Woodworking in a rented house (tenant, noise, landlord, neighbors)

[TCRguitar]

Hello. I am a professional woodworker and musician looking to relocate to an undecided city. I have a well equipped shop that takes up about 200 sqft that I want to bring with me to keep doing what I love.

I know next to nothing on the subject and I know my intentions seem vague (since I have not picked out a city and laws vary state by state) but I just wanted to get the ball rolling so to speak on the subject and start educating myself. I know that I need to look into zoning laws but not much else.

I should point out that I would prefer living just outside of a city, within public transport range and in a rented house.

I do not beleive that noise would be a problem nor do I intend on having customers over or basically anything that would bring extra traffic to the neighborhood or otherwise be a disturbance.

Thanks!

[MrRational]

Look for a house with a **detached garage**.
No responsible landlord will invite a wood shop into the home itself.

[chet everett]

You are probably NOT going to find too many places that have not just a detached garage but essentially an "home workshop" or "utility building" AND have good public transportation these days. Years ago there were a fair number of people that worked in some of the technical areas and still had decent commute to inner city but much of that work has shifted to more rural areas and few such areas have public transportation...

I agree that no sane landlord will want you to use any woodworking equipment inside a residence even if you have top notch dust collection equipment.

[CptnRn]

Almost any two car garage would be more then enough room for the shop. I'm not aware of any reason the garage needs to be detached. Speaking as a landlord, I don't see any reason to care if you use the garage as a shop as long as the work is done during business hours. Neighbors would be justified in complaining if you often used power tools or played loud music in the evening or weekend hours when they were home trying to enjoy the peace and quiet. One rarely finds much public transportation in a rural area, outside of a cities limits.

Many cities and home owners associations have restrictions on running a home business in residential subdivisions, so you need to check the specifics of any city you are considering.

[TCRguitar]

Thanks for your replies! I meant to write suburban, not rural in my original post.

[Ultrarunner]

I have a tenant that made the same request a few weeks ago... I pointed out the city and cc&r's have prohibitions against this.

He also asked if I would be willing to upgrade the electric service because it is inadequate for his planer and large table saw...

Nice enough guy and he did ask... his hours were cut at work and he is trying to be creative...

Sadly... I think he will have to relocate.

Most Landlord Insurance Policies... at least the ones I have do not cover losses from home based business use... unless it is clerical in nature.