Finished up the electric in the garage, now I have to sheet rock it and insulate it for the winter.... its an old 1 car garage, 2x4 walls not 2x6..can i still use a higher R rating insulation?? whats recommended? or will R13 be good enough in jersey... also what thickness drywall should i put up...... here is the garage. I've since ripped out all the shelves and redid the electric and ran them through the studs, etc. should be an easy sheetrock job, but ive never done it... sorry for the O/T but its my first garage and im stoked to work on the car in insulated HEAT this winter!!!!!!!
as far as sheet rock I would use 5/8. Now when it comes to insulation I have issues. My garage is insulated, the former owner was making it an office. They never put in gable vents and the place had a huge moisture problem. I then moved in and ripped out all the insulation in the ceiling and vaulted them and put in vents. The garage still has a moisture problem and I had to get a dehumidifyer to control it. Just something to think about.
If it is 2X4 studs you can get a bunch of 2X2's and fir out the walls to 6inch you won't be sorry to have the thicker insulation. You can also put gable vents in pretty easy if you are worried about moister
Hey, here in SoCal most cities require 3/4 in garage for fire suppression. Go with the highest rating you can fit in between the studs, but start thinkin about how you are gonna vent the place.
Firring strips would be a lot more work than it is worth, its your garage, it has to be comfortable to work in, not live in....
R13 is plenty for the side walls. Get some blown in fiberglass or cellulose for the ceiling and put it in at about an R35 level. The depths depends on the type of insulation used. Cellulose would only be about 12" deep fiber glass about 1.5X that much...cellulose is cheaper. For side walls why not use 1/2 inch plywood on the bottom and drywall on the top. Helps things from punching thru the walls if something is leaning agains it. Bill
Hey,man,it's coming along-don't feel bad,my shop is a single car deal that used to be a steam generator shed on the farm about 100 years ago. A lot of your insulation value is from air entrapment. So you can wedge in more insulation that the R-13 stuff,but you'll be compressing it and it probably will cost you more but not giving you much more protection. You might add to your insulation by using a reflective barrier over the insulation-rolled out alumized stuff is available. That will reflect some of your heat back in. Remember to watch your vapor barriers,they go on the room side.You can probably use R-19 or greater in your celing/attic joist spaces (not both or you will get Big Nick's mositure problem). A lot of your heat loss will be up anyway so this will be a help. Remember to think about air supply for whatever heat source you use-unless it's electric. Drywall can be heavy. 5/8" is great and often fire rated,but half inch is easier to work with. Depending on your dimensions,it's often easier to hang horizontally than vertically. Drywall screws will give you less popping than nails. If it is humid when you move in the drywall,let everything come to the same temp/humidity for a while before hanging it, otherwise when you heat the shop the drywall will shrink a bit (it naturally absorbs mositure)and the screws will pop.(my 300K hospital addition,professionally built, has this affliction.) My celing is about 11' high so I used 3/8" drywall on the ceiling-easiest to lift and all I needed was a solid surface. Also you might consider cold weather fluorescent lighting in your shop-abiut more expensive,but much better light until your shop heats up.
If you use fiberglass, r13 is as much as you put in 2x4 walls. If you use sheets of styrofoam, you may be higher but alot more work. Unless your building code requires it, there isn't any reason to use thicker than 1/2" sheetrock. If you're going to be rough in putting things against the walls, put 1/2" osd or wafer board up the first 4 feet. Sheetrock is fragile against impact. As long as you do a good job sealing all the airleaks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how easy it will be to heat. My attic is open and the roof is insulated the same as the walls. I use the trusses for storage area. If you have more questions, you should consider contacting the local city building inspector for info on codes.
