Tips for a cold bedroom above a garage?

[BashDash]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

[friareye]

This probably does not help you, but I am planning on finishing the rooms above our garage and plan to install radiant heat in the floor. If you doing any remodeling, I would look into that. Outside of that... is the garage insulated? Some people don't insulate the garage, but every bit to make the garage warmer will in turn make the room upstairs warmer too.

[renue74]

It may be a two way issue. Cold from the garage and from the roof.

I have a kid's bedroom above our garage. But it also has vaulted ceilings...so there is only a 2x6 rafter bay with insulation in it...between the roof and ceiling drywall. So...we get cold from that as well.

1.) Insulate the door of the garage.
2.) Make sure all windows are fully weather proofed.
3.) Add cellulose material densly packed into the floor joist bays.

[JediMisty]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

Do you have Central air/heat? All our upstairs bedrooms are colder than downstairs, especially the master bedroom over the garage. My BF installed fans inside the ducts leading to the bedrooms. This is possible because our ducts can be reached as they are in the basement ceiling. Magic!!! Now our bedrooms are MUCH warmer. I recommend this highly. Buy the expensive duct fans, not the cheap ones. If you're not handy, hire someone.

[TimDex]

When I lived in PA, I had a family room with a vinyl tile floor above an unheated garage. We put in new carpet, and as an underlayment, installed half inch foam padding. It made an incredible difference. The room was very comfortable after that.

[curmudgeon]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

Do you have Central air/heat? All our upstairs bedrooms are colder than downstairs, especially the master bedroom over the garage. My BF installed fans inside the ducts leading to the bedrooms. This is possible because our ducts can be reached as they are in the basement ceiling. Magic!!! Now our bedrooms are MUCH warmer. I recommend this highly. Buy the expensive duct fans, not the cheap ones. If you're not handy, hire someone.

Also look at the return air flow. With forced air heat, you need a path for the return air as well as the delivery. It might be as simple as leaving the door ajar, or trimming the bottom of the door to relieve pressure buildup and get more warm air flow in the bedroom.

[Golf maniac]

Insulation needed, above, below, and any external walls.

[bungalow10]

Gather some data - how much is the temp difference between the garage and the bedroom? Is the garage itself poorly insulated? Is there opportunity to insulate between the garage and bedroom? Does the bedroom have wood floor? A good subfloor plus insulation? Are the walls and windows insulated well?

[JediMisty]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

Do you have Central air/heat? All our upstairs bedrooms are colder than downstairs, especially the master bedroom over the garage. My BF installed fans inside the ducts leading to the bedrooms. This is possible because our ducts can be reached as they are in the basement ceiling. Magic!!! Now our bedrooms are MUCH warmer. I recommend this highly. Buy the expensive duct fans, not the cheap ones. If you're not handy, hire someone.

Also look at the return air flow. With forced air heat, you need a path for the return air as well as the delivery. It might be as simple as leaving the door ajar, or trimming the bottom of the door to relieve pressure buildup and get more warm air flow in the bedroom.

I had new garage doors installed that were better insulated. The "attic" bedroom walls and external garage walls were cost prohibitive to add insulation post build. I did add extra insulation to the part of the attic I could reach. I also experimented with changing the air flow, which was a small factor. Leaving the door ajar to the hallway helped, but only by a degree or so. My bedroom was something like five degrees colder every winter.

[dknightd]

Insulation needed, above, below, and any external walls.

+1

[jayk238]

Insulation needed, above, below, and any external walls.

+1

This. Just had inspection on home to buy and this was the inspectors advice.

[F150HD]

if its cold up there you could store lots of meat, maybe open a deli or something.

[mlipps]

As a much simpler solution, a heated blanket made a massive difference for my nighttime comfort. I hear the heated mattress pads are even better, but I like being able to move mine to the couch on rare occasion.

[Golfview]

You could also look into the ducts providing heat,perhaps you can add a fan in the ductwork to force more heat into that room,I've seen this done before in rooms that are far from the heating and cooling system.
The fan will go on systematic whenever the system is running!
Good luck

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

As a much simpler solution, a heated blanket made a massive difference for my nighttime comfort. I hear the heated mattress pads are even better, but I like being able to move mine to the couch on rare occasion.

That was going to be my suggestion, depending on what the cold bedroom is used for. I spent twelve months in an apartment with hardly any bedroom heat. In winter the electric blanket saved my, well, what, saved my moon Enceladus.

The rest of the apartment was less bad. If the bedroom is for general purposes that changes the calculus.

I was happy to move after the contracted year (after six months of which my contracted apartment mate skipped out to live with his new paralegal girlfriend, then initiated proceedings to sue me when I paid the whole amount of the rent each remaining month).

PJW

[mw1739]

We had additional insulation blown into the rafters between the garage and room above. They cut small 2-3” holes in the garage ceiling and capped them once the insulation was finished blowing in. I suppose I could have it patched, but the caps are fine for a garage.

[mouses]

I was happy to move after the contracted year (after six months of which my contracted apartment mate skipped out to live with his new paralegal girlfriend, then initiated proceedings to sue me when I paid the whole amount of the rent each remaining month).

PJW

I'm not following this. I would think he'd be glad you forked out the rent he was liable for.

[stats99]

Had same thing, master over garage, after 15 years we built an addition on top for our new MBR, much warmer and gave old room to our son starting HS! More privacy too since we were also on our own floor.

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

I was happy to move after the contracted year (after six months of which my contracted apartment mate skipped out to live with his new paralegal girlfriend, then initiated proceedings to sue me when I paid the whole amount of the rent each remaining month).

PJW

I'm not following this. I would think he'd be glad you forked out the rent he was liable for.

