Garage Build for Canadian Winter

[Captargo]

Hi Guys
Been lurking for a long time and finally decided to join this week when I took the plunge and bought a GC2.
No room in the house so planning on setting it up in an uninsulated attached garage
Looking for some advice or things I need to consider re: Canadian winters (Toronto area) - build considerations, potential impact of the cold on the equipment and how to mitigate and heating options (not all the time only when we want to hit some golf balls)
Planning on using impact screen with projector and having tgc running on a laptop
Sorry if this has already been discussed - did a quick search and didn't see a lot but I could have missed it

thanks

[mthunt]

I'm in Oqkville and have a GC2/TGC set up. First thing, you really need to insulate. At least the roof. Any heat will lead to melted snow which leads to frozen troughs which leads to all sorts of bad stuff. The reality is you can sim in 12 degrees all day so having it warm isn't crucial. I suggest you insulate the walls and attic. I also recomend the hot dawg heater. It's mind blowing effective. Everything else is up to you. Read the forum. A lot of garage sims.

[vincequest]

mthunt, any advice on insulating the door itself? Both from a heat and cold perspective? Any potential damage or over the top wear from the extra weight of the door?

[Jb50]

Not sure what kind of door you have but they sell insulation kits at Lowes and Home Depot for panel doors. I needed two kits for my door and yes, weight is definitely a consideration. I had a disaster after I insulated my door. It was much heavier and the springs needed adjusted. I had something under the door that had it propped up about 8". I opened the door all the way and when I close it I forget I had the box still there I was using to keep it propped opened. With the added weight, the door got away from me and slammed on the box. Bent the rails, wheels came out of track, tension wires came off pulleys and got all tangled. Took me all day to get everything back together except for tension wires. Called professional to fix that and set the tension. Sorry for the long story but if you add weight, your springs will need adjusted. All that being said, it has helped significantly to keep it a bit cooler in my Nevada garage.

[Captargo]

mthunt - thanks the reply and the advice. Thought I would need to go that way, insulating the garage, but just trying to see if anyone else approached it in a different way. Saw something where one person build an "enclosure" within his garage, for a workshop, using insulated tarps for walls and a ceiling - kind of a "garage" within a garage

[mthunt]

It's more important to insulate the attic/ roof than the door. You can seal the door and even build a wall inside the door. Not insulating the door will lead to a not as warm room but not insulating the attic leads to ice dams. If it were me, Id build a wall inside the door, or, if you are parking cars, buy an insulated door or nor bother. I had a wood shop with a steel uninstalled door. It was fine.

[Pguttu]

I live in northern Norway. Often -20-/-30c in winter. Old garage/outhouse. 10cm insulation in walls, 20cm in ceiling. Wooden garage door sealed airtight on outside/inside, and a tarp 10cm on the inside of the garagedoor without any further insulation there. Wooden stove for heating. As long as I use the stove every other day it almost never gets under zero degrees during winter. Cost too much to heat with electricity .

[Captargo]

Hi pguttu
thanks for the info and your sim setup in the picture looks great
we are likely going to go with a soya based spray foam insulation for the roof and walls.
also are going to replace the 25 year old wooden garage doors with new insulated doors as well
for the one bay where the sim setup will be, we are also going with the high lift rails for the door to give us three extra feet to work with
from talking to various people likely will only be heating when we are out in the garage rather than heating the garage continuously
last thing to figure out is what type of heating and what type of heating unit - portable or fixed.
like you, electric heat might not be the way to go given the high run rate compared to other options

[Captargo]

Anyone have any experience with spray foam or dense cellulose as insulation for a garage?
from research there seems to there be various pros and cons for each
from effort perspective spray foam would be more work - remove current chipboard from wall , install spray foam then drywall ceiling and walls. For dense cellulose, can inject without removing chipboard so just need to drywall the ceiling
Looking for advice or experiences from anyone that has either in their garage
thanks