Garage Door Insulation

Garage door insulation should be a must in any home or building today. The benefits are great especially when you consider how little it will actually cost you. Whether you decide to go ahead and install insulation yourself, or hire a professional to do it, insulating your garage door is a wonderful way to increase the value of your home and decrease your heating and cooling cost.

Why should I Insulate my Garage Door

There are several major benefits to installing insulation on your garage door. The most positive benefit will be the proper regulation of the temperature in your garage. This is especially important if you have rooms above the garage. If your garage door is uninsulated you will find that the rooms above or beside the garage are cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Both these situations will cost you money as the only way to regulate the temperature in those rooms is to turn up the AC in the summer or crank up the heat in the winter. Installing garage door insulation alleviates both of these problems. This, of course, will increase the value of your home when the time comes to sell it. It is definitely something that people look for when shopping for a new home.

Things to Consider When Insulating Your Garage Door

There are a couple of things to consider before installing garage door insulation. The primary consideration is the added weight. You need to make sure that all parts of your garage door can hold the extra weight. These means that rail supports, the door panels themselves and even your garage door opener. Even if the framework can support the additional weight you may have to rebalance your garage door springs to compensate for the added stress. This is not a difficult process, but you should be careful to do it properly and safely as the springs are often under great tension.

A second thing to consider, especially if you are adding insulation yourself, is that it is fireproof. Many types of foam board insulations are not fireproof and adding them to your door, especially if it is a wooden door, will be creating a fire hazard. Most garage door insulation kits come with fireproof or fire retardant insulation which is a positive benefit of buying a kit.

How to Insulate Your Garage Door

You have two basic choices when you decide to insulate your garage door. You can either do it your self with materials that you purchase and cut yourself, or you can purchase a garage door insulation kit that provides all the materials and instructions how to install it. By far the easier way is to use an insulation kit - often all you will need to install a kit is a tape measure, a straight edge and a knife for cutting. Some kits even come with those supplies They normally come in standard sizes and are made to fit most modern garage doors. Door kits though, are more expensive compared to assembling your own kit.
Assembling your own supplies and installing them yourself is not that difficult either. Simple instructions are found for free on several sites on-line or alternatively you can purchase plans and instructions. Then all you have to buy is the insulation and working supplies to do it yourself.

Your garage is probably the singe larges uninsulated space in your home. Insulating this large space is a great way to be 'green' and help you to do your part in conserving energy.