Radiant Heat Insulation

This was actually a very hard project to take pictures of. Getting the scope and angle of the garage is often difficult. So here goes.... We decided LAST May to install Radiant Guard heat insulation to our attic. Several sheets of that later, and the tempurature spiked along with impeding shoulder surgeries.... lets just say we didn't get anymore done. So Jacob and I decided to do the garage since that was an easier task due to the fact that there is no other insulation to deal with! 

The Radiant Guard we purchased from ebay is here.

The naked garage before.

We hung the roll of radiant barrier (RB) from a stick so we could unroll it easier. We measured out the length of the garage plus a few inches of oops room. Then used a board and a box cutter to get a "straight" cut. 

Up in the rafters before setting the RB. Trying to get is straight. You must leave 3 inches on the bottom of the rafter and 3 inches on the top, this helps the hot air move toward the vents in roof. 
This is the close up view of the gable wall. By that I mean the ends of the garage or the wall with the actual garage door in it = gable wall.  We left about 3 inches of RB on the sides in order to tape that down later. 

Now here is where it gets tricky installing the second piece. See the lower half is already stapled in place. It looks like there is a giant gap in the RB. Well we had to go around some of the wood trusses that support the roof. In order to do this you must measure the top half and staple it then work your way down to join the other sheet of RB. 


See this is the wood we had to go around. The top half of the picture is towards the roof of the garage and the lower half is towards the other sheet of RB. 

Another close up of that wood we had to go around. This was for every wood truss on both sides of the garage. It made for slow going of the install.

This is the view after the second piece has been done and finished with stapling. 

Another angle of the same side. Like I said it is hard to get the scope and angle of the picture taking. 

A quick video for I hope a better explanation and maybe better view. 

We added a third small strip to bring the RB about 3 inches away from the peak of the roof. 

Then I purchased on ebay a roll of  aluminum tape. Just like this.

The tape seals all the seams and edges. You could use duct tape but our garage in the summer gets really hot and duct tape would melt. This aluminum tape is rated to like 150* so it should with stand the heat. 

On a side note, the RB is really thick like construction paper, it isn't like aluminum foil that is flimsy and can tear, this stuff you can roll up and stretch (with in reason) and it won't break, so it is rather easy to handle during an install. 

The reason we did this... that is best explained by the Radiant Guard's description.

"Start lowering your heating and cooling costs by up to 40% by installing this double-sided 99.5% pure aluminum foil radiant barrier to BLOCK 97% of the radiant heat coming into your house through the roof during the summer and RETAIN the heat escaping out of your house through the roof during the winter."

Here's hoping it works!