Insulating your garage will help to keep it warmer in the winter saving you money on energy bills and keep it cooler in the summer. Another great benefit of garage insulation is noise reduction, enabling any budding rock stars to practice away without you receiving any complaints from the neighbours. Alternatively if you use your garage as a workshop and operate noisy tools, insulation will help to reduce these sounds keeping your garden peaceful.
Whether you garage is large, small, attached to your house or not, with a little planning and a few simple tools you can easily insulate your garage.
The first step
Draw a plan of your garage – some garages are attached to properties whist others aren’t. Some are dry-walled and some aren’t. Does your garage have an attic?
These are the types of things you need to know about your garage before you can insulate it. In your plan include the size of area you want to insulate as well as the types of insulation you plan to use.
R-Value
This value shows how effective insulation is; it measures the insulating materials resistance to the movement of heat. The higher the R-Value the better the insulating material, however this also means the greater the cost.
Types of Insulation
Fibreglass and Rock Wool – These products come in large rolls and can vary in width. The rolls are designed to fit in between standards stud walls and the joists. Alternatively you can also buy fibreglass or rock wool loose-fill insulation which comes in small pieces that have to be blown or sprayed into the area you want to insulate. They can be sprayed into open wall cavities or dry wall cavities that aren’t already insulated.
Polyurethane – This is another material that can be used as a loose-fill insulation that can be sprayed into open wall cavities or dry wall cavities.
Reflective Insulation – Foil attached to either paper, cardboard, plastic or polyethylene is used to reflect heat and prevent it moving out of an insulated space. It is also designed to fit in between studs and joists.
Polystyrene and Polyurethane foam – This rigid form of insulation has an extremely high R-Value but is to be handled with caution as it is flammable. You will need to cover it with dry wall for fire safety. If you are planning to use it on the exterior you must cover it with a form of weather proofing material.
Good Luck
Gardener Jack
About the author
You could also consider PIR board for something like this, the brand names to look for would be Celotex, Quinn Therm or Recticel I think. Quite often you can get "seconds" quality products that have a few imperfections but are fine for a job like this. You can also get some bargains if you shop around a bit.
Another option (a relatively expensive one mind you) would be sheets of PVC expanded nitrile rubber, usually on a roll 1m wide. The common brand names are Eurobatex, Armaflex, Insul Tube and K Flex.
If you wanted acoustic properties from a product you really want there to be some mass to deaden the noise – things such as multi foils would be pretty useless for something like this.