Hello
In short: would tarpaulins work or is it better to have nothing?
Longer: I've read lots and lots, asked for (and got) good advice here so I think I am reasonably well informed now. Thanks to all who have helped over the last few months.
I haven't the money to line our wooden workshop with cellotex and then
9mm ply or MDF so I am looking into a cheaper option: namely, do nothing and allow the natural ventilation to stave off humidity, or get a staple gun and some decent tarpaulins and staple them, nice and taught, over the inside of the workshop walls and roof. This might help, I was thinking, to keep the innards above the dew point (whereby the temperature drops such that the humidity in the air volume condenses out (onto cold items in particular)).The workshop will be 10'x8' built from 22mm T&G loglap with an integral T&G floor. Roof will be T&G supporting an onduline outer. The structure is to be 2"x2" framework, with the inside of the roof and the four walls having vertical battens on them which will be approx 1" x 1"
Given that I will be working in there from time to time throughout the year for an hour of hobby activity here and there, and given that it will contain a load of metal hand tools and a pillar drill and a bench grinder and bench mounting cut-off saw and a small bandsaw, I don't want things to go rusty.
One train of thought, then, is to do nothing. Build it, use it, accept that it might be a bit chilly (but a fan heater will warm it up swiftly).
The other is that the tarpaulin will act as a windbreak to drafts, it'll trap a static-air cavity between the tarpaulin and the wood, and it will keep in whatever heat there is inside. There are OK tarpaulins from Machinemart which even have a silver reflective side which is supposed to help keep heat in.
For a few £tens I can clad the roof and walls with tarpaulin and then fix some battens horizontally, through into the workshop wall battens, for fixing things. Cheaper and quicker than cellotex/wood layers.
Would, however, the tarpaulins suffer from condensation once the temperature one side or the other drops below the dew point, such that I might end up creating damp rather than keeping it away? Maybe damp would form, trapped behind the tarpaulin and cause more trouble than it saves.
Your thoughts, experience and advice are welcomed on this matter once again! Thanks in advance for your comments.
DDS