Should I insulate the garage?

Only insulate a space if doing so will improve occupant comfort or safeguard the equipment and systems installed there.

Insulation is unnecessary if your garage is being used solely for parking a car. Automobiles are built to withstand the weather, so even a non-insulated garage can keep them safe.

But if your garage is also where you keep your heating system, where you do your laundry, or where you do other activities that demand a specific level of comfort, you’ll need to insulate it differently.

In this scenario, you should insulate your garage to include it in the conditioned space (i.e. all heated rooms in the housing unit).

Your garage provides much-needed protection from severe weather. The temperature, however, can vary greatly depending on the elements. The desire to reduce monthly energy costs and the want to regulate the garage’s temperature throughout the year are two of the many possible motivations for insulating the garage.

An effective insulation system can drastically reduce your monthly energy costs and make your home significantly more pleasant to live in. It’s not uncommon to spend hundreds of dollars on heating and cooling bills throughout the winter and summer months, respectively. A home’s heating and cooling systems are unaffected by the temperature in the garage.

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Is it really worth it to spend so much time and money on it? Please read our analysis below before making any decisions.

Is it necessary to heat and/or insulate your garage? Do requirements set by codes and regulations compel you to do so? Aw, come on… Others government agencies have mandated an R-value for common walls between dwellings and garages, and some have mandated an R-value for garage ceilings with habitable space above them. Well then, what about the other walls? Oh, well, you have no requirements! Additionally, there are no rules for the insulation or heating of unattached garages.

If you don’t need to keep your garage warm, there’s no need in doing so. The word “comfort” is often used carelessly. After all, if you’re not cold, you can put more effort into your DIY tasks. However, if your garage is not well insulated, utilising a space heater is pointless because the warm air would simply escape through the walls.

Here are six arguments in favour of insulating and maybe even heating your garage, as we see it. Test your assumptions…

An Essential Part Of Your House Is Your Garage.

Garages are no longer just a place to park automobiles and throw trash; they serve a variety of other purposes as well. Homeowners today use them for a myriad of functions, from workshops and gyms to kids’ playrooms and more.

You can use your garage all year if you insulate it and instal a heater.

Attached Garages That Lack Insulation Let The Cold Enter Your House

A common practice, insulation of the access door and common wall between the garage and the house keeps draughts at bay when the door is closed. By leaving the door open, warm air from inside the home is wasted as it escapes into the unheated garage, and cold air from the garage is admitted into the house.

You May Not Have Much Of A Choice.

It’s possible you won’t mind spending time in a damp, cold garage. Insulating your garage is necessary if, for instance, your washing and dryer are located there and connected to the house’s plumbing. In the winter, pipes that lack insulation risk freezing.

If there is living space above the garage, as we have already discussed, insulation of the garage ceiling is a must. If you don’t, you can end up with an extremely cold bedroom on cold winter nights.

Defend The Things You Value Most.

You shouldn’t have to worry about the weather damaging your bikes, skis, kayaks, etc., if you don’t have a place to store them. Since unheated garages tend to be humid places, rust and mould thrive there. Having a garage that is properly insulated will alleviate any concerns you may have.

Carbon Monoxide Protection

In the winter, when remote starters are in high demand, what happens if you accidentally activate one when the car is in the garage? If the garage is well insulated and has good weatherstripping, carbon monoxide gas will not be able to seep into your home.

If you have a garage at your residence, instal a carbon monoxide monitor there.

As A Sound Barrier, Insulation Serves.

Insulating your garage creates a barrier that blocks sound from travelling into or out of your house. Your teenagers can bang on drums without needing to wear earplugs, and you’ll get a good start on Sunday with the power drill without upsetting the neighbours.

Don’t Leave Your Garage Door!

Because garage doors are so large and serve as a fourth wall, it is not enough to just insulate the garage walls and ceiling to the requirements specified by an energy conservation agency.

Types Of Insulation For Your Garage

If you plan to heat your garage, then it makes sense to insulate it. You can use the same insulation in the garage that you do in the rest of the house, although some kinds are better than others depending on whether or not the garage will be finished. The garage door, which must be insulated in a way different from that of the walls or ceiling, should also be considered.

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Garage Insulation Basics

It is a good idea to insulate your garage whether you plan to keep the heat on all the time or only turn it on when you need it. There isn’t much use in insulating if you’re not also heating the space. Many people wrongly believe that insulation makes a space warmer. As a matter of fact, insulation does little more than decrease the rate at which heat escapes through the barrier it creates (wall, ceiling, floor, etc.).

