garage doors insulation R-rating recommendation

[jrcastro]

Getting new house built and getting to make garage door decisions for garage and shop.

Shop (800sq with 17' ceilings) will be used and heated only a few weeks during the winter months. Walls and ceilings are well insulated R21.

Question is most steel doors with insulation are in the R9 range. with options to go to R16-R19 but at an extra cost of $400-$500 per door.

Can anyone recommend or share experience with these higher rated insulated doors, to see if I can justify the costs.

Thanks in advance!

 

[lakeroadster]

We used R12.9 Clopay doors. Walls are R13, ceiling R15.

It makes sense to match the door R rating with that of the walls.

 

[Jeepster04]

I spent a good bit calling around to all sorts of different garage installers. Found one that sells a brand called doorlink that 'seemed' to be the best value. The door was R10.25 and was significantly cheaper than clopay.

Local Clopay quoted me $1700 installed for R7 and the doorlink place quoted me $1300 installed for the R10.25. Both doors had metal on both the exterior and interior sides.

They go on up from there of course but for me I was content with the 10.25. All depends on your needs/what you want to spend.

 

[matt_i]

With 17' ceilings you have a lot of "cube" to keep warm. Its going to take a larger furnace to keep all of that warm plus I'd highly recommend ceiling fans to keep all of the hot air from stratifying in the top.

That said, I'm not sure if you can justify the expense at energy prices right now (if you are heating with natural gas), would seem to be a long payback. But, if energy prices ever go up people are going to be scrambling to find a thicker wall (etc). If you are planning to stay there awhile I would spring for the extra thick door as a form of future-proofing.

 

[rburke65]

Happy with my Clopay doors. And no they were not an extra $500

 

[diskreet]

I just went with R16 General Door Windemere 175. Pricy, but will definitely be worth it over time! Couldn't find a better rating in a reasonable price range.

Insulation, especially with these big doors, is much cheaper now than if you find out it's not enough later. If you can spare the budget definitely try to upgrade them to the higher R value. You can always blow in or add more wall insulation, but the doors are not so simple.

 

[Gila Monster]

Normally, I would say if you plan on staying there for a while, I would not skimp on insulation options.

But if it's a detached shop and you're only heating it a few weeks out of the year and you aren't using an R0 garage door (R9 is insulated and probably better than most people's garage doors) it's going to be hard to make much of a financial case to go above that. You'd be looking at like 20 years to probably recoup that.

I would probably use that money for other options for the home, but that's just me. Obviously not everyone's budget is infinite.

 

[Hilltopmasonry]

Normally, I would say if you plan on staying there for a while, I would not skimp on insulation options.

But if it's a detached shop and you're only heating it a few weeks out of the year and you aren't using an R0 garage door (R9 is insulated and probably better than most people's garage doors) it's going to be hard to make much of a financial case to go above that. You'd be looking at like 20 years to probably recoup that.

I would probably use that money for other options for the home, but that's just me. Obviously not everyone's budget is infinite.

I would agree, you have to ask how much are you going to be heating it and for how long. If you are always going to be in there and keep it at 70 degrees that is a lot different than firing up the heater every couple of weeks to clean out your car.

If you have a living space above and around your garage that could be a factor too to splurge on the better insulated door


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