Very cold room

[tmdry]

I have a loss that I've been working on which is a 2 level flood, kitchen/basement plus garage. The garage itself is very cold and the garage door itself does not fully shut, and the area that got wet is also very cold in general.

First, will an etes rise the ambient temp of the combined rec room/garage, the rec room is next to the garage and there's no drywall (now). The temp in both rooms is low, while the rh is not dropping as much as I'd like. Prior to removing the drywall/insulation in both rec room/garage, the rec room itself was already very cold. The current ins is R12, regular pink owens corning (have to check the exact R value).

There's a lgr 2k in rec room, containment barrier, all registers have been shut/tapped over, etc.

Will putting a higher R value insulation on the adjoining walls of garage and rec room keep the heat in more once the repairs commence? It is probably one of the coldest basement I've been in. The basement/rec room is above ground, corner unit townhome.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yes the Etes will do it in time. It takes time for it to rise the temp but it will warm it up sufficiently to dry. If the door is allowing too much cold in you could drop some 6-mil poly down down the ceiling to help contain your heat. I'd block any air gaps first with some wads of insulation.

I always hate when garage ceilings get wet in the winter, even if you pull the ceiling it can be a battle to get it dry due to the cold. Worse when the homeowner still needs to use the space.

 

[tmdry]

Thanks Richard,

It's a portion of the ceiling and 2 adjoining walls, basically a 3rd of the garage, but no windows to exhaust the etes to tho?

Oh and there is TON of "stuff" in the garage w/ zero room to move anything around, its not really a garage anymore, more like a place to store stuff.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'd rip down a 4x8 sheet to fit the door, cut a hole for your ducting. Use a long lag bolt to go through the board and through 2x4's on out and inside to pull the board tight and secure. Or just run extra dehumidifers as the temp comes up to operating temperature.

 

[tmdry]

Good tip.

Day 5 tonight and both lgr 2k's are keeping the room itself at low 20s rh and 79-82 temps...

The dehus themselves are in the low teens to mid 80s.

I'm spending my night writing a xactimate for the entire job.