Garage insulation

^^ Thanks Joe:)
The Roxul stuff is pretty cheap for how long it seems to last, how effective it is and how easy it is for smaller jobs like mine. This is what I am planning on getting for the garage walls.

Trials said:
Didn't I read some place that you work in a greenhouse? Greenhouses are nice and warm ;)
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Yes I have and often do. You could be onto something...
 
shanekingsley said:
^^ Thanks Joe:)
The Roxul stuff is pretty cheap for how long it seems to last, how effective it is and how easy it is for smaller jobs like mine. This is what I am planning on getting for the garage walls.


Yes I have and often do. You could be onto something...
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Roxul needs to be installed without any air gaps around the studs, and without compressing it like pink. If you do it, cut it precise with a bread knife. Its got to fit right.

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shanekingsley said:
...
Yes I have and often do. You could be onto something...
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Ya! Build a greenhouse on the side of your house, some place where there is lots of heat loss and make it big enough to hold your motorcycle ;)
 
Heat from a wood stove can be as intense as you want it to be, or dampened down to burn long, low heat and lean on fuel. It's virtually impossible to do that with any other fuel source except maybe coal, but coal is not the renewable resource that wood is, and coal doesn't just fall out of the sky like all the trees eventually do. Hardwoods burn the nicest and produce the least smoke, sparks and soot, Ironwood and Ash can be burned with very little dry time and fruit wood trees burn intensely hot. Softwoods make more smoke then heat so they should be avoided and conifers are only good for kindling because they burn too fast and make lots of sparks.
:D I make my own Maple Syrup too! ... which by the way eventually kills the trees and renders them useless for anything other then firewood.

There, way more information then you ever wanted to know about firewood.
 
I actually wasn't being fully sarcastic when I mentioned the wood burning fireplace.
As mentioned, tones of heat, easy to run cost wise.
There is plenty of lumber still hanging around from the ice storm a few years ago.
 
i would love to have a wood stove in my garage but when we went shopping for home insurance most companies flat out refused to insure us with a wood burning stove in a detached out building, WETT certified or not.We had to remove it to get insured.The thing was 50' away from our house.Everybody has a wood burning stove outside of Toronto.i would like to know who insures them.
 
You mean ice storm 1998? lol yep that was a few years ago. Many of the trees that were wiped out were Manitoba Maple (soft maple) it doesn't burn very hot and gives off a lot of smoke, hopefully that's not what you have available for burning.

WETT inspection is only to certify that your installation is up to current code and that is all, so if you know you are compliant or exceeding code that should not be a problem. Best place to start is by investigating the current building code as it applies to the type of fireplace of your choice in your specific local area. Insurance companies like to freak out over them but I've never been refused insurance because of one (unlike my sportbike, they freak out over those even more). Anything you consider should be considered an air-tight fireplace installation, not one of those decorative open fire behind a spark screen things.

If you want to know lots about wood fire place or furnace options, I can give you enough info to make your head hurt.
 
Trials said:
If you want to know lots about wood fire place or furnace options, I can give you enough info to make your head hurt.
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You offered...
I have an airtight fireplace insert (home) and another freestanding airtight wood stove (cottage). Where can I find info on rebuilding them into high efficiency, secondary gas reburners (without using catalyst )? Concept seems simple on the new units. But havent seen info on retrofitting old stoves.
 
empty said:
You offered...
I have an airtight fireplace insert (home) and another freestanding airtight wood stove (cottage). Where can I find info on rebuilding them into high efficiency, secondary gas reburners (without using catalyst )? Concept seems simple on the new units. But havent seen info on retrofitting old stoves.
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I honestly don't recommend any of the re-burn system I have seen or owned, as you suggested catalyst is the only one I have owned personally and found it to be near useless once the stove was used for the first season, the element just became a damper control and not a very good one at that.

If you have a freestanding step type stove, this one is similar to mine:

3b417e93307d2cbc139d642c1e5d2f41--old-stove-fire-wood.jpg


... and that is fitted with a full or near full size chimney flue (is suppose to be 8") I highly recommend the addition of a flue damper as shown in that picture. They improve draft control and keep the heat down in the firebox longer which leads to far more fuel efficiency. Addition of an in-flue thermometer is also a nice idea because it gives you a true reading of flue temperature and that is important to know so that you are not generating excessive creosote in your chimney.

;) you can sit some large brass or cast items on top of the stove and those too increase your thermal mass and improve heat exchange.

