Insulate a Garage Door
Insulating your garage door can have numerous benefits. Adding insulation to your garage door will increase the thermal comfort of your garage, reduce your energy bills, and provide an additional barrier against noise and moisture infiltration. Fortunately, this can be done using a few tools and some basic supplies from a hardware store. By following a few simple steps, you can learn how to insulate a garage door yourself.
Steps
- Measure your garage door panels. The panels are the rectangular parts of the garage door that are recessed from the latticed frame. You will be installing the insulation on the inside face of the garage door, so measure from the inside. Use a tape measure to determine the dimensions of each panel; you don't need to be exact at this point, as you just need the dimensions to know how much insulation to buy.
- Purchase insulation. There are 2 different kinds that are well suited for use with garage doors.
- The first type that you can use is reflective foil insulation. This insulation is usually about 1/2 inch (12.5 mm) thick, and consists of a sheet of polyethylene foam sandwiched between reflective aluminum foil. This insulation is sold in rolls, and has the benefit of being quite flexible. Make sure you investigate how this material will insulate in hot and cold weather.
- Another type suitable for use with garage doors is polystyrene foam. This type of insulation is rigid, and is sold in large sheets. Polystyrene will insulate better than reflective foil insulation, but it can be more difficult to work with due to its rigidity. Shop around for the highest R-value you can fit in the space. Johns Manville and Owens Corning offer very good R-values of 9.8 and 7.5, respectively, for {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} thick material.
- Neither fiberglass batt insulation nor spray-in insulation should be used. These are not suited for use with garage doors.
- Cut the insulation to size. Using a straightedge, measure out the dimensions of a single garage door panel on a sheet of the insulation, marking the dimensions with a pen. Using the straightedge as a guide, cut the insulation to size with a utility knife. It is best to err on the larger side, because you can always trim off the excess later.
- Fit the insulation into each garage door panel. Place the panel of insulation up against the recessed door panel. If your garage door has a metal frame that extends past the door face, you should be able to tuck the insulation into the frame itself. If not, simply align the piece of insulation directly with each recessed panel. Trim any excess as needed.
- Affix the insulation to the door. Use aluminum foil tape to tape the piece of insulation to the garage door face. If you were able to tuck the insulation into the frame, you may not need any additional tape. As an alternative, you can use double-sided tape by first affixing the tape to the panel in long strips, and then pressing the insulation into the panel. Repeat this process until all panels have been insulated.
- Consider buying a garage door insulation kit as an alternative. Insulation kits are readily available at hardware stores, and can speed the process along, as the insulation will already be cut into panels. Make sure, however, that the panels in the kit are not smaller than your garage door's panels. The process for installing the kit will be very similar to the process described above.
Warnings
- The additional weight of the insulation may require you to adjust the tension on the spring of the door; or possibly replacing the existing spring with one large enough to carry the additional weight. Failing to make these adjustments will create additional stress on the opener and reduce it's life span. It may also cause the door to drop uncontrolled if you release the door from the opener.
- Don't attempt to affix insulation over the hinges of the garage door. Even if the insulation is flexible, doing this may interfere with the garage door's opening and closing.
Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
- Reflective foil or polystyrene insulation
- Straightedge
- Pen
- Utility knife
- Aluminum foil tape
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