Garage insulation | GTAMotorcycle.com

Garage insulation

shanekingsley

Curry - so nice it burns you twice
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Need to insulate the single car garage so I can spend more time out there during winter in reasonable comfort.
I need to insulate the door or replace it (even though it's a great door - it's just not insulated).
I need some good weather stripping too if I'm keeping the door.
I need to add insulation to 2 walls that are not contained in the house and suffer the most heat loss.
I might do the floor, but that will probably just be a coating so I can clean it up easier.
Budget as always is limited!

I will go to Home Depot and talk to the smart folks there, but was curious what the GTAM input was.

Anyone here used the insulation panels you add to existing garage doors? Pros / Cons / issues?

Anyone here used garage door weather stripping and have some preferences?

What type of insulation would you use in the walls and why?

Thanks!
 
Don't forget the attic.
 
There is no attic. But that raises a great point. Should I make an attic to insulate it? If so, it couldn't be that tall as it already has a low ceiling and the garage door track is about 18" from ceiling. I figure the house must lose a good amount of heat through there, but was hoping to build shelving there not an insulated attic. Our house was built in 1976 and needs some refreshing.
 
I take it the outside walls are currently drywall for gas proofing? Pull it down to see what you are working with. 2x4 walls or 2x6. Pink insulation and a 6 mil. vapour barrier.

I'd just get an insulated door.

And buy a 50,000 btu propane heater (salamander). We use those to heat framed houses for winter construction. Use it for 20 min. before you go out there to wrench.


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I'm planning on doing this myself once it gets warmer.
There's currently a 10 degree difference between in the garage and outside,
and another 10 degrees between the garage and the house proper.

The biggest issue to me, seems to be the large gaps around the two doors.
I can see daylight around the edges. They had some articles on either Home Depot or Rona on closing the gaps.
Once the gaps are filled the next place to look would be the ceiling, then the walls.

I'm also looking at the door kits, and since my doors have some thickness, and multiple joints,
I'm going to need something flexible as it goes around the curve, when the door opens and closes.
 
I bought a box from Home Depot a couple years ago. Comes with these silver insulating sheets you attach to the inside of the garage door. It was pretty easy. Had to trim the sheets to fit in the panels of the door. I'm sure the R value is not amazing as it's fairly thin (about 5 to 7mm), but it helps and it only took about 20 minutes to put up. Bonus is that the inside of my garage door now looks pseudo futuristic.
 
Yes Matt - it's a flat roof.
One wall had some drywall and the other wall has some ultra thin plywood and there are sections with exposed 2x4 frame. Here's a few old pics because last winter I cleaned it up, painted and put up some temporary shelving.
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If there is living space above, I would spray foam the ceiling. Walls use batt insulation of some sort. If it was my garage I would sheath the walls in plywood (with drywall overtop for the look/fire resistance if you want). That lets you mount anything anywhere on the wall.

The ghetto way to insulate the garage door is extruded foam glued to the back of the panels. This is super flammable though so I wouldn't go that way in a working garage. Personally, I would probably put 2" semi-rigid fibreglass on the back of every panel and then put a blanket (or similar) that covers the entire door over that. It will never be as good as a proper insulated door with overlapping panels, but it will be much cheaper. Carefully adding a few more turns into the spring should get the door working well again. The springs aren't that scary if you are careful, if you aren't careful they can bite you.

EDIT:

If you pull down the ceiling for spray foam, I would add an outlet near the opener so you don't have a wiring mess across the ceiling.

A full width shelf above the garage door would be a framing nightmare, you don't have enough height for joists strong enough to span the width of your garage. That leaves you with intermediate supports (basically hang the shelf from the floor joists above). I built a ~2' deep shelf along the front wall and side walls and left the middle wasted as it was more trouble than it was worth to use that space. If I wanted, something like big and light like a SUP board could be pulled up into the dead space with rope.
 
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and a 6 mil. vapour barrier.

I was wondering about that. I wasn't sure whether vapour barrier was put in garages as you have a lot more outside air and a lot less things emitting moisture (with a notable exception of the floor).
 
From what I can see you don't have much left to do....

your ceiling has drywall and it's probably insulated, some of your walls have drywall and are probably insulated, so do the same for the remaining walls, pull off the wood, add insulation, vapor barrier (if you wish, but you might as well), and drywall

make sure the weather stripping around the garage door frame on the outside is up tight against your door to stop cold air from getting in, and warm air from getting out, make sure the rubber seal on the bottom of the door is in good shape and meets the garage floor enough to create a seal as well.

the door you can use the stick on insulation panels, I have a 2 inch fully insulated garage door and double pane windows, but the door is metal and it's still cold on the inside, cold transfers through the metal, so even an insulted door is cold to the touch.

unless your heating the garage constantly it will always be cold, my last place I ran a heating vent into the garage, so as the house was heated so was the garage, but if you are storing gas, cars, bikes etc I don't recommend this for obvious reasons....the smells can come back into the home.....

if your going to work in the garage, get a heater, turn it on at least half hour before, garage and tools will warm up, and you can work comfortably

it's more or less on how I am going to be setting up my garage over the next couple of weeks...

lJq7nZC.jpg
 
It's far from cheap but closed cell spray on foam is amazing! Have used it throughout and even under my new house.
Big advantages are that no additional vapour barrier is required as the material is totally waterproof, it becomes structural when applied to the shell of a house and mice don't particularly like to make a nest in it or pee in it like they do with fibre insulation.
Absolute best way to heat a garage, even if it is a retrofit heating system -> in or on floor heating. All kinds of installation solutions are available, heat rises ;) heat source can be propane or wood or solar or anything else. And most of your garage time is spent sitting or laying on the floor anyway, yes?
Heating air in a well ventilated area is very expensive.
 
I wanted to do the closed cell spray foam, got a quote....4 Grand,,,,I passed on it....I don't spend that much time in the garage.... .

Trust me :| you don't want to see how much it costs to build a new house now either, my building permit alone was 7 grand. and I built deep in the woods in the most economically depressed part of Eastern Ontario.

:D but the riding area in my front and back yard is awesome!
 
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I was wondering about that. I wasn't sure whether vapour barrier was put in garages as you have a lot more outside air and a lot less things emitting moisture (with a notable exception of the floor).
If its a heated space, even if its just occasional.
Got to stop drafty cold air from blowing in.

Cold air + warm garage= moisture.

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Heated floors would be nice, but my priorities are with insulation. I have a lift so I don't lie on the ground and occasionally sit. I'm not trying to do too much here with higher grade heating either. Last year I survived with a small block heater and just scheduled my work around the days when it wasn't crazy cold out.
Our money will be spent on saving & travelling before the house:)
 
Heated floor = fast room temperature recovery and fast evaporation of a wet floor ;)

These things seem to work pretty good and probably won't cost you the arm and a leg that an insulated garage door does:
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