Save Money with Insulated Garage Doors

Every year people everywhere lose thousands of dollars because they don’t have garage door insulation. This is a serious problem. Especially as energy prices climb higher, it is important to seal up every possible interface with the outside cold and heat.

In this article we’ll explore all of the basic fundamentals as they pertain to insulating garage doors. What materials do you need to use? Can you do it yourself? Can you hire someone to do the installation? Is it expensive? I know that this topic is not exactly everyone’s expertise, so it should be helpful to distill the various confusions that people have down into a few simple answers. That is exactly what we’ll do here, and hopefully you will emerge very much able to do your own garage door insulation from now on. (By the way, it is kind of a one time thing. Once done it will be sufficient for a long time to come, barring any unforeseen problems.)

The number one (but not only) reason to insulate garage doors is simply because if you don’t then untold amounts of extra energy will be expended in both heating and cooling your house. Think about it: the garage is the single biggest area in most anyone’s home which is not insulated. This presents a major problem. What happens, in effect, is that during the winter this “room” will take on all the cold that swirls outside, and it will effectively act like a refrigerator or even freezer butting right up against your kitchen or your living room, etc. In the summer the same thing will happen with heat.

Meanwhile, you’ve got your heating and cooling systems, such as your air conditioning, working overtime to make up for this vulnerability. Where you could’ve just done the right thing and installed garage door insulation, now you’re noticing a greater rise in energy and electric bills than you should otherwise have to be paying. It’s not a good situation. In fact, it could’ve been prevented quite readily with just a little forethought. But don’t kick yourself too hard. Instead, it would be a better use of your time if you’d just patch up the “hole” now.

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There are basically two types of garage door insulation. The first is what we like to call reflective foil insulation. This is made up of two layers of heavy-duty polyethylene foam which is wedged between aluminum foil. I’m sure that even the least handy of us has seen this, whether it be in an attic or somewhere else. This foil will oftentimes be 5/16 of an inch thick.

The second type is to use garage door insulation panels. The way these work is that they are made up of polystyrene. It is likely that using these panels is an even easier method of insulating the garage door than the first one. Regardless, they are both time tested and proven solutions to the problem of escaping energy.

As I mentioned earlier, I would talk about whether or not you should hire someone to install the insulation or if you should do it yourself. My own preference is that unless you are completely not handy at anything around the house, you should take this job on your own shoulders and save some money. It’s really just not that hard. In fact, they make garage door insulation kits which make it all that much easier. I believe these can be purchased at any good home improvement store, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if even smaller hardware outfits sell these kits.

Basically, they contain almost everything you will need inside of them. The only thing missing may be a couple of tools that you probably already have anyway: things like a knife, a straight edge, etc. Now remember what I said earlier about the panels being easier to install than the foam insulation. But really neither should be an issue. Just follow the directions. (They’re there for a reason.)

Don’t be alarmed if you think that the kit might not suit your garage. Some of them come ready made in standard 9 by 7 and 16 by 7 packs. These are the typical sizes of a one and two car garage door. Of course if your garage door insulation needs are different than this, then you can always just cut up what you get in the package and make it work for your needs. It’s really pretty self-explanatory.

In the end, if you take the time to insulate your garage door now before it’s too late, you will definitely be able to give yourself a big old pat on the back later. How much money will be saved? Who knows exactly? But you can be pretty sure that you will be able to spend your cash on better things as time goes on, not to mention the fact that your garage has now become a much more comfortable place to set up a work station or whatever else you might want to do out there.