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About Steve Young
Expertise
I will answer questions dealing with home improvement. My specific areas of expertise are flooring (except carpeting), all types of carpentry, water treatment, and minor electrical. I have also built several treehouses and am currently considering expanding my business to concentrate on children's play areas. I love working with all kinds of wood. My favorite types of home repair/remodeling are water treatment, hardwood flooring, cabinetry, bathroom remodeling, and kitchen remodeling. I also have knowledge in residential water treatment, including filters, softeners, reverse osmosis systems and various other types of treatment systems.

Experience
I have been working in various forms of construction both personally and professionally for the past 20 years. I am currently the Owner/Contractor of a home repair/remodeling company.

Education/Credentials
I have a BS in Environmental Engineering and have done Masters work in Management Development. I have also attended various community college and fine arts classes in the Piedmont Triad area and EPA water quality certification classes.

You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Home Improvement/Repair > Home Improvement--General > garage insulation/baseboard questions

Home Improvement--General - garage insulation/baseboard questions

Expert: Steve Young - 10/26/2009

Question
Hi Steve (and/or other knowledgeable folks),

I saw an older post here that you responded to with a similar situation as we have, and I have some additional questions... that I'm hoping you'd have ideas on.
We live in Anchorage, AK in a 1969 home with an attached, heated, but uninsulated concrete-block-walled garage -- with living space above it. We're planning to insulate it, but are trying to do so the most economically/easily as we can, as we're not sure we'll be in this home more than a few years at most (and, we have two little ones that keep us plenty busy!). The garage is heated with hot water baseboard as part of our downstairs loop (which runs inside the downstairs living space as well -- I know, not a great design), so has baseboard units along 3 walls. The one 'back' wall is adjacent to the house, and is sheetrocked (and we hope, insulated), as is the ceiling -- not going to touch those areas. Our focus is on the 2 side walls and front/door walls. The two side walls have baseboard units running along most of the wall, and between the two walls there are 3 vertical copper pipes that run from the baseboards into the sheetrocked ceiling, that we will need to work around. There is also a big copper drain pipe along the corner of one of those side walls (just to give us another obstacle). One of the side walls is mostly below grade (except for the very front/top corner), and the other side is totally above grade. Our current plan is to try to affix polyiso rigid foam board continuously over the concrete block, then fur over that with additionaly polyiso fit inbetween fur strips and other 'obstacles', then sheetrock over (only b/c of fire code - otherwise wouldn't need/want it to be 'finished'). There's the scenario.

Issue #1 - I saw your response to another post saying that yes, one should insulate behind the baseboard units, otherwise you'll experience significant heat loss there. Since we don't want to have to move the current plumbing, is it possible to detach the current baseboard units from the wall (while still functioning - w/out draining and disconnecting the loop temporarily), install the polyiso and finishing products (furring and sheetrock), and then reattach the baseboards over it? We don't have a ton of 'give' in the vertical pipes right now, but maybe if we cut open the sheetrock in the ceiling at those points, we'd get enough leeway to do so? Never having (re)attached baseboards before, I'm guessing we could nail them through the new sheetrock/insulation, to the 'baseplate' wood that we put down along the floor, perpindicular to the fur strips?

Issue #2 -- I've read about the moisture concerns when insulating/sheetrocking foundation walls, and in one article, it suggested leaving ~6" of 'gap' in the foam board along the bottom of the wall, to allow for release of moisture (this was based on studies they'd done comparing different installations' moisture-management). Particularly for our below-grade wall, this seems to make some sense. Do you have any knowledge of this concept, and/or feedback... or would you still recommend going all the way to the floor with the foam board on all walls?

Issue #3 -- As mentioned in #1 above, we're not sure how much rooms we're going to have behind the plumbing (baseboards and vertical pipes), so are anticipating that we won't get our full polyiso thickness behind the pipes (we're shooting for R14 on the above grade and R10 in the blow grade portions). So, if we are to have only partial insulation between the pipes and the exterior conctrete block walls, and then will be sheetrocking over the pipes (blocking heat from the inside space)... won't we be creating a situation where we could have freeze-ups? I'm not sure how much insulation typically goes between pipes like that and the expterior walls, but I'm thinking we'd be at only ~R7 or R8 behind them. Any thoughts on how to approach insulating behind/around the pipes, to prevent freezing? (We currently don't have freeze-up issues in there, but they're exposed to the 40-50 degree air in there.

Issue #4 -- Should we be concerned about drilling into the old concrete block walls? My husband is, seeing that it's the foundation and there's no way we'll realistically be able to line up with mortar (which he's heard is recommended). I'm thinking if we try to minimize the number of holes we should be OK (by using adhesive to 'hold' the initial layer of foam, then put up fur strips with screws over that foam... then gluing the 2nd layer of foam between the furring... not sure if that will hold the foam enough though for proper curing, w/out tacking/screwing somehow...) Any suggestions on how to affix the foam insulation, and drill in the fur strips, so as to minimize damage to the older concrete block? (We're new to this, so if you could specify what type of screws/devices to use where, that'd be great)!

Issue #5 (last one!) -- As I described, we do have a big drain pipe coming down in one corner of the side walls, and we will not be moving that for this project. There's some room between that pipe and the wall (maybe 2-3 inches), but where it joins the floor, it gets tighter, as the 3/4" pipes from the baseboard run BEHIND the drain pipe (they're elbowed in a bit, to run behind the drain)... meaning, it'd be virtually impossible to get insulaiton/sheetrock in that area without rerouting the plumbing there. Is it a big deal to just leave that portion untouched with the polyiso/sheetrock (working up to it as best we can), and then using some other types of products/methods to insulate the gaps we can get to in that area? I've heard plumbers say NOT to use spray foam directly against pipes like that, is it renders them inaccessible for repairs, which seems logical. So, any suggestions of ways to try to insulate exposed wall/gaps in that area without using sprayfoam in contact with the pipes?

Sorry for the long list, but I'm hoping to tap into your knowledge to help us move forward. Thanks in advance!

Katie

Answer
Hi Katie,
Your situation is really best dealt with "on site." I understand the need to save money - especially with two little ones but this is more involved than I could be helpful with. I would suggest hiring a local general contractor as a "consultant." You could buy a couple hours of their time for a very reasonable rate (I would hope) and they could answer all these questions and more. They would have the advantage of being able to look at the whole situation and, with you present, do a quality walk through explaining everything to you as you went. I have done this for people many times and I would do it for you if I lived in Alaska!
Sorry I can't be more helpful but I want the best for you and I can't give you the best via email on all these issues.
Good luck and let me know if there are any other issues that I may be able to help you with.
Take care,
Steve

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