I’m told they do not insulate the garage in new construction. Since it’s my only space to build my new 4X8 layout I now look to insulate it. It has finished walls all around and I honestly don’t remember if the walls are insulated. (Foam for this?) I do know there is nothing in the cieling. Suggestions?
Also I do have two vents I’m told because of the gas water heater in the garage. Are these going to poise a cooling problem?
I did consider swamp cooling the garage…but I’m afraid it may add too much moisture to the air and adversely affect my layout.
Garage door insulation kits @ Home depot going to work on the door?
I suspect people from colder climates are going to be confused. I just thought I’d put this out there before I call in a contractor.
Just came back from Mesa, before the heat. I would not do swamp conditioning. Electric is expensive but is controlible. I have a window unit that works fine in my 24x24 garage. I have no insulation. I figured the cost of insulation would be more than electricity. If you don’t have insulation between the joists in the ceiling it is hard. 2 inch foam othe wals would help some. You could use the scrap for mountains. The vents will make heating more of problwem than cooling, cool air stays down. Good luck.
Just came back from Mesa, before the heat. I would not do swamp conditioning. Electric is expensive but is controlible. I have a window unit that works fine in my 24x24 garage. I have no insulation. I figured the cost of insulation would be more than electricity. If you don’t have insulation between the joists and in the ceiling it is hard. 2 inch foam on the walls would help some. You could use the scrap for mountains. The vents will make heating more of problem than cooling, cool air stays down. Good luck.
I lived in El Paso tx for many years, swamp cooling I wouldn’t do, but the contractor type foam insulation injected in the walls and sprayed in the roof line would do wonders for you, A small air conditioner would keep it cool after that. Depends on what direction your door faces as to whether you neeed to do the door insulation. Best I can add.
I think I’m going to at least throw some batts in the cieling at least. Maybe some r-38. Is your door insulated? I think mine will be a problem unless I do. It faces west and if I stand a foot from it I can exspect burns.
I think installing the A/C unit into the service door is my only option…since the outside of the garage is mostly exsposed to the street and my HOA would never go for it in one of the windows. A few concerns about the service door install… Should I install it low? A door ok? It’s about 2 feet from the water heat…and concerns?
You left just in time then. It was like 82 this past weekend. I suspect it a trend.
How’s your electric distribution system in the garage? An air conditioner will need significant power, and many garages don’t have a lot of outlets. If you’re going to insulate the walls, you can put in wiring at the same time.
How are you with tools, friends and beer? You may find that the cheapest way to do this is to rip out the interior sheetrock, put up the insulation and then replace the sheetrock with new stuff. For a garage, you may be able to salvage some of the sheetrock, but it’s a lot easier to use new stuff. The ceiling is probably more worthwhile insulating, but is also a lot more difficult to replace sheetrock on.
I live in New England, but it does get hot for a while in the summer. I use individual room units, mostly mounted through the walls. Does the rest of your house have central air conditioning? It probably would be least expensive to tap off that, if you’ve got it.
I think I’m going to at least throw some batts in the cieling at least. Maybe some r-38. Is your door insulated? I think mine will be a problem unless I do. It faces west and if I stand a foot from it I can exspect burns.
I think installing the A/C unit into the service door is my only option…since the outside of the garage is mostly exsposed to the street and my HOA would never go for it in one of the windows. A few concerns about the service door install… Should I install it low? A door ok? It’s about 2 feet from the water heat…and concerns?
You left just in time then. It was like 82 this past weekend. I suspect it a trend.
I have an CFG outlet on every way. I think its a new building standard here. I’ll have to wait until fall to insulate the cieling. The wall may be just too exspenive to do. (My friends are all computer nerds. Their not touching my walls!) The other guy maybe right. I can pay a little extra too cool the garage via wall unit or pay thousands to insulate then cool the garage.
I’m facing similar problems in my Nevada garage, so I feel your pain.
Rather than rip out the sheetrock (which will cause hassles with the local building department about permits and such) I went with blow-in insulation between the studs.
Batt insulation over the ceiling was no problem to install. (Wear long sleeves and a filter mask to keep the glass fibers away from the anatomy.) Door insulation consists of white foam (only thing available locally), locked in with a (large) bead of expanding foam at the top of each panel.
Thanks to the design of my garage, I have yet to come up with a satisfactory location for an A/C. Extending the house ductwork is not an option. Since the local humidity is a close approximation of zero, I’m hoping I won’t really need it.
Blow in insulation for the walls wouldn’t be too bad. you could also pour vermiculite between the stud after cutting access holes at the top. If you have dry wall on the ceiling
then cut out a space for trap door and use that to put in the R-38. A window unit put through the wall would be better than using the access door.
