How to separate house from garage
n2dirt
| Posted in General Questions on
Our house will have 5″ nail base on the roof with a 3″ of oc foam on the underside and the walls will be ZipR over 2 x 6 wall. The garage will attached to the house. My question is do you build a wall in the attic between the garage and living area, then insulate it just like an outside wall? Also I don’t want any pull down stairs in the house so what should I do for access to the attic from the garage? I thought about have an exterior door installed in the the previous mentioned wall. The garage will have the Zip R but will probably just put the pink stuff in the wall cavities other than the one between the living area of course.
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Replies
Eric,
It sounds like you are planning to build an unvented conditioned attic, with the insulation following the roof slope. That means that you need an insulated wall to separate your conditioned attic from the adjacent unconditioned attic above your garage.
Ideally, this wall will be insulated to the same standard as your other exterior walls. Your plan to "probably just put the pink stuff in the wall cavities" isn't an encouraging plan. I hope that I can dissuade you from your apparent decision to be a little sloppy when you insulate this wall. If you insist on insulating with fiberglass batts, at least pay attention to the necessary air barriers. Fiberglass batts need to be enclosed by an air barrier on all six sides to perform properly.
For more information on this issue, see Installing Fiberglass Right.
Q. "What should I do for access to the attic from the garage? I thought about have an exterior door installed in the the previous mentioned wall."
A. Your instincts in this case are good. Any door installed in this insulated wall needs to be an insulated, weatherstripped exterior door.
Thanks for the help. I only be putting the pink stuff in the two garage walls, the house gets cellulose.