in the attic to push out the hot air,,all controlled by my aquacontroller, but you could use it on thermostat,, i drilled 4 2 inch holes into the crawl space so that the ceiling fan would pull in the cooler air from under the house to cool the garage,,it works..

 

[cameron]

This is the kind of stuff you don't find out until it is too late usually. Keep those great points coming.

 

[izib]

For anyone who has had this set up for awhile, how long do the cheap vent fans usually last? Im guessing not long but I could be wrong.

 

[mojo]

A year or two.. long enough to justify their price and use...