DIY garage project
January 11, 2011 12:50 PM   Subscribe

[DIY-Filter] What is the best material to use for hanging partitions from a garage ceiling if the goal is to provide the most insulation/highest r-factor?

We're partitioning off part of a garage to be used as something of a social/living space. As such, we will sometimes be heating and cooling it. What can I hang from the ceiling (sheets of plastic, canvass, etc.) that will provide the most amount of insulation? During the summer months, it can get pretty humid, so materials that have high absorbency probably aren't a great idea. I'm open to creative solutions, and it doesn't need to be particularly cheap. Thanks for your suggestions!
posted by GnomeChompsky to Home & Garden (8 answers total)
 
Insulation works by trapping small pockets of air (small enough to prevent convective transfer). So if you want creative and low absorption, how about bubble wrap? They sell huge rolls of it for insulating pools.

You also want to prevent drafts, as a cold breeze will make a warm room feel cold. So how you treat the bottom (at the slab) is key.

The non-creative solution is just to bang up some walls, throw some insulation in them, and you're done. cheaper than you might expect. They make moisture-resistant drywall.
posted by misterbrandt at 1:11 PM on January 11, 2011


Does it need to be durable or support anything other than itself? Will you be painting it? Do you need to be able to take it down quickly?

I would think Sheets of "pink board" foam insulation would be easy to attach to the rafters. Just run screws up through the sheets of foam to create a "ceiling". Use washers to prevent screws from pulling through foam. For walls, use the same foam board, but back it with a simple wood frame that you can screw together to make it sturdy. 1x2 would be sufficient wood size. You could paint directly on the foam to make it look better.

Pictures of the space would make it easier to make good suggestions.
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:15 PM on January 11, 2011


Exposed foam is a massive fire hazard, id recommend dry wall over it.
posted by fshgrl at 1:59 PM on January 11, 2011


Agreed, fshgrl, exposed foam isn't ideal, but if we're talking drywall, then you might as well stud out a room and insulate it with fiberglass bats. As misterbrandt noted, it's actually pretty cheap to frame and drywall. Finishing the drywall is what costs the money. (Because it's labor intensive and dirty work).
posted by cosmicbandito at 2:30 PM on January 11, 2011


Can you give us more guidance on your driving factors here? Cost, minimal modifications, easy to remove? Is the point purely climate control or do you need to divide the space from unattractive/unpleasant other stuff in the garage?

If you're really concerned about insulation for comfort and aesthetic purposes I'd say you should do it right with 2x4 and drywall. Misterbrand points out it's cheap

When I looked at 2x4 studs last week at my Home Depot they were priced at about $2.50 for 8' lengths. You need enough to attach to the ceiling and floor along the length and then one every 16". A typical 2 car garage is 24' across, so you need 18 of them vertically and 6 horizontally, assuming an 8' ceiling.

Drywall will cost more but still not a huge amount, particularly if you only do one side. Insulation is listed on the home depot site as $12.50 for a 25' roll, which will do you 3 8' lengths, a horizontal coverage for 4'.

Cutting drywall is very easy and there's probably classes at your local big box improvement store. The hardest thing is the plastering and sanding which you could just not do - if you were okay with hanging plastic sheets I think some visible screws you'll find tolerable.

If you just need climate control you could do what my old housemate did and buy insulating rigid foam and cut it to fit into the spaces in his metal garage door. The temperature control improvement was nothing less than amazing. It took him and a few of us a leisurely day to put it in but it was all measure & cut - no tape or glue was necessary to keep it in place.
posted by phearlez at 3:13 PM on January 11, 2011


Response by poster: Sorry for the slow response time. A permanent structure isn't a possibility because we don't own the property. Basically, the garage is a fairly typically-sized two-car garage, and we want to "cordon off" about a 10 ft x10 ft area.
posted by GnomeChompsky at 7:05 PM on January 11, 2011


How long will this temporary structure be up? (A month? a year?)
There is nothing inherently "permanent" about a framed wall -- you can shim/wedge the walls in place (top and bottom) rather than nail them, make them "panelized" e.g. in 4-foot sections that you can dismantle.
posted by misterbrandt at 7:37 PM on January 11, 2011


Response by poster: 6-12 months in the range. And yeah, I think a wedged/shimmed framed wall might be a good solution. Any more specific suggestions along that tack would be appreciated. I'm good with tools and precision (I do computer work and networking, including a lot of hardware stuff) but I just don't have the experience/visualization skills to really wrap my mind around how to best do things like this. :)
posted by GnomeChompsky at 7:44 PM on January 11, 2011


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