LESLIE: Tim in Arizona wants to know if he needs to insulate garage ceiling. What are you working on?
TIM: Hey. Well, I have a garage – a two-car garage. It doesn’t not have insulation on the ceiling. So, on two sides, it’s touching the improved, lived-in side of the house. Two walls. And two walls are touching the exterior. I’ve got insulation over everything but the garage and I was just wondering, would it benefit me to put insulation above the ceiling, above the garage?
TOM: What’s above that ceiling space? Is any of the house above it or is it just the roof?
TIM: Just the roof.
TOM: Yeah. Not really, I mean unless you are planning to work in that garage in cold weather and you want it to be warmer in there. But there’s no reason to insulate garage ceiling because there’s no – the garage is not heated and we’re also not worried about a cold floor above it. Sometimes, folks have garages where there’s bedrooms above it and they get kind of cold floors because of that.
But no, unless you are, again, going to work in it, there’s no reason for you to insulate that. You want to insulate the wall or ceiling between the garage and the living space of the house. But since you just have a roof over it, there’s really no reason to insulate that space.
TIM: Well, I guess part of what I’m asking is: could the heat somehow come down from the attic into the garage?
TOM: Yeah, it certainly can and it certainly will. Will the insulation help? I suppose it would, in that case, but you’re going to super-heat that attic space and so you’re definitely going to need to want to vent it probably more so than it is now. Because when you insulate garage ceiling, you also have to add ventilation. And since you’re in Arizona, where heat’s more of an issue than colder nights, it’s something you might want to think about.
Does that help you out?
TIM: Yeah. Maybe I’ll save some money on insulation.
TOM: Listen, we could think of more projects for you to spend money on. Just give us a chance.
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