Insulating water pipes in garage ceiling with rooms above
JEV
| Posted in GBA Pro Help on
Thanks all for the advice regarding how to insulate the ceiling of a Garage with Rooms Above. I am almost ready to pull the trigger and had come with plan in this thread: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/rooms-above-garage
I appreciate any advice about insulating the water pipes, and your thoughts about the plan. Should I insulate both the cold and hot water copper pipes with foam wrap? Or should I create a plenum and insulate underneath them with other materials?
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Replies
Hi J.
It's common and code-required in some areas to insulate hot water pipes. Insulating cold supply lines can help prevent condensation on the pipes. Foam pipe insulation is your best bet, I believe. If you wanted to frame a chase to hide the pipes, you could. And you could insulate the chase, but if it were my project, I'd still wrap the pipes with pipe insulation.
You' want the pipes inside of the heated envelope of the house. So Insulate the pipes themselves as you would for any other area within the house. But the principal is to run the pipes as tight as you can to the floor above, leaving out thermal building insulation above the pipes, and having building insulation below. Depending on the building insulation you use, the installation might vary. With batts, just install the batts below the pipes. With foam or a blown material, you would have to put a stiff material below and at side of the pipes so a chase is formed for the pipes after foaming or blowing.