Insulating your workshop
FInd out how you can insulate your workshop
There are many ways to insulate buildings and of course your building methods will vary depending on what country you live in and even your local regulations will play a part. However there are some tried and tested methods that will serve you well as well as being cost effective.
The method you use will be subject to how your workshop or garage is constructed. There are three major types of construction usually used for outdoor structures.
Usually most outdoor structures will be of a single skin construction and will hold very little or no insulation at all. Ideally every structure should be designed and built with insulation incorporated from the start, but if this is not the case then its always possible to add it as an afterthought. You should opt for double glazed windows and if possible, all walls, the floor and the roof should be insulated as heat will escape everywhere. Also don't forget the garage door. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
The Floor:Up to 20% of heat can be lost through the floor, if left untouched will act as a heat drain. You spend all your time stood on the floor and so it should be the first part of the structure to deal with. Simply running timber joists across the floor and then insulating in between, covering and finishing with ply board should do the job. Joist should be between 3"-4" depending on how much height you have available and ideally rigid foam insulation such as selatex should be used in between.
Bear in mind that if you are positioning heavy machinery in the workshop you may need to re-enforce certain areas to cope with the load. You may even need to actually work around extremely heavy machines or build a raised concrete plinth to support them.
The other benefits of improving your floor like this is that it is easier on the feet, your sharp woodworking tools will not get damaged if you drop them onto wood rather than concrete and you can run power to your machines / workstations under the floor keeping the cables neatly out of the way to avoid trips..
The Walls: The walls should be next on the hit list. The walls and roof are where most of the heat is lost so it is worth focusing on these. Again your construction type will have some impact on how you actually go about fixing insulation to the walls but the theory is pretty much the same no matter. Like the floor the walls can be counter battened and insulation added in-between. Another technique is to fix rigid insulated board to the walls with adhesive. This works particularly well with metal walls as no mechanical fixings are needed.
The adhesive you use will of course depend on the surface type you are fixing to. The diagram above uses plaster dabs and this is suited to concrete or brick structures. Polyurethane Construction Adhesive can be used to fix insulation to most substrates - be sure to use this specialist type as normal adhesive can melt the polyurethane.
Again cables can be run in the walls at this stage and reinforcements for fixing heavy wall cabinets / shelves should be catered for. Always plan your workshop and try to foresee any problems that may occur.
The Roof: The roof is where most of the heat goes and so if you are on a budget or only want to insulate one thing, the roof is the one to concentrate on. The roof is often the easiest as well and the two techniques described above can and should be employed. If you are starting from scratch or thinking about replacing your roof in the near future then you should consider using warm roof construction.
This is the recommended method for insulating a roof but as you can see it needs to be designed from scratch. When insulating your roof always allow for some air circulation to allow for moisture to escape and avoid damp.