Insulating an Existing Garage

[rmmagow]

I have an attached 2 car garage. The common wall is insulated and drywalled I guess, the other three walls are bare studs. I want to heat this garage (New England) but figure I really need to insulate and drywall first. I can fix cars, but can't hammer a nail How big a job is putting in good insulation and then drywall over that? What should I do about the open ceiling? I was thinking some kind of foam insulation then drywall but keeping the ceiling open as opposed to having the ceiling made like inside the house. I have a vent hole up there with a cupola thing on the roof.

I do not have much in the way of electrical capability in the garage but would like to have some wiring run to create extra outlets on the walls. I am also thinking of somehow bringing 220~240 V to the garage in case I decide to purchase a car lift. The house isn't super old but the garage seems to have been left mostly unfinished and as such is unusable in the winter. I want to be able to use the garage. When I replaced to garage doors I did have insulated ones installed.

What kind of contractor would I look for to see about getting this done?
I will probably need to use a propane fired ceiling mounted blower type heater as I don't have city gas available.
Thanks for any tips/comments

 

[TomT]

I'm normally on the HAMB alot and just lurk here - alot of nice work/garages on here that's for sure ....

If you can fix a car, you can do insulation. Go to your local Home Depot or Lowes and pick their brains about what you can use. Pictures of your garage and areas to insulate will help them guide you. You just need a good vapr barrier, the key to insulation in my opinion, and the garage be vented.

As far as electrical, if your circuit breaker box is in the garage and you have a big enough service to bring in some outlets, lights, and a 220 setup. It's then easy enough to plan and run the electrical wire yourself - again either home improvement store will help - but also check with your local electrical codes to do things right. Once the lines are run an electrician can finish up the job for you. This is what I did and I also had to trench over a line to bring in service to my detached garage from my attached garage - whew, trenchers are something else, especially when you're only 5'2" tall!

As for drywall, I used a satin white 4x8 board from Lowes that does not require taping/spackling - wipes down and is easy to put up, reflects alot of light. Since they are in 4x8 sheets, I just went up the 8', nothing more. Since my garage is so tall, I did not cover over the insulation from that point up.

I've attached some pics from my detached garage .... good luck!

 

[Sludge Puppy]

Insulation easy, and drywall is not rocket science. Mudding the dry wall smooth is a different matter Make sure you have the vapor barrier, install the batts and cover it up with drywall. Ton of online video's to give you hints a tricks. Take some time but is not that difficult. HD definitely could give you hints.