Cheap ceiling insulation?

Blaze

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
I am thinking of finally getting off my ass and insulating my shop. The walls are insulated and sheathed in 1/2" OSB. Ceiling is thin underlayment boards that I got super cheap and painted white and screwed that shit up there. It looks fine, but yeah, shop is a tinderbox but whatever. :lol:

I'm losing a lot of heat through the ceiling, obviously. I can keep it comfortable with my AC unit in the summer because it is fairly shaded, but in the winter it is hard to keep warm with anything outside of my bullet heater. I'm going to insulate my garage doors, but wondering a good cheap way to insulate my ceiling.

R value only matters a bit because not like I'm trying to do it to code, just help keep the heat in the space.

Any ideas for how to do this as cheap as possible? It's only about a third floored down the middle so I can access pretty much all the area from the attic. Shop is 26x40 with 24"OC joists.

Looking at Home Depot if I get the cheapest 24" insulation they have, it would cost me about $800 to do the ceiling.
 
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If it were me I would put in as much as I could possibly afford to a degree. It’ll save you in the long run. Do it right, do it once
 
Mac5005 said:
Blown in cellulose. If you buy the bags to use, Lowe’s/HD will rent you the machine to blow it in at no cost

Just make sure ceiling is air tight before blowing and filling.

Air leaks 1st and insulation 2nd.

May need to staple cardboard at the ends to keep from blocking the soffit vents
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Dang, that is pretty cheap. Just a few hundred dollars for a 1000ish sqft area.

My brother said they might have a bunch of extra insulation left over at his work but he's not sure if they've thrown it out or not yet. He's going to check for me and if they don't have any I'll go with that blown in stuff.
 
Not much else to add but x2 on sealing air leaks first. I was amazed what a difference that made when I went around and did my basement, attic, etc, and air flow pretty much makes fiberglass worthless.
 
Looks like my brother's jobsite has a whole load of stuff they are throwing out, so heading down to grab a bunch of cabinets and insulation for the shop tonight. Time for a major makeover!
 
Blaze said:
Looks like my brother's jobsite has a whole load of stuff they are throwing out, so heading down to grab a bunch of cabinets and insulation for the shop tonight. Time for a major makeover!
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If you want cheap, I can let you know when we remove insulation from a crawlspace and you can have it for free. 🤣. It’ll be in trash bags. But the price is unbeatable.
 
Mac5005 said:
If you want cheap, I can let you know when we remove insulation from a crawlspace and you can have it for free. 🤣. It’ll be in trash bags. But the price is unbeatable.
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Naaaah, I'm good. :lol:

The stuff my bro has is new but packaging is opened and they are at the end of their project so it just gets tossed. Same with the cabinets. Brand new blems that they can't put in rich people's condos any more. :lol:
 
In my FIL shop we screwed foam insulation board up to act as a ceiling uncovered.
~$12 a board.
Didnt tape it or anything after. 2 small kerosene not forced heaters will run you out of a 30x40 if you keep the doors closed. It was incredibly surprisingly efficient.
You would need about sheets...so under $400.
 
Mac5005 said:
Blown in cellulose. If you buy the bags to use, Lowe’s/HD will rent you the machine to blow it in at no cost
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When I did my house, if you bought enough cellulose, the rental was free. I needed less than the number of bundles to get the deal, so I bought more than I needed, got the rental for free and returned the leftovers when I returned the machine. 😁
 
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