You know you want your home to be comfortable and energy-efficient, but what about your garage?
This is even truer if your garage serves as a space where you work on projects or is attached to your home.
We here at RetroFoam of Michigan have insulated our fair share of garages, whether it was to help keep the bonus room above more comfortable, keeping air from passing through the common wall, or just to make the space more comfortable. No matter what you use your garage for or why you’re considering insulation, we’ve got your back.
In our continued efforts to educate homeowners, we have laid out some reasons to insulate your garage that can help you decide if you should insulate it.
RELATED: Garage Insulation Problems: Things to Know Before You Insulate
There are several reasons you should insulate your garage.
Some of these reasons come down to how you use the space, comfort issues, and if the garage has a bonus room or is attached to your home.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of insulating the garage.
If your garage is attached to your home, then any air leaking in that space is also getting into the house.
Insulating the common wall of the garage should have been done to pass code when your home was built, but depending on the insulation used you could still be experiencing air leaks.
Reinsulating the common wall if you’re experiencing air leaks can be a huge help. Are you noticing that shared wall is cold or heat seeping in? Is it hard to keep the room with the common wall comfortable?
These are signs that you are experiencing air leakage because that wall isn’t insulated properly or the old fiberglass is allowing for air movement. Adding insulation to the common wall can help keep your home more comfortable. It can also help reduce noise and smells, but we’ll talk more about that shortly.
If you have a bonus room above your garage, insulation plays a big role in keeping that room comfortable.
Without insulating the ceiling of your garage, all of the uncomfortable air seeping into the garage is also moving up into that bonus room. This can lead to cold floors, extremely hot temperatures, and will wreak havoc on your monthly energy bills if you’re constantly running your furnace or air conditioner to maintain a constant temperature.
Insulating the ceiling will make a huge difference for the bonus room, but why not make the whole garage more comfortable?
If you like to use your garage as a workshop, why suffer from the elements while you’re out there?
Adding insulation to the walls, ceiling, and door of your garage can make it a workshop you can stand to be in without paying a fortune trying to keep it comfortable. This cuts down on the need to use space heaters or fans to keep you comfortable while you work.
The added comfort is great, but the real bonus comes when you start saving money because you won’t need the added measures to regulate the temperature.
There is another benefit that you might not even think about. Adding an insulation material that can help regulate the humidity as well will keep your tools and machinery from rusting or being damaged by the added moisture.
If you work in your garage, whether it’s on cars or woodworking projects, there are likely some smells involved.
If the common wall isn’t insulated with a material that creates an air barrier, like injection foam or spray foam insulation, the air moving through the wall will carry those smells with it. This is just as true if you also have that bonus room above the garage.
Keeping your home comfortable and blocking outside air from getting inside if very important, but so is keeping those garage smells out where they belong.
Whether your garage is a workshop or space for band practice, you want to keep that added noise as quiet as you can.
And maybe your neighbors aren’t as big of fans of your kid’s band as you are?
Now, you have to understand there is a difference between soundproofing and sound dampening.
Soundproofing involves special panels, special insulation, and a lot of money. Sound dampening can be done with insulation alone, like an open cell spray foam.
Comfort isn’t just about maintaining a constant temperature, it’s also trying to keep the noise entering your home from the garage at a reasonable level.
Now that you know why you should insulate your garage, it’s time to pick the insulation material for the job.
We’ve got you covered there too, just take a minute to read our article What is the Best Insulation for a Garage?
If you want to learn more about what we do and foam insulation, check out the Learning Center on our website.