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Insulate room over garage?

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  • Insulate room over garage?

    I live in Kentucky (hot summers, cold winters). Our daughter has a room above the garage and obviously its the same old thing, hot and cold. There are accessible crawl spaces on each side of her room and I am able to get in and see the insulation work that was done. The builders did wrap the room walls and the top of the room and then just placed a long piece of insulation in each joist under the room between the floor and garage ceiling (the width of the room) -but those pieces aren't "fat" enough to fill the void of each joists (you can actually grab each piece and slide it freely back and forth under the room). I thought that blowing some insulation in would be a quick fix but, then I thought, there still will be air coming into that area due to openings for the soffits. Is it worth going to the trouble to blow in insulation when the room is wrapped? Should I just get a better fit of insulation under the room between the floor and the garage ceiling? I know it "couldn't hurt" to insulate the entire crawl space, but would it really make that big of a difference in the temperature of the room? By the way, the garage is...well a garage, and just as cold or hot as the outside.
    Appreciate the advice.
    KHogg

  • #2
    The simple answer to your question is ...."yes" seldom can you have to much insulation.
    What you do need to watch when blowing in more insulation is that you must not cut off the airflow from the soffits, you need to maintain a 2" clearance between the insulation and the floor of the bedroom above the garage if this area is an air channel.

    Ideally in your situation the insulation should have been attached to the bedroom side of the floor joists with the vapor barrier (paper side) facing the bedroom and the air gap between the insulation and the garage ceiling.

    NOW

    having said that, "if" your soffit air has a clear space around the bedroom (knee walls and the like), in other words if the air coming in from the soffits can get up past the bedroom walls and up to the ridge vent or roof vents, then you can fill the entire void between the bedroom and the garage ceiling.
    As a guide the bedroom floor should have been insulated to a min. of R19
    the walls a min. of R13 and the ceiling a min. of R30
    Little about a lot and a lot about a little.
    Every day is a learning day.

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    • #3
      I understand, that makes complete sense. There is no easy way to attach the insulation to the underside of the bedroom floor now - that should have been done before the garage drywall ceiling was put in. There are vents on the roof that I can see externally but for some reason getting access to the area above the room from the attic looks to be cut off. If I can verify that those vents are what they appear to be (which I am sure by code they have to be) then I should fill the area under the room and garage ceiling with blown in insulation. Plus, I understand the code of leaving soffit space and not covering them. Thanks for your help, you gave me exactly the answers I needed!
      KHogg

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