Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Ventilation in an unfinished garage

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
    Posts
    50

    Ventilation in an unfinished garage

    There have been a bunch of threads on this general topic but none really addresses my issue. My garage is unfinished, and so the ventilation at the base of the rafters and the turbine vent near the crest of the roof are exposed. My question is, shy of "finishing" the garage, which would leave me with less head room then I'd like and the loss of the trusses for storage what can I do about these vents. I'd like to run craft paper backed insulation everywhere I can get to, but if I have a gaping hole at the highest point in the roof wont all the hot air simply drift out rendering whatever heating solution I employ basically useless?

    I know that letting the moisture escape is not just a good idea, but absolutely necessary to avoid rot and mold, could I simply rig up some kind of close-able cover that I would leave open whenever I wasn't running the heater in the garage? It doesn't get "that" cold where I live but cold enough that it's unpleasant and I'd rather not try and heat up "the world."

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Mansfield MA
    Posts
    1,372
    Frank - I assume you mean you want to insulate the roof, but leave the rafters open for storage?

    You should use those foam 'channels' that get stapled up to the sheathing before insulation is put up. They allow the air to go from the soffit vents up to a roof vent or soffit vent. It sounds like you might need to box in the peak so that all the ventilation channels dump into a common "plenum" that would be open to the turbine.

    Note - maintaining ventilation on the underside of the roof sheathing is important to control moisture.....
    I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger....then it hit me.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Washington, NC
    Posts
    2,387
    Quote Originally Posted by JohnT Fitzgerald View Post
    Frank - I assume you mean you want to insulate the roof, but leave the rafters open for storage?

    You should use those foam 'channels' that get stapled up to the sheathing before insulation is put up. They allow the air to go from the soffit vents up to a roof vent or soffit vent. It sounds like you might need to box in the peak so that all the ventilation channels dump into a common "plenum" that would be open to the turbine.

    Note - maintaining ventilation on the underside of the roof sheathing is important to control moisture.....
    It also forestalls premature shingle failure due to excessive heat build-up.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
    Posts
    50
    Are these foam channels only needed where the soffit vents are, or do I need one between every set of rafters? Are they a Borg item?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Washington, NC
    Posts
    2,387
    If you are going to insulate every rafter bay then each bay should have foam channels. They are available at the Borg, and they are cheap! You should also vent the soffit and have a ridge vent so air can rise up all the channels, unless you stop the channels and insulation a few feet from the ridge.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •