How to insulate and drywall garage walls

For years now I’ve wanted to finish insulating and drywalling our garage. Most of it already is, but the exterior walls (those not touching the house) aren’t. We could have paid for the builder to do it but it was one of those, “OH we can SO do that ourselves”…and nine years later here we are.

 
We have a bedroom above the garage and although it’s not too bad, it does get warm in there in the summer. The cold in the winter really isn't too bad, but in the warmer months it is definitely the hottest room in the house.

 
Yes, the warmer months are about done, but the thing is – this job isn’t the most fun to do when it’s hot out. More on that later. :) But either way, it’s something I’ve wanted to start for a while.

 
Have I mentioned I’ve never insulated or drywalled before? Yeah. Well, I’ve taken bits of insulation and filled in spots in our basement so there’s that. But the big roll and massive pieces of drywall? Nope.

 
But I’m a DIYer and I’ve watched a lot of DIY shows so those two things together made me feel like I could totally do this. (Insert tool man grunt.) I figured it couldn’t be that hard…and for once that thought went through my head and I was actually right! Usually when I dare to think that it turns into a horrible day when doors fall and I have a hole in my house.

 
Let’s start at the beginning. First things first – our garage is a DISASTER right now. I’m almost done decluttering the house and a lot of stuff has gone to live out there till I can figure out where to put it…out there. So really, it’s a mess. We can still park our cars in there so yay for us, that’s something!

I decided to try out my insulating and drywalling skills on this wall:

What wall you ask? Oh let me just move all the STUFF and I’ll show you:

There we go. For real, half the time I spend on projects is just moving stuff out of the way.

 
Next, I geared UP. Insulation can make you itchy if you touch it, although I hear it depends on the person. If you have more sensitive skin it’s more likely to bother you. I don’t but the thought of getting itchy freaks me out so I wore long sleeves and gloves.

 
And the mask and safety glasses are a must:

THIS is why I waited till the hot weather broke. It was a beautiful, cool day and I still ended up sweating. And every time I breathed into the mask it fogged up my glasses and couldn’t see so those were fun times.

I found out you need to decide on a few things when picking drywall – faced or nonfaced (I went with faced which means it has a paper barrier), you need to know if your studs are 2x4’s or 2x6’s (the 6’s are usually only for a wall with plumbing) and what R-value you want.

 
I’m not trying to heat and cool the garage or anything, I just want to keep it a little more protected from temps, so I went with the R-13, which is pretty standard:
Of course the section I wanted to do only had two areas that were the standard 15 inch width for the insulation to fit right into. Those were SUPER easy and fast to do. You just cut it down and then stuff it in. More on that in a bit.

 
For the areas between studs that were a bit (or a lot less) than the standard opening, I had to cut them down. I measured:

And this is how I cut the insulation – I just laid down a straight edge (anything would work) and used a razor to slice next it:

I did that right on the cement so I went through a couple razors, but it worked great. When I had to cut the whole piece long ways I did the same thing – but didn’t worry about it being perfect. The beauty of this is that you’re able to kind of push it where it needs to be.

 
I used the scraps from cutting them down in little spots like this:

And this area along the bottom:

Two things to note -- you don’t want to smoosh insulation too much. I read that it reduces it’s insulating qualities if you flatten it. 

Also, I didn’t have to worry about light switches or electrical lines on this wall (but I will on others):

I did look up what to do with those and for light switches you’ll want to cut out around the switch so the insulation fits snug in there. And if you have a cord running through the middle of the wall I read you can “split” the insulation right up the middle. So take the front and back and pull them apart – put the back part behind the wiring and front in front of it (near the area that will be drywalled).

 
I did read it doesn’t matter too much when it comes to wiring but this seemed like a good idea to me.
So you need to secure the stuff to the studs – I always thought you just stick it in there (and it does stay on it’s own) but over time I can see that it would droop. I just used the stapler I use for upholstery projects for this:

I didn’t do a ton of staples – maybe five or six on each side?

 
I was pretty darn pleased with myself when this was done:

I have to say this project was strangely satisfying – I really quite enjoyed it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me either.

 
NOW it was time for the drywall. I’ve patched holes in the wall with drywall but never hung it. And man, it is HEAVY. My husband helped me and we started by installing one up high first. We set it on a ladder and then he held it up so I could get a few screws in. 

I knew where the studs where from the little bit of drywall that was installed up higher on that wall (not sure why the builder did that but not the lower parts?).

The lower piece was too big by less than a half an inch, argh! It was all going SO well. :) So I did what they do on the DIY shows – held up my level, scored it with a razor and then knocked off the edge:

On the shows they do this and it comes off clean, but this was such a small part. I had to use a wrench and just grab it and pop it off, piece by piece. I think that took longer than hanging the two sheets of drywall.
I turned that drywall over so that rough edge was on the bottom and you wouldn’t see it. :)

 
I did it! One wall done!:

SO much better right? I mean, obviously all the junk is gone. The only items I put back were our folding chairs – I like having them right there so I can throw them in the back of my car when we need them. I put everything else away and I’ll decide after the rest of the garage is done if anything will go back.

 
All along I wasn’t planning on even taping or mudding the new drywall in the garage, but now that I see it I think it will look even a million times better if I did. I already have both from a patching job, so I’ll get to that part soon. I’d love to paint our garage someday too – but for now it’s staying bare. I call it “drywall gray.” 

 
Here’s a another shot with a before and after to truly appreciate the GREATNESS:

 

It makes me want to wallpaper it or something. It’s hard for me to look at a large empty wall and not do something to it. I’m holding back though -- there is beauty in empty, at least in the garage.

 
And the bonus is it forced me to clean out that spot so I now can successfully get in and out of my car!
Have you ever tried insulating or drywalling? Overall it was way easier than I thought it would be, but we didn’t have to lift up much drywall either. Now to declutter, organize and drywall the rest of the garage. 

This content is property of Thrifty Decor Chick LLC. If you are reading this on any other site other than www.thriftydecorchick.com or one of the blog's social media platforms, please contact TDC immediately (thriftydecorchick at gmail dot com). Any other use of this content is strictly forbidden.