It makes no sense, but anybody can sue anyone for anything. I suspect it was the paralegal paramour who suggested it.

I had just barely agreed to trust my decade-long close friend. Then friend.

After the initial steps the suit evaporated. I didn't even have to respond.

PJW

[tamudude]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

A smallish space heater (automatic) was the best solution for us when we had the same issue.

[poleman]

Solved this problem by ripping out the drywall in the garage ceiling and insulating the floor of the bedroom through the garage ceiling. There were only 2 in. of insulation in the bedroom floor/garage ceiling.

[UpperNwGuy]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

A smallish space heater (automatic) was the best solution for us when we had the same issue.

+1

[Epsilon Delta]

The garage ceiling serves as a fire break and to keep various garage fumes (e.g. CO, gasoline) out of the bedroom. I would be inclined to make sure it is dry walled and any holes fully sealed with a proper mudded patch. I may not sand the patches.

Fully air sealing the ceiling may also help with the temperature.

[2tall4economy]

Insulation needed, above, below, and any external walls.

this. recommend spray foam. environmentally unfriendly, heating bill friendly.

[HappyWorkerBee]

plan to install radiant heat in the floor

This. Sure, you could rip out the floor and stuff more insulation in, and you could insulate all over your garage, but after all that you may still find the room to be colder than you want it to be. For a straightforward guarantee win, electric radiant heat under the carpet/flooring with a thermostat that controls it on the wall.

[SoAnyway]

Hi all,
The title says it all. An oversized one car garage with a master bedroom that is chilly even when heat is at 70 degrees. I know this is common. Any simple solutions? Thanks in advance!

Are you an owner or a renter? How long do you plan to stay? You've gotten excellent responses, but which to choose depends on those answers. For example, if I were renting this space and my lease was up sometime after the winter, I'd go the direction of heated mattress pad or blanket/space heater and focus on moving. If this were my forever home, I'd invest in insulation above/below/sideways, maybe even reno w/radiant heat flooring.

[Prudence]

Solved this problem by ripping out the drywall in the garage ceiling and insulating the floor of the bedroom through the garage ceiling. There were only 2 in. of insulation in the bedroom floor/garage ceiling.

Did you replace the drywall after adding the insulation to the garage ceiling?

[chw]

We had this exact situation for many years- even after adding insulation to various areas above and below the bedroom. Generally the temp was ok during the day. At night we simply used an oil filled radiant space heater at night that could be set to a precise temp, and would shut off after a set number of hours. This space heater did the job very well, and we could adjust the temp precisely to what we liked. We heater was under $100 at Walmart.

[Toons]

Space Heater
Dr. Infrared
Walmart,Amazon

[mouses]

The garage ceiling serves as a fire break and to keep various garage fumes (e.g. CO, gasoline) out of the bedroom. I would be inclined to make sure it is dry walled and any holes fully sealed with a proper mudded patch. I may not sand the patches.

Yah, I have read twice, I think, of people in a house dying because a car was left running in a garage. Both suicides, unintentionally took family members with them.

[3feetpete]

I had a home office above a garage and it was always cold. It was too far away from the furnace and just not getting enought forced hot air heat. I looked into the inline duct fans that one of the previous posters mentioned. In the end I went with the cheaper option of buying a duct fan that just sits on top of the register and plugs into a wall outlet. I think I got it on Amazon. It worked well enough but I'm sure an inline duct fan would be better.

[fposte]

The garage ceiling serves as a fire break and to keep various garage fumes (e.g. CO, gasoline) out of the bedroom. I would be inclined to make sure it is dry walled and any holes fully sealed with a proper mudded patch. I may not sand the patches.

Yah, I have read twice, I think, of people in a house dying because a car was left running in a garage. Both suicides, unintentionally took family members with them.

There's a legendary Reddit thread of somebody who thought his landlord was breaking into his apartment and leaving notes. Somebody very tactfully suggested a CO monitor. Guy's apartment was over a garage and he was suffering chronic CO poisoning--he was leaving the notes for himself and didn't remember it when he saw them. He was in the hospital for a while, IIRC.

[jharkin]

I never understood this trend of putting bedrooms over garages in modern construction.

The floor needs to be opened up and insulated as much as possible. Dense pack or foam it if you can. Also need to make extra sure you have a good air seal from the garage.

[BashDash]

Thanks for all the replies! I have a range of options. We are considering turning our deck into a master bedroom suite and our GC did suggest radiant heat. I am guessing radiant heat can't easily be put on existing floors. Maybe even a space heater is fine as suggested. This room may be turning into a child's room so I would like it to be cozy.

[investingdad]

This probably does not help you, but I am planning on finishing the rooms above our garage and plan to install radiant heat in the floor. If you doing any remodeling, I would look into that. Outside of that... is the garage insulated? Some people don't insulate the garage, but every bit to make the garage warmer will in turn make the room upstairs warmer too.

Bingo.

Our master bath is over the garage and the floor gets very cold in winter. As a result, the bathroom is cold.

We ripped up the linoleum and installed tile with radiant heat underneath. Room is about 225 ft maybe?

Much, much better.

[focusedonwhatmatters]

Thanks for all the replies! I have a range of options. We are considering turning our deck into a master bedroom suite and our GC did suggest radiant heat. I am guessing radiant heat can't easily be put on existing floors. Maybe even a space heater is fine as suggested. This room may be turning into a child's room so I would like it to be cozy.

The Dyson heat towers work great, and are quiet and safe for kids. They do not get hot at all when you touch it, and turns off if tipped over.

https://www.dyson.com/fans-and-heaters/ ... rview.html

[Trism]

This isn't intended to be sarcastic. Turn up the thermostat.

70?

In the summertime I would freeze with the AC at 70. 70 in the winter is still 70.