How would you insulate this garage/workshop?

/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #1  

lhfarm

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2002
Messages
1,370
Location
Central Indiana
Tractor
NH TC40DA
The garage has vertical cedar siding, so inside I have a bunch of 24" x 16" (on-center) boxes. Anyone have a suggestion or two of how to attack this? Do I need to just get rolls of insulation and start cutting them to fit the "boxes"?

You can see by the date stamp that we built this in 1996. Every winter I swear I'll insulate next year. I'm thinking maybe if I just start on one wall I might get it done some day.

Thanks for the help,
 

Attachments

  • garage.jpg
    garage.jpg
    293.5 KB · Views: 2,738
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #2  
Generally, when you try to stop heat loss, you first work on air leaks, then ceiling insulation, then wall insulation, in that order.

You can get fiberglass roll insulation of the right width and just cut it to length to fit the boxes.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #3  
I agree with Travelover.
Be sure to cover insulated areas with vapour barrier.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #4  
Yep, work from the top down. Closing in and insulating the ceiling will make the most noticeable difference. When you close up the ceiling, don't forget to vent the new attic space you are creating, both at the peak and down at the eves. This helps keep condensation from forming inside the roof area. Does this shed have a ceiling, or is it just roof studs?

The horizontal studs in the walls are a little unusual in my experience. How thick is that OSB skin? If they went with the real thin OSB, I guess that would explain the horizontals as they didn't want the thin OSB to wrinkle/warp between the studs. This of course will make your job a little more difficult.

I just finished insulating my garage. I started part of it several years ago when I put up two inner walls to install work benches and cabinets. At that time I got the Kraft faced rolls of insulation for the wall cavities. The kraft paper facing is your vapor barrier and it has strips on the edge to staple to the studs to hold it in place. This paper backing overlapping at the studs, go a long way to sealing up the space also. this keeps the moisture in the space, and helps keep condensation from forming on the inside surface of the outer wall. When I started spooling up again this summer to finish this project, I couldn't find roll insulation anywhere. It was now a special order item with ALL my local suppliers. Everyone has gone to the pre-cut batts of insulation to fit the standard 8' wall cavities.
If I was doing your type wall, I would cut and remove the insulation from the backing where the studs are located and try and kep the kraft backing in place to cover over those studs.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #5  
You are going to lose a lot of 'storage shelves' but it will be worth it to have a warm place to work in the winter.
Normally the roof is area of most heat loss. If you have a prevailing wind that is cooling things down you may want to seal and insulate that side sooner.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #6  
I just insulated mine between the 2x4 wall studs. Then covered the inside walls with 1/4 osb. For some they put all those ( 2x4 cross braces ?) between your wall studs. Just cut the insulation (R 19 )& stuff it in there
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #7  
foam it
The garage has vertical cedar siding, so inside I have a bunch of 24" x 16" (on-center) boxes. Anyone have a suggestion or two of how to attack this? Do I need to just get rolls of insulation and start cutting them to fit the "boxes"?

You can see by the date stamp that we built this in 1996. Every winter I swear I'll insulate next year. I'm thinking maybe if I just start on one wall I might get it done some day.

Thanks for the help,
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Yep, work from the top down. Closing in and insulating the ceiling will make the most noticeable difference. When you close up the ceiling, don't forget to vent the new attic space you are creating, both at the peak and down at the eves. This helps keep condensation from forming inside the roof area. Does this shed have a ceiling, or is it just roof studs?

The horizontal studs in the walls are a little unusual in my experience. How thick is that OSB skin? If they went with the real thin OSB, I guess that would explain the horizontals as they didn't want the thin OSB to wrinkle/warp between the studs. This of course will make your job a little more difficult.

I just finished insulating my garage. I started part of it several years ago when I put up two inner walls to install work benches and cabinets. At that time I got the Kraft faced rolls of insulation for the wall cavities. The kraft paper facing is your vapor barrier and it has strips on the edge to staple to the studs to hold it in place. This paper backing overlapping at the studs, go a long way to sealing up the space also. this keeps the moisture in the space, and helps keep condensation from forming on the inside surface of the outer wall. When I started spooling up again this summer to finish this project, I couldn't find roll insulation anywhere. It was now a special order item with ALL my local suppliers. Everyone has gone to the pre-cut batts of insulation to fit the standard 8' wall cavities.
If I was doing your type wall, I would cut and remove the insulation from the backing where the studs are located and try and kep the kraft backing in place to cover over those studs.

