I have a detached garage and want to have it climate controlled. My kids raise FFA animals (chickens and rabbits) and so certain times of the year I need to be able to control the temperature if we are to be competitive. Our garage is a typical 2-car garage and is probably around 500 sq. ft.

There is no ceiling inside the garage now and I do not want to make on one although that would significantly reduce the amount of space I would need to cool/heat. The garage has a hip roof design on all 4 sides and there is a vent (whirlybird) at the apex of the roof that allows heat to escape.

My thought is to have closed cell spray foam insulation applied on the walls and the underside of the roof and to install a mini-split unit. I know I will lose alot of heat / cold air through the garage door but I will work on that as best as I can by adding insulation to the extent that I can. The cracks and seals around the garage door are a problem but hopefully I can install a mini-split that can overcome those losses.

The kids show their animals in early spring and so I need both heat and cooling capabilities. I found out that I could keep a cold garage warm with propane heaters much better than I can cool a hot garage. This year in February we had several days where the temp got into the upper 80's and that really hurt the growth of my son's broilers that he showed at HLSR.

We are going to be raising animals for the next 12+ years (God willing) and so I don't mind a little investment now that we can utilize throughout that period.

Any suggestions? Any lessons learned on similar projects?

TIA!!!

I would 2nd the cheap route.

Insulate the doors first. You can buy sheets of polystyrene and cut to fit into the garage door and cover with aluminum tape to keep in place.

Install either a portable HVAC unit or a mini-split (self install). See how well you can control temps with that. If that cannot keep up, then go to spray foam in garage.

Another thought would be to try to cordon off an area with plastic sheeting (walls/roof) and try to keep the climate in that area controlled. Make it so fresh air can come in, but trying to keep a sub-section of the garage 'controlled' vs. the whole space.

~egon

I added radiant barrier like this to my insulated garage door. It helped with the heat load. If you are adding weight to the garage door, my garage door guy said consider having it rebalanced.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reflectix-R-21-200-sq-ft-Unfaced-Reflective-Roll-Insulation-24-in-W-x-100-ft-L/1002245654

Really helpful video on insulating your garage door.

Caveats:
There was a local golf range that had a non-architect design their office.
Great idea was to drive the balls gathered through the garage door, wash, then dump them in a pass-through in interior wall into a wooden pit. Here the renters would pay then gather balls into buckets to carry to range.

The field mice easily defeated the garage door seals, no matter how much money was throw at that problem.
Aferwards, all interiors were sealed against the outdoors and an exterior ball dispenser was employed, now replaced with state of the art ones.

I guess one might replace that garage door with a better barrier to all that feed.


A city had a bulder design-build Parks Office built conventionally and all was well ... until one day a raccoon fell out of the ceiling onto a secretary's desk. Path was discovered to be from tree to roof through vertical vent ... but ridge vents/et al. have also been reported.

I guess one might seal up all those vents with a better barrier to all that live food & feed.



Seems that all that report with biggest smiles are the ones solving this with a mini-split.

Best of luck with the wonderful FFA ... neighbors sent a bunch o kids thru college in this manner

I put in a mr. cool diy mini split a few years back. I installed it prior to putting in insulation and a ceiling in my garage. If I got it cooled down pretty good in the morning (low 70s) it would somewhat keep up during the heat of the summer days (stayed in the high 70s or around 80). Of course once I added the insulation and ceiling I was able to get it ice cold in there.