Garage Door Thermal Break

[69gp]

Ok so I have started my garage build and getting ready to install the garage floor.

Looking for pros and cons of the thermal break at the garage doors.

Floor is going to be a vapor barrier with 2" Create Heat insulation pex tube heating with a solid 5" above the nubs. I have 2, 10-6" garage doors that I want to have a thermal break in.

Basically i want to use 2"x2"x 3/16" stainless steel angles **** welded together. On the inside of the angle I will install 1" foam board from the bottom of the angle iron to the concrete wall opening of the garage door. The inside angle iron will have 1/2" rod embedded in the floor to secure the angle from lifting. The outside angle will use threaded rod to set the height of the angle iron during the pour. By using the stainless steel I will not need to worry about the steel spalling the concrete.The steel will also protect the foam board from damage.

I have attached a couple of hand drawn diagrams of the intended install. Let me know you thoughts.

 

[yeldogt]

I always do a 2" curb at the doors. I set the garage floor 2" above the driveway level (apron) -- the doors come down onto the apron and insulate the slab edge.

I like the lip as it keeps leaves and dirt from blowing in and stops any rain driven water as well -- it's not high enough to cause any issued with moving things in and out.

Most people just understand that this is a difficult spot to address -- you want to hold back your tubes from his area anyway. There is typically a tar expansion filler or cedar board in that area .... with my system using an apron the expansion is 2-3' out at the driveway. I always do a concrete apron.

Personally -- looking at your system. If you want to keep it level -- just use a typical tar expansion strip. You are adding a lot of complexity -- with very little potential savings and many problems.

 

[Radix2]

Metal is an extremely good thermal conductor, it makes no sense to me to put it over insulation.

You can simply slope your thresholds to the outside over the area the doors close on and have your thermal break where the aprons meet. It's just not a huge exposed surface to be worth all this complexity. I'd be concerned that the metal would be even more likely to cause the door to freeze the seal to the ground.

 

[Innovate1]

On my existing garage the interior slab and the exterior slab (driveway) meet about midway on the foundation wall with a plastic strip of some kind. Think it may have been a bit more flexible when put in 15 years ago but it is hard now. The interior slab sticks out under the door a couple inches. I heat the slab and don't remember doing anything special about holding the tubes back from the edge - they may be back about a foot. Gas bills are very reasonable - About $50 a month budget billing for 2400 sq ft house including for cooking and garage kept at about 50F.

If the joint is inside the door the floor much not rest on the foundation wall. No problem with that I suppose but many people like to have it rest on the foundation.