garage door insulation
Does anyone know insulate a garage door? On YourNewHouse I saw where Al Carrell said to cut styrofoam to fit the sections on a garage door but he didn't say where to find the styrofoam. At HomeDepot there is a blue high density foam that is 1/2 inch thick and the regular white styrofoam that is 1/2 inch thick. My neighbor has what looks like 2 inch thick foam in his door but it was installed with foam already in it. Would the thin stuff work the same? It's so thin it would have to be glued on to keep it from falling out. What kind of adhesive would glue foam to metal permanently? Hello Terry: I have an idea here for whatever my two cents is worth. Since your neighbor already has insulation in the door, it was thus made for the door manufacturer by a subcontracting company or by the door manufacturer. Your not likely to get styrofoam in a thickness to fit exactly. You might try looking in a craft shop or fabric store however. You may substitute using wall insulation. Then cover the exterior with thin and cut to size wood paneling using sheet metal screws with washers to secure the paneling to the frame. Of course you will have to drill small starter holes for the screws to enter. This also adds a customized look to the inside of the door should it face into a converted garage. If a converted garage was the intention here, this makes for a great weekend project that you will also be proud of for years to come. Once the project is completed, should you choose this idea, relax and have a beer! Good Luck Happy Holidays. ------------------ Sincerely, TomBartco Enterprises. Trade: Natural Gas Energy Consultant Technician. Appliance Service Repairs Rep. Vocation: Saw Tool Sharpening. Accurate Power Equipment Company. E-Mail: TomBartco@doityourself.com Personal Quote: Drive Safely. The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Terry: Yes, Home Depot won't have 2 insulation. If you had a large lumber yard they would probably have 1 or 2. You can achieve the same thing by gluing 1/2 foam together. You can use PL 200 glue. It comes in a tube like calk. Make sure you get the glue. You cab also use liquid nails. Just cut to size glue. Lots of people do this everyday, all over the country. It is not a problem. Good Luck, Jack the Contractor I just done this to my door, got it at Home Depot. I got the 1 1/2 panels. The only bad thing about them is the color (PINK). Has made a big change in the temp inside the garage. I also insultated the ceiling of the garage. Yeas, the polystyrene panels come in a variety of standard thicknesses from 1/4 -2 and is commonly used when folks get stuck with a non insulated overhead door. As an option to cover the unsightly ink you can get thin vinyl sheets and cut them to fit each individual section and either bend them to friction fit into each section of the panel or cut them so they can be riverted over top of the panel section. You could also opt to use a thicker gauge aluminum panel commonly available at many stock car supply house 2'x5' sheets often sell for about $25/sheet. Even coil stock could be used, the material they use to wrap the wood around windows and doors when siding. I used to be in the garage door business, and have insulated many doors. Look at your door and determine who the manufacturer is, and see if the installation company left their name on the door . Also measure the overall width and height of the door. Look in your yellow pages under doors and try to find the installing company or one who installs your brand door. They should have in it stock, or should be able to order what you need. It will not be cheap, but it will leave you with a professional looking insulation job. However, be very careful when doing any work with a garage door. Most folks do not really understand the mechanics and operation of garage doors. That ignorance has caused many serious injuries, and even deaths! That's why manufacturers have had to plaster new doors with a half dozen warning lables. Also remember that any additional weight you add to the door will affect the counterbalance of the springs, which in turn will affect the operation of the garage door opener. Originally Posted by Bigdave5 However, be very careful when doing any work with a garage door. Most folks do not really understand the mechanics and operation of garage doors. That ignorance has caused many serious injuries, and even deaths! That's why manufacturers have had to plaster new doors with a half dozen warning lables. Also remember that any additional weight you add to the door will affect the counterbalance of the springs, which in turn will affect the operation of the garage door opener. My thoughts exactly. I have been trying to figure out insulate my thin garage door. Since the garage is unheated and I have a living room above (townhouse), not to mention I don't think the building insulated the wall between the garage and entry hallway, it always feels cold. I think if I can insulate the garage door,it would help some. My question about the styrofoam is fire code issues. Isn't it considered a combustible material and should not be left unfaced without some sort of fire protection (drywall, etc.)