petitefrancaise

Yeahhhhh!
It's 97F at the moment outside. Normally my garage is the same temperature as outside, thanks to metal doors and not brilliant weather stripping.

Haven't quite finished putting the insulation on the doors ( a couple of gaps, not much though) and not touched weatherstripping but the garage is 82 ish.

Now thoroughly motivated to finish it up and get rid of the gaps.

Rete

97 here, as well, at the moment (1:47 PM CT). Just came in from the back 40. Have been trimming the dead trees and brush from the fence line neighboring two of our neighbors and had huge piles of deadwood and brush to move from the back to the front lawn by the end of the driveway for the truck to pickup and take away. They usually come by on Mondays every week. Still have lots more to more to the front when the temps go down. I'm looking forward to selling the house (please god talk sense into my husband) and buying a condo instead ;-) (And god, make it back up north.)

OMG Our banned poster who hated spiders would be screaming like a baby. One was just crawling up my thigh. Must have brought it in from outside in my jeans.

Pulaski

It's 97°F and you're wearing jeans! So you shot it?

With apologies to the aforementioned, banned poster, who had a similar paranoia about guns.

petitefrancaise

So, my garage is semi built in to the house with my master bedroom directly above it. I have been trying to figure out why the upstairs temperature goes up fairly rapidly despite all my efforts to seal up the attic.

Anyway, just been upstairs and the temperature without any air con is the same as downstairs which simply has not happened before and I can only assume that the lower temperature in the garage is the reason. Not bad, it's 2.30 in the afternoon, still 97F outside and the house is still at 78F. (air con set to 78F unless I have to housework etc, then I set it to 76F)

Pulaski

I presume that the void between the garage ceiling and bedroom floor isn't insulated, which IMO it should have been.

Rete

Yup, and long socks. Anything to help keep those fire ants off of me.

Nah, haven't learned to use my pistol yet. I slapped it into the next world.

petitefrancaise

No, it is insulated - the garage is outside the building envelope - this is why I didn't do the garage door before.

petitefrancaise

how do I check this?

fitted carpet in the bedroom and a plastered ceiling in the garage. Any easy ways?

Pulaski

It might be possible to poke around behind a light fitting in the ceiling to look for insulation, but you would need to take the light fitting down.

Otherwise there isn't a certain way without poking a hole through from one side or the other, but if you tap the garage ceiling and it will sound hollow, echoy if the void above is empty and kinda dead/dull if there is insulation up there. Try comparing the sound to tapping on a ceiling that you know has insulation above, and hear how different it sounds from a ceiling that you know isn't insulated e.g. any room downstairs with a room above.

petitefrancaise

thanks will try that. I have 4 long fluorescent lights in the garage so I don't fancy messing with those.

I am rather shocked at the decrease in air con usage over the weekend since I did the garage doors . 3 hours less - it's not coming on between 6am and 4 pm despite temps being mid 90s+ I am therefore slightly suspicious of the insulation.

Now for the garage door side insulation and maybe a strip along the floor?

Investigating the different options (all 2 of them). We have this cheap nasty strip at the mo with loads of gaps - looks horrible. So thinking about this
https://www.amazon.com/M-D-Building-.../dp/B000KKIBE2

quite a lot pricier though and I'm not sure if I will have to remove a current piece of trim on the garage door frame to fit it properly.

Nutek

I couldn't live in those temps.

petitefrancaise

you know Nutek, when I moved to Texas, it was the end of September and outside temps were about 90F. The house thermostat was set to ?70F and our bills were a tad high. Then we bought the current house which had 2 oldish HVAC units and our electricity bills skyrocketed. $500 ish a month during the summer and for 2 months in the winter.

Then I realised that when we lived in the south of France, we coped quite happily with indoor temps of 76-78F, no air con there. So I slowly put the temperature up on the thermostats and no-one seemed to notice. If I have guests I lower the temperature for them.

I hate being in overly air conditioned environments being blasted with cold air. It seems ludicrous that when I go to a mall, cinema or restaurant I have to take a cardigan or at least a scarf with me.

Pulaski

Yeah, that would tell me that the ceiling isn't insulated
I think you have got by far the biggest benefit by insulating the doors, and while more insulation might help, I doubt you'll notice anywhere near as much difference. Those strips will keep most air from passing around the edges -Lowe's and HD sell them too. You should check what sort of seal is on the bottom of the door - it should be a squishy tube, a bit like a flat tyre, to make a good seal with the floor.

You might consider asking for a quote from a drywall contractor for replacing the garage ceiling (I would guess $500-$750), so you can tear it down and pack the ceiling with insulation batts - there will likely be space for upto 12" of insulation.

petitefrancaise

ot of interest, what temp do you heat your house to in the winter?

Nutmegger

The first thing I learned when I came to the US was, do take a sweater everywhere in summer, or you'll freeze. Then, when winter rolled around, I learned don't wear a big heavy Scandinavian-knit sweater to work when the temp drops below 30F -- or you'll melt! Or at least, in the pre-oil crisis days of the early '70s you would!