Insulating garage door

[11B250]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum.

We just bought our 1st home and it's a new build (2012). It has a 20x21 garage which is just enough for my vette, harley and a work area. you can squeeze 2 cars in case of emergency.

My father bought me a lowes brand 10,000 BTU portable A/C unit hoping it would cool the garage down so I can work in a cooler area. I live in south florida, so the garage is usually 79-85 degrees. Usually fluctuates around 80. We also got a dehumidifier which keeps the garage at around 55% humidity.

I installed the portable A/C but it's not really doing anything. can't even keep the temperature steady lol. it exhausts into the dryer duct via a t type connection (and a 1 way valve so dryer doesn't bleed into the A/C exhaust duct)

I've been looking at maybe insulation my garage door panels in hopes that it might at least keep the cool air in. Will this help you think? the garage door's surface temp is between 80-90 degrees (it faces north, so sun doesn't hit it directly)

Because I live in South FL, the garage door has beams that run across each panel. I was told this is something unique to areas subject to hurricanes. I might have to remove those depending on what I install.

Little bit of research showed that I can get garage door insulation kits that are either made of foam (like EPP foam) with plastic backing or fiberglass type. Which would you reccomend? the fiberglass runs slightly more money, and I also think I can install those without having to take out the support/cross beams on each panel. will probably make my job much easier.

Looking for some input.

Also curious if this will help me seal in the A/C air from the portable unit.

This is the A/C unit we bought btw. I don't think it's enough for my garage, but it was an open box that was very inexpensive.

and this are the insulation kits I'm talking about:

Garage door insulation kit - foam
Garage door insulation kit - fiberglass

Any pointers or help is appreciated!

Not even sure if I should waste my time with this.

 

[11B250]

anyone?

 

[SilverSS1969]

First, is the rest of the garage insulated? If not, I don't think insulating the door would prove beneficial.

When I get to that point of my garage, I was planning on buying the pink ridged foam sheets and cutting them up myself. They are very easy to cut, just score with a utility knife and bend it at the cut. I was also going it finish the inside of the door with the plastic paneling they have at home depot.

If your area requires the extra bracing, Id leave it alone. wouldn't want something to happen if a hurricane did hit and have insurance reject your request because you removed those. If they are 'in the way', Id cut the ridged foam as tight as you could against them and look at using a little spray foam for the gaps. let it dry and cut any extra off. use a covering over the foam for finished look.

 

[rburke65]

Wow....good idea on insulating the door! Should help a lot!

 

[James-W]

What I have heard of some people doing is buying the rigid foam insulation, preferably the pink stuff, then buying sheets of 1/8 inch luan plywood. Then you glue the plywood to the pink foam insulation. Once it dries, you use a table saw to cut pieces of the foam/plywood to fit the door. The idea is that the plywood won't damage as easily as the rigid foam would be damaged if you were hit to accidentally hit it with something like the lawnmower. Also, the plywood accepts paint to match the door paint or the room paint.

 

[ct03911]

Very timely post. I need to do the same thing.
Good reminder.
I will have three metal insulated Clopay doors in my 26x28.
Plenty of heat loss/gain there if I don't do anything.
Interested in what you decide and others have found.
I'm not too concerned about appearance. It's a work shop.
Neat, tidy, efficient is good.

 

[AldeanFan]

I glued 2" foam to my garage door a few years ago and it made a significant difference in my ability to keep the heat in. I'm in Canada so cooling the garage isn't much of an issue but same principle. The hinges between the panels still loose heat but the majority of the door is insulated.
A friend of mine made a heavy curtain from moving blankets to cover his garage door. It works surprisingly well.

 

[gtae07]

I was insulating the door on the attached garage yesterday; it also has the hurricane beams. You could either slide the foam under them, or temporarily remove them to install it, and then fasten them back down over top.

 

[11B250]

The ceiling (the 1st half of it by the attic) is not insulated. I guess I could do that too, but it would take some serious work and would have to lay plywood on top of all the insulation by the beams.

I assume rate of heat exchange is MUCH higher with the thin metal garage doors vs the ceiling.

It would be ideal if I did both, butttt that's alot of work.

 

[shade]

You should really insulate the entire garage.
I did blown in cellulose for about $600
Then I used a through the wall 18k btu cooler. Works great in the Phoenix heat.
I tried using a portable unit at first. Didnt do ****.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Portable AC units require you to be able to close the room or space up completely. If you allow any cracks or seams to vent the air being blown in, you'll lose all effect.