Some people think that adding insulation to the garage’s walls and ceilings can help keep the house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, even if the garage isn’t heated. However, no jurisdiction mandates this as part of energy efficiency standards, and the negligible increase in efficiency is not likely to justify the high price of thicker walls. However, the walls that connect the garage to the home should have the largest amount of insulation possible.

You should also know the need of air-sealing in addition to insulation. It’s not uncommon for garages to have numerous openings leading directly to the outdoors because they’re not meant to be airtight. If you insulate the garage’s walls, ceiling, and door to the maximum R-value and still have air gaps, a lot of heat will be lost. Prior to installing insulation, you should seal all daylight-trapping cracks and gaps with a can of low-expanding spray foam around the garage. (Of course, an open garage door serves as a giant air gap, but that’s besides the point.) Make sure the draft-proofing weatherstripping at the bottom of the garage door, window, and door frames is in good condition.

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Fiberglass Insulation

Fiberglass is the most prefered form of insulation for garages and residences alike. Precut batts and long blankets are available for use in the spaces between wall studs and ceiling joists. In addition, you can purchase loose-fill fibreglass insulation, which can be blown into an unfinished garage attic.

Use fibreglass bats with a paper face or encapsulated in plastic if the walls and ceiling won’t be covered (not with drywall or plywood). These will provide the walls with a more polished appearance and ensure that the irritating insulation fibres are not always visible and attracting dust.

Cellulose Insulation

The use of cellulose, a type of loose-fill insulation, is on the rise. Cellulose insulation, which is often blown into wall and ceiling cavities with a special blowing machine that also aerates the cellulose and fluffs it up, is made mostly from recycled newspapers and treated with a fire retardant. Numerous hardware stores will lend you a blower at no cost if you buy your cellulose from them, and you may also rent blowers from a variety of other sources.

Cellulose’s loose-fill nature means it’s best used in enclosed spaces like ceilings and finished garage walls. Installing cellulose insulation into a finished garage requires drilling strategically placed holes in the wall material, spraying the insulating into the crevices between framing components, and then patching the holes.

Rigid Foam Insulation

Sheets of rigid foam measure 4 feet by 8 feet, and their thicknesses range from half an inch to four. Common examples of such materials include Styrofoam-like expanded polystyrene, polyisocyanurate, and extruded polystyrene. The R-value of an inch of rigid foam is high, and the material can be shaped to fit practically any size or shape. It’s a smart option for insulating garage doors and lining paper-thin walls. Insulating the floor with firm foam between between layers of plywood or another subfloor material is one option if you plan to convert your garage into a permanent living space or office.

Important: Before using stiff foam in an exposed application, be sure it has the required fire rating.

Spray Foam Insulation

Spray foam is great for insulation and airtightness. Spray foam is a high-end material commonly used for energy-efficient buildings, although it is usually unnecessary for garage renovations. But if you want to use the garage as additional living space, this may be a practical move.

Garage Door Insulation

It is not enough to simply insulate the garage’s walls and ceiling; the massive garage door must also be protected from the cold. Insulation kits are available for ordinary metal garage doors, or you may simply use rigid foam insulation in individual panels or sections. Remember that the garage door’s structural metal ribbing is a good conductor of heat, and that this is rarely insulated. Overall, the door’s insulation performance will be far lower than that of the insulation itself.

It is especially crucial that garage doors be airtight. Special garage door trim with an integrated weather seal strip can be used to provide a seal along the door’s edges and at its top. Put a new rubber gasket, or “bottom seal,” along the bottom of the door to keep the elements out. It comes in a variety of widths to fill any space between your garage door and the floor.

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Methods For Insulating Garage Doors

Some homeowners have found success by applying regular batt insulation to the inner door leaf. Spray foam insulation, the same kind that is commonly sprayed against roof sheathing from the inside to boost the R-value in an attic, is another option for increasing the R-value.

But the point of garage doors is to provide access. They need to be often opened and closed, which means they typically hinge or fold at multiple points. Due to this, the garage door will not benefit from either bat insulation or spray foam insulation. Even if you locate items that are advertised as being suitable for use against a garage door, the door’s frequent opening and closing will eventually cause the insulation to flake, pull apart, and fail. In the long run, this will not be cheap.

