Basement Workshop - AKA Dad's Lair
I debated whether to do this page. It seemed a little self indulgent to show pictures and say how great I think my workshop is. But, I really enjoy looking at and reading about other folk's workshops. There are a lot of clever folks out there and I get good ideas. It's fun. So, I decided to go ahead and do this page to show you my workshop.
In all the other places I have lived, I did not have the space or the time to set up as nice a workroom as I would have liked. When I moved in to my current house we were almost empty nesters so I had more time to set up the basement workshop I always wanted. My current workshop takes up about a third of the basement. I really like the space. It truly is my dream workroom.
I mentioned elsewhere on this site that my daughter has inspired me to be more environmentally conscious. Michelle taught me the old phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." While building out my workroom, I have tried to buy as little new stuff as practical. The legs on the workbench are from a bunk bed set someone put on the side or the road. I rescued the ham radio desk from the trash area at my daughter's apartment building. The tool storage shelves and the chest of drawers are both leftover components from a loft bed my son no longer wanted. The lights for the electronics bench were in a pile of junk in the basement when I moved in. Many of the extra shelves in the shelving units use wood left over from an old entertainment center. As much as possible, I try and use wood from my scrap lumber supply.
A few years after I finished the first iteration of the workshop I was up in my attic and realized we had a box of pictures that we had no wall space for. I put as many of these pictures up in the workshop as I could. It adds a nice personal touch. It also got some stuff out of the attic.
It's been fun building out my workshop. Everything has a place and it is easier to get work done.
Before
Let me tell you, the basement was rough when we moved in. Nasty flaking gold paint on rough poured concrete walls that needed patching. The paint on the rafters was so old that it would flake off when we walked around on the first floor. There were two light bulbs in the entire basement.
I patched and painted the poured concrete walls. For the patching I used DRYLOK FAST PLUG Hydraulic Cement. I followed the patching with two coats of DRYLOK EXTREME MASONRY WATERPROOFER, a coat of ZINSSER 123 Primer, and then a final coat of Benjamin Moore Semi-Gloss Chantilly Lace.
The walls were a lot of work but were nothing compared to the work done on the rafters. There is approximately 430 feet of rafter in my 24 by 24 foot basement. I wire brushed and scraped all the rafters. Then I applied two coats of KILZ2 All Purpose Interior/Exterior Water Based Primer. The final coat was Benjamin Moore Semi-Gloss Chantilly Lace. It came out nice. The basement seemed much brighter. But, holy cow was it a lot of work.
You may notice that the floors are unpainted. The floor is an inch or two of concrete over mud. In spots, the concrete is breaking down. It has a sandy texture. After the first round of patching I was ready to paint the floor. Then I read up on it and realized I should hold off. The general consensus out there on the web says to put down plastic over a section of your floor. If after a while you see condensation under the plastic, this is an indication that moisture is migrating up through the floor. The moisture would prevent paint from properly adhering to the floor. So, I decided not to paint the floor.
The basement was a little damp when we moved in. I bought two dehumidifiers from Home Depot. The dehumidifiers drain out to a Little Giant VCMA-15ULS Series 1/50 HP 1/2 Gallon Tank Condensate Removal Pump. I bought both of mine on Amazon. I ran hose from the pumps to where the washer drain hose hooks to my utility sink. This keeps my basement dry and I do not have to remember to empty out a dehumidifier reservoir.
After Lots Of Work
Benches - The Heart Of The Workshop
The main work bench has a 1 inch thick sheet of plywood on a 2X8 frame. I found the legs on the side of road. They were part of a bunk bed set someone was getting rid of. The black eagle on the end of the bench is from a screen door we replaced.
This is my electronics bench. I like the idea of having a main bench and an electronic bench. If an electronic project takes a while to complete, it will not block more traditional household projects.
Until recently, spring of 2022, my ham radio equipment was in my upstairs office. That wasn't working for me. My office had equipment for my job which has been remote for the past few years. It also had my main computer I use for web site development and routine household based computer tasks. And finally, it had my radio hobby and ham radio equipment. As my son-in-law used to say "Too much stuff. Not enough space." I want a dedicated ham radio desk so I can sit down and do radio stuff without having to reconfigure the work area.
After dropping my daughter off at her apartment complex, May of 2022, I noticed this desk next to the dumpster in the apartment's trash area. I needed a desk. I checked with the apartment concierge and he said "Sure, it's all yours." I had wanted something unique and this fills the bill.
Workshop Pieces & Parts
The shelf and drawer unit in the bottom half of this picture are left over from a loft bed my son no longer wanted. I mounted a peg board on the back side of this unit.
The chest of drawers is also from the loft bed my son no longer needed. I mounted a peg board on the front top and the entire back. My wife, who's a great cook, has a saying, "You can never have too much parsley." I say, "You can never have too many peg boards."
This is the back side of the two left over loft bed components.
It should be evident by now that I am a big fan of peg boards. I always liked them but became a much bigger fan when I discovered Triton Durahook peg board hardware. The hardware has a small hook that goes in a peg board hole and a screw that holds it in place. The hardware is securely fastened and does not flop out when you look at it cross-ways as does cheap bargain bin pegboard hardware.
On the web I saw a person's site that showed PVC pipes mounted to a wall to store dowel rods, all thread, small pieces of conduit, and pipe. I ran out of wall space a while back so I built this little cart. I can roll it to a convenient, out of the way spot when working in my lair.
I built this shelf for my battery chargers and batteries. I am a big fan of Ryobi tools. As I get older, I more and more appreciate a tidy work area. This fits the bill. When I told my dad about this he said "Are you the same kid I raised?" In my younger days, folks would not use my name and the words tidy or organized in the same sentence.
Always good to crank some tunes when in the lair. I got these speakers off the side of the road. They work just fine. Notice the pipe brackets on the speaker shelves. Do you think maybe someone has watched way too much HGTV with his wife?
A few pieces of 2X4 was all it took to organize my clamps. This was my wife's idea.
A zip tie organizer I got on amazon.com.
I had an old radio cabinet kicking around my workshop. I decided to use it as a cabinet for my ham radio supplies. I removed the insides and put in a shelf. The radio was a GE radio manufactured for Macy's.
The shelf and cabinet are pretty empty now. I am still in the process of getting my downstairs radio room set up. I anticipate that before I blink twice, I will need more storage space.
Lighting & Power
I mentioned earlier that initially, the basement had two light bulbs. That was it. It was dark and depressing. In the area where the work shop is now there was one outlet with two plugs.
My son-in-law and I, well, mostly my son-in-law, installed some additional plugs on the wall in the shop area. I hired an electrician to install a two outlet plug box and a six outlet power strip above the bench. The box is wired to a wall switch. I bought a couple 4 foot plug-gable LED light strips and installed them over the bench. For the electronics bench, I mounted some of the light fixtures I found in the basement when I moved in.
