If you want insulation blown in the attic, call the Solar Guys. They run specials periodically and you can use the cost of the project as a credit on your income tax. Their prices are reasonable.
What no one is talking about is insulating the garage ceiling will prevent it from superheating and cracking. If you don't insulate, the ceiling will crack no matter what you do. Same for the Lanai ceiling.
Whether to insulate or not depends on your garage's exposure. If you have a West or Westerly exposure in the afternoon, you want to insulate your garage and the attic above it. You will have a cooler garage when the door is down and your ceiling won't crack. That's it.
As far ar replacing your garage attic ladder. Did you know that you are supposed to install a fire rated ladder? Your garage has a 20 minute fire rating meaning all the sheetrock is 1/2 inch to prevent fire from spreading to the rest of your house for 20 minutes. The building code does not address attic ladders specifically but does say if you make a penetration, like installing a ladder access way, you need to fill the penetration with 20 minute fire rated material such as 1/2 sheetrock. In the case of installing an attic ladder you need to install a fire rated attic ladder to be code compliant. You can get these at Home Depot but they are special order and no one that I know of except myself has ever installed one or even knows about this requirement.
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