oh shoot

Request a variance? Testimonials from all the neighbors might help.

Yep. The less you tell city hall about what you do, the better. Depending on your neighborhood, you can conduct business of a sort. I did it for years, but I was on a rural ranch estate zoning, a RRE1, which has a minimum lot size of one acre, and allows horses. Everyone in the neighborhood was in some kind of business, and all had trucks and/or some type of equipment. So, no one complained. And there is the rub. As long as no one complains, all goes well. But, when the first one complains, there you go.

I would imagine that you could do some work if you don't have close nosy irritable types of neighbors. After that, it's a craps shoot.

Welding and fabricating businesses are usually delegated to a M1 zone, which is for manufacturing. Lots of guys have home garage shops and do some work. Some keep the doors shut, and it is impossible to tell what they are doing in there. It is just when you cause additional traffic coming into the neighborhood, parking problems, onsite or on street storage/parking of equipment or projects, increases in the noise levels, and such that zoning and permits become involved.

A lot depends on your neighborhood. And your neighbors.

Grant, meet City Hall. City Hall, meet Grant.

Steve

Do not get me started on city inspectors and nosey neighbors...

That said... How would they know what you do, if you do it in your garage?

For guys that do machining, or just fabricating, that might be so. But when you start making electrical arcs, there is noise and smoke and light. That's pretty hard to hide. Don't even get me started on grinding.

Sounds something like Dr. Frankenstein in there, and it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know what's going on.

Steve

I think the biggest problem is due to OA tanks. Most home-owner insurance policies have a void clause if OA tanks are on your property. Are you OA welding? You might get around this if it's a problem by going to propane-oxygen. Tell them you are doing explosive welding...see where THAT gets you. (What are buds for)

"SteveB" wrote: (clip) A lot depends on your neighborhood. And your neighbors. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Absolutely! If you are the kind of person who has been doing little repairs for the neighbors, and everyone smiles when they see you working, the chances are that no one will complain, and you will be okay. But, I would be really leery of investing a lot in your shop, 'cuz if even one person goes down to city hall and complains, they'll have no choice but to shut you down.

I know one guy who built an elaborate woodshop behind his house, and gave classes. The parking problem annoyed some of his neighbors, and he started having trouble with the city. The regulations can be very restrictive. No more than a certain percent of your home can be used. The customers must enter through the front door. An a whole bunch of other stuff which is designed to keep you from becoming too visible and too commercial.

I am just curious, can he do some welding in his garage, after taking fire precautions and such? I am not a welding expert and want to learn a little bit about it.

I heard about one gentleman welding in his kitchen, quite recently.

Maybe he can make some sort of a tarp curtain around the welding site.

I am rather interested in this question myself. I am not planning to operate a welding business, as such. I may use my welder for the business purpose of occasional repair of ebay items that I resell, but it would not be welding business.

I want to weld and not be disturbing to my neighbors.

Wow. I'll check my homeowner's policy. I do own a set of O/A tanks but I almost never use 'em, mostly keep them for sentimental reasons. Maybe once a year I have to use the cutting torch to make a meatball cut. Maybe it's time to sell them.

I normally stick weld outside, in my driveway. However, I recently got a Millermatic 250 MIG welder, and with a fume extractor I could probably weld inside, or maybe with the door only slightly open to let out an exhaust vent tube. I can certainly come up with a welding curtain.

No outside storage, ow that hurts too. Looks like all my steel's gonna go to Ernie's welding class, at least it's a good cause.

GWE

Can you store stuff in your backyard, covered with tarp? You can build some structure that looks like one thing, but is another. Example, it looks like an inflatable pool, but holds steel pieces. Try thinking creatively.

Welcome to hell my friend.... Been there done that, and it's one of the reasons I'm moving shops now. Mine was not really welding (but it did come up) I own a racing engine co. and I have two dynos. They denied me permits due to noise restrictions. Granted, this is OVER a flight path less than 3/4 of a mile away from Midway airport (MDW) In Chicago.... Noise? Um. those jets don't bug the other tenants in the industrial park. No joke, It defies logic completely. I got a shop closer to Chinatown. Closer to people, believe that one.. I scratched my head for a while.

