The Infamous Garage
I’ve been doing a lot of reading online last night and today to see what other people’s experiences have been with building in their garage. Some hated it, some are ok, and some have had zero problems. It seems it all comes down to your location and your garage setup in regards to how your layout combats three main enemies of a garage layout: Dust, Cold, and Heat.
So what do I have?
- I’m located in Houston, TX. Our average high in the summer is 93° and our average low in the winter is 43° (source: MSN Weather).
- No A/C or Heat
- One Exterior Wall, Two Interior Walls (with insulation), One double garage door. Ceiling has no insulation in attic space above.
- Walls and ceiling are finished with drywall.
I then began thinking how I would tackle each of these three culprits.
Dust
The biggest source of dust in your garage is the concrete floor itself. Concrete is just naturally dusty. Everytime you walk on it, move stuff on it, etc.. you kick up dust. So to virtually eliminate that source of dust I plan to seal the floor with RustOleum’s Garage Floor Coating.
To deal with the 2nd source of dust and dirst, outside, I plan to add weather stripping to the garage door. This will include:
- A Garage Door Storm Shield Threshold
- Exterior vinyl weather stripping along the side and top of the garage door
A HEPA Air purifier near the layout is also recommended as just another way to keep the dust levels down.
Cold/Heat:
The garage has no connection to the Central A/C unit, nor does it have windows, so a window unit is out. So the first thing I’ll do is install some insulating material on the garage door itself.
With winter approaching, I’ll be looking into some space heaters that could be used to bring the layout area to a comfortable temperature. I came across these Edenpure ones that look interesting. Carpeting would be placed in the main aisle as well to keep the feet comfy from the cold, hard floor.
To cool the garage in the summer, I have seen several varieties of portable A/C units that could be used. I’m still researching this.
Another option I’ve seen discussed is to build a mini room in the garage itself. Basically some simple wall frames with insulation material. You can complete it with a roof and small a/c unit even to basically totally enclose the layout. This would be the optimal situation as you’ll be sealing the layout from any outside elements. I’d really have to see how much cost would be involved in such a task. I was actually thinking of enclosing the layout somewhat using tall backdrops as the “walls” and then perhaps a removable tarp of some sort as the a “ceiling” that can enclose the layout top when it’s not in use.
Depending on how your home is constructed, there may be som eother solutions. First, how is your existing A/C ductwork run? If it’s in the attic (as many Texas homes are) you maye be able to get it extended to a regiater or two in the garage for a relatively small fee. A good A/C ompany can probably tell you how easy it would be, and whetehr your existing system can handle the two additional registers.
second, can you insulate the outside wwall? If the studs ar eexposed in the garage, adding fiberglass batts isn’t hard, and you can do it in an afternoon before putting up drywall. Same for the attic space over your garage – no sense in having heat or A/c if it’s not insulated. Finally, considering adding closed cell foam panels to the garage door itself. The GArage door company may have specially designed panels you can add, but 2 inch blue of pink foam seems to work just as well, and is easy to glue on.
ah, thanks for mentioning the garage door insulation. I did come across fomr Foil/Foam/Foil insulation I put on my list. I added it to my list above.
As for the exterior wall, it’s already finished with drywall, no change on getting that insulated (not without tearing some out at least). I don’t think the wife would go for that. She’s very anti-hole these days, heh.
I would recommend the mini room as I think it’ll be your best bet. You could put ceiling fans in the room for cooling. Your costs would really be just the frame to separate the room from the rest of the garage, since the outside walls are already drywalled and drywall for the side facing the other stall. You’ll need electrical on that side regardless, so that isn’t really an added cost. I would recommend using the Fire Code drywall (5/8″) and putting insulation on that wall. You’re going to cover up most of the wall with your backdrop anyways, so it won’t look horrible from layout table up.
One other thought on ventillation, do you have a register on the same wall as the garage side you’d put the layout on? You could just extend that register into the garage without too many holes or cost.
There is a bedroom right on the other side of one of the walls, so getting an A/C installed in the ceiling over a enclosed room might be possibly. With the framed up insulated walls, that might just be enough to the “room” comfy and clean.
Certainly a good idea I’ll have to look into.
I was going to suggest the mini-room concept before I read down further and saw you were considering that idea. Should be a failrly simple project: 2×4s, insulation and drywall. In fact, when I finished my basement, I framed out 2×4 stud walls about 6″ out from the concrete walls because it was simpler than building walls “against” the concrete. Jamie