I am doing the ceilings in my garage and for $9.00 you can get the blow in insulation that does 28 cuft with a R value of 20. opposed to regular insulation at $35 dollars and it does 50 cubic feet.
I dont have the money right now to insulate so I wanted to leave acess to use the blow in insulation.
lowes has the blower/hopper machine that is free to rent when you buy 20 bags of the blow in insulation
My question is.
the width of my garage is 24 ft. will I be able to push the hose the full length of the floor joists or should i leave access on either side?
and how much access should I leave?
I am not familiar with this process.

 

I have done this a few times

you must leave access to get up in there

make sure you cut several boards to span the cielieng joists so you can walk up there without falling thru the sheetrock

you must wear goggles and one of those cheap paper filter jobbers to breath thru............................I also wear one of those headlamps for light

take the hose up there and start in the far corner and work yer way back to the access hole

get some sheetrock or plywood and build up around yer access hole so it holds the blow in insulation up.....the the access cover board just use some pink panther above it

get yerself a good buddy to fill the hopper for ya .........or you do it and get yer buddy in the attic..................he will love ya for that one......offer him a 12 pak of beer and see if he bites

 

ok I have to be more specific.

I have an upstairs in my garage and it is the avantech tongue and grooved 1/2" floor ply wood.
so getting upstairs is not a problem but ripping holes in the floor will be.

what I had planned to do was to leave 16" at the ends and feed the hose up through there and feed the hopper and move the hose towards me.

no recessed lighting but there is wiring through there.

 

Get the Gator One !! dont let them stick you with the Square Green one its junk !

 

so this garage has living quarters above it and you wanna insulate the floor between level 1 and 2 ?

 

I get what your saying...it will work, but not well. You'll get cold spots in your floor from the insulation either being to tightly packed, or not packed enough. Without pulling up your floor, you won't get great results with anything. Cold blown insulation is nice and easy to do, but if you want to make it comfortable up there (if its a bedroom, bathroom, etc.) you'll want a 2 part insulation, some guys call it "Hot Blown". Its a product called Isynene (sp), and it is blown in as a 2 part liquid which reacts, and turns to foam. This stuff will fill any gap, so you won't have air loss, and actually helps prevent squeaking in the floors since it fills voids.

If your not concerned with comfort up there, and you just want to keep the noise down, go for it, but most of your heat loss is through your ceiling, not the floor, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel on naked feet. To get your proper R values, your also looking at a minimum of 8" I believe with cellulose to get an R-20 rating, if you have 2x4 or 2x6 joists, (Yes, I've seen this in old homes before) your not going to get that much insulation out of cellulose.

One more thing, keep in mind you will have at least electrical running trough the ceiling, so you won't be able to stick the hose anywhere, it'll get stopped by cables. Just another thing to think about.

 

ok the upstairs isnt living quarters but I plan on making it a wild game/ bar/ pool room..

the floor joists are 2x8s
I am only concerned with keeping the heat downstairs as the upstairs is unfinished but I dont see ripping up the floor upstairs.

so yes between levels 1 and 2. I thought about the foam stuff and that may work but I assume there will have to be pressure holes made so it doesnt pust the floor and ceiling out. that and I'm not sure anyone around here does it.

 

Is the garage ceiling already sheetrocked?

Josh

 

no its not. I just bought OSB to do the ceiling because it was 5.55 a sheet. But I dont have the money to pay for the insulation. thats why I am trying to figure out that now so I can prepare it for when i can insulate

 

Alright, here's your dilemma... you are CHEAP!!! Lol, all kidding aside, you need to make a decision, and you have a few options.

1. Pull up your old floor in the attic (where your bar room will be), put up your OSB ceiling (we call it shitboard for a reason in the construction industry), blow in your cellulose insulation, and re-lay the floor.

2. Don't even bother insulating the floor, instead, insulate the ceiling in the attic well, preferably with Hot Blown (2 Part Spray Insulation) insulation.

3. Spray hot blown insulation on the floor of the attic before you put up your shitboard for a garage ceiling, and that will take care of what you want, but its not cheap.

4. Forget all about blowing in insulation, or spraying it, and get fiberglass bat insulation (with or without paper) and put it up before your ceiling, if you go without paper (or even with it for that matter) make sure you use a vapor barrier. Same goes for cellulose (Cold Blown Insulation), you need a vapor barrier when two surfaces meet that are different temperatures.

You can't drill holes in the floor and spray in 2 part foam insulation, it doesn't work that way, its like spray painting, you need to overlap coverage for the stuff to work, and it only goes on a few inches thick... 8" of that stuff is as efficient as 4" for anything in a typical home.