Garage Door Insulation

With climate change seemingly forever in the news and energy prices rarely giving us any reprieve things like heating and cooling your home efficiently are as important as ever. It always helps to have a well maintained air conditioner and heating unit with a good energy rating obviously, but there is so much more you can do to help lower your bills when it comes to energy, so why not do all of them so that you can brag to all of your friends about how much you are helping the environment. Maybe you don't want to brag to your friends about how much you saved on your energy bill, but you certainly won't mind spending less on your bills every month and one way to lessen the amount of work your climate control systems have to do is to insulate your home well. A room that you might not often think of as needing insulation is your garage, but your garage can really help moderate the heat in the rest of your home well especially if you insulate your garage door correctly. On top of that a well insulated garage door can keep the noise down that comes from outside your home or inside your home as well as make the garage a more usable space in general. Checking to make sure your house is insulated correctly before times of extreme heat or extreme cold is important, so make sure to include your garage door in your investigations as well to guarantee that your bills are as low as you can get them.

While garage doors typically come in the two sorts that we have explained previously, traditional garage door and carriage doors, the ways to insulate them can differ far more than that. Realistically speaking anything is insulation when added to a wall or garage door, but as a homeowner you don't just want "some insulation" you should probably be going after something like the most efficient insulation or maybe the most valuable insulation. The amount of insulation you need might also differ from region to region, places with more extreme temperature changes will most likely be looking to keep as much hot or cold air in their homes as possible and so will prioritize insulation a bit more than others. The thickness and material used to insulate your garage door will vary from garage to garage so make sure to do a little research into what works best for the type of insulation you are looking for. You may use x type of insulation if you live in a perpetually cold environment, or y insulation if you live in the opposite type of environment. You may even end up looking at insulation that isn't specifically for garage doors at all if you are looking to do something like simply cut down on the amount sound reduction your garage door offers. This is perfect for those with a garage band or who may like to do practice louder trades like woodworking or metalworking. One of the big benefits to insulating your garage door properly is that the entire space is now more usable. With less temperature fluctuations in your garage you will be able to store a wider variety of things like food or dry goods without having to worry as well as be able to have things like a garage fridge or freezer with less hassle. A more temperate garage also means that you are more likely to use the space more often year round, essentially adding another room that might otherwise have gone unused.

One of the small pieces of your garage door that is actually quite a big deal when it comes to insulation is the rubber seal along the bottom of your garage door. Just like the rest of your home's doors having a drafty garage door can ruin all of that time, money and effort that went into insulating other portions of your garage. The good news is that these rubber seals should last you a long time if your garage door is calibrated correctly and are actually pretty cheap to replace even if they do end up wearing down. The only really work you need to do to make sure you are keeping a ton of air in or out of your garage is to make sure the rubber is touching the ground when your garage door is all the way down. It should be relatively easy to detect if your garage door edge and floor are parallel then the rubber seal should be doing a great job in keeping out a lot of draft.

Insulating your garage door oftentimes seems like a great opportunity for a DIY job, and I will actually tell you that it is. There are a number of kits available at your local hardware store so a DIY garage door insulation installation may actually save you a bit of money if you did not get your garage door insulated upon installation. However, make sure that before you start using your garage door again that you get a professional garage door installer or repairman out to make sure that that extra weight isn't wreaking havoc on your springs. Many of the DIY insulation kits aren't as good as getting your garage door insulated upon installation, but are certainly better than no insulation at all. The problem is that if you are doing an after the fact insulation your springs and the rest of your set up won't be calibrated for the added weight. While insulation may seem pretty light, a garage door's worth of insulation will quickly add up to enough to throw off the weight of your garage door enough to effect how it runs.

Insulating your garage door is certainly something you should look into if you are looking to cut down on energy costs or simply increase the usability of your garage. If you are confident in your home improvement skills you may even be able to do the job on your own, however there is no substitute for having a professional insulate your garage door during the installation. You should also make sure to get your garage door system checked by a professional after you have insulated the door in order to make sure you don't put added stress onto the moving parts which could in the end lead to problems with the door. Insulating your garage door is an easy solution to high energy costs and even a lack of space as it opens up a new room in the house that may not have been livable during certain months. Lastly, do not try and re-calibrate your garage door system yourself after insulation unless you are certain you know what you are doing, many of these parts are under high pressure and can be dangerous to deal with.