What grade of insulation should i use in a WA shop??

Western Washington to be spacific, It's a 24 x 48 pole building, that i will be regularly working out in in all year

 

The national building code for houses:
R-30 ceiling
R-19 walls

more is better where insulation is concerned

 

As much as you can afford.

 

Thanks Lowkat!

Not the answer i'd expect from arizona

 

Go do some research on our sister site. www.garagejournal.com

 

i have 6" R20 in my walls i,m just north of you in BC , best $$ i spent it,s now freezing here at nite and there,s still a big temperature difference between the shop and outside , i have yet to turn on the heat LOL

 

My shop is pretty well insulated, it gets down to about 50 inside in the winter, without the insulation it would be too cold to work in.

 

R-50 is what the feds are now recommending for Northern climates. It works. It's cheap to use the blow-in insulation, and a piece of cake to do it yourself.

 

Depends on where in Arizona he's from. I'm in Washington and my shop is the same size as yours and I can tell you from the last two winters experience you can't have too much insulation. The heating bill was so high (Propane) I just turned it off and dressed in lots of layers. Good luck.

 

Oregon requires R-38 ceiling and R-21 in the the walls. Washington may be similar. The more you have the cheaper it will be to heat.

 

I found that it has a lot more to do with the seal (or lack thereof) around your man and overhead doors. You can insulate the heck out of the walls and ceiling it but if you can't adequately seal the inside working area from outside air, you're not accomplshing as much as you may think.

- EM

 

I remember working out in the garage in western Washington all year long... a few years in Maine winters will desensitize you to serious cold and the worst Washington can throw at you feels like t-shirt weather. Insualtion? Hah!

 

my shop has no insulation, it was built back in the early 60's, i just bought a propane furnace to hang from the ceiling, the roof does has 10 fibergl*** panels to let light in which is great, no lights on durning the day, it is a little cool when it's down around zero, thats why i wear long johns, if i was building this shop today it would have 2" foam under the floor and 2x6 insulated walls and ceiling.

 

ive got a 30x32 pole barn and i insulated it with 6" vynl backed (kinda like vynl its smooth and water resistant)steel building insulation..worked like a charm. and its white to reflect the light
so many years of working in the cold or tying to heat a shop with no insulation.
on the walls i have 2" silver back commercial rubber roof insulation..its solid foam with a foil backing both sides, and it has a 4" dead air space in behind it

Mind you, this was what i could find and what i could afford..it was cheap, and it works great for the money

even works great to keep it cool in the summertime

 

early mopar is correct. You need to make sure that the doors and windows are tight. Overhead doors should be the insulated type with rubber seals. I built a 56 x 60 pole barn (Indiana), have 6" walls that I put the maximum thickness in and also insulated the ceiling. I leave my thermostate at 45 and turn it up to 60-65 when I am working there. Cost of heating has been minimal----between one and two fills on my 500 gallon propane tank a year. It's much colder here than in Washington (I grew up in Gig Harbor) and much hotter in the summer. In the summer, if I keep the overhead doors closed, the insullation keeps the building cool. Much like the constant level of caves. I have overhead tube heat, which I would also recommend. I have tried the hanging furnaces and the floor is always cold along with the first 2-3 feet above it. You will make the money you spend on insulation back fairly quickly on utility savings.

 

Good advice, sealing up the drafts is definitely something a lot of people overlook.

I also swapped my windows out for the higher quality energy efficient style, that helps too.

All of this is tax deductible too.

 

Once again, we have an ENTIRE forum devoted to this

www.garagejournal.com

 

We insulate to keep the heat OUT... 110 in the summer=unbearable inside an uninsulated garage.

 

I'm never there, I wonder if the garagejournal is more popular a**** the "nice garage" folks, or the "actually work on their cars all the time in their garage and don't spend too much time making it nice" crowd?

 

There is a little of both. All in all, the board is pretty inspirational. I find it a welcome read a couple times a week.
Go into the Gallery and look at Nimrods place..........................mancave hardly describes the coolness.

 

I should do that. I have too many typewriters and robot parts in mine....

 

I know, but i dont want to sign up amd ask a single question and never come back, garages aint my thang, hot rods are

 

I'm a remodeling contractor.
here in Wisconsin a product we use on a regular basis is "Icynene."
it's a spray-on expanding foam insulation. Here is a link to the company we use.http://www.thermalcomfort.net/

look for an insulation contractor in your area that has experience with these types of products.

I've used this on my own bldgs. and on many customers projects without a single complaint.

 

50 is still Tshirt weather for a lot of guys up here. Cold is when you have to break the ice out of the dog's water dish.

****gy, I'd go for the best rating I could afford. I don't think the price difference is all that great and it not only keeps the warm in in the winter but helps keep the sun's heat out in the summer. The more comfortable it is the more time you will spend in it and not find excuses to not go out there.


<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

50 is comfortable to work in, 40 is too cold...fingers don't work....

 

R-MAX all the way around !!! I wish I had spent the money to heat the floor in my garage. It's 30 X 48 and that 30 plus yards of concrete was a giant freezer until I got it insulated and put in two heaters. Now, warm as toast ! Two Dayton electric heaters work great even when it was in the teens last winter here in Seattle. If it was me again I'd insulate and sheetrock the entire thing before I moved one part or car in there.

 

My cars are in various stages of projects, they make good things to stand on when working!

Thanks Guys!

 

this is way off topic....****gy..don't you have a building supply store like home depot or lowes or something that can give you all the advise you need?
if so, then use them.

 

Insulation pay back calculator-
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/8998/payback-estimator-insulation-upgrade

BUT this ***umes you are in the building 24-7.



If it is a metal building, the spray foam is the best way to go. Those are VERY hard to seal with anything else. Foam can get $ depending on fire ratings & local codes.


David

 

Sprayed foam is the way to go but alot more money than anything else. That stuff gets into every nook and cranny and seals it up. No air movement through the walls/ceiling or whatever you cover.
The downside is that it has a flamespread index that requires it to be covered with sheetrock on vertical walls. There is a thick 'paint' that can be used on overhead areas IIRC.

Yeah, this might be a bit o/t but very important info all the same.


.