Prepping the garage Options

[Kazz5]

... you've already found the answer. Use someone else's!

[AWD DSM 1]

You'll want fiberglass batt insualtion in the walls for sure, R13 would be the best you can fit in a 2x4 wall. For the ceiling you can use the batts again, R19 minimum... the bigger the R#, the better it is at insulating. You could also put a ceiling in and use blown in cellulose. Or there's always the option of having the icyline foam put in - expensive, but nice.

For reference, I put R13 in the walls and R19 in the ceiling of my old 24X28 garage for around $600 in materials. Biggest pain was working around all the crap I already had in the garage, much easier to do if it's empty.

[Kazz5]

See? I had the right idea ...

[natedogg]

You'll want fiberglass batt insualtion in the walls for sure, R13 would be the best you can fit in a 2x4 wall. For the ceiling you can use the batts again, R19 minimum... the bigger the R#, the better it is at insulating. You could also put a ceiling in and use blown in cellulose. Or there's always the option of having the icyline foam put in - expensive, but nice.

For reference, I put R13 in the walls and R19 in the ceiling of my old 24X28 garage for around $600 in materials. Biggest pain was working around all the crap I already had in the garage, much easier to do if it's empty.

Same stuff I used. Works great.

[eclaser353]

i used the bubble foil for my ceiling. two layers of bubble wrap with aluminum foil on both sides. it will reflect 97% of raidient heat. i got it at menards i think it was around $100 for a 4 x 150 foot roll. my garage is always about 10 deg cooler than outside. just got batts for the walls.

[hammar]

Just a thought...

If you're planning to heat/cool a garage 24/7 year round, treat it like the rest of the house. If you only plan to run the AC/heat on occasion, extra insulation above stopping full-on holes/air leaks may be a waste of money. Why you ask? If you're only going to be out there for 4-5 hours at a time, there's not as much of a concern for R-factor. You heat it up, you work,you go away. The furnace spends the lion's share of the energy getting that space up/down to temp vs. keeping it at temp. Insulations is irrelevent due to the fact that you don't need to maintain garage temps most of the time.

Amy and I are trying to decide how we go about dealing with climate control in our garage, this is the current arguemnt I'm struggling with. I'd appreciate any comments!

btw, epoxy floor covering (ours was from Sherwin-Williams) kicks ass......

Hammar

[AWD DSM 1]

Couple bennifits to insulating the garage...

Radiant heat from the car motor is contained in the garage. My detached garage rarely got below freezing if I was parking a car in it daily. Handy if you are storing chemicals that can't freeze.

It's more efficient to heat an enclosed space. The furnace can only do so much. If your garage is full of holes, it won't be able to heat or cool to the same temperature as quickly.

The concrete slab holds cold/heat. If you insulate, it will more likely be holding the temperature that you want, rather than the opposite. Basically, when you get it to "operating" temp, it will stay there longer with the furnace having to work less.

[turbohcar]

I had R13 in the walls of my garage, covered with 4x8sheets of the cheapest pressboard at Lowes. I used pressboard simply for it's light weight and because it's pretty sturdy. The Garage door is insulated as well with R10 and rubber seal strips covering the gaps. I didn't get around to putting any insulation in on the ceiling as it was 20ft in the air. Sorry, I have no desire to spend my time standing on a ladder holding a giant sheet of pressboard while I'm 20ft off the ground. There are other ways that I had thought of to get the job done other than using pressboard on the ceiling. I had thought of using some of the really thick clear plastic lining material. Staple that to the underside of the rafters and use more R13 on top. This last winter even without insulation on the ceiling, it was quite comfortable even with just a little salamander heater.

The best setup I've ever encountered was at the Dodge dealership in Pontiac. Water heated floors, insulated doors and walls. But, then you'd have to dig up all the concrete in your garage, lay the garden hose (or whatever hose you prefer) and hook a pump and heater to it, then lay new concrete.

[Mitsu 77]

^^^Agreed^^^^
Of couse this won't work for any of us with a prexisting floor, but the best way to heat/cool a house or home is with watter in the floor.