Insulating The Garage Roof

The regulating temperature has positive effects on your cooling and heating costs.

Insulating the garage roof.

Adding insulation won t make your garage a perfect temperature by itself but it will take the edge off the freezing winters and the sweltering summers. If you have a flat garage roof and an attic above you can install the garage insulation from below using a standard ladder. Regulate your garage s temperature all year by installing insulation. For the same reason insulation shouldn t touch the roof s underside.

One of the best methods you can use if you want to regulate the temperature of your garage is to insulate the garage roof. You can buy insulation kits for standard metal garage doors or you can cut pieces of rigid foam insulation to fit each door panel section. The task of insulating a garage roof is not hard to complete if you follow a few tips and hints. Insulating the garage roof will prevent heat from transferring from the roof into the garage during the summer and prevent warm air in your garage from being transferred outside through the roof keeping your garage at a stable temperature.

Be sure to count the spaces above doors and windows. Don t insulate your garage walls and ceiling without insulating the big garage door too. Keep in mind that the structural metal ribbing of garage doors is an excellent conductor of heat and this typically doesn t get insulated. Staple plastic or foam baffles to the roof sheathing near the eaves to keep the material away.

However if you have a cathedral style garage roof you will need a scaffolding to get into the upper areas of the roof. In general if you re not heating or cooling your garage there is little benefit to insulating the ceiling because there s no costly heated or cooled air to keep in. In essence insulation materials serve as a barrier that doesn t permit heat to move through them. There should be a continuous ridge and soffit ventilation.

The insulation will keep the naturally hot or cold air in the garage and the artificially warmed or cooled air in the room above it. If your garage is attached to your house you will notice a big difference in your home s temperature as well. In either case you will need to follow the general steps below to insulate your garage roof. The airflow from the soffits to the ridge vent keeps the roof cool and prevents ice dams and the material will block that flow.

I wrote a big article discussing whether you should insulate your garage. Make sure you have enough ventilation on your roof as well.