insulated garage doors question

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zapdafish

New User
Steve
Does anyone have insulated garage doors? So far the best quote has been for Amarr (R19) and am wondering how useful it is? I read a previous post about heating a garage and looks like the first step is get everything insulated first.

My previous house had uninsulated and I cut pieces of insulation to fill the panels but in my opinion was pretty useless as I could feel the cold radiating off the bare metal at the joints.

For this winter I plan to just use a 220v heater and may look into a minisplit or something next year.
 

bowman

Board of Directors, Webmaster
Neal
Staff member
Corporate Member
You can get some of the (very) thin foam strip (single-side sticky) to place between the panels. You would have to fill in between the panels as the door is raised and makes the turn at the top. This should break some of the airflow, but as Raymond says will not change the actual thermal dynamics of the aluminum doors.
 

Brantnative

Jeff
Corporate Member
We moved into our house last year with an uninsulated double-wide door. When the sun beat on it you couldn't touch it and the inside garage temperature went above 85F in the summer. I bought the pink insulation made for garage doors from Home Depot. The insulation is faced with a white vinyl. It's easy to install and the temperature never rose above 72 this summer. One thing it does do is add weight. A lot of weight. And the little plastic clips don't stay glued to the door unless you get some heavy duty adhesive. On our last house we had an Amarr insulated door. What I liked about it compared to the do-it-yourself door I have now is the finish on the inside. The aluminum panels look very nice compared to the vinyl of the pink insulation. When the current one craps out I'll be going with Amarr again. I can't say it about all doors but on newer ones each panel has a fold over the gap between panels that blocks the wind. It's not perfect but keeps most out and on mine you can't see light coming through.
 

mquan01

Mike
Corporate Member
we were lucky enough to get the doors with the built in insulation (aluminum siding on both sides) when we brought the house. It does make a huge improvement when the door is down (100 outside, 75-80 inside).
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
The insulated doors are well constructed and a better solution that actually work instead of the DIY BORG panels.
 

Raymond

Raymond
Staff member
Corporate Member
I mainly insulated my garage doors against the cold, as the doors face to the North-West and only one corner gets any sunlight. Yes, I have noticed an improvement since I finished insulating both the garage walls and the doors. Without heat recently, when the temps were in the high 30's and low 40's outside, the temperature inside was 48 degrees. With help from an oil-filled space heater in two hours it was close to 60 degrees and I could work comfortably.
 

redknife

Chris
Corporate Member
I found the insulated doors made a noticeable difference. I have a thermal camera and the door area temperature differential proved satisfactory in cold weather. I forget the exact temperature numbers. The weak spot in our install was the side weatherstripping. It was hard to keep this seal from leaking air over time. Given the linear feet of 2 garage door sides, these air leaks can add up. Maybe there is a product that air seals the sides better.
 

zapdafish

New User
Steve
I think all garage doors these days are steel. I assumed they were aluminum too and everyone so far has quoted steel doors. One of the guys giving me an estimate said they don't even bother selling the steel to the scrapyards anymore as its not worth it to them.
 

MarkE

Mark
Corporate Member
I added the Owens Corning insulation to my garage doors when I had my shop in the garage. It did make a difference, but the installation left a lot to be desired. The clips that held the insulation in place kept coming off and/or breaking. In the end, and after moving out of the garage into my current shop, I took the insulation off the doors and trashed it.

If I had it to do again, I would replace the garage doors with insulated doors. More expensive, but worth it in the long run.
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
Built my shop in 1981, with insulated steel doors. Never a regret. Keep shop around 56 degrees all winter long, except on days like today where outside air was 70 degrees, and shop temp rose to 68.
 

SteveHall

Steve
Corporate Member
I replaced my wood fiber panel door with a thick insulated one with steel on both sides about 10 years ago and couldn't believe how much it helped. It was about a 20°F improvement in both summer and winter. Winters went from nearly freezing to 55°F and easily warmed with a kerosene heater for an hour. Summer went from 90°F to easily comfortable with a window AC unit started about 10am.

One subtle improvement with a new door was also better gasketing at the bottom and around the side and top edges. Insulation is important, but air sealing also contributes.
 

golfdad

Co-director of Outreach
Dirk
Corporate Member
I cheated and bought my doors already insulated. I did have to redo the jamb and sill to stop the airflow though.
 

patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
I've been given a soft quote of about $2100 to replace my garage doors and openers. Doing it myself is not an option.
 

scsmith42

New User
Scott Smith
Steve, I have three different (and soon to be four) insulated garage doors here on the farm. When I built my shop 10 years ago, I did a lot of research and ended up sourcing Haas insulated garage doors. These are superior in every way to trying to insulate your own doors.

Haas doors are constructed with gasketing in-between the individual panels, and the panels are similar in construction to structural insulated panels (SIPS). The doors work great! As I recall somewhere around R15 with no drafts coming around them either.
 

Barry W

Co-Director of Outreach
Barry
Corporate Member
we were lucky enough to get the doors with the built in insulation (aluminum siding on both sides) when we brought the house. It does make a huge improvement when the door is down (100 outside, 75-80 inside).

I agree with Mike that the professionally insulated doors are very much worth the expense. We have them on our garage and my shop and their effectiveness can be easily felt. Also, the aluminum on both sides looks good and protects the insulation.
 

smallboat

smallboat
Corporate Member
Had mine replaced with insulated doors about 10years ago. My shop is below grade basement/garage space so the doors are the only issue with heat exchange. I used to use a heater especially when working with epoxy in the winter. in the summer I would be dripping on my work.
Now it is comfortable year around. At most a heavy over-shirt in winter and no problems in summer. I don't notice any drafts. All around pleased with the decision.
 

charlessenf

(;harles
Senior User
Our house had two Kickout Style garage doors that are no longer available. In the basement, there is insufficient Head Room for a 'standard' roll up replacement.

Consequently, I insulated them with the 1" boards sold at Lowes. First time, the white ones with silver foil on one side, then with the green stuff after the chickens pecked the white stuff off! I did replace the one door with an insulated roll up and electric opener (from Lowes) and had to replace the lower insulation panels - chickens again. I moved the old Kick out door to my shop.

I heat my 18 x 20 shop with a propane tubular forced air heater thing by running it for 15 minutes or so with the four ceiling fans on to circulate the air. Then turn the heater ad fans off. That usually lasts me for several hours because I built and insulated the shop as well as any General Contractor might.

As to whether the insulation on the shop door made a difference - yes, though I never measure before and after. The Lowes insulated Garage Door install incorporated the flexible weather stripping on the exterior sides and top. the garage is always colder than teh main house as it is unheated space.
 
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