Insulation and climate control

[PSCO]

Hi,

I am moving my operation out of my house and into my garage. This includes snakes and lizards. Before I do that, I need to insulate and climate control the building. The building is currently bare. The walls and ceiling are made from aluminum and the floor is leveled concrete.

I am looking for tips and advice from people who have done this before or have experience with contracting or construction. What are the best materials? What costs can I expect to pay doing it myself? Hiring a professional? Is it going to be necessary to put up sheet rock if I use foam insulating sheets? Does anybody have opinions on climate control systems? What will be the best way to keep a draft out from the garage doors?

Thanks in advance,
PSCO

[PSCO]

Hello? Anybody?

[trailblazer295]

There is s member who had a thread about a full garage build snake room. Forget the name now but it's on here somewhere.

[pinefamily]

How you go about it depends on where you live. How cold are the winters and nights?

[PSCO]

I have four seasons. It the summers it can get to be 100 and in the winters we have had nights where it was 40 below.

[pinefamily]

OK then, insulation it is, lol. It is usually best to insulate behind gyprock, or sheet rock as you called it, although in a shed plywood would work just as as well. I'd also be thinking about heating/cooling for the shed.

[chairman]

For climate control systems, how large of a space are you working with? Central air/heat is always the best way to go in terms of efficiency and capability. But you're looking at up to $15K for a complete unit and ducting. A quality window unit, possibly installed via a hole cut in a wall, and oil filled radiator style portable heaters might do the trick if your space is small enough. I live in a place with 4 seasons and have a sulcata living out in his own heated, insulated shed and two heaters controlled by a thermostat keeps things toasty.

In terms of insulation, first plug air leaks in the outer wall. Large volumes of caulk might work. Installing house wrap within the walls would as well, or possibly using a combination of foam board insulation and caulk. Then you are going to want to look at your studs... you want 6" to put insulation in. I think that they usually put 1/2" or 1" foam board next to metal walls/roofs to deaden noise (you may have done this to seal out the air), then you install the traditional fiberglass insulation. I think you'd be looking at r19 or r21 for the walls. You can finish the interior however you'd like, doesn't make much difference whether it is plywood or sheetrock. Make sure to install a ceiling, too. A drop ceiling is all you need, you can lay insulation on top of the tiles. Temperatures that you described could call for r30 or r38 insulation.

The garage door would be your weakest link but I'd go with installing 2" foam board on the panels. They sell weather stripping for garage doors to stop the drafts.

Of course, you'll want to check with your city/county office to see what kind of permits may be involved.

It'll be really easy to spend a lot of money on the project. If you want to cut costs somewhere then do it on the heating/cooling system. Insulation is the most important part. Most of your cages probably have their own heating solution so you probably don't need to heat the space to more than 70F or cool it below 80F.

[PSCO]

This isn't a shed. The dimensions are 30x40x14. Yes, we plan on doing heating and cooling as well. While shopping last night, I was able to find a window air unit that handles up to 20x20 space, so two of those installed at opposite ends may do well. I think baseboard heating could be another good choice, but some of these window air units also heat.

Our biggest source of air leak is from the two garage doors. How would we handle that? We still want one to be working so we can use it to load and unload supplies and animals. Would your suggestions still account for that? It sounds like it.

Thank you for your replies,
PSCO

[chairman]

My tortoise shed uses a thermostat designed for baseboard heaters to control the circuit that my space heaters are plugged in to. The radiator style heaters are more efficient than baseboard heaters or forced air from window units because they continue to stay hot, and provide heat, after the power shuts off.

For the garage doors, weather stripping should seal up any gaps on the sides and top. They sell two types of seals for the bottom of doors, one attaches to the door, the other to the floor. A floor mounted option might be best, you can extend it a couple inches to help seal the bottom corners.

[PSCO]

Thank you, chairman. You have answered my questions sufficiently.

[pet_snake_78]

Definitely insulate it very well or you may find it a frustrating experience to keep the temps where you want it. For AC, I imagine a cutting a hole in the wall or using a window for a window unit will be the most practical and cost effective solution. For heat, what is your house using? Is it an attached garage?

[PSCO]

My house is heated by propane. It is not attached to the garage.

Thanks for responding,
PSCO

[pet_snake_78]

What about one of those combo units like you see in hotels that go into a wall and do both heating and cooling? I'm not sure about efficiency or if it would be warm enough but if you have species that need a cooling off period I should think it would be sufficient to keep the temps warm enough for that.

[pet_snake_78]

I am pretty far north but when I first moved into my house (I think it was march here) the furnace wasn't running yet. It took two space heaters running at full blast to heat a small room in an insulated house to 60F.

[Alexa]

I have no idea how much space you need for your animals, but have you considered blocking off a room in one corner of the garage? You would have a lot less space to heat and cool and insulate. A 15'x15' space is still equivalent to a nice sized bedroom and might be sufficient?

[PSCO]

Unfortunately I need a bigger space than that. I have several large lizards currently and a wallaby coming, and they require large amounts of space.