Door and ceiling insulation

[Rogers954]

Ok, I have searched though many post on here a long time ago and just recently and I am looking for advise and clarification so i can understand. So last fall I installed a Big Max heater (love it) made it so I could work in the garage in a t-shirt and pants where before you would even want to spend 10 minutes out there (Utah winters can be brutally cold) heater worked great and even without ideal ceiling insulation and a un-insulated garage door it did not have to cycle all that much to maintain temp.

Fast forward to now and the summer is making the shop unbearable. So my neighbor gave me a small portable 12000 btu unit that he got from his work since they were simply buying new ones, unit blows super cold air but has to be vented so I am working on building that right now.

So my question is about insulation, above the garage in the attic there is nothing, I've been up there many times and you can see roughly 4 feet of insulation blown in across the entire house but zero above the garage (common here) so I know that blown in is the cheapest route to go here and that it will aid in keeping the garage warmer in the winter, but what about summer heat? will it help to keep my garage cooler?

Second my garage door faces east so it gets hotter then hell about 2 hours after sun up, I seen multiple post about insulating the doors but varying products and result posted, so what is the final say? what products actually work here to keep some of that heat out?

Thanks guys any help is greatly appreciated as all I want to do is be able to enjoy working in the garage without sweating to death.

 

[nadogail]

1. Any insulation is better than no insulation. Insulation slows heat transfer, just as it helps keep the heat from your Big Max in the garage, reduce cycling and energy consumption; it can also reduce the solar heat transferred into while you are running your 12000 BTU AC units.
IMHO, Blown in or bagged cellulose is the biggest bang for your buck. If you don't blow it in you can pour it out of the bags.
That being said I helped my father put 4" unfaced fiberglass bats into an Anchorage Alaska attic years ago, made a tremendous difference.
2. Styrofoam panels could be glued to the garage door, I am sure they can be found with a facing on them. . Again, any Insulation is better than none.

 

[mray312]

Insulate the ceiling and the door. You'll be glad that you did.

I added heat to my 2 car attached garage a few years ago. As part of the project I insulated the ceiling, which previously had none, and replaced the cheap metal pan garage door with an insulated one. I was curious about the temperature differences between the garage and garage attic space so I bought one of those $10 wireless indoor/outdoor thermometers. I hung the sending unit in the garage attic rafters and put the display unit on my garage workbench. The winter temperature differences were expected but I was surprised at the summer temperature differences. Here's a pic from a 90 degree day in July 2019 - 126 in the attic, 74 in the garage itself. On that particular day the garage door was left closed. I was cooling the garage by leaving the man door to the house open and letting the house AC into the garage. Not an ideal way to cool the garage workspace but I don't need to cool the garage in this way often - maybe 4 or 5 times a summer.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Insulation will keep the place more comfortable and prevent temperature swings. Without any heat/cooling conditioning the house garage will stay 10-15° from outdoor temps.

Once you start paying to heat/cool the space, it becomes an investment. Every dollar you spend now until you stop heating/cooling, you will get a return on that insulation investment.

 

[Rogers954]

Appreciate the reply’s everyone, and @Nuttsgt I completely agree that at this point temp controlling the garage is a investment which is why I wanted to ask the question before proceeding with spending money to try and accomplish my goals for my garage. I went with the big maxx heater based on the reviews i saw on here and the price, for the money it’s been a no brainer i got my unit for around $360 and did all the gas pipe installation myself which saved me quite a bit of money. Gas was the obvious choice for me since here natural gas is dirt cheap compared to electric. Also this is far from my dream home setup, i make due with my smaller one side deep garage but i really have come to live out there in the last few years doing project after project, but if this was the garage of my dreams a mini split would have more then likely been my choice for the best of both worlds. Since i don’t know how many more years me and the wife will stay in this house i don’t want to invest to much into making the garage more suitable for me because then it becomes a question of if i will recoop any of that money spent. I want to be able to work in there year round comfortably without waisting money spent better somewhere else. Anyway that’s why i wanted to ask about adding insulation so i can do it smart and on a decent budget.

 

[Rogers954]

I have a follow up question since i keep reading conflicting information as it pertains to the insulation on the garage door. So if I’m using a foil backed product like foil backed Foam board or this Prodex insulation that i found through searching, everyone keeps saying you need an air gap for it to work correctly has anyone actually accomplished this “gap” and how did you do it? And is the foil backed product offerings better then what other people have done and suggested of simply gluing foam board right to the door panels themselves. Thanks

 

[Rogers954]

Think I might go with this Nasa Tech kit that is on amazon I like the fact that it gives off a real finished look and if what everyone says about the air gap for the radiant barrier is correct then the way this kit installs with the tape provides that gap since it installs on the frame of the door and not the panels themselves

 

[mindblender]

@Rogers954 Did you end up using the Nasa Tech kit from Amazon? If so, did you notice a big difference? I've been doing some research into cooling my garage here in AZ and the first step I want to do is insulate the garage door.