Insulating Brick Garage

[JoeKegg]

Hello all, here in southern Idaho I have a detached brick 2-car garage and shop. Garage is 22’w x 24’d, shop is 22’w x 10’d. Only insulation is in garage ceiling. I’d like to insulate the walls and shop ceiling. Intended use in addition to parking, is for diy projects, car maintenance and detailing. Ceiling is only 8’.
Climate is high desert, so humidity isn’t a major factor; temps range from 110 F in summer to -15 F in a bad winter. I have an insulated door but even in this mild winter I still run heater probably 15-20 minutes per hour to keep it at 50-55 F.
How should I insulate the walls? 1” EPS? Stud walls and batts? Both? Thanks in advance and lmk if further info needed.

Joe

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Is this currently open stud walls?

If so, spray the walls and cover with drywall.

 

[JoeKegg]

No studs, just brick. You're saying just do studs, insulation and drywall?

 

[rustyjames]

Metal Z furring, Rigid insulation and drywall is an optional n.

 

[The Cobbler]

1" xps gives you about r5
2x4 framed wall with insulation is about r 12 to 14
xps should be covered as it burns toxic . I think framing & plywood or drywall would be better use of your $$$

 

[ArtisanFarms]

Polyiso sheets with an OSB, plywood or drywall interior wall would be fairly easy cost effective.

 

[JoeKegg]

This is a great forum!!!!
Thanks for the quick replies, I will update when I get started and during the project.

 

[bgarrett]

Brick is Mass and mass belongs on the inside of the building. Build stud walls on the outside, spray foam and add siding. Mass gives you a flywheel effect. After you heat it, it gives up that heat slowly. After you cool it in the summer, it takes a long time to heat up, saving energy costs.

 

[The Cobbler]

^^^ why would you put something like brick, that takes a huge amount of heat to get it warm , on the inside. brick belongs on the unconditioned side

 

[Will Allen]

Brick is Mass and mass belongs on the inside of the building. Build stud walls on the outside, spray foam and add siding. Mass gives you a flywheel effect. After you heat it, it gives up that heat slowly. After you cool it in the summer, it takes a long time to heat up, saving energy costs.

Cover up brick with plastic siding?????? I must have read your post wrong or something.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

No studs, just brick. You're saying just do studs, insulation and drywall?

Brick?

Or do you mean block (CMU)?
If that’s the case, and there’s no cap on top of the wall- fill the wall with foam.

 

[JoeKegg]

Brick.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Id be tapconning 2x4s flat to the walls, put sheets of rigid foam in between and covering with something like osb or plywood.

 

[acer66]

Similar situation and I am planning to insulate on the outside.
For once my garage is already small and I plan to heat and cool it constantly
and the way I understand it makes more sense to put the insulation on the exterior then.

 

[CraigStu]

I have been slowly researching insulating the inside of our poured concrete basement. One thing that made a ton of sense to me was to build a standard 2x4 wall about 1 inch in from the concrete so the bottom plate is screwed to the floor and the top plate is screwed to the 1st floor joists. The idea being that the 2x4 wall has no or minimal contact to the concrete. To me that idea would apply in your situation. One additional thought I came across is that, if you build it this way, buy your insulation made for a 2x6 wall so it fills in that 1 inch gap and R factor goes up too. Obviously you lose some space doing this so you have to consider the tradeoff of room vs better insulation.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

I have been slowly researching insulating the inside of our poured concrete basement. One thing that made a ton of sense to me was to build a standard 2x4 wall about 1 inch in from the concrete so the bottom plate is screwed to the floor and the top plate is screwed to the 1st floor joists. The idea being that the 2x4 wall has no or minimal contact to the concrete. To me that idea would apply in your situation. One additional thought I came across is that, if you build it this way, buy your insulation made for a 2x6 wall so it fills in that 1 inch gap and R factor goes up too. Obviously you lose some space doing this so you have to consider the tradeoff of room vs better insulation.

That’s only half right. You still need to manage the moisture. Cover the walls with 1” XPS and seal all seams, then build your wall in front of that. And depending on your zone you can add batt insulation or not.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Brick.

How is something that size standing built with only “brick”?

 

[Will Allen]

How is something that size standing built with only “brick”?

House foundations were commonly done with all brick many years ago.

Same with buildings.

 

[strutaeng]

How is something that size standing built with only “brick”?

I don't understand your question? Seems like it's load-bearing brick, just like everything was load-bearing brick once upon a time. I would assume double-wythe construction?


