[jjombrello]

Yes, as it helps keep the garage cooler during hot weather. Insulate your door, as well.

[dadoiron]

Originally Posted by A and A

Hello Everyone,

Wanted to ask if there is any benefit to adding insulation above the garage. Not going to be used for anything other than car parking. Thanks.

Save the added expense. If you won't be working in the garage in the summer you don't need to insulate it.

[merrymini]

Additional insulation ABOVE THE GARAGE? Do not see the point. Additional insulation on THE GARAGE DOORS? Worked great for me. No adhesives and did not have to remove are support bars. Lowered the temp about 20 degrees. Still warm but much more comfortable. Ordered from Texas Garage on line, and easy to install. Air conditioning in the garage? Expensive and I do not spend that much time in there to make it worth my while but, if you have a work shop of any sort in the garage, probably worth considering. I hate screens on the garage. Would rather spend the money on the a/c.

[Tmarkwald]

Originally Posted by merrymini

Additional insulation ABOVE THE GARAGE? Do not see the point. Additional insulation on THE GARAGE DOORS? Worked great for me. No adhesives and did not have to remove are support bars. Lowered the temp about 20 degrees. Still warm but much more comfortable. Ordered from Texas Garage on line, and easy to install. Air conditioning in the garage? Expensive and I do not spend that much time in there to make it worth my while but, if you have a work shop of any sort in the garage, probably worth considering. I hate screens on the garage. Would rather spend the money on the a/c.

Do you have a link for Texas Garage? There seem to be quite a few sites that are similar!

[Fastskiguy]

I'm installing this kit

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

right now. We have a black, south facing garage door. The garage has insulation between it and the attic and it's a stucco home.

Installation is sorta time consuming but not especially difficult.

The inside of my doors is sitting at 140 degrees right now....on an 80 degree sunny day. The outside of the door in the area I've insulated is an impressive 171 degrees!

Inside, the insulated panels of the garage door are sitting around 91-92.

So dropping the inside door temp from 140 to 92 just seems like a good thing, right?

Joe

PS-Customer service with this kit was pretty darn good when I texted with a question....they called back in 5 minutes

[RonaldJ]

Originally Posted by A and A

Hello Everyone,

Wanted to ask if there is any benefit to adding insulation above the garage. Not going to be used for anything other than car parking. Thanks.

I ran insulation program for many years. Heat does move in all directions so if attic is extremely hot heat will transfer into garage but insulating attic may not make a lot of difference depending on temperature difference of attic and garage. A cheaper and better alternative would be to make sure attic is well ventilated with ridge vent, roof vents, or turbine. If this is done you can actually remove heat from garage by opening attic access so it ventilates into the attic and out the vents. Added a ridge vent to my garage when I bought my house and it helped cool down the garage.

[John_W]

I didn't mention this on my previous post, but it works really good. The only negative is it's going to defeat your fire barrier between the home and the garage. So when I do it, I'm out in the garage working, but when I'm done, I close it back.

I have attic steps like these except I have aluminium steps because the all wood model can warp. I had Tim Miller (Tim the Toolman) who is TV the top floor coating specialist install them in 2011. Before he was doing floors, he was the best handyman in TV. He installed the aluminium steps, and 100 sf of plywood flooring in the attic for $295.

What I found was, with the ridge vent at the ridge of the roof line, by propting the door open only about 6 inches, I use a small cardboard box and just wedge it in there, and with the garage door up and I have the screens, you'll feel a steady breeze going up through the attic access.

The other reason besides fire that I don't keep the access open all the time is that termites will not live where temperatures are above 120 degrees, so for that reason I keep the attic door closed and even with a hot attic, my electric bill in the summer is never over $90.