Put in insulation that's rated for the thickness of the wall...so R13 is what you'd use on the walls. Drywall thicknes probably depends on building codes, if you have to get it inspected then you should worry about it, if not then 1/2" should work, 5/8" would be better. I don't know about moisture, it's not a problem here, but having good gable vents is an issue here to keep the shingles cool in summer. I nail drywall, it's faster. Also I discovered that I could rent a drywall lift to hang the stuff on the ceiling, it's a big help.
can someone school me on gable vents? and venting? i think im just going to go with the standard r13.... as far as moisture.....the garage even after all the rain we had in NJ...was dry as anything... but id still like to plan and do it right. also, the sheetrock isnt a problem, my father has his garage sheetrocked and we have never put anything through the walls, we arent hard core builders, etc. just fix, mainenance, tinker, and maybe build a few bikes ground up...but nothing silly and my father and i are pretty much crazy neat freaks (he vacuums his garage...shhh dont let him hear me say that ) HI DAD.
Coming from the land of the cold, most of your heat loss is through your ceiling/roof. R13 in the walls with R20 or more in the ceiling joists (blow it in after you've sheeted the ceiling) should have you toasty this winter. Make sure you install a vapor barrier between your insulation and sheet rock (6mm poly is fine). It's a good idea to seal the poly to the top and bottom 2x4's with a vapour barrier caulking available at any Home Depot, etc. When sheeting, do your ceiling first, make sure you stagger your seams. When doing the walls, although you can hang the sheet vertically, I'd do them horizontally. If your studs aren't square, you'll see the seams......... or have to hang lots of girly pictures .............. OK, hang the wall sheets any way you want. As far as sheet rock, I'd use 1/2", easier to handle.... and cheaper. The previous post about 3/4" for fire abatement was likely a code for an attached garage. I'm assuming yours is detached. Good luck. Oh yeah, if you have to decide between the beer fridge or a work bench.......... go for the fridge!!!
Caffeine you need vents under the soffits (overhang) and then near the top of the roof (ridge vents work great) keeps air flowing through the attic that way. you probably only need a couple on each side for the soffits and two on the top unless you do the ridge vents bill
R-13 is the max for 2X4 walls. If moisture is a problem DO NOT put clear plastic sheeting up over the insulation. It's probably the wrong time from a price perspective, what with the recent hurricanes, but I used 7/16 OSB as wall covering in my garage. Don't have to worry about accidently punching holes in the drywall and when its time to hang or attach light objects you don't have to find a stud. I was just going to do the bottom 4 ft initially, but when I did mine OSB was $6.50 a sheet and drywall was just under $4. I would recommend 5/8 sheetrock minimum for the ceiling and R25-R36 bats for insullation. If you aren't sure where you want lights, just install several duplex recepticles on a switched circuit in the ceiling and put lamp cord pig tails on your flourescents. I moved a couple of mine after initial construction to other locations. I was glad I didn't go with the recessed fixtures. One last thing, before you cover up the walls, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY RECEPTICLES! I spaced recept's every 32" all around my 24' by 20' garage and still don't allways have one where I need it, because of shelf units, fridge, blast cabinet, etc. I'm glad I put my walls up with sheet rock screws, they were easy to remove when I needed to add another 20A 240V circuit for the MIG and a couple of handier locations for 120V recepts.
I'd go for 5/8 FIRE RATED sheetrock. Hang the celing first, then the top wall sheets, bottom sheets last. Keep the bottom an inch away from the floor so moisture wont wick up and start to rot things. Drywall nail all four edges, screws tend to brake the rock but are great in the center. Have you installed nail plates over any wireing you've run through the studs? If not note were wires are and keep the drywall screws away from that area. Rock may be cheaper at a big home center, but I always think it is seconds with voids in it, and it is a royal pain to load it on a cart drag it through the store then load it on a truck. A local yard should have better quality and in most cases you can drive over to the stack or have a loader bring it to your truck. Also 4x14 or 4x12 sheets for the walls make for less taping, but maybe you need Bondo application practice too.
Dude, go with OSB. At least one wall. It's sooo much nicer than drywall. Dunno about codes and all that hoo ha but if it was my garage I'd sheet with wood. Way nicer for hanging stuff. It might cost a bit more and if that's a big issue than I understand going with drywall.
