Drywalling a Garage

I’ve had sheetrock up in several of my shops over time. Nothing wrong with that. Certainly, adding insulation and drywall will provide a buffer to temperature changes and make for a more pleasant workspace. I would also consider adding the foam insulation boards to the garage door to round it all out. Big heat loss there without it. Also, a little paint on the wall will make it much brighter and easy to light. All that being said, I am currently installing OSB instead of drywall in my new shop, with surface mounted electric, so that I can accomodate future changes without digging into the walls. Also allows easier mounting of stuff on the walls. Just my 2 cents.

By all means insulate and sheet rock. I am in the process of putting a new shop in my 14 X 21 garage. It is already sheet rocked and I need to have a 200amp service put into the house and the shop wired. I will use conduit and surface mount it to the walls. The new electric panel will be surface mounted and I am going to use a 220 Heater to heat the shop with. You can do the same thing less the 200amp service if you have a big enough service.

I already have an insulated garage door on the garage and am planning on putting some weather stripping on the out side. I had a wood garage door on my shop in ND and heated it with wood and electric and had no problem keeping it warm. It got 20 degrees below below zero or more there. You don’t say where you live so don’t know how cold it gets there. Hope this helps. Good luck!

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

What I did on my uninsulated garage door was to get some rigid insulation and cut it up to fit the door.
It made all the differrence in the world. If you don’t insulate the door, insulating the rest of the garage
would be a waste.

Since it a garage you don’t really need to tape all the joints in the drywall. That will allow you to remove
a panel if you wanted to wire anything in the future. Just mount it with screws.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I’m with ND2ELK in that he plans to surface mount conduit. I really like the industrial look of exposed emt. I have it in my shop and it’s real easy to add or change where runs go. It also protects the wires and I ran an isolated ground also. My emt is just attached to the studs no drywall no insulation. That’s one benefit of Southern Calif. while we wait for the big one.

-- bobdurnell, Santa Ana California.

Putting up sheet rock and finishing is a job. Be sure to do the ceiling first, so you can get good fitting joints where the ceiling meets the walls and if you anticipate future electrical needs, pre-wire while the walls are open.

My new house has a finished attached garage. I found the builder had insulated the interior walls of the garage so the living areas of my house are insulated to code. I added a number of additional outlets and and additional electrical circuits for my shop tools. The garage has no insulation on the two exterior walls nor over the ceiling.

I am thinking about having insulation blown between the studs and insulating the garage door. I can probably get away cheaper by using sheets of poly styrene insulation. I am sure an uninsulated garage door can be a significant source of heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. I am hoping to be able to work year around in the garage once I am able to insulate and likely add some form of heater for the garage when the shop will be in use.

Dalec

Insulating the garage is the way to go. You can always add circuits later if you want. Wire can be fished between the insulation and drywall without any major problem or you can surface mount if you want. Drywalling improves the light reflection so the shop is much brighter.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I just talked with a an installer yesterday about spraying foam insulation into the stud cavities in my garage.
I have 4” studs so with 3-1/2” space I can get an R Value of 21.
The noise factor drops dramatically and yes, I will have to run conduit on the surface of the walls.
Cost is about the same as rigid foam with you factor out the labor.
I have to check to see irf we can spray the door too with a bit of preparation.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

By all means insulate. Will also help in summer time. My shop is in the corner os 30×30 pole barn. Shop is 12×22. when temp below freezing shop stays warm.

Bill

-- Bill - If I knew GRANDKIDS were so much fun I would have had them first.

hokie:

When we moved to Gainesville I was faced with a two car carport that had not been completely enclosed. I used 2” foam insulation between the studs and ran #12 romex to 20 amp recepticles before closing it up with wall board. I also installled a thru the wall A/C to keep the humidity down during the hot Florida summers. It is important to paint the walls and ceiling white. While semi-gloss is not as well recommended as flat paint, it will clean up easier. I had to run shielded cable to new light fixtures on the ceiling. I have a mixture of incandescent and electronic ballast fluorescent T-8 lighting. I cut 1” foam insulation to fit the panels on the garage door and used foam insulation adhesive to glue them in place. I also put seal stop outside the garage door to seal the gaps.

This is still a project in process. I plan to put some kind of tile on the floor and replace a couple of windows with something more energy efficient. Garages are hard to remodel with so much stuff to move around.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

I insulated and sheetrocked the garage. Besides being easier to clean, it allows a small electric space heater to make it warm enough to work in. The car runs better also when it is not exposed to the cold and damp. I wired a string of outlets prior to sheetrocking and balanced it with about three different circuits so that powertools work better and don’t overload any particular circuit. An insulated garage door really makes a huge difference in noise reduction and temperature.

-- Rich, Seattle, WA

You did not say if the garage was attached or not.
If not, then adding insulation and rock is fine; but I agree with the OSB board approach.
You end with a paint-able, but more importantly, a much more durable surface. Great for shop applications.
I have used this approach but added a painted wainscot line, having a white top and a tan lower section.
The result was an industrial look which suited my needs.
Running exposed electrics makes things easier and future changes are simple.

NOTICE : If your space is attached to your home [ be careful here!]

The national building code requires that the wall that adjoins the house must have ” fire proof ” rock applied.
Your inspector may let you get away with TWO layers of 1/2” standard, but it will require taping on this one wall. Obs can be applied over this protection.

If the wall does not meet code, forget being paid by your insurance if there is damage to the house and that subsequent damage was traced back to the garage, as the source.

Be sure to add a heat source.
An insulated space void of heat will act like a refrigerator.

Norm.

I’m in the process of insulating and finishing my garage as well. I insulated and put up some beaded plywood. I built a rack on one side for wood storage and the other side just might get a truck parked in it this year. Then again, I do have more room for wood now….

-- Allen, Milwaukee, WI

I did mine this winter and installed a radiant tube heater. Finally I can work year round and not have my finishes frozen.

-- making sawdust....

to conduit or not seems to be what this topic has turned into so here my 2 cents im doing both

-- I buy tools so i can make more money,so ican buy more tools so I can work more, to make more money, so I can buy more tool, so I can work more

Yes, drywall insulation will help the climate of the shop and will help the noise. For plywood or other sheet goods, check with your insurance. Mine will drop my coverage for the house and shop if I use anything other then drywall. For my electrical I am going to have a large emt pipe that will act as the main branch and will house the most of the wires.Then from there it will branch off.