Insulating Wall Between Garage And House...

mdshunk

When you have a common wall between a garage and the house....

... and the garage has provisions for heat but is only actually heated for weekend projects in the garage in the winter...

... do you install vapor barrier on the batts in the common wall? Or do you use unfaced batts?

PipeGuy

Roflol luv the tag line

Teetorbilt

I truly don't know but my NC house, heated by a wood stove in the garage, has been fine for 25 yrs. I have no idea how the insulation was installed as it was 7 yrs. old when I bought it. I commonly jack it up past 80 deg. when we're there, I like to work in shorts and T-shirts.

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theworx

In the homes I have done up here in Canada, I was required to put vapour barrier on both sides of the common wall (to be up to code). I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the exhaust from cars which might be left running to warm up???

Bukemdano

I would use faced paper facing the inside of the house (warm) If you kept the garage continually heated, then you would use no vapor barrior

GunnCon

I find it common practice to call your local building inspector with a very basic question such as this and get the so called experts advise on what to do. Codes vary from city to city as well as from state to state depending on climate. Because you live in PA and only heat the garage on weekends, I would consider this to be a cold air infiltration. Therefore, a vapor barrier should be recommended, but I won't say what side of the common wall your local building code may require it. A vapor barrier would normally be installed on the warm side. Here is a more thorough explanation (even though it refers to Charlotte): http://www.buildingscience.com/house.../charlotte.htm

Tom R

I would install insulation 'with' a vapor barrier to the house side.

5 to 7 days a week versus 0 to 2 days a week.

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ContractorSon

Because the garage should be insulated similar to the inside of the home (or why heat it?) and it is less prone to the elements I would treat it as the interior or the home.

Similar to a home that uses an air condtioner sparingly/(if at all) in the summer,would you change the insulation fitment?

Tyvek/30#building felt on exterior (under brick/stone),kraft faced batts interior.

Can always run a dehumidifier in the warmer months (in PA,that would be 2!)

mdshunk

Well, thanks for all those answers. It continues to amaze me how people provide answers to questions that were not asked about. I think TomR answered my question more exactly. I am quite famaliar with the how's and why's of vapor barriers, but I still came up with two possible solutions. Either unfaced, because the garage is heated OR faced on the house side, because the garage is often unheated. TomR and ContractorSon adressed that, and I thank them particularly for their opinions. Yes, it indeed seems that the conditions that occurs for the most days (namely cold garage/warm house) is the condition that dictates faced batts, with paper on the house side.

Yeah, this is what I'd do if I wanted a wild guess as to what will pass inspection. This is not what I'd do if I wanted the right answer. Welcome to rural America.

K2

Since I like to read old posts i find a little additional info interesting even if it might be a little askew to the original question. I think I googled into this site on a slighty off topic post, ( I think the poster and I misspelled the same word). Of course sometimes we read the questions too fast but even then we only use up a couple of kegabits.