Investing in a pre-insulated garage door is preferable if you’re serious about saving money on your heating and cooling bills. Choose a fibreglass door with a foam core to insulate your garage from the elements, rather than a metal door, which is a poor insulator. When shopping for a new garage door, it’s recommended that you consider an insulated option. However, the potential cost savings from installing an insulated garage door on an otherwise functional door may not be worth the expense.

Insulate The Rest Of The Garage Instead

However, there are other places in the garage that are just as troublesome in terms of heat loss, so installing insulation on the garage door isn’t a great investment. Your garage’s floor is likely constructed directly on a concrete slab, which means it lacks insulation and acts as a constant conductor of heat and cold. In the same way that your car radiates heat constantly into the concrete walls of your garage, the concrete walls of your garage are a constant source of heat transfer. If you insulate the entire garage, you may be dismayed to find that your utility expenses change only slightly.

Instead of focusing on insulating the garage door and other garage components, it is considerably more beneficial to insulate the walls that separate the main home from the attached garage. Install insulation in the garage ceiling to reduce heat loss through any potential connection to the home’s attic. Make sure the garage’s inside wall (the one that connects to the home) is well insulated. This way, even if the temperature in the garage varies, it won’t have much of an effect on the rest of the house or on your utility bills.

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The Exception

Even while most contractors will instruct you to insulate the entry points into the house from the garage, there may be occasions when you want to add additional insulation to the garage door, walls, and floor. The garage door may not be used much if the space is heated or cooled regularly and is used as living quarters rather than for storing vehicles and other belongings. The R-value of the garage door, together with the walls, flooring, and ceiling, should be maximised in this case.

This is true for both attached garages and freestanding garages. If you need to heat or cool a detached garage, you should take every measure to minimise the building’s energy use. It has been demonstrated that an R-18 rated garage door may reduce the temperature inside by 25 degrees in the summer and increase it by 12 degrees in the winter. A double garage door that is both attractive and energy-efficient can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000, so keep in mind that it will take some time before you see any savings from installing such a door. Moreover, this strategy is warranted only in locations where the garage door is unlikely to be used frequently, so as not to compromise the building’s thermal envelope.

If the garage is going to be converted into living space, you may insulate it with a kit that can be found at most home improvement stores. The typical kit store will carry two varieties. Two packs of vinyl-faced fibreglass batting can insulate a normal 16-foot-wide garage door adequately, providing an R-8 value. This fluffy insulation is taped to the inner face of the door for added soundproofing. You can also buy prefabricated stiff foam panels made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) and instal them in the door. The panels are then trimmed to size and snapped into place along the door’s horizontal rails. These kits typically have an R-value of 4 in terms of insulation efficiency.

When asked how to make a home more energy efficient, most people immediately think of installing insulation. However, air gaps where draughts occur account for a large portion of heat loss. If there are still air leaks around the garage’s doors, windows, and other openings, then installing insulation won’t help much. When attempting to improve the garage’s thermal efficiency, these gaps must be sealed.

So, Is It Worth It?

Is it a good idea to spend money on insulating a garage? It’s not the ideal strategy for lowering your energy bills, but you shouldn’t write it off entirely. Other improvements, such as installing a storm door on the garage door that leads inside the house, might be quite helpful as well. Both the garage door and window openings should be sealed or blocked up. However, be careful not to block off your garage to the point that exhaust gases can’t escape.

Conclusion

Insulating a garage for one vehicle is unnecessary. Insulation reduces utility bills by half or more. Is it worth the work and resources? Before acting, examine this analysis. Garage insulation keeps noise out.

Garage insulation reduces heating bills. Insulating your garage is a smart idea whether you use the heater all the time or only when needed. Energy efficiency laws do not specify wall thickness, and the little efficiency gain may not justify the expenditure. Cellulose insulation use has increased. To instal cellulose insulation in a finished garage, carefully drill holes in the wall material, spray the insulation into frame component cracks, and then patch the holes.

Garage door trim seals the top and periphery. Fibreglass garage doors with foam cores keep the weather out. Insulating your entire garage may keep your utility cost the same. A stylish, energy-efficient double garage door costs $1,500–$2,000.

This method works only in sparsely used garages. Insulate the door and other structural components if you plan to live in your garage. EPS rigid foam panels can also be installed.

