Garage insulation/ flooring

[kreyszig]

This is a long way off for me, but I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on the following.

We have a coach house (a third of the same building, shared by three neighbours) which is on two levels, all pretty original (late Victorian), although there isn't much to it. It has cobbled floors, a single brick thick wall on one long side and a stone wall on the other. The house used to be owned by a butchers and I'm guessing the meat hooks hanging from the joists of the first floor are probably original. There is an exterior door on the first floor with the now sawn off beam that would have had a pulley on the end for getting horse food or whatever they used to store up there, up there. One set of doors on the long brick side has been bricked up and and up and over garage door put in the gable end. Theres' a disused chimney in one corner, and the stack remains.

Anyway - I have plenty of (automotive for now) projects to get on with in there, but they would benefit from a) a clean level floor and b) some wall and floor/ceiling insulation. E.g. I can't spray paint a thing in winter, which is the best time to be tinkering in the garage! The cobbles make life a bit more difficult in terms of moving heavy things around with any precision. And given the limited space most of my heavy tools are or will be on wheels.

I am thinking along the lines of going making the ground floor more useful by: floor levelling via a very shallow timber deck of ply on treated battens, and dry lining via some thing stud walls and plasterboard. This would make a lovely workshop/garage, but I'm torn a bit considering how much character I'd lose in the process. The aim would be to make everything reversible, hence the floor not being poured at all. I think I could insulate the ceiling without losing the meat hooks as the joists are 9 or 12".

Just wondering what other peoples thoughts might be in a similar situation and when or where you draw the line regards retaining character..

 

[Feltwell]

What a lovely building to have!

I can see why you're torn, but personally I'd do the easily reversible changes you've talked about. How much will you be out there? Is it really worth insulating the walls for example? Some insulation pushed up between the joists is easy enough, if you've stopped any draughts from getting round the doors then you'll get it warm enough for a general workshop I reckon. Paint spraying - don't know, depends how often you'll do it I suppose.

I have a large double garage with 2 floors, that I built. The ground floor is suspended block & beam with no insulation, the walls have insulation in the cavity & thermalite blocks, the roof currently has no insulation whatsoever - breathable membrane then tiles. The doors all fit well. Insulating the roof is on the "to do" list, but not that high up it in truth.

With a few layers on I've been fine working out there in the recent cold, only on the really cold days have I put my heater on, which is just a small radiant gas heater sat on top of a propane bottle - that's enough, if it's near the bench, to take the chill off.
I've got a propane space heater that absolutely belts out heat but I'm going to sell it - too noisy and actually it makes the garage too hot fairly quickly, I'm forever turning it off & on as the heat escapes out of my roof!

 

[kreyszig]

hmm you make a good point there. I'm probably losing most of the heat through the floor/ceiling - the walls are probably not a high priority. And the doors - another todo. In the gable end brickwork are some old pins for two side hinge doors - I would like to put some back in. Food for thought Feltwell, many thanks.

And yes, it is a really nice bonus to have. In a perfect world it would be double width, and not have such a steep slope up to the gable end, but it's better than nowt. I need to re-slate it before any insulation goes in, should be good practice for the rest of the house. And change the doors and guttering and barge boards and sort the rotten joists out and ..