kind of an odd question I haven’t seen addressed before.
let’s say I’m about to build a garage which will double as a workshop. I know that I’ll heat the building with in-floor (concrete slab) radiant heat. I have way more heat-producing capacity than I’ll need, using an oversized outdoor wood boiler and having plenty of firewood. Insulation tends to be expensive, and I refuse to use fiberglass batts. What’s the cheapest way to provide a minimum reasonable level of insulation? Cheap meaning both materials and the cost of installation. I was thinking 4″ SIPS, but even that can get pretty expensive. I’ve considered foam sheets over OSB, blown-in cellulose, I know spray foam is too much money, what else is out there?
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Probably cellulose is the cheapest option, unless you have access to scrap materials of some sort. (Thought: Just order a lot of tools on the internet, and fill the walls with the shipping peanuts.)
You know, that thought DID occur to me - imagine the guy's reaction when he demos my garage in sixty years.
Just gotta make sure I don't use the biodegradeable ones that melt when they get wet....
(Actually, they'd be pretty poor insulation unless you compressed or crushed them somehow.)
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
My old carriage house(garage) is my workshop. It has no insulation, only a wood stove for the winter and a giant fan in the summer. It actually is hotter than the outside air temp in summer, and feels colder in winter(w/o stove on).
So my point is to insulate by all means. I hope to during a slower season. Plastic wrapped fibreglass is an option. So is cotton in any form. Rigid foam seems to have the most R-value per inch. While wood to burn is plentiful where you're at, I can think of a lot better uses than just as firewood.
Expert since 10 am.
I don't like FG batts, but I do like mineral wool batts, completely different animal, in my opinion (oh boy here we go ..)
Actually, a completely different MINERAL.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Just save all the sawdust from construction and fill the walls. Had a fire here locally, tons of sawdust was dumped out the windows the next day, seems that's what they used for their insulation. That building smoldered awhile.
I was going to say "sawdust"--used to be put in ice houses and between layers of ice (I think) to keep it through the summer. I'd spray it with boric acid to keep the bugs out and I think boric acid is also a fire retardent (whatever the stuff is that's used to treat cellulose insulation).
You're willing to assume the cost of a hydronic system in the floor, but you're unwilling to spend a little to keep that energy where it belongs? Insulate well once and never worry again. If you go cheap on the insulation, not only are you throwing away energy, you are also looking for moisture issues to create problems over the years that will cost you way more than insulating properly. 1/2 pound foam is not really that expensive compared to what you get for it. I agree with you. Fiberglass sucks, but cellulose, cotton, packing peanuts, sawdust all have the same problem. All that warm moist air you generate with your free fuel will get driven into the walls, where it will cool and condense and make an almighty mess. Why subject yourself to that just to save a couple of bucks on the front end?
And not to sound too much like the bleeding heart I probably am, but just because fuel is free to you, doesn't mean that it doesn't come at a price. Now is the time for all of us to think about what we can each do to change the ridiculous way we have of thinking about our place on this planet.
Good luck with your shop. I'm envious.
Insulation is the cheapest item in a building! By this I mean its about the only thing that will pay for its self from day one. Don't hold back on this item. Sips build fast and work great! Think of it this way, One log on the fire per hour or ten cause you went cheap in the short run and expensive in the long run!
Builders use fiber glass cause its cheap upfront, most don't care about running costs!