1929 garage restoration / insulation

[AVK]

Hello. New to this forum.

I have a detached 2 car garage that is original to a 1929 bungalow house. I am finishing it out to be 1/2 woodshop and 1/2 wife's car parking. The garage is built over a block foundation and had a poured concrete floor which was badly cracked. I had the floor broken out and re-poured. The garage doors have also been replaced with insulated doors. I am going for a period look and am using a lot of salvaged materials like interior/exterior lights, doors, windows, etc.

The construction of the garage is simple 2 x 4 framed walls with a hipped roof.

It gets cold in the winter and I am trying to finish off the space to make it more comfortable in the winter. Also, the insulation will help decrease noise to my neighbors from my woodworking machines.

My question is regarding the insulation of the walls and ceiling. I have some unfaced fiberglass batts left over from another project that I have started to put these into the the garage walls (photos). I am putting them straight in without anything between the fiberlass and the inside face of the exterior clapboards. Plastic chicken wire salvaged from another project is stapled to the studs to hold the fiberglass in place.

Eventually, I want to finish the walls and was told that I should put up a vapor barrier on the inside before closing up the wall (I am planning on using salvaged barn planks from a local Michigan farm that fell down for the interior wall finish).

I am not sure how long it wall take to complete the wall finishing, but I am content to go slowly and keep working in my shop in the meanwhile. I also want to reuse the substantial amount of the unfaced insulation I have lying around. My concern is about mold developing if I finish out my walls in this way. The walls will likely get insulated, vapor barriered, and sealed off with the barn wood before the winter. I don't know how long it will take me to get heat into the garage. I may end up using an electric space heater this coming winter.

The ceiling is another issue as it is a challenge to insulate because it is not vented. The heating source will likely be some kind of electric heater around my work area.

I thought that interior solid wood siding would give the shop a good period look. As I am getting it from a salvaged barn, it won't be too much of a cost. Any thoughts on how thick the siding needs to be?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JohnK007]

Hi AVK, welcome! Nothing wrong with utilizing that left over insulation. Better than just tossing it away. The job you've done so far in that first photo looks great but make sure you insulate all the way up to the top plate. The space just to the right of the window looks like it needs to go further up. I would staple a piece of poly sheeting to the studs just before covering it with the barn planks. The poly will eliminate air penetration. Since you're taking your time with it, just do a wall at a time but leave the poly a little proud to get you around the corner to the next wall. In looking at the wall construction in the 3rd photo I don't think ventilation of the insulated spaces will be a problem. That should keep down moisture build up if mold is a concern.

Nice set of metal drawers! I have something similar in my garage but not nearly as good looking. Did you refinish them? If you did you made them look like new.

 

[madstat]

AVK, welcome to the forum!

I'm assuming you are in Michigan?

I'm not an insulation expert but I once watched Tom Silva from this old house talk about this issue. Vapor barriers like a ploy should be installed on the "warm" side of the insulation, but here in MI that would depend on the season (at least where I'm at it gets hot & humid in the summer). Tom recommend NOT putting a poly vapor barrier but rather just use the kraft paper backed insulation. The kraft paper is a vapor retarder and allows some minimal vapor to escape when the temp outside the building is warmer than inside. I think this is more important if you are going to run AC in the summer when it's humid and heat in the winter. I'm not sure if it's even an issue since we are talking about a garage and you may or may not be heating and cooling the building but it's something to check into nonetheless.

BTW, your garage looks cool, I have a very similar situation, an old 20's 2car garage and i want to use half as a woodshop and the other half the wife parks the car. I hope to get my garage renovation project going last week of may. I'm into a lot of small woodworking projects.

Madstat

 

[rieferman]

My shop is an old barn and breathes very well. Also, I do not condition the space full time (only heated when I'm working etc.). I did not use a vapor barrier at all as moisture would really have to be determined to overcome these factors and build up to any real concern. Perhaps your situation is similar.

(side note: growing up in New England [hot summers, snowy winters] and having torn into some walls of older homes while helping with various rennovations, I can say that it was hit and miss on weather we'd find vapor barriers in homes [not garages or barns]. And I do know that we never found mold)

As for the ceiling, they make foam baffles that you staple between the rafters, and then insulate over the baffles. The baffles keep an air chase open under the roof deck. Then cut a ridge vent (or add colar ties, flatten out the ceiling and do gable vents) so that air can chase up and out.

I'm not a contractor though, this is just how I've done things in my barn after much reading and talking to builders anbd barn enthusiasts etc. I'm sure I'll get reprimanded by the experts shortly

 

[AVK]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I'll continue to use up the batt insulation and will hold off on the vapor barrier for now. Prior to sealing up with the interior planking, I think I'll check under the insulation to see if any moisture has developed. Might wait until fall to do this to allow to allow enough high-low temperature swings to occur to see if condensation is occurring between the insulation and the outer clapboards.

Ahead of securing the barn lumber, I chanced on a sizeable dose of cedar planking that was used as rec room panelling. Greasy varnish, rounded reveals and vertical orientation looks like classic basement rec room ca. 1973 (see photo). Turned over on the other side and realigned horizontally and it looks like a 1920s shop or schoolhouse (see photo). $60 for the entire load pictured, from the Habitat resale shop.

 

[AVK]

I did refinsh the drawer cabinets. I got them from an old industrial equipment / machine reseller somewhere in dowtown Detroit. I had access to a professional spray room and HVLP rig and painted these up in Delta gray. The bottom oak platform I glued up from planks I found in the trash at the woodshop studio I used to go - then I put it on very old metal casters I got in salvage shop in NYC. The darker platform betwen the 2 banks of drawers is an old pine school desk top with a ruler embossed along the front. $10 at the antique store.