Turning an unused garage into a gym can add value to your home and life. According to a report on House Trick, converting your garage into a living room or gym can add to your property’s value by 10-20%. Besides boosting your property value, starting a gym in your home garage helps you develop healthy workout habits because you don’t have to deal with barriers such as having limited time and bad weather, and it also eliminates the need to wait in line to use gym equipment.
However, to get good value from your garage gym, you need to cool, heat, and insulate it properly. That’s because garages can freeze during winter, and they can feel stifling and hot during the summer, making workouts unbearable when the temperature falls or rises.
Fortunately, you can make your garage gym functional throughout all seasons by installing heating and cooling appliances, and insulating your space. Below are insulation, heating, and cooling tips when turning your garage into a gym.
Identify Insulation Problems in Your Garage
If your garage has high levels of humidity, is extremely cold during winter, and is unbearably hot in the summer, it’s likely that you have insulation problems. There are several aspects linked to insulation issues in garages, such as moisture retention, lack of air barrier, and odor retention.
Limited or zero air barrier, for example, occurs when insulation cannot block the flow of hot or cold air in the garage. As a result, your garage gym will be too hot or cold.
When humidity levels increase in your garage, you’ll notice condensation and mold growth on the walls and the ceiling. This means your garage’s insulation material is holding moisture and requires replacement.
Likewise, you’ll need to replace your insulation material to prevent odor retention. Remember, odor retention affects not only air quality in the garage, foul smell can seep into your living spaces, making your entire house smell awful.
Pick Your Insulation Options Carefully
Once you have identified insulation problems in your garage, make sure it’s insulated properly before remodeling it into a gym. There are many benefits of insulating your garage, such as increased energy efficiency, and less noise transfer, and it also protects your gym equipment. A well-insulated garage also promotes comfort, meaning you won’t sweat more than you should when exercising or feel too cold when temperatures drop.
Installing insulation in your garage can be tricky, considering there are many options available. So, it’s important to research different types of insulation materials. Your best options include rigid foam, fiberglass, spray foam, and cellulose. Using rigid foam material like extruded polystyrene, or styrofoam, for example, helps regulate temperature and reduce noise.
If you opt for fiberglass, you’ll notice high levels of insulation. Fiberglass is easy to install and is a perfect option if the garage walls and ceiling aren’t covered with drywall. Moreover, fiberglass insulations add style to the overall aesthetics of your garage gym.
Cellulose insulation is ideal for garages that are already finished and installation requires the use of blowers, so it’s crucial to hire a professional.
Determine Effective Ways to Cool Garage Gyms
Too often the humidity levels in garages rise, making occupants feel hot, sweaty, and uneasy because the body loses its ability to cool itself. The good news is there are steps you can take to cool the atmosphere inside your garage.
The first thing you’ll want to do is keep your garage windows and doors open during the cooler hours of the day. That way, cool air can circulate inside the garage. Alternatively, you can install garage fans, vents, and insulated doors.
Insulating your garage door helps keep the inside space cool and usable for physical activities in the summer months. Modern garage doors have insulation features that act as a heat barrier. To enjoy the benefits insulated garage doors offer, you’ll need to find reliable door repair service providers.
With that said, invest a considerable amount of time reading customer feedback from reputable review sites to locate service providers that guarantee positive outcomes. For instance, reading A1 Garage Door Service reviews helps you identify door repair services that use quality materials. You’ll also identify service providers that possess a high level of expertise, good organizational skills, and excellent customer satisfaction rate.
Research Effective Ways to Heat a Garage
Heating your garage is an important consideration when converting it into a gym. You’ll want to ensure your gym is warm and comfortable in the cold season. There are many effective ways to keep your garage gym warm and ideal for exercising, even when it’s freezing outside. This includes installing air conditioning systems. You can also set up electric heaters, biomass, propane, or infrared heaters.
A garage is one of the most neglected spaces in the home. But you can make the most of it by remodeling it into a home gym. While garage gyms increase property value and help you develop healthy workout routines, building them isn’t cheap.
This means if you can’t use your garage gym all year round, your investment will go to waste. Luckily, there are ideal ways to keep your garage gym operational throughout all seasons. This includes insulating walls and replacing old garage doors with modern doors with insulation features, installing air conditioning systems, and heaters.