Rob

Fraser Competition Engines Chicago, IL. Long Beach, CA.

I just called my Farmer's agent and he says no problem with welding equipment in your garage, as long as you don't (read that as _never_) accept any work for money (that also means, I assume, they can't find out about any transactions.) I was glad to hear that, especially as my welding is too bad to ever think about making someone pay for it. Now that I think about it, I wonder exactly how they define "paying for it" as it relates to "donations" and bartering? I'm not gonna go there with my agent, even though he's been really great for me.

Try thinking about what kind of business you want to do. And then think of how you might describe it to the city. Could it be that you are selling metal architectural parts? Never mind where you get them. For all the city knows you might be importing them from Bainbridge. The city is likely to look favorably on consulting, retail sales( if not heavy traffic ) , design, etc. Not likely to like the idea of you manufacturing and selling to a wholesaler.

Once you have a license, they are likely to forgive the occasional work you have to do to modify something so that it works for the builder ( unless the neighbors complain ).

Dan

If you set it up that all welding is done elsewhere, and not at your house, how can they complain.

Most construction welders weld from their truck based generator on jobsites.

Renton never bothered me about it.

"Ignoramus4243" wrote

This is a very difficult thing for any of us to answer. We don't know anything about your property. How big a piece of property do you have? Do your neighbors do any work outside? Is there fire hazards? (dry grass, trees, leaves, etc)

Yes, it is possible to make a dedicated welding area. That is not the worst part. The worst part can be molten metal from OA cutting, grinding sparks, and an obnoxiously loud cutoff saw.

One size does not fit all, and we are at a loss to tell you what to do because we haven't been to your house. Many people who do welding in home shops have no problems because of the types of work they do. You can weld in all sorts of places, and each has its hazards.

Welding gives off noises, smoke, and a bright light that can be seen for miles at night. It is impossible for us to say if that will bother YOUR neighbors.

Steve

Greetings Grant, When I set up business in Redmond there were some restrictions about home based businesses. But talking with a fellow who claimed to know said that the city really can't restrict you that much if what you do does not disturb the neighbors, no matter what an ordinance might say. Especially if there are other people doing the same thing you want to do already. I'm no expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But there were all kinds of businesses in my neighborhood that would be considered dirty and industrial, such as welding, auto body, auto painting, auto repair, and me with machines. Also, there were less obvious ones, like insurance and interior design consulting. And one house had a Watkins (I think that's the name) spice retail store in their garage. It was sorta like tupperware I think. You had to call first to make sure they were home if you wanted to pick the spices up. But they shipped from their house all over the place. And I often saw a semi out in front of their house unloading boxes and boxes of spices, vanilla, and who knows what else. All this in a development with covenants that prohibited any kind of home based business. So check with an attorney and see waht they say. And of course the library will have books that can help. Cheers, Eric

GWE

Yeah, we had a somewhat celebrated case in the St. Louis area where a lady got served with a court order for TEACHING PIANO in her home! I think she finally got a sympathetic judge to rule that what she was doing was not a "commercial enterprise" under the local zoning rules, but she was out of business for about a year. The problem was that parents were dropping off and picking up kids at her house!

So, I suppose, you could probably be served with a court order to cease and desist having friends visit you or your kids at your own house, if your neighbors are crazy enough.

And, of course, there was the really celebrated case where the Chicago school teacher couple were forced to rent an office, because they were using TYPEWRITERS in their own home to prepare lesson plans and tests for their classes in their home. This was back in the late 70's or early 80's.

The bottom line is the rules are interpreted by "those in authority", and they can have incredibly wide interpretation of the meaning of the ordinances, until a court hopefully brings them back to reality.

Jon

Buy a tent. Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Grant Erw>