Garage Drywall -- Questions

17 years ago

Hi all --

I'm planning to insulate & drywall a garage to create more useable / useful space... here in Minnesota -- insulation & heater is a must for winter garage use.

Questions --

1) on the ceiling -- trusses 2 ft on center -- anyone recommend 5/8 vs 1/2 inch? will I get bowing? -- I'm thinking over time with humidity, etc. I do plan to paint etc

2) vapor barrier -- I'm thinking I will add one -- should I? pros & cons of vapor barrier?

3) If you want to throw in a heater recommendation -- I see Moline / Sterling seem to be out there. I have a Natural Gas line roughed in -- and am planning on a hanging heater. (garage is about 1000 sq feet -- so large space).

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

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Comments (4)

mike_kaiser_gw
17 years ago
Is your garage adjacent to living space? If so, you need 5/8" drywall. Otherwise it's a six of one... lots of houses have truss systems 24" OC and 1/2 drywall.

The purpose of a vapor barrier is to keep warm moist air from condensing in the insulation. So, on any exterior wall you should use a vapor barrier.

I had a three garage garage that I used as a workshop. It was surrounded above and on two walls by living space. A 30k BTU heater was more than adequate. I had it set on about 1.5 on a scale of 5 and it easily maintained temps in the upper 60's. Make sure you get the kind with a thermostat. I had a ceiling fan to help move the air around.
dave11
17 years ago
I don't mean to stir up the pot, but before just re-doing my garage ceiling, I looked into the moisture barrier issue, and found enough reason to believe it really doesn't help, at least not as part of a fiberglass roll. For a moisture barrier to work, it needs to be tight to the surface where you're trying to block moisture, airtight really. If there's any room for air to escape from under it, then moisture will escape, too, and the barrier is wasted. Yet most "barriers/retarders" are just that, placed as part of the fiberglass batt, or fastened somehow to the ceiling, but almost never is it airtight.

The fact that most barriers/retarders are not effective, yet rarely is moisture in insulation a problem (at least in northern climates), makes me wonder if the whole issue is overblown.

BTW--I'd vote for 5/8 drywall in a garage, especially if you're going to be doing lots of work in there. The thicker stuff will take hits from long lumber and pipes etc. much better.
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mjones8154
17 years ago
the walls of the garage can be 1/2....unless its attached to the house, then it needs to be 2 layers of 5/8 on the wall that connects, 1/2 on other walls......the ceiling, with 24 inch centers, should be 5/8.....i would say you will most certainly get bowing if you go 1/2 on the ceiling......especially since your probably gonna be putting like 18 to 24 inches of insulation on it.....

martin
favabeans5
17 years ago
dave.. you bring up a good point.. have you ever seen "holmes on homes"? I think its an hgtv show.. this guy does his work up in canada.. up there they dont use any of these prefaced batts.. this guy uses plastic vapor barriers and taps every seam, hole, wraps the electrical boxes.. he has said that even a pin sized hole lets in some ridiculous amount of moisture.. he is kind of obsessed with this issue.. but basically he would flip a lid if he came down here and saw some of these prefaced batt installation jobs we have..

i too question just how effective these pre-faced batts could possibly be..