Insulate or Not?

[mrramsey]

I have a bit of an unusual scenario, well maybe not that unusual. I have a 22x21 garage with 10' ceilings. I am adding heat tomorrow. Two walls are shared with the house and are insulated. The other two walls are not insulated. There is a combined wall area of some 423 square feet on the two exterior walls. 5/8 drywall on walls and ceiling. R-19 in the ceiling with living space above. Of the 423 feet of wall space 200 square feet are taken up by windows and doors leaving just 223 feet insulate-able space. The majority of the exterior walls also have 4" of face brick with a 1" airspace behind. The windows are brand new and the current doors are insulated. The space its pretty darn tight as far as air movement is concerned.

It now begs the question.... Should I retrofit cellulose insulation or will the heat loss be be insignificant??

I figure about 12 bags from Lowe's at about $92 + $12 for a wall tool and whatever the rental is on the machine. Not a huge cost. Had a quote a couple of years ago for a foam retro and it was $2k LOL

 

[forAK]

Yes. That $100 you fork out for insulation will pay for itself in no time.

 

[47WDXPW]

Machine rental is free.

 

[kd3pc]

I am with AK, this will be the best $100 you spend on your garage...

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

Brick is around R-Zero. Leave the insulation out of those 2 walls and you'll be paying to heat Ohio.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Good god man. We have an identical dilemma. I have a 20x22 one Wall is common and other wall is garage door I need to insulate the garage and ceiling. I got quoted about 1.50 per sq ft to do the 2 outside walls.

Retrofoam for me was a no go. I didn’t think about putting cellulose in the walls myself. I was put off by the number of holes I would have to fill. The quote was about a 2 or 2.5 inch hole with a styrofoam plug. It would almost be easier to just replace the drywall at that point. I assume since it’s a garage that no vapor barrier would be absolutely needed?

 

[mrramsey]

Good god man. We have an identical dilemma. I have a 20x22 one Wall is common and other wall is garage door I need to insulate the garage and ceiling. I got quoted about 1.50 per sq ft to do the 2 outside walls.

Retrofoam for me was a no go. I didn’t think about putting cellulose in the walls myself. I was put off by the number of holes I would have to fill. The quote was about a 2 or 2.5 inch hole with a styrofoam plug. It would almost be easier to just replace the drywall at that point. I assume since it’s a garage that no vapor barrier would be absolutely needed?

In a retrofit just use a high quality paint. If you are ripping the dw down then use a vapor barrier with unfaced batts or kraft faced batts and no plastic.

 

[idriveahonda]

Currently in same situation, need a couple walls insulated.

I've had two people come to give me a quote, where I need:
- Existing drywall, needs hole drilled and cavity blown-in
- (1) 20x10' wall, plus (2) 10x10 walls, total of 400 sq/ft.

My quotes have been for $1950 and $2200 respectively. Am I crazy or is that ridiculous?!

 

[Todd.Brock]

Idriveahonda- that’s nuts. I may just have to go with a decent amount if insulation in the garage ceiling and hope that helps keep the garage warmer. I don’t regularly heat the space. I’m probably expecting too much from just insulation. I don’t mind the 1.50sq ft, but not sure I’ll notice a difference , plus having to fill 95 big *** holes in the drywall. I hate drywall if you can’t tell.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Insulation is an investment, once you pay for it, you're done paying for it and it starts to save you money. Heating and cooling dollars are never ending and anything you can do to reduce that dollar amount is good.


Also keep in mind, just insulating the attached garage will keep it warmer in the Winter, even without heating the interior. It may not be alot but you will see a difference. This gives you one side of the home with a warmer side than the rest. It will in turn help the heating costs in the home. It may be a slight help but none the less, would you rather have four sides of your home exposed to 15° or three sides at 15° and one 30° ? Now if that garage is on the windward side, consider it a windbreak for your home.

 

[mrramsey]

Yeah I am going to pull the trigger and insulate. I figure I need 12-13 bags of the green fibre stuff but will buy 20 to get the machine for free then return whats left for a refund. you can buy the wall adapter nozzle from lowes.com but they don't sell it in the store LOL. I have a similar nozzle for my shop vac that I think will work just fine for the application.

I don't mind patching the holes but I am renovating the entire garage and have a lot of DW repairs to do anyway.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If you're buying 20 bags, why not just blow it up in the attic instead of returning it ?

 

[mrramsey]

If you're buying 20 bags, why not just blow it up in the attic instead of returning it ?

Attics all done aready

 

[mrramsey]

Just insulated the garage walls that were not already done. Blown in cellulose from lowes. It was a piece of cake. I was really pleased with how well it worked. Cost me about $100. Now to patch all of those 1" holes LOL. I have to re-texture the walls anyways.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Did you have holes just at top or middle? Would be curious to read a bit about your process

 

[mrramsey]

Did you have holes just at top or middle? Would be curious to read a bit about your process

Real simple... I drilled 1-1/8" holes with a hole saw and saved the plugs for later. The holes were 3' from the bottom plate and 12" from the ceiling. So two holes per full stud cavity. Single holes below window sills and above headers.

I plugged the upper hole with a rag to keep the dust to a minimum. Starting with the bottom hole I filled until the machine couldn't pack anymore material. I'd say 90% filled from the bottom hole. Then removed the rag and topped it off in the same manner. My son ran the machine and I filled the holes. It took just a few hours to do 7 bags of material.

I had my wife record a video that I will post later. I though it was going to be a real PIA but it wasn't.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Wow, I'd say you don't waste any time getting things done.

 

[finn]

Rather than filling all of those holes, consider slapping up a sheet of 3/8” Sheetrock over the whole wall, or put up a painted trim board 12” from the ceiling to hang things from.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Look forward to the video. Mucho gracias for the detail. NuttsGT is correct - you gotrdun quick!

 

[mrramsey]

Look forward to the video. Mucho gracias for the detail. NuttsGT is correct - you gotrdun quick!

Here is the video link -

 

[Dragfluid]

I applaud the OP for insulating, especially with cellulose.
However, after watching your video, you're going to have a certain amount of settling with the way that you did it. Cellulose in a wall needs to be "dense packed". You can look it up,,,, lot's of good videos on it. But what you did is better than not having anything in there and you'll be comfortable in your garage now.

Another thing you did by using cellulose is increased the fire prevention. This is a real eye opener video about the comparison of glass, cell, and nothing in the walls. I'd seen it a few years ago while I was in my planning stages, but ran across it again while watching your vid.

 

[mrramsey]

I applaud the OP for insulating, especially with cellulose.
However, after watching your video, you're going to have a certain amount of settling with the way that you did it. Cellulose in a wall needs to be "dense packed". You can look it up,,,, lot's of good videos on it. But what you did is better than not having anything in there and you'll be comfortable in your garage now.

Another thing you did by using cellulose is increased the fire prevention. This is a real eye opener video about the comparison of glass, cell, and nothing in the walls. I'd seen it a few years ago while I was in my planning stages, but ran across it again while watching your vid.

Thanks. Will there be any settlement? Probably, however the install method is to the manufacturer specifications and any settlement in the walls that I have done for the purpose of a garage should be fairly insignificant.

 

[mrramsey]

I went ahead and added additional insulation in the attic space which is about 1/2 of the garage (22x10) the other section is living space with R-19 in the floor. The attic also had r-19 however some had been wet at one time from a roof leak that predated the 15 years I have been here.

I cleaned that up a bit and laid in r-30 batts over the top. Could have done cellulose again but didn't want to go through the mess. I can now say that my garage has adequate insulation. New insulated door gets installed in a couple of weeks. and heat this Friday.