Richard Cole wrote:
I want to add some insulation to a bare breeze block garage wall, that
backs onto our living room (integral garage). The walls about 10' x
20' What's the cheapest and easiest way to do this? Would sticking
expanded polystyrene panels (say like 2" thick loft insulation
panels) straight to the BB work? If so any glue recommendations?


Gluing fibreglass is a waste of time and glue, and quite possibly
fibreglass.


As no-one's going to see the end wall (apart from myself & SWBMO) I
don't think I need insulated plaster board or anything fancy, so any
other recommendations?

It needs to be something simple as I can mess up the simplest task.

you need to consider 3 things:

1) Price - How much do you want to spend? V How much are you going to save?
I estimate that your savings will be minimal and so your outlay should match
this.

2) Bearing in mind that it's a garage, you need to think about fire
safety....even more timber and / or polystyrene is never a good thing where
petrol / oil / diesel / paint etc are around.

4) if the insulation gets wet, what measures are in place to stop the damp
penetrating the internal walls?


With these in mind my reccomendation is for the following:
Affix a sheet of polythene to the wall, up to a height of around 4ft along
it's entire length.
Over this and across the entire wall affix timber studding (3X2 laid flat),
affix at centres which match the board sizes you are going to use (so that
two plasterboards meet on a timber)
Insert rockwool or fibreglass batts (they are the same as loft insulation
but more compressed and have a higher U value) they are also easier for
cutting and for fixing into place.
Plasterboard over the entire wall, you can fill any large gaps with normal
plaster or jointing compound, this is only to protect any timbers showing
through from possible fire etc.

Any water penetrating upwards (from a spillage, leaky roof etc) can't
transfer moisture to the wall because of the membrane...water won't rise
above 3ft.

The wall is 'sealed' from any sources of fire (plasterboard is a good fire
proofing) and the fibreglass/rockwool will never melt and give off toxic
fumes if something does ever happen.

Phil L wrote:
The wall is 'sealed' from any sources of fire (plasterboard is a good fire
proofing) and the fibreglass/rockwool will never melt and give off toxic
fumes if something does ever happen.

Is there some confusion here? Rockwool and fibreglass can actually be
used for fire protection. The stuff's inert, and can't give off toxic
fumes. Are you thinking of expanded polystyrene?

Chris Bacon wrote:
Phil L wrote:
The wall is 'sealed' from any sources of fire (plasterboard is a
good fire proofing) and the fibreglass/rockwool will never melt and
give off toxic fumes if something does ever happen.

Is there some confusion here? Rockwool and fibreglass can actually be
used for fire protection. The stuff's inert, and can't give off toxic
fumes. Are you thinking of expanded polystyrene?

No, if you read it again you will see that I've written 'it will never melt
and give off toxic fumes'
It was a 'warning' against using polystyrene.

HTH

Richard Cole wrote:
I was trying to avoid using any timber as no
matter how many times I measure, it's still wrong when I cut.

Then just stick up your polystyrene sheets with non-solvent
glue. Squeeze some decoraters caulk into the cracks to seal
it (use a cartridge in a frame gun), and when it's dry paint
the lot with whatever colour takes your fancy emulsion.

Then just stick up your polystyrene sheets with non-solvent
glue. Squeeze some decoraters caulk into the cracks to seal
it (use a cartridge in a frame gun), and when it's dry paint
the lot with whatever colour takes your fancy emulsion.

Thanks. That I can probably manage.

However, plastic insulation should be plasterboarded over, or it is bad for
fire safety.

Christian.