Garage winterization version 2.016

[jkuo]

Even though this winter hasn't been particularly brutal, I upgraded my garage overwintering setup. For you cold climate growers (and the amusement of warm climate growers), I thought I would share how I have uglified my garage for the sake of my trees. I strung Christmas lights around my stacked trees and plugged them into a thermocube. Then the trees are lightly covered with tarps to trap a bit of the heat from the lights. The biggest threat to my trees is that we use our garage a lot. It's a workout/play space, and we take the kids in and out of the house via the garage. The garage door can be open for extended periods of time, blasting cold winds through the garage. My solution this year was to hang plastic sheets across the garage door opening. I used wiggle wire to hang two sheets of construction plastic so that the garage door opening is covered, but there's still a split down the middle to easily get in and out of the garage. I still need to upgrade this by making scissor doors or something, but that may have to wait until next year's iteration.

[F. Bennett]

Looks like a great solution, Johnny. Those are some happy dormant trees.

[cis4elk]

Your wife must be very patient.

[Jamie0507]

Johnny I have the same situation as you, we are constantly in & out of our garage.. In fact every time I hear it open I have a panic attack and chase whoever opened it down and remind them that I know where they sleep at night if they dont shut that door quickly.. Lol! J/k!! Well.. Kinda 😉.. I think you are very resourceful in your tactics to keep those garage temps where they need to be.. Very good idea!

[Rewton]

I wonder if you all could have a thermometer in the garage with an alarm that goes off in the house if the temp falls below a certain level. Otherwise the garage door could be left open by mistake some cold evening and you could have a lot of damage. My detached garage is only used by me so that solves that problem.

[drew51]

I wonder if you all could have a thermometer in the garage with an alarm that goes off in the house if the temp falls below a certain level. Otherwise the garage door could be left open by mistake some cold evening and you could have a lot of damage. My detached garage is only used by me so that solves that problem.

Well you could have a heater attached to a thermostat. I don't open my door. It was 9F the other day and I keep the figs next to the interior wall. the thermometer read 40F. So I'm good! What helps me too is my door is brown, it was sunny and the door was probably 70F warming the garage. Now in spring this is a problem. I have to take them outside as soon as possible. Once night temps are in the 30's they are going outside.

[cis4elk]

A big variable in this is whether you park your car in the garage or not. A bunch of hot car parts really do a lot to warm a garage and the concrete slab in the garage.

[jkuo]

Your wife must be very patient.

Ha, she didn't look particularly pleased after I hung the plastic sheets, but she still tolerates my quirky ideas. I think our garage being a multipurpose space helps. The plastic helps keep the garage heat in when we're using the space to keep the kids from destroying the rest of the house. I also said I could use the wiggle wire to hang mosquito screens in the warm weather, which won points to my cause since the mosquitoes have been super fierce the last two summers. To top it off, I used installing the wiggle wire track as a project to introduce my 4 y.o. to tool use and "home improvement" projects. The multi-pronged rationalizations have so far appeased my better half.

[F. Bennett]

I wonder if you all could have a thermometer in the garage with an alarm that goes off in the house if the temp falls below a certain level. .

I have a setup like this but I haven't enabled the alarm. I use this gem, which is projected above my bed so I can see the garage temp every time I open my eyes. I absolutely love it.

[eboone]

love the location, Frank!

[eboone]

The multi-pronged rationalizations have so far appeased my better half.

Those rationalizations are very useful, Johnny!

Your setup looks good. I wonder if there were a few slits down the plastic, or two layers of plastic with slits at alternating locations, if you could drive a car in and out without tearing it up

[jkuo]

I contemplated multiple slits. I decided that the extra complexity probably wasn't worth the effort since we don't park the car in the garage unless the forecast calls for extreme bitter cold or a blizzard. Right now if we need to pull the car in, I undo the wiggle wire on the sides and roll up the plastic. The first improvement I need is an easy way to part and close the opening in the plastic. Right now my 4 y.o. likes to vigorously brush the plastic aside and dash out, leaving a gaping opening in the center of my plastic covering.

[don_sanders]

Looks like another entry for the decorate a Christmas tree contest 😀

I've thought about building a box around the figs out of 4'x8' rigid foam insulation panels but it hasn't been cold enough this year for me to worry about it yet.