I have one of these:

1619_brass.jpg


You fill it with water and that helps with humidity and they really look cool too!

If this type of fireplace is connected to a large brick and stone vermiculite insulated chimney and surround, that improves heat exchange significantly as the stone takes on heat well and radiates that heat for many hours. That type of chimney is also virtually impervious to fire unlike stainless zero clearance chimneys that can not withstand the intense heat of a creosote fire and may require replacement after a significant chimney fire. I use one of those chimneys on my maple syrup boiler and the liner is very deformed from the intense heat.

... I just noticed the wood handles are missing from his stove, mine are still good and have been on there since ~1974
 
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By the way, adding a fan to your stove will significantly improve the heat exchange, but those fans that sit on top of the stove and use heat to power them; they look nice and work well for a year or two, but for the cost of them they are less then a perfect solution. Too much heat will shorten their life expectancy and in about 4 or so years they quit working at all. Would be a good deal if they were about half the cost.
 
This is what I mean by thermal mass, this is my upstairs fireplace and the other one is downstairs. Two chimneys are in there so it gives off lots and lots of radiant heat before any smoke exits the building:
upper_Fireplace.jpg


The whole thing is in the middle of the house which is the best place to locate a wood burning fireplace. Chimneys only require cleaning once a year because they are almost completely inside the heated building. Creosote forms where it first meets the cold, so in the case of this house that is right at the roof line.
 
My parents have a Fisher papa bear in their basement. There are passive vents through the floor to heat upstairs a little and an air return to the furnace that is opened when the stove is on to heat the rest of the house. The amount of heat that thing pumps out is ridiculous. Other than getting it up to temp you have to turn it back a lot. Even a few turns open will get the stove to dull cherry and the chimney temp kissing the red.
 
Bobo said:
i would love to have a wood stove in my garage but when we went shopping for home insurance most companies flat out refused to insure us with a wood burning stove in a detached out building, WETT certified or not.We had to remove it to get insured.The thing was 50' away from our house.Everybody has a wood burning stove outside of Toronto.i would like to know who insures them.
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Same thing for me, I had permits to install a wood burner in my detached garage -- NO! said the insurers. No problem having a wood stove inside the house, but not OK in a detached building.
 
Brian P said:
@ Trials: Dang ... that looks really nice.
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Thank-you :D you should see my new house!

Mad Mike said:
Same thing for me, I had permits to install a wood burner in my detached garage -- NO! said the insurers. No problem having a wood stove inside the house, but not OK in a detached building.
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That's because insurance people don't have a clue ... have you considered an outdoor wood burning furnace ;)
but if you go that route just make sure you put a really tall chimney on it.
 
My municipal laws does not allow outside wood burners.. . What is an outside fireplace?
 
RockerGuy said:
My municipal laws does not allow outside wood burners.. . What is an outside fireplace?
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Outdoor wood furnace:
boiler_diagram2.jpg
the furnace sits outside of the building it is heating.
 
Hoping to piggy back this thread with my situation. I'm sure there will be some overlap as well.

I recently moved into a newly built two car garage house and have noticed that the humidity levels are always high (65-70% on a regular bases) through the summer with only my motorbikes parked inside – no wet cars coming and going. Now that the winter is here and we're temporarily parking both cars inside, both wooden garage doors have a thick layer of frost and ice building up on the inside surface. The garage windows are also completely frosted over as well with thick ice. Humidity levels are 73% most of the time which is very high for winter temps when the outside air is dryer than the summer.

My theory is that they've built the garage (and home) so air tight now that there is no air circulation and when the cars are coming in with their melting snow and warm engine heat, the excess humidity is getting trapped inside when the doors are closed with no ventilation. Since the garage doors are the coolest wall, the condensation and ice is building up on them.

The garage is fully drywalled with a living space above that takes up about 3/4 the depth of the ceiling. There was the yellow spray foam applied to the bottom of that living space prior to the dry walling. I don't believe insulation was used on the outer walls that are not connected to the interior ground floor living space. The garage doors are facing North.

Any ideas on how to help keep the humidity levels down all year round as well as stopping the ice formations on the inside garage doors? I'm sure over time the freezing and thawing ice will start to rot out the wood.

I'll be parking/storing my motorbikes permanently on one side of the garage come next spring, and really need to keep down the humidity to avoid corrosion through the year. I'm imagining this will be particularly difficult since one side of the garage will be opened and closed regularly as my wife's car will be parked on the one side through the year.

Thanks!
 
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