The vents in the ceiling shouldn’t cause much problem for cooling for reasons stated by Arthill.
How big is your garage?
Attic access is easy since I already have some small storage up there now. I believe my garage is 24 X 24. Standard 2 car garage. I don’t have a wall to install the A/C unit. At least not once that isn’t exposed to the street. Diffcult to explain really.
As a pretty experienced " Arizona Garage Molderer", you will want to insulate as much as you can. Understandable at the cost/worth on the walls. But you got to insulate that door. It will make a huge difference. Also, if you have an attic entrance, and your roof is vented, consider putting fan up there blowing into the attic… it will suck all the heat off the ceiling and bring in cooler air if you crack the bottom of the garage. Works great when its in the 80’s at nite. Plus, after awhile, it will cool off the attic which in turn, will help cool off the house…
if you are pretty serious modeler and want to play out there in the summer… should consider joing a very elite club I started… “Underwear Operators”[:D]
Welcome to the forum. Nice to see another AZ guy here on the board. Another fella who has a nice set up is Carl, AC4400FAN, he has a great garage layout. What part of AZ are you in?
I’m in Higley Arizona. hahah I know! It’s actually in Gilbert. Are you talking about an attic fan? I can never get anyone to answer my questions about those.
Seem very cost affective and claims to save you a ton of money. Also makes me nervous to put something like a fan in my attic (Something I rarely inspect) Have you ever seen a PC fan someone has never cleaned in Arizona.
I’m actually mounting the layout on the wall…sorta like a 4 x 8 horizontal door if that makes any sense. When I’m done I simple remove the legs and let it swing down. My wife has this notion will park in our garage someday.
When you insulated the door did you use Home depot garage kit? My friend says I need to buy different stuff (pink foam) then exspanding foam the gaps.
I’m actually part of a Moduler club which is pretty fun but I haven’t had time to participate too much.
Hey whats up! I read th post above and you talked about a modular club and Im thinking…“Hey, do I know this guy?” I bought foam over at a place in Mesa and just cut it it to fit into the doors. If ya get free chance man, you should come over. Can show you some tricks[;)]
What place in Mesa? Did you use 1 inch or 2 inch foam? Did you secure it somehow? Or did the garage door “ribs” hold it in?
I need to get my layout out of the planning stages…I’m still working on my sons around the room O scale…until that the wife says no new construction. She’s the boss! It would be great to see the layout. My stuff is dieing to run!!
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by canazar
Hey whats up! I read th post above and you talked about a modular club and Im thinking…“Hey, do I know this guy?” I bought foam over at a place in Mesa and just cut it it to fit into the doors. If ya get free chance man, you should come over. Can show you some tricks[;)]
Jeremy, send me an email and we will hook up. Evenings are great for me… You are more than welcome to come over and bring some stuff. All though, I do have DCC. But if you do not have any DCC stuff, I got plenty of power and bring your rolling stock if ya wanna spin the wheels.
In the freeze your butt off north, we use insulation in the ceiling joist and run additional insulation perpendicular to the joist. Always put the vapor barrier on the heated side of the insulation. You should vent the attic with vents or add a vent with a fan. Heat will build up under the roof.
If the walls are not insulated and finished inside, you can use blown in insulation. It’s ground up newspaper with a fire retardant.
I don’t know what you can plant in AZ, but you should shade the south side of the building with trees (huge cacti? giant rock? enormus solar pannel?) and paint the outside white.
I would enclose the water heater in its own utility room or closet. The room would be vented to allow fresh air for combustion. Check your building codes for the area required around the water heater. Or change to an instant water heater (it has a fresh air intake with the exhaust) or electric or solar water heater.
Sure will!
Fiberglass or wood doors are the best insulated. The problem is around the sides of roll up or lift up doors. They need to be sealed.
Jeremy, Higley ain’t no differant than Scottsdale. Most likely the partition between the garage and the house IS insulated, probably with Fiberglas bats. Poke a hole in the sheet rock and see if pink stuff comes out. If you have a crawl space over the attic it is worthwhile to get some bags of blown in type of insulation and cover the celing materials up to the joists. It might be easier to rent a blower. The ceiling is where most of the heat comes from. I installed some Home Depot exhaust fans in the gable end of the crawl space which sucks ambient air in throught the eave vents and blows out 180 degree air. That brings the temperature up there down to near ambient even when its 110F. In our summers this is a huge oven and not conducive to model railroads or model railroading because of th expansion/contraction thing and the sweat of he modeler. You MUST insulate it to have any kind of comfort economicaly. Forget the Evap, too much humidity. My two car garage is almost 5,000 cubic feet. I haven’t been able to find an air conditioner than can hold 80 degrees in our usual summers. Incicentally, I gave up on my garage for all of the above reasons.
