Garage spray foam insulation in Cochrane deals with a garage that is frequently not where a garage normally is. On the hillside subdivisions above the Bow the house is built into the slope, and the garage ends up at a level of its own with heated rooms around more of it than a flat-lot garage ever has.
Built into the slope, with rooms on three sides
On a walkout or split plan the garage is often tucked under the main floor with the lower level beside it, so instead of one shared wall there is a shared wall, a shared ceiling and sometimes a second shared wall. Every one of those is a surface across which cold, and anything in the garage air, can reach living space. It also means the garage is far more worth treating here than a detached box would be, because the rooms on the other side of those surfaces are being affected whether or not anyone uses the garage as a workspace.
The overhead door faces downhill into the wind
On these streets the door usually faces down the slope, which is the direction the wind comes from when it is moving off the foothills and down the valley. A door in that position is pressed on rather than sheltered, so air comes past the perimeter seal and the header continuously rather than in gusts. Sealing the header and the surround does more on a Cochrane garage than adding depth to the walls, and it is cheaper. Owners who have already insulated and still find the garage cold are usually looking at this.
Cold air runs downhill and finds the low opening
Cold air is heavy and on a slope it moves. A garage at the low side of a house sits where that air collects, which is one reason these garages read colder than their neighbours at the top of the same street. It also means any gap on the low wall behaves as an inlet all winter rather than only when the wind blows, so the sealing work is doing something every day rather than during storms.
The slab edge that a steep driveway leaves exposed
On a level lot the garage slab sits with soil against its edge nearly all the way round. Step that slab down a Cochrane driveway and a length of the foundation edge on the downhill side ends up above grade with outside air against its outer face, so the concrete is losing heat sideways as well as down. Owners feel it as a floor that is cold in a band along one wall rather than uniformly, and it is a path that no amount of work on the walls above will close.
Garage Spray Foam Insulation Cochrane: The Covering Requirement
Spray foam in an attached garage is not left exposed. The Alberta Building Code requires a thermal barrier over foam plastic in a garage, normally drywall, and on a Cochrane garage with living space above and beside it that requirement is doing real work rather than being a formality. Anyone quoting foam in your garage without mentioning the covering is quoting half the job, and the cost of the drywall belongs in the conversation from the start.
Garage Spray Foam Insulation Cochrane: Common Questions
Our garage is under the house. Does that change anything? It gives you more shared surfaces with heated rooms than a standard garage, so the work is worth more here and the covering requirement matters more.
We insulated and it is still cold. Why? Usually the overhead door surround. On these lots it faces downhill into the wind and is under constant pressure.
Does the foam have to be covered? Yes. Foam plastic in a Cochrane garage needs a thermal barrier over it, normally drywall, and that cost belongs in the quote.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Cochrane quote. More on Garage Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.
After the foam: the interior finish
Once the foam is in and trimmed, the assembly needs its interior finish, and on an occupied space that finish is also the code-required thermal barrier over the foam. We work alongside drywall finishing in Cochrane, an independent drywall contractor, so the two stages are not left to collide on site.