Content Summary

Only insulate a space if doing so will improve occupant comfort or safeguard the equipment and systems installed there.
Insulation is unnecessary if your garage is used solely to park a car.
But if your garage is also where you keep your heating system, do your laundry, or do other activities that demand a specific level of comfort, you’ll need to insulate it differently.
The desire to reduce monthly energy costs and they want to regulate the garage’s temperature throughout the year are two of the many possible motivations for insulating the garage.
A home’s heating and cooling systems are unaffected by the temperature in the garage.
Additionally, there are no rules for the insulation or heating of unattached garages.
If you don’t need to keep your garage warm, there’s no need to do so.
You can use your garage all year if you insulate it and instal a heater.
A common practice is the insulation of the access door and the common wall between the garage and the house to keep draughts at bay when the door is closed.
You won’t mind spending time in a damp, cold garage.
Insulating your garage is necessary if, for instance, your washing and dryer are located there and connected to the house’s plumbing.
If you need a place to store them.
Having a properly insulated garage will alleviate any concerns you may have.
If the garage is well insulated and has good weatherstripping, carbon monoxide gas will not be able to seep into your home.
Because garage doors are so large and serve as a fourth wall, it is not enough to insulate the garage walls and ceiling to the requirements specified by an energy conservation agency.
Complete your garage organisation plan by getting your gear off the floor with garage smart storage baskets.
It is a good idea to insulate your garage whether you plan to keep the heat on all the time or only turn it on when you need it.
Some people think that adding insulation to the garage’s walls and ceilings can help keep the house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, even if the garage isn’t heated.
However, the walls connecting the garage to the home should have the largest insulation possible.
You should also know the need for air-sealing in addition to insulation.
If you insulate the garage’s walls, ceiling, and door to the maximum R-value and still have air gaps, a lot of heat will be lost.
The use of cellulose, a type of loose-fill insulation, is rising.
It’s a smart option for insulating garage doors and lining paper-thin walls.
Spray Foam Insulation Spray foam is great for insulation and airtightness.
It is not enough to insulate the garage’s walls and ceiling; the massive garage door must also be protected from the cold.
It has various widths to fill any space between your garage door and the floor.
Due to this, the garage door will not benefit from either batt insulation or spray foam insulation.
Investing in a pre-insulated garage door is preferable if you’re serious about saving money on your heating and cooling bills.
Choose a fibreglass door with a foam core to insulate your garage from the elements rather than a metal door, which is a poor insulator.
When shopping for a new garage door, it’s recommended that you consider an insulated option.
Instead of focusing on insulating the garage door and other garage components, it is considerably more beneficial to insulate the walls that separate the main home from the attached garage.
Install insulation in the garage ceiling to reduce heat loss through any potential connection to the home’s attic.
This way, even if the temperature in the garage varies, it won’t affect the rest of the house or your utility bills.
Speak to us if you’re looking for garage storage solutions in Melbourne.
The R-value of the garage door and the walls, flooring, and ceiling should be maximised in this case.
You can also buy prefabricated stiff foam panels made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) and instal them in the door.
These kits typically have an R-value of 4 in terms of insulation efficiency.
Most people immediately think of installing insulation when asked how to make a home more energy efficient.
If there are still air leaks around the garage’s doors, windows, and other openings, installing insulation won’t help much.
Both the garage door and window openings should be sealed or blocked up.
Insulate the garage ceiling and any walls connecting the garage and house instead of the door if you use the space for storing cars and other belongings.
However, insulating the door and other parts of the garage could be worthwhile if you utilise the garage as a living space.

FAQs About Garage Insulation

How should I insulate my garage?

Similarly to how it is the most prefered in residential settings, fibreglass insulation is also the go-to for garages. Precut batts and long blankets are available for use in the spaces between wall studs and ceiling joists.

Do you think it’s worthwhile to insulate a garage?

So, to put it briefly, yeah! Insulating your garage will keep you warm and help you save money on your energy bill if you intend to utilise the space as an office, playroom, gym, etc. The insulation in a garage is not only beneficial for keeping unwanted pests out, but also for preserving your upholstery from damage.

Should a vapour barrier be used with garage insulation?

In most cases, people believe that unheated garages that have been insulated should have ventilation. Frost and mould will form without a vapour barrier, even in a warm garage.

How challenging is it to insulate a garage?

Insulating a garage can significantly reduce monthly utility bills and improve the quality of your storage space. It’s not hard to insulate a garage for either cooling or heating purposes.

Can a garage be insulated?

If you insulate the garage’s walls, ceiling, and door to the maximum R-value and still have air gaps, a lot of heat will be lost. Prior to installing insulation, you should seal all daylight-trapping cracks and gaps with a can of low-expanding spray foam around the garage.