How about the garage doors? For about $2000 more for insulated garage doors, will you see the savings?

I recommend to insulate because you don't know how the space will be used in the future, its easier to insulate now than later.

If you choose to insulate, consider providing for future heating options with appropriate electrical outlets or gas piping for a garage heater. As for the door, the problem is the seals, not the R Value of the door. When I have heated an insulated garage, I used standard wood composite doors. Certainly not steel.

I would insulate. I have a gas unit heater (hangs from the ceiling) and I keep the garage at 55. I'm in Minnesota.

just officially moved in my new built home last night!

My garage is fully insulated.

I chose to insulate my garage after experiencing a winter where it wasn't insulated. There was no room on the electrical circuit to add heaters, but just with residual heat from the car engine it's much warmer than outside.

W'ere insulating. I like not having a freezing cold garage. We always end up using this for some storage - especially bulky things like drinks, etc. where freezing would be a problem. And - as was noted - it's a major PITA if you ever decide to convert the space in the future.

(as an aside, we're "car people" and I might baby my car a little)

I live in MN/ND.

If a garage is insulated in my part of MN, we pay higher taxes on it (twice the amount for the square footage of non-insulated ones). You should check your property tax rules. We insulated the doors only because they get hit with sunlight and it gets warmer in there in the summer.

Our ND home's garage is insulated, but we don't heat it or store items that can freeze. The two months we heated it our1st winter here, it cost over $150.00 per month extra. Even without heating in it, it rarely got below 20 degrees (and it was 20 below outside). If we needed to heat it to repair something in the winter, we just heated it for a day or two -- for about $50.00 more max. For the extra $$ you will pay for insulating, will you still want to keep it heated and pay the extra utility bill?

@loonlake: "The two months we heated it our1st winter here, it cost over $150.00 per month extra."

I don't know what kind of insulation you have, but I have a 27x27 insulated garage, and an 3,800 sq/ft home in Minnesota. My heating bill is about $180 per month - natural gas. I've been heating this garage for since it's been built - 20 years.

I wouldn't bother. You can always blow cellulose or foam into the walls if you want to condition the space later. Keeping your cars warm in the winter only promotes corrosion anyway. Spend the money on upgrading the sealing and insulation of the man house instead.

We insulated the garage and put in insulated garage doors also. We live in central Illinois.

I have a good quality insulated door and insulated finished walls, good lighting, etc. I love it. Wished I had done it in Minnesota.

it will never be as easy and inexpensive to do as now.

batts aren't that expensive.

can't say I'd pay 2K for insulated doors, when there are

kits to insulate a regular garage door.

best of luck.

Thank you everyone. While I would love to get wooden garage doors, I can only afford steel. We have roof trusses that make it so we will never finish off the space above the garage. If the insulation will be worthless because of the seal around the garage doors, I don't want to waste $2k.

You can still sill the doors to some extent and they are easily changeable down the road but as e_r_la states it is never easier nor will be cheaper than to insulate now.

You can get pretty good seals for overhead doors. I used soft vinyl from a big box store, and it's so tight that you have to make an effort to close the door into the house. We insulated our garage in SC, and it makes a big difference in hot or cold weather. My wife loves that her car is not as cold as outside.

You don't need a wood door. I have an insulated steel door that is just fine. Sometimes at -10 I see a little ice between the panels. Heated garages don't cause your car to corrode (not in this day and age). I've had heated garages (here in MN) for 30 years - they are great - makes life bearable in freezing weather. Nothing like getting into a 55 degree car in the morning, when it's 0 outside.

geoffrey_b

in response to your statement

"I don't know what kind of insulation you have, but I have a 27x27 insulated garage, and an 3,800 sq/ft home in Minnesota. My heating bill is about $180 per month - natural gas. I've been heating this garage for since it's been built - 20 years."

We had only electric heat and I lived in a high KW charge area. The first two winter months (Dec, Jan) ran us $400.00 a month for 2400 sq ft house and 20X24 garage - fully insulated. Shutting off garage dropped it to $250.00 for the next month. The entire next winter was about $250.00 a month (no garage heat).

The OP needs to weigh how costly his rate of heating will be for the winter months and add it to the cost of insulation. I did not think an extra $150.00 a month to preheat my car was worth it in the winter months.

In Indiana our garage is insulated, has insulated steel doors, and a wall mounted heater. For the cost of insulation and upgraded doors it made the garage a place that we could do stuff comfortably, like change vehicle oil, put shoes/coats on, sweep out cars, kids projects, etc. Even without the heater the garage was warm enough that all the snow and ice we would bring in on our vehicles melted away. I think it is worth it for how often we use ours.

I think you could consider just insulating and drywall the marriage wall between garage and house and leave the rest to do later after you have the chance to see how you use it, or have more funds.