Insulating the door is a big step, as is the exposed roof area. I have the front eight feet of my garage not drywalled or insulated and I wish it was. It would take quite a bit of labor for me to fix that properly I may just staple some sheet plastic to the trusses to help seal it up a bit. Maybe two layers- one above the trusses and one below, and create an air gap. It's cheap, but would be fairly effective and better than nothing that I have now.

Be aware adding insulation to a door will increase the weight so the spring may have to be adjusted to compensate.

 

[GTO]

Insulate the entire garage and buy a new insulated door.I have the 3000 series Amarr door,with 2" of foam insulation.Lifetime guarantee.

 

[LutzTD]

I think those portable jobs are way over rated in their specs. It must take very ideal conditions that most cant duplicate to get the results they advertise. I would say the things to look at are. roof insulation, radiant heat from sun exposed roof is huge here, if you put some nasa foil on the inside of the roof it will do wonders. Also look at you south facing wall for sun load. insulate your door as well, but dont remove the windload braces, not even temporarily as they are self tapping and may not tighten right the second time, the braces protect your house as well as the garage. Then get a big window AC unit, nows the time they go on sale. I have a 2 ton in my 20x40 and with the nasa foil it barely can get to 75 if I turn it on in the morning before the sun heats the garage. It can keep it low from low, but cant recover if I let the garage heat up.

 

[rayra]

Yes, insulate the door, it will make a difference. I'm in SoCal with an east-facing door and in summer the inner face of my metal tilt-up door was too hot to touch. I discovered the aluminum I-channel of the door structure was 2" thick. So I got some 2" thick rigid styrofoam and cut sections that were just a bit wider than the areas edged by the channel, so the foam tucked into the channel. A little bit of tape on a few seams, and (3) 4'x8' panels did my whole 2-car door. total insulation value was only 8-9 IIRC, but it makes a huge difference. For just $60

My garage also has a flat exposed roof. I put R-19 paper-faced batts in the rafter spaces and that too made another big difference. in peak summer my garage hits 80F instead of 100F

hmm don't seem to have a handy photo of my garage door insulation. It is the kind with a mylar reflective layer. Should have been facing the exterior / heat source, but I put it on the inner visible face instead, looked a lot better than the huge garish royal blue logos and printing all over the white face side.

 

[MDSPHOTO]

Very timely I was thinking about insulating my door this year as well. My walls are insulated, but I have yet to do the ceiling because there is no venting. For those of you that insulated the entire garage, did you also add some type of venting?

 

[Trey T]

^i have an unfinished detached garage with intakes but w/out exhaust venting and my roof aged quicker than my living-area roof. Therefore, you should ventilate accordingly

The key to ventilation is air flow, cubic-ft/min. Mechanical engineer guys will explain better but a air temp or concentration cannot be diluted (for lack of better word) properly without sufficient air flow.

 

[Nick Danger]

I have a sheet metal garage door, facing west. I glued in some rigid pink insulation, and it made a noticeable difference during the summer. That end of the house is cooler now.

But I would insulate the whole garage before I tried to heat or cool it. Otherwise you're just spending money trying to control the temperature of the wind.

 

[Lelyar]

About 10 years ago I added styrofoam panels to my aluminum overhead shop doors. My shop is 24 x 36. Our climate is generally warm (San Diego inland). In the summer the air temps will hit close to 108 for a week or so at a time and in the winter, the daytime lows might be in the 40's occasionally and night-time lows in the mid 30's occasionally.

I have two OH doors (one is a double-wide and the other is a single-wide) and both face West. The single-wide door has a single vertical metal stiffener in the middle. The double-wide has 3 stiffeners. The stiffners are exposed and reduce the benefit of the insulation a bit. I bought either 3/4 or 1" 4x8' sheets and cut them with a drywall knife. The door panels had a horizontal lip , so I could stuff the panels inside of the lip and not need any adhesive. I had to slightly squash the styrofoam on the edges to get it to slip under the lip. The shop walls have 3-1/2" fiberglass batts and the ceiling has 6" FG batts. So the OH doors were the biggest factor for heat gain/loss in the workshop.

Adding the Styrofoam makes a big difference both in the winter and summer. I'm glad that I did that.

BTW, I really like the looks of the foil backed panels from Charlie Hinton. I'm wondering if both sides were foil lined or not. If not, I'm wondering if they might have been more effective with the foil towards the summer heat-source.
If you interesting check out this best garage door insulation kit reviews