I recently bought a house that had a renovation in the early 90s, and I just discovered that the entire 25-foot wall behind some beautiful cherry cabinetry is missing drywall. The issue is, there's a garage on the other side of that wall, and I'm really concerned about safety, especially with moisture and air infiltration being a factor. I want to find a solution that doesn't involve tearing out the cabinetry since that would be really costly and I'm not exactly skilled in carpentry. One idea I had was to access the wall from the garage, adding OSB or plywood between the studs and sealing it with tape, then filling it with Roxul insulation and putting up fire-rated drywall on the garage side. What do you think?
2 Answers
If your garage isn’t heated, moisture could still be a concern. For fire safety, you might want to go with two layers of type X drywall on the garage side. Using spray foam on the back of the cabinets might help seal off moisture problems if temperatures vary. Just keep in mind, ideally, you should pull the cabinets for a proper vapor barrier and drywall installation.
You could consider using foamboard insulation from the garage side. Seal any gaps with foam from a gun (not the spray can type), then insulate with something like R-13 or R-15. After that, just close it up and tape it. This could be a simpler way to manage insulation without pulling the cabinets out.
Fire safety is definitely a valid concern, especially with CO not being an issue for your EVs. Make sure to follow proper protocols!