Insulating and wiring finished walls.

[MrWhy19]

A 440 sq' garage with finished walls, but don't know if they are insulated. The front wall joins the house so it probably is. I can cut a small hole to check for insulation on side walls, but I'm assuming there's none. Also need to do quite a bit of wiring for lights, outlets, split AC, etc. Considering the work that could be done inside these two side walls would it be better/cheaper to just replace the drywall, or leave them alone and blow in some cellulose and use surface conduits for wiring? I could do it all, but time limit will probably force me to use contractors for most of the work. I do remember from the past that surface conduits can sometimes be in way for shelving and benches. Any opinions?

 

[GearBeer]

You're going to put yourself in for a lot of extra work if you pull down the drywall. It's no simple task to put it back up, tape it, fill the holes and paint it. I would recommend going the conduit route.

I would suggest planning all of your shelving ahead of time. That way you can locate your recepticles where they don't disrupt your storage plans. Keep in mind that if the recepticles are outside of the drywall you can always move them so they don't disrupt your shelving solutions.

 

[65Stang]

Is there access to the ceiling space?

You could just cut a 6" horizontal strip 2' above the floor all the way around for the outlets, easy to patch this one strip rather than remove all the drywall. If installing any other outlets, I would use the remodel boxes and just fish it up from this one strip. Lighting, I would either try to access the ceiling space or run exposed conduit on the ceiling since is shouldn't interfere with much on the ceiling versus the walls.