How can I seal up this garage more?!

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Billbill84

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Hi all, I have a pretty nice garage that the last owner of the house had it insulated and drywall put up with a nice paint job, (sorry for the crappy pic). My issue is that the garage isn't heated but gets cold as heck and there's a room that protrudes out above it about 6 or 7ft so that area upstairs is cold as a result.
My garage door is sealed pretty good and has new tight weather stripping on it and is insulated. The stem walls of garage reveal a 3/4" gap below the drywall that reveals the insulation.
Question is, how can I seal up this garage a little better to prevent cold air leaking in? I thought about sealing that gap at top of stem wall with some Great Stuff foam but I'm worried it will look bad as foam isn't really workable.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated, thx
 

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The drywall gaps and round holes might have been intentional, to let moisture out that collects from condensation, or gutter problems, ice dams, etc.
 
The drywall gaps and round holes might have been intentional, to let moisture out that collects from condensation, or gutter problems, ice dams, etc.
Hmm I never thought of that. The only walls that have that gap are the two sides that are exterior, the wall that the house is behind doesn't have any gap it's plywood all way down with drywall covering. Here's a couple pics of wall that's house end
 

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The house side needs by code a fire rating.

Insulation in an unheated area isn't going to do much.
 
Maybe the drywall guys were just idiots or cheapskates, and did not measure properly.

Maybe the walls are 8’ 3” and drywall sheets are 4’ wide or 8’ tall.
So they will end up short without a spacer.
They should have bought some bigger sheets, or cut some narrow strips, or just used a wide baseboard.

OR, the gap is there for a reason, like I first suggested.
 
Having a room extend out over a cold garage is common.

If you have enough ceiling height, you can add foam board insulation to the ceiling under that extension, then more 5/8 drywall to maintain fire safety.

And go up into the garage attic and add more insulation to the attic wall behind that room.

This kind of setup is almost always cold, or hot in summer, by the overhanging portion.

Ideally, you could bring more furnace airflow over there, by adjusting duct dampers.
Or install a duct booster fan near there, to help the furnace get conditioned air into there.

I have several clients who have installed a small in-wall electric heater in a cold room like that.
Or electric baseboard heat.
 
If you have a cold room above a garage, the problem is that you don't have enough insulation in the ceiling.
 
Here is what I did with my garage two years ago. It is not heated either. I have a bedroom above the garage. The walls of the garage are underground so the cement walls were ice cold. The garage door was sealed just fine. The cold area would cause the bedroom to get very cold, thus the furnace had to run all the time just for that room to stay slightly warm. The bedroom floor was always cold no matter what. We were knew to the home. We had the local company spray the walls with a liquid foam insulation that hardens and ends up being about 3 or 4" thick. They also went around the rest of the basement and sprayed the walls near the top perimeter which was the only area with exposed cement walls above the drop ceiling. It helped I have a drop ceiling for access. I did this area since the rebate involved helped pay for it. This cost me $2,600 but the total rebate paid me $1,800. So it was well worth it and now the bedroom is nice and warm in the winter with minimal use of the furnace. The garage is comfortable. We plan on living here for many years to come so for us we felt this was the most cost effective way to go. It will pay for itself in time based on the net cost and the fact that we don't have to run the furnace near as much. With the spray insulation, the walls had to be finished so I got my buddies and we studded them up and added OSB board which worked out great for hanging things and putting up shelves. If your walls are already finished, not sure this is an option but I wanted to mention this. Maybe it would be worth your time to remove the drywall and redo the walls. Another option is to install a gas hanging heater thermostatically controlled. Not sure which method is most cost effective in the long run.
 
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Yeah I think I'm gonna see about having some kind of energy audit place or see in insulation contractors have one of them thermoel cameras and scope everything out to see where the cold spots are
 
If you have someone locally that works with liquid insulation or just insulation call them or even check with your gas company. The gas company here provided the rebate for the energy savings.
 
If you have someone locally that works with liquid insulation or just insulation call them or even check with your gas company. The gas company here provided the rebate for the energy savings.
Copy that thanks for the info. I think I should do this first beforehand I start investing money on insulation materials and labor time
 

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