? For that reason, I have steered away from it. I bought and will install soon some radiant barrier foil insulation. I have seen this on several websites, but haven't heard from anyone who has actually done it to see if it works well or is a waste of money. This would add very little weight to the garage door and be fire safe, so hopefully it works. any thoughts on the radiant barrier idea? Thanks, Neil For all practical purposes, the radiant blanket/paper is a waste of your time and money installing. Even insulating the door itself will not be a cure all, the fact still remains you have a big METAL object in an unheated space and just like big windows it will radiant the cold regardless because even the foam board will become cold too. If heating than it's a different scenario since the insulation will make a barrier between hot inside/cold outside and become a cushion. Ultimately I'd focus more on weather stripping and window/door seal above everything else to help limit/prevent air/wind infiltration. I would not be too concerned about the combustibilty factor. Look at commonly installed overhead doors-polystyrene insulation due to light weight and many have vinyl backers to cover that for a nice look on the inside. For the time/money your going to put into this thing go with the polystyrene and just buy/make panels to cover each section and either rivet or friction fit them into place-looks nice and adds r value which the radiant paper will not-I dont care what they claim. High end doors will cover the internal side with steel. Thanks for the reply. I have heard several opinions, such as yours, that state either it is great or a waste of money. I should add that I plan to add a radiant cove heater at the front of the garage to provide some heat in there since I tend to work on my second car during the winter. The radiant foil wasn't too expensive, it will be about $50 to do the whole door. I may add the foam insulation behind that to increase the R-value. My thoughts are that the foam will impede heat transfer and the foil will block the radiant heat and direct it back into the garage from the cove heater. Thanks for the reply, Neil P.S. I have been going around and trying to seal any crack that I can find, both outside the house and between the house and garage. Great thread… I did a bit of research on the web and a 16’ garage door (from one vendor) could be insulated via a kit for ~$175.00, however… doing the Home Depot thing with the ѕ” ‘pink stuff’… I was able to get enough of the panels to do each door sections with two (double thick) for a fraction over$100.00. Two additional bits of info. that I discovered along the way… the adhesive which is recommended by polystyrene is not PL-200…. But PL-300. Probably everyone else knows this… but when trying to cut the big pink panels down to size with a small saw or corrugated knife blade works… but Oh the pink saw-dust!... what I finally discovered was that if you measure and draw a line on the panel and then take a knife and ‘score’ that line about ј” deep… that you can ‘snap’ the panels along that line and get a clean edge quickly without a lot of debris at the same time. Hope this helps… lots of ideas here. i just insulated my fiberglass door. it's single layer with no insulation. i was going to use 1/2 foam with foil shield however i found another product with a higher R value. foam WITH foil 1/2 is R-3.3 the stuff i found was at homedepot, it comes on a roll and it looks like bubble wrap covered with foil. it's R value is R-4. if you had enough depth, you could use both. make sure there is foil side on inside and outside withthe exposed foam in the middle. this was east to install as i just cut it to length and folded over the top and bottom and slid it in so the door framing holds it in place. seems to work good. way better than what i had and it only cost $40.00 for 7'x16' door This is what I used on My garage doors and it works great easy installation cut to fit and I used Liquid Nails to secure and then I used Great Stuff around the edges to fill in the gaps... Great posts and ideas. One concern I have is condensation build-up between the insulation and the metal. On humid days when the inside is cooler than the outside, you can get a significant condensate build-up on the metal, especially of you live in the humid south. I assume that if you don't make an airtight seal with the insulation and glue, then, the condensate can evaporate as the metal begins to heat up. So, maybe its not a problem if the seal isn't airtight. My concern would be corrosion of the metal in time if the condensate becomes trapped. Any thoughts? Non issue...most doors with exposed insulation on the interior are not sealed that tightly, as you said. No reason for it, you will still get some heat loss through the stiffening braces and the exposed edges of the panels. On double wall panels, there is a thermal break between the inner and outer skins, and most use a foamed in place insulation or solid polystyrene. Also, panels are galvanized and primed, even on the interior...some also have the same topcoat as the exterior, and if the paint surface isn't damaged, rusting shouldn't be an issue. Originally Posted by Biomechanic the stuff i found was at homedepot, it comes on a roll and it looks like bubble wrap covered with foil. it's R value is R-4 ... seems to work good. way better than what i had and it only cost $40.00 for 7'x16' door Do you by any chance have a product name for this please Biomechanic? We're only renting, but I can't leave my 6yo son in a hot bedroom for another 2 years because the garage door isn't insulated (his bedroom's above the garage), so $40 I'm happy to pay!! I'm sure he was talking about something like this. If you look at lach's post I believe its in the title. Reflective - Insulation - Building Materials at The Home Depot Thanks Gunguy45, I'll be very close to a Home Depot tomorrow, so I'll check it out then!
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