If you have living space above the garage and the rooms are uncomfortably hot or cold it may be due to lack of insulation between the garage and the living space above the garage. Often times this area is either under-insulated or uninsulated altogether. If this is the case, it means that hot air in the summer and cold air in the winter can flow in and around the floor cavities, permeating the rooms above and creating an uncomfortable living environment. Not only do the air gaps in the garage ceiling cavities allow unconditioned air to escape into the conditioned space, but air gaps in these cavities provide space for pollutants such as carbon monoxide from your vehicle or other items that are commonly stored in garages containing chemicals (fertilizer, paints, cleaners, gasoline etc.) to vent up into the living space. When the garage ceiling is properly insulated, this eliminates that problem.
Depending on what you use your garage for will determine if you should consider insulating your garage exterior walls. If your garage is used for activities such as mechanic work or wood work, insulating your exterior walls may be a good option to be able to control the temperature in your garage.
Depending on what you use your garage for will determine if you should consider insulating your garage exterior walls. If your garage is used for activities such as mechanic work or wood work, insulating your exterior walls may be a good option to be able to control the temperature in your garage.
Benefits to insulating your garage ceiling:
- The comfort of your home! With a properly insulated garage ceiling the conditioned air in your home, whether it be cool air in the summer or warm air in the winter, stays in the living space of your home – exactly where you want it!
- Saving on heating and cooling costs! If the conditioned air in your home doesn’t have penetrations to escape from your garage into your living space your furnace and air conditioning or heat pump don’t have to be running constantly to replace the air that escapes into the attic
- Improved indoor air quality! Once your garage ceiling is properly air sealed and insulated it not only prevents unconditioned garage air from entering your home, it also prevents garage pollutants from permeating into the living space.
Steps to insulating your garage ceiling:
When we insulate the floor over garage we will go to each cavity and drill 2.5” holes in order to dense pack the garage ceiling. Once we dense pack and fill each cavity we will then plug and patch each hole to ensure the insulation stays in the cavity. In addition to insulating your garage ceiling we also highly recommend air sealing the garage to house common wall to eliminate the possibility of unconditioned air and pollutants permeating into the living space. This process includes cutting the drywall of the ceiling back approximately 1.5’, air sealing the top plate and reinstalling the drywall