I have a pretty good pain cave setup indoors (in our study) with only a Zwift station (KICKR, Wahoo desk, etc.). I’ve been working on my spouse to allow me to get a treadmill, but the current indoor space would be far too cramped and unsightly by adding a treadmill (and it would have to cease to be a study at all). In other words, she says no.
I floated the idea of turning 1/2 of our attached garage into a pain cave in order to add a treadmill (she would keep her car on one side, and I would start parking mine outside). She’s open to this. I live in Nashville, so our winters are fairly mild. Our summers are pretty bad, but my garage seems to be fairly insulated (2015 construction), and I don’t recall it being too bad in there (I wish I had measured the temp/humidity this past summer). We have a brand new garage floor (sealed and all fancy), and the garage does not collect dust or bugs.
I thought about buying a cheap temp/humidity meter to see right now in the dead of winter how cold it might get (I doubt it gets below 50F ever in there), and it is also a space that a small electric space heater would heat fairly quickly. Are there other considerations (security, for example) I need to consider before buying some puzzle rubber mats, moving my Zwift setup in there, and testing for a month before I find a treadmill on Facebook Marketplace? Wifi will reach fine. Thanks for the help!
UPDATE: Put a baby monitor I had in the garage last night. It got down to 22F outside last night (rarely gets colder than this in the winter in Nashville), and my garage inside at 8am was 41F / 41% humidity.
Sounds like a great idea to me. Managing moisture from exercise and getting some airflow will be important, might need a stand alone ac. Power ok out there?
Thanks. Power is fine. I have two turbo fans for the Zwift setup, and if I end up getting a treadmill, I’ll likely add another for that. Garage door can be opened slightly if needed.
We use our attached garage for our indoor cycling. Adding heat is usually the easy part by using an electric or propane heater.
In Texas, the hard part is dealing with heat. I recommend adding insulation to your garage door if it’s aluminum. Reflectix is good and easy to install. The other thing to help with heat is a dehumidifier.
A dedicated HVAC unit is the best solution but the most costly. That’s what I did, but the house was built with the garage AC installed. Retrofit can be trickier.
Im in Vancouver area. Attached double garage with treadmill and Trainer setup for about 3 years (and winters) . I have a thermometer and humidity meter and even on the coldest days (-10C to date) the garage goes no lower than 8C. I leave my pc in there and it has kept going just fine, along with the LCD monitor. In the winter i just turn on the space heater 30min before a ride or run to get the temp above 10C.
Biggest issue is rust. High humidity here and plenty sweat make ideal conditions. So i now wipe everything down with a mild soap and water mix, and leave the fan on bike/treadmill for an hour after use to make sure everything is dry.
I’m a tri poser—primarily a distance runner who manages about 3-4k cycling miles/year for fun/cross training. The running and cycling scenes could be better here, but they are not terrible. Chattanooga seems better for all outdoor activities, and I think Knoxville has a better cycling scene.
I’ve often thought about the same thing. A few things to consider:
-We bought a new garage door that was a slight step above our previous uninsulated one. It was $1300 all in ( installed). It made our temps go from the lowest of 47 to 50. If you have money in the budget, consider upgrading your garage door…it will help in the summer heat too (ours is hit by summer sun for many hours).
-I looked into a heater/ac unit for the garage that is the stand alone Mitsubishi version. That was $2300 installed. I was more interested in it for the summer heat, as our garage can get into the 90s (southern Maryland). It was a little above what I was thinking. Hoping for $1500 to $1800.
-Is might just get a stand alone AC unit.
-Check for gaps that can be sealed with spray foam. Is your garage drywalled?
-I installed 2 ceiling fans where the 2 lights were, it gives more light and also gives better relief from high humidity. I do have a humidity and thermometer digital reader. 10 bucks on Amazon.
-Might need a dehumidifier in the space, especially on days the wife parks her drenched car from the rain and or the snow left on the car when she comes in. I do sweep out the garage when the cars allow it to puddle.
-I would definitely put some type of material down to protect floor. You mentioned you have a nice new garage floor. Be careful about what you put down, as it might adhere to the floor due to moisture from concrete, or peel up the floor when you remove it. I am sure I will sound crazy, but I’d be tempted to put down some type of large wax paper or insulated barrier (used between concrete and bottom plate when building houses).
