If you have installed an un-insulated garage door on your property, you are risking spending a lot of money on air conditioning. Along insulated walls and ceiling, an insulated garage door can offer natural weatherproofing in your garage space and reduce the money you spend on your energy bills significantly.
You don’t have to replace your garage door if you’ve already installed one with no insulation. You can still add insulation and other related components such as weather stripping and a bottom seal to achieve this kind of cost-effectiveness. Ridgeline also offers roll up door repair services.
If you can have been wondering how you can insulate your garage door to ward off that chilly condition or uncomfortable hot temperatures, you are about to learn about all that and more. In this guide, you will get the best insulation practices, procedures, and tips you can leverage to insulate your garage door for any weather effectively.
Start by gathering all the materials needed
To get appropriate insulation materials for your garage door, you first need to take correct measurements of the door’s cross-section and the bottom, side, and top openings. You also need to take and record the dimensions of any insulation component that you think needs replacement. A perfect example here is the bottom seal track. This said, here are the primary materials you will need for the project:
Insulation kit
Many local garage accessories shops offer DIY insulation kits with the insulation material and all the items needed for the job. In most cases, the insulation material is either vinyl-faced fiberglass batting or precut Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) panel foam. The former offers better insulation and is suitable for a garage established in a region with extreme climatic conditions.
Suppose you are not acquiring your garage door in a local store. In that case, you need to specify the general climate in your areas so that you can get an insulating material with a suitable R-value (a measure of a material’s resistance to conductive heat flow).
Other complementary components to purchase
- Vinyl weather stripping to seal the top and sides of your garage door
- Vinyl seal for the garage door’s bottom. Please ensure that you acquire a seal that fits in your existing track. If the existing track is damaged, consider purchasing a new one too.
- Measuring tape
- A pencil or marker pen
- A utility knife
The procedure of installing the insulation material (we’ll focus on the vinyl-faced fiberglass batting)
- Measure the garage door panels and determine the attachment points
Guided by the horizontal rails, measure the width of one of your garage door panels. Determine where a third of the width’s distance is from each edge and in the horizontal rails’ midway. Mark these two points and repeat for other panels.
Please note: Garage door panels are not always similar in dimension, and you should not take the shortcut of using one panel’s measurement on all the others.
- Install the retainer pin and base on the marked pins
Fix the retainer pin and, base on the marked points on the garage door panels, ready to receive the batting.
- Cut the batting
Guided by your garage door panels’ width and length dimension, cut the garage door batting with a utility knife. For a smooth batting cutting experience, place it on plywood with the vinyl side facing down, and mark the cutting lines, and cut precisely along them.
- Install the batting sections on the panels and lock them up with retaining caps
Align the batting cut out so that they are centered in the panels. Push the insulation until the retaining pin punctures the vinyl facing. Push the retaining cap into place.
- Repeat this procedure until the entire cross-section of the door is insulated.
Installing the weather stripping
- Push the door against the bottom and side jambs and install the vinyl weather stripping at a 45-degree angle.
- Hammers the nails halfway to secure the stripping temporarily
- Move the door to its closing position and ensure a perfect seal between the door’s vertical edge and the framing.
- If there are gaps, adjust the weather stripping until the door is completely sealed on the side.
- Repeat the same for the top seal.
- Hammer the nails all the way to ensure a firm grip on the perfectly aligned weather stripping.
Installing a new bottom seal
- Remove the existing seal with the help of a screwdriver
- Lubricate the metal track with a detergent or a silicone spray
- Insert the new vinyl seal and slide it to fit in the metal tracks
- Crimp the slots on both sides of the seal to perfectly fix it on the metal track.
Test the insulated door
Since insulation features add weight to your garage door, you need to test by closing and opening it to see if the structure is balanced correctly. If, for example, you were insulating an overhead garage door, it should stay in place if you lift it partially and let go. A door that falls back to the initial position shows that the insulation has compromised the balance.
Operating your garage door in an unbalanced state is hazardous and can damage the installed door opener. You should reach out to a garage door service company as they will have all the knowledge and possible strategies to help regain your garage door’s balance. In most cases, they will readjust the spring tension until the door structure is balanced.
The bottom line
Whether you are established in a hot or cold region, insulating your garage makes the space habitable for people using it, perishables, and other valuable items stored there. Hopefully, you are now educated on how to insulate your garage door effectively. Don’t spend all your money on the air conditioning when you can insulate your garage and reduce this practice’s need. Frequently inspect insulating features such as the bottom seal and the weather stripes to ensure that they are functioning correctly at all times.