Garage Door Insulation

[MadScientist]

The house we moved to in eastern TN has an uninsulated steel garage door. The garage door is on the west side of the house and the sun shines on it in the afternoon. Last summer when it was 95F outside it was 115F in the garage with the door down.
I insulated the garage attic with 3 1/2" batts and the garage door with this insulation kit from Lowes. http://www.lowes.com/pd_222457-10477-8+FT+GARAGE+DOOR+INS_0__?productId=3025310&Ntt=garage+door+insulation&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dgarage%2Bdoor%2Binsulation&facetInfo=

I had to purchase 2 kits for my double car garage door. The panels were easy to install and look good. They have an R factor of 4.8.

The installation instructions tell you to cut small pieces and stick them behind the vertical rail spaces but I followed this video and finessed the whole panel behind the vertical rails. This makes the panel seamless, looks better, and if you cut it a bit short you can slide it over to butt up against the solid rail. http://www.doorinsulationkit.com/installation
The panels are rigid and held in on 3 sides so no adhesive is needed. They are also light and did not affect the operation of the door.

Hopefully this will help keep the garage a little cooler this summer.

My neighbor, who has the same door, used this kit for his door. The panels are plastic sheet coated fiberglass batts. He had problems with the installation pins falling off and the door looks like a big buttoned pillow.
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=331443-1722-GD1&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3217129&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

 

[evident]

how does it work so far? I was thinking about doing something like this for my garage door because i will be doing a few projects out there this winter. it gets really cold out there and i need a space heater when i'm doing stuff out there

 

[MadScientist]

Of course the winters in TN are milder than in Philly. This week though it has been ~30F at night but heats up to the mid 60s or warmer in the day. It seems a bit warmer in the garage but this may be the placebo effect. I do not have any heating in the garage but keep the blinds on the garage windows on the south side open in the winter, which heats up the garage. I'll check the temps in the morning with a thermometer and report back.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I need to insulate my doors as well, 2 car + 1 car. It kills me that these kits are $175-300 (for 3) and you still have to trim them. I'm thinking of just getting some 4x8 sheets of expanded polystyrene and just cut them down for about $100. R-value on 1 1/2" is ~5.8. Or I could do a thinner sheet and maybe combine that with the reflective bubble type although that would be more expensive.

 

[Railgun]

I wished I had done this. I lived in NW IN. I had one panel floating around in the garage and popped it in just for the sake of doing it and it's a huge difference. Had I done the rest, I would have used half the propane tanks working out there over the winter. Not to mention the rest of the benefits keeping your house warmer.

 

[JoeyP]

What color is the outside of the garage door? Also, what kind of ventilation does the garage interior space have? In the summer, you'll get better cooling if you can add a couple vent panels to the ceiling, provided you have a ridge vent or turbine on the roof, and you have a way to admit outside air into your garage (e.g., on a wall that has outdoors on the other side). You can also get the windows tinted with a reflective coating so that less sun heat gets in. In the summer, I find that keeping the garage door open for a half hour after bringing a car in helps dissipate the heat from the engine. In winter, close the door so the car warms up the air.

 

[Kelvrick]

The kits are convenient, but the big sheets are much cheaper. It takes a little more effort since you need to cut all your pieces, but it doesn't take that much work. The hardest part is getting them home if you don't have a truck.

The way around that is to take a few measurements at home, then just cut the sheets to fit in your car without interfering with your panel cuts later.

 

[MadScientist]

I need to insulate my doors as well, 2 car + 1 car. It kills me that these kits are $175-300 (for 3) and you still have to trim them. I'm thinking of just getting some 4x8 sheets of expanded polystyrene and just cut them down for about $100. R-value on 1 1/2" is ~5.8. Or I could do a thinner sheet and maybe combine that with the reflective bubble type although that would be more expensive.

I thought about using 2' x 4' sheets of 1 1/2" thick polystyrene sheathing. They are coated on both sides, white with lettering on one side and foil with lettering on the other. 8 sheets cost $35.36 + tax. None of the Lowe's in my area had them in stock, and parcel shipping was unavailable. They do not sell 4' x 8' sheets.
The panels would still have to be cut down to ~20 1/4" wide and some garage door panels are longer than 48". There is also the problem of trying to bend these to get them in. The panels in the kit have grooves cut into them on one side to help bend them. Without the grooves the 1 1/2" thick sheathing would be almost impossible to bend without breaking it.
They do sell 3/4" thick 2' x 4' panels for $2.88 a sheet. You can try doubling them up, or just use single sheets. 16 panels cost $46.08.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_41438-10477-1-1/2X24X48+R-TECH_0__?productId=3033266&Ntt=syrofoam&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dsyrofoam&facetInfo=

What color is the outside of the garage door? Also, what kind of ventilation does the garage interior space have? In the summer, you'll get better cooling if you can add a couple vent panels to the ceiling, provided you have a ridge vent or turbine on the roof, and you have a way to admit outside air into your garage (e.g., on a wall that has outdoors on the other side). You can also get the windows tinted with a reflective coating so that less sun heat gets in. In the summer, I find that keeping the garage door open for a half hour after bringing a car in helps dissipate the heat from the engine. In winter, close the door so the car warms up the air.

The outside of my garage door is white. I have 2 windows in the garage that I can open in the summer, but that gives little relief from the heat. I also have white wooden blinds on those windows to block the sun. I have an attic door in the garage, but opening that only lets in hot air.

The kits are convenient, but the big sheets are much cheaper. It takes a little more effort since you need to cut all your pieces, but it doesn't take that much work. The hardest part is getting them home if you don't have a truck.

The way around that is to take a few measurements at home, then just cut the sheets to fit in your car without interfering with your panel cuts later.

The big sheets are cheaper and easy to cut, and you could probably cut grooves in them with a table saw to make them bend easier, but the kit panels look so much better, and I only had to make one cut on each panel; plus free delivery to my house.

 

[OSULugan]

I did the same thing at my old house in Ohio. The garage had ventilation run to it, but when the old owner replaced the doors, he put in uninsulated doors. Being a bi-level, the rooms above the garage were affected by the temperature in the garage, so just shutting the vents wasn't a good option.

The effect was noticeable almost immediately. The garage would normally cool down to as low as 40°F in the winter time before installation, but after it be closer to 60°F when I'd leave for work in the morning. In the summer time, it stayed down under 85°F in the garage. This is with south-facing white steel doors. After 2 winters and 2 summers, they were still just as nice as the day I installed them.