EXCELLENT idea to put plywood around the bottom half of the wall. I've got 3/8 plywood on the wall behind my shelves specifically so I don't punch through it when sliding something onto the shelves. When I finally get to it, I'm going to use bright-finished corrugated siding (corrugated lines going up/down) along the bottom 4-feet of my walls. It'll keep grinder and welding sparks and floor jacks or anything else out of the wall, and the bright finish should reflect light. Above the corrugated, I've hung white faced peg board to the ceiling, instead of sheetrock. Had a couple of advantages: Fairly easy to hang with deck screws every two feet on every stud, don't have to tape/mud/sand/paint because it's already bright white, makes hanging things on the wall VERY easy, and the noise from air tools is knocked down a bit because the sound isn't bouncing off the walls--the holes in the board cancel it out a little bit. Drywall sometimes becomes a sound amplifier. 4x8 sheets of pegboard are more expensive than sheet rock, but by the time you figure in all the other supplies to finish sheetrock, it's about the same or even a little cheaper. And then when you figure in the time to finish it, sheetrock isn't even close. -Brad
I have 10 foot walls in my shop and ran the plywood 8 feet down from the ceiling then the corrugated you mentioned on the last 2 feet. I like it pretty well plus didn't have to rip sheets of ply for the last 2 feet. BTW if you're the same guy I think you are, that green rigid you built awhile back was SICK *edit* excuse the mess.... was a busy weekend
What i did in my new garage(two years old) was use r-13 fiberglass and instead of sheet rock I used high gloss white bathroom pannaling.It might not be as strong as drywall or osb, but it is easy to clean and it's reflective quality's help with lighting.By the time you dryweall and paint you could put up the pannaling and be a couple vbucks a head IMHO.
I used r13 And peg board on top half walls ply wood on bottom half.you can hang a lot on peg board tool holders ect.
I live in Montana, and insulation is ALWAYS a good idea. My shop walls are now 10 inches and I have 16 inches in the ceiling. If you are planning on staying for a length of time, go to R-19 (6 in) in the walls. as stated above, just add 2x2's to the existing 2x4 studs. I use sheetrock screws to attach them . There is no insulation benefit to stuffing 6 inches of insulation into a 2x4 wall. Sheetrock is a good choice . Its fire resistant cheap and easy to repair. Check with your local power company. Many offer rebates if you insulate or add a setback thermostat.
man you should see it coming along now!!!!!!!!!! and man the insulation did the trick!! the other day it suddenly got warm. i walked in the garage in the morning and it was ice cold!! I did r13 on the walls and r25 in the super low ceiling (half the garage has a 11-12 foot cieling the other half has a 8 foot. I got about half the sheetrock up, i realized 1 thing....old wood isnt straight...its not a perfect job but it is going to be awesome.......... im hoping to finish up a majority of it today..
Hey Rob... Congrats on the garage. Once you've got a place properly insulated it makes a helluva lot of difference. In my house I even insulated the INSDE walls. I can keep the bedrooms way cool while the rest of the house stays warm. The sound insulation it provides is great, too. Now you can hammer and grind all night and the neighbors wont even hear ya. Post some pics when you're done.
what about the sprayed in foam? The guy that runs the shop at school has it in his home shop. heats the whole pole barn to 70 in the winter with a little wood burner stove. my uncle has it in his sunroom on the 140 y/o farm house and they don't even heat the room it stays that warm. I would think they could shoot a small garage for cheap/fast
In my garage, instead of insulation, we used white panel board, the type that you would use around a tub or shower. The stuff is really bright, easy to clean, and was easy to install. The other helper was that it was dirt cheap.
For anyone else considering insulation, I'd highly recommend the spray in foam. Yes, it is more $$$ up front. But, it really seals all the little nooks and crannies that fiberglass can't. Not such a big deal with new construction, but very helpful for older construction or odd structures like my pole barn. Just make sure you've got everything in the walls you'll ever need before you have it sprayed. I had my pole barn sprayed. 32 x 48 w/ 12 ft ceilings. Stays nice inside even without heat (coming soon). Now, go seal up that garage door. Scott.
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