Never Worked Construction - Drywall or Other?

[glenn bradley]

This will be soooo obvious to some of you. I'm in Southern California. I have an outer garage wall. Stucco outside, exposed studs inside. Most of the interior wall surface is insulated and drywalled. The exposed 7' x 12' area I would like to cover. Would you insulate and use drywall? Vapor barrier and T1-11 or like siding? Any suggestion will be superior to my most educated guess.

I will be putting French cleats on the wall and hanging pegboard panels, small cabinets or whatever as the shop evolves. I will also be installing some outlets to serve that area of the shop. This will also probably be the main area where my workbench stands; normally close enough to the wall to reach over and access the items hung on the pegboard.

I should mention that I plan to paint most of the shop interior a semi-gloss white unless you all have other advice on color and finish.


Thanks.

[Don Bullock]

Good thread Glenn. I'm thinking about doing the same thing in my garage this summer.

[Yuchol Kim]

Glenn, depending on how old your house is, it might not mee the current building code (which is OK). If you have any living space above the garage space, you should really think about putting up drywall. This will provide fire resistance so the wall doesn't burn up too quick and cause a collapse of building (don't quote me on it because I don't know how stucco affects all that). But if the wall doesn't support the living space above, I'd say use whichever you feel the most comfortable with. Insulation is a good idea either way. Drywall work can be intimidating to beginners and could lead to a lot of time and frustration. If you plan on hanging cabinets, boards, etc on the wall, I'd say some sort of paneling would be an easy/quick solution. T1-11 or ther 7/16 or 1/2" plywood or paneling would be awesome and homey. Just my thought.

French cleats are neat. Feel free to look at pictures of my latest shop cabinets. http://www.yucholian.com/woodwk/hangin_cabs.htm (shop pictures are old)

[Don Bullock]

Yuchol, those cabinets look great. Eventually I'd like something like them as well. Thanks for sharing your site.

[glenn bradley]

Yuchol,

Thanks for reminding me. Forgot to state this is single story. The wall between garage and house is exterior-build to code; this is not the wall in question. House is 20 yrs. old. I guess my concern is possible moisture from the stucco side. Being realistic, the drywall pieces that have been there for years before I bought the place seem fine so I suppose a wood product would fare as well.

[Ted Miller]

Glenn, No need for vapor barrier except stucco is like a wick for water. If you have dirt touching the stucco or sprinklers hit the outside at anytime then run a barrier. For sure insulate for sound even if you don't use AC in the shop. The insulation will help in the winter as well even if you don't run a heater in the shop. Use AC plywood on the walls then you can attach anything you want anywhere you want. If want it to look perfect then go with sheet rock. Being its a firewall and a exterior wall go with 5/8 sheetrock if you go that route. Yellow fiber tape and mud will suffice for the gaps...

[Garth Keel]

For an exterior wall a vapor barrier to the outside then insulation with the insulation barrier facing inside and then the drywall. Most of the time I install "sideways" instead of vertical. That was the way I was taught. Joint compound between the sheets in thin layers sanded between coats and then paint. Be sure to let the joint compount dry well between coats, even over night

[Jason Roehl]

If you're in a primarily COOLING climate (run A/C much/most of the year, little heating), then the usual wisdom is that the vapor barrier goes on the OUTSIDE of the stud cavity. The opposite is true for primarily heating climates. Since the outside is already finished, you probably can't do that unless you were to spray in closed-cell foam insulation. The outer wall should have some sort of drainage plane behind the stucco to prevent water infiltration, though if you have an EIFS stucco system, you may have other problems (there were a bunch of lawsuits a few years ago about EIFS failures). Trapping moisture in a wall cavity is a no-no, so if there is already a vapor barrier on the outside, you definitely don't want one on the inside. I would try to figure out how the other walls in your garage were done, and do likewise. I'm guessing you could put up unfaced insulation batts, the drywall, and be done with it.

Addy protocol: pro painter who reads several construction journals ravenously.

[Ken Belisle]

I'm in the process of finishing my basement shop (after 14 years) and I'm going with T-111. While the material cost is high, the installation time & effort is minimum. I also like the fact that I will be able to hang anything, anywhere, without having to worry about finding the studs.

[Paul Wingert]

I would ask the local building inspector about the vapor barrier with stucko.

I'm far from an expert, but I recall reading about houses in the Southeast with Stucco which rotted due to moisture not being able to escape. Southern California is probably dry enough that you don't have to worry about it.. but.. why not call the local expert, tell him the situation and ask the right way to do it..

[Jeff Cord]

I'm only about 20 miles inland in SoCal and had the same issue.
Only 1/2 the garage dry-walled and stucco outside.
No AC in the garage so that wasn't an issue.
I just covered the studs with drywall, no insulation or anything else.
I know for a fact that the exterior facing walls that were drywalled had no vapor barrier or insulation behind them (I watched them build the house) so I wasn't concerned about it.
Since these were outer facing walls and not required by code it was odd how they did drywall some walls and not others. I saw on other houses in the 'hood that are the same design the drywalled them differently.
Jeff

[Dave Novak]

On hopefully a very related topic, the attic space above my garage was not insulated by the builder. Was he just cutting costs or is there a good reason for this? I've since added a gas furnace (Hot Dawg garage heater), and I suspect I'd be well served to throw some insulation up there, but since I don't cool the garage during our very hot midwestern summers, I'm wondering if that would cause a problem.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, put in the insulation before you drywall or use any other wall covering. The space will be more comfortable and it's a lot harder to add insulation "later"!!