Hot Garage Ventilation

Dear Tim,
I have a detached 2 car garage (garage doors facing south) with a fenced in brick layered back yard that gets sun (end unit townhouse) from the east and south. My back yard gets extremely hot and I'm sure a lot of the heat is keeping me from being able to cool off my garage. What type of ventilation fans might be best for my situation? The garage area is 20x20x9ft and the attic is about 1400 cubic feet. This was the only article I found about garage ventilation and their scenario seems much different than mine.

Thanks for any help.

Regards,
Ted

Dear Tim,

Would a roof turbine vent be effective for cooling my garage? The garage is open up to the roof, so there's no insulation in what would normally be attic space. I have a highly insulated garage door newly installed that has turned the garage into an oven, and am looking for ventilation options. Is a roof turbine sufficient, or would sidewall ventilation fans be better?

Thanks,

Matt

I live in St. Louis and many of the neighbors on our street keep their garage doors open partially in the summer. Is this a benefit of some sort? Nobody really has a good reason for doing it and it doesn't look good.

Dear Tim,
It seems like every comment I've read on this topic have hit home with me in one way or another. I have a good size, 2 car garage that was originally connected to the house across a breezeway. The buildings were connected in the sense that the garage roof eave extended to the house, providing roof cover for the otherwise unenclosed breezeway. The garage doors face west and although there are many large trees in the neighborhood, none in a position to provide shade to the garage. Because of this, the garage gets unbearably hot as soon as the weather turns warm (which it does pretty early in Oklahoma). Plus, a few years ago, at my wife's insistence, we enclosed the breezeway, which has worked out pretty well, except for the noticeable increase in radiant heat from the garage - even with the connecting doors shut. I've thought of adding insulation to the metal garage door, but after reading this article and comments, I'm pretty well convinced that I'll need to put in some sort of forced air ventilation system, if I want to have a humanly tolerable workspace. Any other suggestions besides the ones I've already read in this column?

We live in Florida in the Daytona Beach area with a west facing garage door. Unfortunately in our planned development garage doors are painted dark brown.
We go north for the summer so the door remains closed for about 6 months. The heat buildup is such that we worry about leaving a car, bicycles etc. in the garage. We are installing a thermostat controlled fan this year. How large and how many vents will we need for incoming "cooler" air? The garage has a hip not a gable roof and a small attic space above.
Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

i hve same problem as matt. my east facing attached 2 - car garage is open to the underside of roof. what kind of fan or rans would help keep cool in summer?

BILLWEIKM

Hi Tim,
My house suffers from a hot attic which has ridge vents and soffit vents
and sits in direct sun all day.Plus my garage faces the west.
I found this garage vent that vents into the attic. The makers of this vent claim that it will provided enough ventilation to lower the temp. in the garage and attic at the same time by moving "enough air to pressurize a typical attic relative to the house forcing the superheated attic air out the attic vents, which may include gable vents, ridge vents, dormer vents,.." Here is the link http://www.rewci.com/gfgacovesy.html
your opinion will be greatly appreciated.

problems with hot garages are usually overcome by lining the inside of the door(s) with a radiant barrier material, which has to be tough and lightweight.
It must be able to stand the stresses of movement and light enough to not interfere with the roller mechanism.

Such a product is called RBS and supplied by Horizon Energy Systems at www.savenrg.com and www.savenrg.com.au
In hot climates the best material for insulating the ceiling is again a Radiant Barrier Material

I have a 20 x20 garage which I have insulated the ceiling and decked with 1/2" plywood. I also have a 16' insulated garage door. I noticed after I insulated the ceiling that the summer heat has no where to escape to. My attic stairway opening is roughly 24 x 52 with no insulation on top of it. I was thinkiking of cutting an opening in it and covering it with 2 16 x 20 air return grilles so that the heat would have some where to go. I also have a gable vent with thermostat.

Jeff