Adding insulation in the garage attic ?'s

[dantheman8119]

Hello all!

I am looking at sheet rocking & insulating my garage ceiling in an effort to finish it off and try to keep some more heat in!

It's a 2 car garage with 2 foot centers. The side walls were already rocked prior to us buying the home and are insulated. The garage door itself is wood and rotting away, so at some point I would like to replace that with an insulated one.

I'm wondering what approach you would recommend for insulating it. I would prefer to go with blown in, insulation but have questions about the process of doing this. I have no desire to have any attic ladder steps that come down from the ceiling, as there's only about 4-5 feet from the roof to where the sheet rock would be towards the center of the garage. Also, if I do blown insulation, I wouldn't be able to store items up there on top of them anyways, right?

So do you sheet rock the ceiling, then cut in a few access holes (3'x3'?) in so you can get your head and the machine up there to blown in the insulation after the fact? And then re install the sections of she rock that you cut out?

Another option could be stapling the foil back insulation to the trusses before rocking, but I'm not sure how much more or less efficient that would be?

Looking for some ideas here if anyone has any to share....thank you in advance!

Here's a picture of the ceiling

 

[7th Kahuna]

Personally, I would want to maintain some sort of access to the attic space, even if it was just a wood panel screwed in place. You never know when you might need access for some reason in the future. With that access, you could easily blow in your insulation, just build a curb around the access panel so the insulation doesn't fall through (you can apply batt or rigid insulation to the back side of the panel). Honestly, without knowing where you are, I couldn't say whether batt insulation or blown in would be better. Also, and again depending on your location, make sure that you maintain some sort of ventilation in the attic space. You should have vents in the eaves and a vent at the ridge. In other words, keep the working space warm but let the attic vary with the outside weather.

 

[HellaFab]

I just insulated mine with blown in cellulose this weekend.

here is how I did it...

1. Put the baffles in along your soffit to keep the air flow.
2. Put up a length of vapor barrier perpendicular to the bottom chord of the trusses and then put your strapping under that @ 16" o.c.
3. tape up any small holes you made or around fixtures and other perforations with proper vapor barrier tape
4. blow insulation in that area
5. repeat in sections until you are done. my last strip of vapor barrier I did in 8' long sections (the length of the strapping) so I could reach it without crawling around in the attic space because I really don't have much head room to be able to maneuver myself well.

 

[HellaFab]

Here is a picture of what I'm describing mid way done my last peice of vapor barrier.

 

[dantheman8119]

I'm located in central Minnesota....thanks for the input!

 

[dantheman8119]

Any thoughts on going with this approach?

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/energy/insulation/ceiling_1/garage_r11.htm

and using this:

http://www.menards.com/main/buildin...t-faced-fiberglass-rolls/p-1695040-c-5780.htm

 

[dantheman8119]

Also, I don't plan to keep it heated constantly. Occasionally will use my propane heater when working on the vehicles. Just want to have more comfort/energy savings with the attached home.

 

[soapii]

Any thoughts on going with this approach?

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/energy/insulation/ceiling_1/garage_r11.htm

and using this:

http://www.menards.com/main/buildin...t-faced-fiberglass-rolls/p-1695040-c-5780.htm

For my vapor barrier, I installed R-13 kraft faced batts between the trusses, then once the garage was drywalled I went back and put down a bunch of blown cellulose.

--Joe

 

[dantheman8119]

I might actually go with this instead:

http://www.menards.com/main/buildin...t-faced-fiberglass-batts/p-1351885-c-5780.htm

R38 vs. R19, and it would only add about 70 dollars to the total project cost

 

[Nowater]

IF your propane heater is not vented, you will be dumping a lot of water vapor when it is on. This is the time to make your space as air tight as possible. Seal all the little cracks and spaces.

Don't fret about losing storage in your trusses. Unless you specified storage trusses, they are not rated to be loaded on the bottom chord. The hatchway idea is a good one, and the blown in insulation should be a reasonable way to go.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Leave a scuttle hole, no doubt about that at all. Make it 2' wide, (distance between the rafters) and atleast 2' long, 3 or 4 would be nicer.

If you enclose it all and need to get up there, you'll be upset you don't have a scuttle hole up there. It's the same with your house, you need to have scuttle hole access, big enough for a person to easily get up there.

More than once we have opened a larger hole than the 12"x18" scuttle hole already in the attic. While you might be able to squeeze through there, a firefighter ( I truly hope never needs to) with his SCBA pack won't fit. .