I do have a ceiling and that should probably be the first task. The vertical studs are the nailers for the siding. I guess I could make a template to mark the points to remove the insulation for the vertical studs.

Would another option be to just cut 24" sections and cover everthing with another vapor layer?

I may also check out the cost of foam. I was hoping to save some money doing it myself, but it sure was cold working in there this weekend.

Thanks,
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #9  
You might consider cutting and filling the stud bays with fiber glass insulation and then nail foam board over all of it. The foam would help seal all of the thermal breaks that the 2x4 nailers for the siding create. OSB or whatever you prefer could then be screwed to the studs on top of the foam. That would give you a good tight envelope with a good R factor.

MarkV
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
You might consider cutting and filling the stud bays with fiber glass insulation and then nail foam board over all of it. The foam would help seal all of the thermal breaks that the 2x4 nailers for the siding create. OSB or whatever you prefer could then be screwed to the studs on top of the foam. That would give you a good tight envelope with a good R factor.

MarkV

Sounds like a good idea and something I could handle.

Thanks!
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #11  
Those look like 2x4 walls so r-11 is what you need, I would just buy the 8 ft. stuff and put it in over the horizontal studs and go back and run your knife over the horizontal studs cutting the insulation and then stuff it in the wall cavity. Then I would install 6 mill vapar barrier and sheetrock it. With the ceiling I would install eve vents and go over the cieling with 6 mill poly and sheetrock it, then rent a machine and blow in about 14 inchs of attic insulation.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #12  
1*The horizontal studs in the walls are a little unusual in my experience. How thick is that OSB skin? If they went with the real thin OSB,
2*I guess that would explain the horizontals as they didn't want the thin OSB to wrinkle/warp between the studs.
3*The vertical studs are the nailers for the siding.
Thanks,
1* 2* & 3* The wall has been built using a combination of Pole Building Construction and Stick Built Construction is why there are both horizontal and vertical studs.

Pole buildings have horizontal studs.
Stick built has vertical studs.

lhfarm ; Can you tell me why the walls were built this way?
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop?
  • Thread Starter
#13  
1* 2* & 3* The wall has been built using a combination of Pole Building Construction and Stick Built Construction is why there are both horizontal and vertical studs.

Pole buildings have horizontal studs.
Stick built has vertical studs.

lhfarm ; Can you tell me why the walls were built this way?

As shown in this picture, the garage (and our house) is sided in vertical cedar siding. The garage was stick built with the 2x4s inserted as nailers for the siding. I'll check but I think the OSB is 3/4"
 

Attachments

  • shower.jpg
    shower.jpg
    58.3 KB · Views: 343
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #14  
yea, exactly what funny farmer said!

other than that, what's up with that electrical work? why don't the wires run horizontal to the next outlet instead of up?
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #17  
As shown in this picture, the garage (and our house) is sided in vertical cedar siding. The garage was stick built .
*The 2x4s were inserted as nailers for the siding.
I assume you are refering to the horizontal 2x4s but why would they be necessary when the siding is already nailed to the vertical 2x4s?:confused:
I'm still puzzled as to why the vertical 2x4s were installed faceing the wrong way:confused:
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #18  
I'm still puzzled as to why the vertical 2x4s were installed faceing the wrong way

Please explain what is the "wrong way" for the vertical 2x4s. I am mystified by this, they appear to be correctly installed to me.

Way back when, the horizontal 2x4s would have been called "fireblocks", and one of their purposes would have been to prevent the rapid spread of fire if the wall were finished out and not insulated.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop? #19  
I would call the "horizontal 2x4's" blocking. In some cases blocking at certain locations is required by code, for example several bays each side of a corner. In this case this blocking can be called a nailer. I did the same on my garage, it is 30 x 40, framed with 2x6. I put a 2x6 every 16 inches in between the studs to act as a nailer for my vertical pine siding, makes for a very stiff structure. To insulate, I simply used R-19 unfaced (2x6's) with 6 mil poly on top and then GWB, the ceiling I used R-30, 6 mil and GWB.

If I did my house and garage over today I would spray it with the expanding spray in insulation, maybe, I looked at doing 4 years ago when I built my house and it was prohibitively expensive, I couldn't imagine a payback, but that is when oil was $1.50 and appeared stable.
 
/ How would you insulate this garage/workshop?
  • Thread Starter
#20  
yea, exactly what funny farmer said!

other than that, what's up with that electrical work? why don't the wires run horizontal to the next outlet instead of up?

I've never noticed. Guess copper was cheap then.
 
 
Top