[Yjacket74]

I have a north-facing garage. It would get extremely hot in the summertime when the sun is on that side instead of the south side. I put insulation in the garage door itself. Helped a little bit. But what really did the trick is I got the Solar Guys to put in a garage/attic fan. They put a vent in each lower corner of the garage door (properly screened to prevent bugs/insects from getting in) so the fan pulls the air from the vents through the garage and the air is pushed out thru the attic vents already in the roof. The fan also has an adjustable thermostat so you could keep the garage at 80 degrees or 85 degrees, whatever you desire. It has been very beneficial in not only reducing energy cost (I have a refrigerator in the garage) but all the stuff you keep in the garage or the attic will not rot anywhere near as quick as it would by having a hot garage with no airflow. Hope this helps.

[dadspet]

We had a company put reflective foil on the attic ceiling and its made a big difference in the attic temperature. We have had several contractors up in the attic after the installation and they all comment that the attic temp is really a lot less than most attics they have been in. No actual readings but we can store items up there and move around with getting set on fire. So I think it's clearly worth it and would do it again.

[Tmarkwald]

Originally Posted by grahambda

I bought a few rolls of insulation reflective foil and "tented" the area above our garage (stapled the foil to the roof trusses) cut in a fold-back "door" in case we need to access any other area of the roof. Sealed the joints with the same tape used for A/C ducting. We then lined the garage door with 2" insulation sheets - easy to do. The whole project took a weekend and cost less than $300.00 Measured the before and after temperatures and it was a consistent 15-20 degree drop. So good result based on the time and $$ investment.

This stuff?

[Fastskiguy]

I'm putting up something like that now...1/4" of flexible plastic foam stuff sandwiched between two layers of foil. Up to 140 degrees on the inside of the door but "only" 90-95 with the insulation.

[jump4]

I have a 2-car garage and golf-cart garage. Due to the southern exposure, these doors quickly get very hot due to the radiant heat from the sun. I got a few quotes to address this issue:

$750 for Romac to install foam board with white vinyl backing
$525 for Romac to sell materials to me that I would install
$550 for Munn's to install foam board
$350 for Solar Guys to install a radiant barrier (foil-covered bubble-wrap)
$150 to purchase 11 sheets (4' x 8') of foam board with radiant barrier (foil on both sides) [Lowes: ;]Link Not Found | T.LY URL Shortener, Custom Domain & Link Management I would have to cut the board and temporarily remove the horizontal door braces to install it (there are many youtube videos showing how to do this)
$100 to purchase 100' of radiant barrier [Home Depot ;]Link Not Found | T.LY URL Shortener, Custom Domain & Link Management This is super-easy for anyone to install!

I decided on the last option. The installation took a few hours but was very easy. The 24" roll exactly fit the height of each panel in my garage door. I used ordinary scissors to cut pieces to the correct width (pieces should be 4-5 inches wider than the door panel). Note that you will need to measure each panel because some of the panels are likely wider than others. I then folded the extra material back on the left and right side and slid the radiant barrier behind the braces and into the "frame" for each door panel. They will stay in place without need for any glue, tape, or other attachments.

[Fastskiguy]

My understanding is that you need an air gap between the steel door and the foil wrapped bubble wrap stuff to get the best performance....not sure if that is true or not though

[jump4]

Yes, I understand that the radiant barrier needs an air space. The interior of the garage provides that air space. In addition, there is an air gap between much (but not all) of barrier and steel door due to how I tucked excess bubble stuff back behind the barrier sheet along the left and right edges. Also, note that the barrier stuff I used has reflective coating on both sides.

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

My understanding is that you need an air gap between the steel door and the foil wrapped bubble wrap stuff to get the best performance....not sure if that is true or not though

[Fastskiguy]

Originally Posted by jump4

Yes, I understand that the radiant barrier needs an air space. The interior of the garage provides that air space. In addition, there is an air gap between much (but not all) of barrier and steel door due to how I tucked excess bubble stuff back behind the barrier sheet along the left and right edges. Also, note that the barrier stuff I used has reflective coating on both sides.

So the way you folded the edges holds the insulation away from the door and snug up against the hurricane bars? That’s a pretty neat solution....it sounds 10x easier than how I did it!