Charlie: Marlon in northwest says his master bedroom is above the garage. He says the space between is not insulated and it gets a lot warmer in the summer. Go figure. So should I use blown-in or batt insulation to fix that?
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Tom: First off, rooms above garages, attached garages, I’m sure that’s what it is, they’re the toughest ones to cool. You have to have a lot of cooling capacity in those rooms, especially when we hit the high heat days, so I would definitely maybe consider even in some cases depending on the size of it maybe put a little ductless system just to take care of that room so you don’t have to turn the rest of the system up and down to try to keep yourself comfortable.
As far as the insulation …
Charlie: We’re getting one of those. We’re going to put one in our conference room.
Tom: Oh.
Charlie: Our east-facing conference room because …
Tom: They’re great.
Charlie: Because we have to run the whole building to refrigeration levels …
Tom: Exactly.
Charlie: So now we can just chill in that room.
Tom: Exactly. You can’t do it with duct work. That’s the best way to go. Now, as far as insulation, either/or would be fine if you can find a way to blow it in that’d be great, but if it’s between the floor and the ceiling of the garage, usually depending how you’re going to access it, you would probably use a batt insulation.
It’ll help some but you still have that real high capacity of heat hitting it on all … remember it’s a box sitting in the air and it’s just as hot if not in your garage than it is on the other side so it’s a tough room to cool.