Good luck. Post some pics of your space as it is now
I think Nashville has a pretty good multi sport scene. There’s lots of tri clubs…Working Triatlete, BEAT, East Nashville tri to name a few. The East Nasty and Nashville Striders are a couple of running clubs that come to mind. The Harpeth bike club and most of the bike shops have weekly rides. It’s hard to beat the Natchez Trace and a lot of Williamson county for good places to ride. Nashville Aquatic and Ensworth have good masters programs.
Team Magic and Endurance Sports Management put on several triathlons in the region plus there’s another 3 or so triathlons in the area that are hosted independently.
I grew up in East Tennessee. While I agree there’s a plethora of outdoor activities to do over there (my love of fly fishing comes to mind), I think Nashville has more options to find and train with like-minded individuals in multi sport.
I train in a detached shed in a climate not unlike Nashville and its a good solution but there are a few things to consider in maximizing the area.
Cold will never be your enemy but heat will. Even if the garage wasn’t insulated you wouldn’t have an issue with the cold because the lack of wind means you heat up quickly. Even on a treadmill you are stationary, rather than moving through the air, and this lack of airflow has a massive impact on cooling. The flip side is that you will need tons of airflow to keep you cool even outside of the peak summer heat. The airflow will also help reduce the place smelling especially if you can crack open the garage door to let outside air in.
I am assuming the garage has little to no natural light coming in. This is ideal from a security standpoint but takes a surprising mental toll on a lot of folks. Without any natural light you really can begin to feel trapped and stuck starring at wall irrespective to TV etc. To combat consider positioning the setup so that you can open an external door (if you have one) or partially open the garage door to let light in where possible. If this isn’t possible I would suggest getting artificial sunlight light designed to combat Seasonal Affect Disorder. I don’t know the psychology here but I do think it makes a noticeable difference.
In terms of security I have never heard of anyone stealing a treadmill. You only have to move them around to appreciate to appreciate why its not a high target item. Plus the resale market on treadmills isn’t good enough to incentive the effort. Bikes are a classic target from garages but I don’t think you really need to increase the security level relative to if you just kept the bike stored in the garage. If your garage faces the street and you keep it open when working out there is an added risk that someone will see you and then target you but I have never actually heard of this happening and I do know a number of people who do this. I think if you are comfortable with the security level of storing a bike in the garage you don’t need to upgrade the system when converting the garage.
A finally thing to consider is putting in a system so your wife doesn’t hit your stuff with a car/you don’t leave stuff on the floor where your wife will hit them. Sounds like a no brainer but when you are in a hurry pulling in and out of a garage its very easy to momentarily blank and cause damage. This is compounded by a lack of detail to attention when doing a hard workout. Driving into a garage with a bike rack on the car is the classic example but I could easily see myself moving a trainer or bike for whatever reason, leaving to go back in the house and then having my wife hammer a bike with the car. A lot of damage can be done is a matter of seconds.
A dedicated HVAC is almost a necessity. You can go without, but it will suck mightily at times. Our pain cave is in a converted/closed in carport. It’s next to the house so the temp is usually okay, but managing heat and humidity in the summer needed some extra help. Instead of a separate smaller unit, I went with a Spot AC off of Wayfair and I cannot believe this isnt talked about more in people’s setups. It may not work with it being a garage unless you have a window to get the exhaust out of, but it really makes a big difference.
Those temps are well within ranges for electronics to function without any issues.
Related, how’s the tri scene in Nashville. Recently moved here and am trying to get a lay of the land.
Moved to Nashville in April 2021. To be honest I’m glad I don’t ride bikes (or swim, or run much…) anymore.
You’d want to get in touch with some of the others mentioned in the thread (Working Triathlete is Conrad and Derek, both of whom occasionally post here on ST). I think a lot of it depends on where you are in town, obviously, as with most places.
I have a fairly decent sized garage (about 700 sqft) and I’m in the process of having a garage reorganization company install a bunch of shelves, overheads, kayak/SUP wall racks, bike racks, and such.
Also turning it into my new pain cave. Adding a Tonal machine, Concept 2, and moving my Tacx Neo Smart Bike in there. I live in FL so I cannot workout in the garage during the summer so we are having a 18,000 BTU mini-split ductless A/C unit installed. They are installing that this week.
It’s not the cheapest solution as the ductless system + install is about $5K but there was no way to add the garage to the central air duct system without adding an additional unit and ductwork which would have been double or triple that cost.