Whether you have an old, drafty house or want to improve your energy savings, you know how important it is to have a well-insulated home during the winter. To make sure you are not overpaying for heat, your entire home needs to be insulated, and that includes your garage.
When insulating your home, you might not think of the garage, but the truth is that if you don’t seal all the gaps around your garage door, street noise, air infiltration, and heat loss can make your garage a chilly, energy-inefficient place during cold weather.
Our professional garage door installation experts at R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc. know how to insulate a garage door for winter and explain what you need to know in this guide.
Why Does My Garage Door Need Insulation?
Cracks, gaps, holes, or even subpar insulation around your garage door can all create problems with energy efficiency in your home.
Insulating garage doors might be an afterthought; your garage is where you park your cars, so why should you insulate it like the inside of your home? Insulating the garage walls, doors, and ceiling provides an even climate in the adjacent rooms and helps lower your heating bills.
Garage doors are often one of the main points of entry to a house, and they are also the largest. In the winter, heat escapes through the large uninsulated opening, leaving the inside of your home cold and losing you money.
Since attached garages often connect to the high-traffic areas in your home, it’s easy for cold air to get in and travel throughout the house. Garage door insulation can greatly improve the comfort of your home and keep your garage warm without a unit heater.
Garage Door Insulation Kits: What You Need
There are a few important factors to consider when deciding how to assemble a good garage door insulation kit.
While you can add insulation yourself, the process can be complicated and labor-intensive if you don’t know what you’re doing. Partnering with a professional who understands insulation R-value and can select the right type of insulation may be the better choice.
R-Value
The measurement of an insulation’s ability to resist heat is known as the R-value or thermal resistance. The higher this number, the more insulating the material. When rating different insulation materials, the R-value considers the density, thickness, and type of insulation it is.
Garage doors have an R-value; by adding insulation to the existing door, your garage door’s R-value increases.
The best R-value for your insulation project depends on what kind of garage you have, the climate where you live, and where the garage door is.
R-Value 6 and Below
Insulation materials with these ratings are best for an unattached garage that doesn’t impact your home’s energy efficiency.
R-Value 7 to 9
Materials in this R-value range are best for attached, unheated garages because you want to minimize and regulate any heat loss through the garage. This will lower your energy bill and keep your home and garage at a comfortable temperature.
R-Value 10 to 13
This R-value is best for a heated, attached garage. Heated garages have a greater possibility of heat loss through the door, so you need a sturdier insulation material to make the garage energy efficient.
R-Value 14 and Above
Any garage that doubles as living space needs insulation with an R-value of 14 or above.
Types of Insulation
Now that you know what the ratings for different kinds of insulations mean, let’s talk about what materials you can expect to find while assembling your insulation kit:
- Blanket Insulation: You can find blanket insulation made of fiberglass, minerals, natural fibers, or plastic. This type of flexible insulation comes in batts and rolls and is the most flexible material available. You can mold it around beams, horizontal rails, and joists and studs. Because of this, batt insulation is great for DIY projects.
- Foam Board: Rigid foam is made of polyisocyanurate, polystyrene, or polyurethane. These rigid panels provide a high R-value with very little width. However, the precise nature of getting a snug fit of all the rigid boards with a utility knife and a tape measure makes it a bit more difficult to use.
- Reflective Insulation: This insulation is made of materials like cardboard, polyethylene bubbles, foil-faced kraft paper, or plastic film. This malleable insulation has a lower R-value works best when you pair it with another type of insulation, like fiberglass batt insulation.
DIY or Professional Installation for Garage Doors?
Now that you know how to insulate a garage door for winter and why it’s important, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want to take on that project by yourself.
This type of project is a bit more complicated than organizing your garage, and time is of the essence; you need to insulate your garage door properly before the end of fall so you can start saving heat and money during the chilly winter season.
Professional fiberglass insulation installation experts get the job done quickly and correctly, so your energy bills will start shrinking right away!
The experts can help you choose the right type of insulation and install it on each door panel and the exterior walls to keep heat in. Detached garages only require a low R-value, and attached, heated garages with living spaces above them need the highest.
Call Us for Any Garage Door Insulation Questions You Have Before Winter Hits!
Whether you would like additional advice on how to insulate a garage door for winter or want to discuss options for getting a new insulated garage door installed, we are here to answer your questions!
We can help walk you through the entire job and take you from assessment to the installation process to relaxing in your energy-efficient garage in no time.
Our experienced team will install insulation along all the panels of your steel doors and add a vinyl seal of weather stripping so you can enjoy the benefits of an insulated garage door.
Call R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc. at 707-644-5537 for a free estimate.
