Alpine Insulation

Consider spray foam garage capabilities for your home. Quite often, the garage is overlooked when it comes to older homes’ insulation needs. If you have a heated garage or have living space above your garage, you will want to ensure that it is insulated properly. Your garage ceiling is no different from an attic in terms of its importance in terms of retaining heat in your home.

For flat ceilings, you will want to achieve a minimum of an R-40 rating and for vaulted ceilings a rating of R-28. Flat ceilings typically have insulation blown into them while vaulted ceilings have batts installed in them.

Homeowners have different motivations and goals for insulating. While we will primarily focus on garages that share at least one wall with your home, many of these considerations will also extend to unattached garages, shades, and outbuildings. 

For most, the main reason for adding proper insulation and heat is based on comfort, since no one wants to try and deal with a project in the sweltering heat and humidity, or in freezing temperatures. Plus while that space heater may help, you’re just wasting energy since the warmth just seeps through the walls anyway. 

Depending on your needs there are plenty of upsides to having an insulated garage. In addition to comfort, the following may just convince you that it’s time to improve the insulation, and maybe even the heat, in your garage.

If you were asked what the most important room in a home is, what would it be? The kitchen? bedroom? The bathroom? Of course those are all great options, but in the end, you should be thinking about the garage. The garage stores not only your cars, but other valuable items as well. Poor garage insulation can cause issues through the rest of your home, too. Think of the garage as the front entrance to your home. Don’t neglect this living space!

One of the main benefits of insulating your garage with spray foam insulation is that it can help to improve the energy efficiency of your home. Homes with a bedroom beside or over the garage often experience drafts from the cold garage. If you use central heating or a space heater in your garage for year round access to your garage, insulating your garage is an especially sound investment.

From Increased protection for your vehicles to higher resale value if you put your house on the market, heating your garage can be a simple and effective and relatively simple way to increase the value of your home. Homes with heated garages especially in colder climates like Victoria, have substantially higher resale values than homes without. Insulating a garage can also improve curb appeal and reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the home.

An uninsulated or even poorly insulated garage can account for significant heat loss, contributing to high energy consumption and increased utility bills. By insulating your garage you can minimize the heat transfer and create an energy efficient space. Insulating your garage helps to maintain a more stable indoor temperature. Preventing excessive heat loss during the colder months and reducing heat gain in the warmer ones. This regulation extends to the adjacent rooms of your home as well, providing better thermal comfort throughout your home.

If you have a laundry room or pipes that run through the garage, insulation and heat are an absolute requirement. Frozen or bust pipes are time consuming, irritating and can be both messy and costly to repair. Additionally any rooms above the garage, will be subjected to whatever temperature extremes are experienced below. This means maintaining comfortable temperatures require additional energy costs to try to keep the cold from leaching into the room through the floor.

Most cars today have remote start systems, they are fairly easy to accidentally engage, especially if there are little ones running around your home. Without insulation in the walls any carbon monoxide trapped in the garage can seep into your home and have serious, and even deadly, impacts on you and your loved ones’ health.

Proper Insulation and ventilation of your garage and attic play a significant role in extending the lifespan of your roof. The average lifespan of a roof varies depending on materials, climate, and maintenance practices. Inadequate ventilation can cause excess heat and moisture to build up, which can lead to premature roof deterioration. Furthermore, extreme temperatures can take a toll on your roof. During hot summers being improperly ventilated attic or garage can cause shingles to overheat and deteriorate faster. In contrast, cold winters can lead to ice dams – commonly found on roofs.

Garages nowadays are used for so much more than just keeping your vehicle protected against the elements. Today you can usually find fitness equipment, play areas, project workshops, music studios and more inside these spaces. If there is proper insulation in your garage, it ensures that you can enjoy this space for any activity no matter what the weather has in store.

When it comes to home insulation, most homeowners tend to focus on the main living spaces of their homes. However, one area that often gets overlooked is the garage. The truth is that insulating your garage can offer several benefits, including energy efficiency, increased comfort, and expanded usability. One of the most effective ways to insulate a garage is with spray foam insulation. Let’s take a look in more detail at a few more of those benefits:

Temperature swings can cause humidity and moisture in garages that can lead to mold or mildew over long periods. Spray foam insulation can reduce temperature swings and help keep humidity in check

Spray Foam Insulation can help protect your garage against moisture. Moisture can be a significant problem in garages, especially in the winter months when snow and ice melts off your cars and shows and can possibly even seep into the garage from outside. Moisture leads to mold growth, which can be harmful to your health. By insulating your garage with spray foam insulation, you can help to prevent moisture from entering your garage and protect your health.

Another benefit of spray foam insulation in your garage is the reduction of noise. If you live in noisy neighbourhoods or near a busy road, spray foam insulation helps reduce the amount of noise that enters the garage. This alone makes it more peaceful and relaxing. Insulating your garage can reduce the noise of cars starting, or the garage door opening and shutting. Which is a welcome blessing for parents with babies or toddlers sleeping near that area of the home.

Insulating your garage can help to protect your belongings from humidity and excessive heat and cold. It can also make your garage more energy efficient and durable. In addition to these protection benefits, another way in which your home and belongings are protected when you insulate your garage with spray foam insulation is its fireproof properties. 

To learn more about the fire proof properties of spray foam insulation, click here.

Considering Converting your garage for more living space? Most people eventually need more space in their homes. Rather than re-entering the real estate museum for a larger home, a popular trend right now is to convert part, or all, of the garage into more living space. Insulating and finishing a garage can expand a home’s square footage without the cost of a full addition. Insulated garages can be used as home offices, art studios, music studios, gyms, workshops, or any other additional recreational areas.

Great news for homeowners looking to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home! There are two major rebate/grant programs available to homeowners in BC: both the federal Canada Greener Homes grant program and the provincial CleanBC Better Homes rebate program.

Additionally, for households that qualify, the CleanBC program also offers an Income Qualified Program (IQP) that can cover 60% or 95% of your upgrade.

Your Alpine estimator can provide you with an idea of what you may qualify for in terms of a rebate, once they have conducted their inspection and prepared your quote. As it is the responsibility of the homeowner to apply for the grant, it is important that homeowners read and understand the program and its requirements.