Back to the question, probably a combination of stud cavity insulation and/or continuous insulation such as polyiso or XPS. Don't know how much thermal insulation the OP is going for...

 

[Loose Nut Buster]

I agree fully with Nutsgt on that one.

Sent from my SM-T387V using Tapatalk

 

[Loose Nut Buster]

I did read awhile ago that its not recommended and in some areas allowed to use batt insulation even in interbuilt walls near concrete due to it absorbing moisture n mold issues.
Hi density poly ISO board would be my suggestion fired as NUTTSGT said.

Sent from my SM-T387V using Tapatalk

 

[JoeKegg]

How is something that size standing built with only “brick”?

I don’t know what to tell you. The walls are brick and only brick, ~7-1/2” thick. Doubtful that it’s one of a kind.

Seriously, I appreciate the answers. I’ve never done something like this and want to do it right and once.

 

[Bert_]

How is something that size standing built with only “brick”?

You realize that there are entire downtown areas with buildings built with brick. 2-3 stories is really common even in tiny little towns. They don't build that way anymore but that used to be the only way.

 

[Will Allen]

I don’t know what to tell you. The walls are brick and only brick, ~7-1/2” thick. Doubtful that it’s one of a kind.

Seriously, I appreciate the answers. I’ve never done something like this and want to do it right and once.

Concrete block wasn't used much until the 1940's from what research I have done.

 

[65ranchero]

Another alternative https://www.insofast.com/
Give them a call ,tell them what you are doing and thy will suggest products
they have attaching stripes for sheet rock etc.
glued to the walls with PL 400 I think I can't remember
they ship
I used them on my 3ft frost walls glued and covered with FRP

 

[JoeKegg]

Another alternative https://www.insofast.com/
Give them a call ,tell them what you are doing and thy will suggest products
they have attaching stripes for sheet rock etc.
glued to the walls with PL 400 I think I can't remember
they ship
I used them on my 3ft frost walls glued and covered with FRP

65ranchero. Dude, you’re awesome. I looked at this stuff a couple yrs ago and couldn’t remember the name. Thank you.

 

[65ranchero]

65ranchero. Dude, you’re awesome. I looked at this stuff a couple yrs ago and couldn’t remember the name. Thank you.

Yea it too me awhile to remember it and had to Google search it to jog my memory

 

[cdestuck]

If you can stand losing 6” on each side, I’d be studding it out and insulating with 2x6 studs. Did 2x6 in my garage and glad I did here in central Pa. You get some temps lower than us and will benefit. I did osb for my wall material and like it better than dw in my garage

 

[JoeKegg]

If you can stand losing 6” on each side, I’d be studding it out and insulating with 2x6 studs. Did 2x6 in my garage and glad I did here in central Pa. You get some temps lower than us and will benefit. I did osb for my wall material and like it better than dw in my garage

Hey bud, I’m from your neck of the woods....Bedford. It does get a bit colder here so I’ll give that some thought. What did you insulate with? I don’t want to use dw either. Looking at moisture resistant options.

 

[TractorJeff]

Another alternative https://www.insofast.com/
Give them a call ,tell them what you are doing and thy will suggest products
they have attaching stripes for sheet rock etc.
glued to the walls with PL 400 I think I can't remember
they ship
I used them on my 3ft frost walls glued and covered with FRP

On "This Old House", they used these panels for Stone Basement walls. They offset it slightly using an expanding foam adhesive to fill the irregular gap. I found it interesting because the black plastic lines are for screwing drywall to.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Id be tapconning 2x4s flat to the walls, put sheets of rigid foam in between and covering with something like osb or plywood.

I might add, that the back of my garage is block. This is the wall that I tap conned 2x4's flat to and filled the spaces with polystyrene. Today I'd use something slightly better like polyiso. The polystyrene was cheaper and I wasn't making as much money then.

When I started on the outside of the garage, I tap conned furring strips to the outside, 24" OC, filled the gaps with polystyrene again, 3/4" rather the 1 1/2" on the inside. I then sheathed the outside with foil faced osb and vinyl sided over that.


Not the best R-value stuff but it was better than a bare masonry wall, (block, brick, stone or poured wall) and the interior insulation, made a huge difference when heating the garage.

 

[CraigStu]

I did read awhile ago that its not recommended and in some areas allowed to use batt insulation even in interbuilt walls near concrete due to it absorbing moisture n mold issues.
Hi density poly ISO board would be my suggestion fired as NUTTSGT said.

Sent from my SM-T387V using Tapatalk

That seems to be a good point that I hadn't come across.