DIY Garage Door Insulation
According to research done by top notch university, as much as 70% of home energy use is for cooling and hearing the house. While it’s true that most homeowners are taking measure to insulate their homes including the garage, they have in fact neglected one of the most important parts of the house, the garage door.
The garage door is the largest door in the house and it can account for as much as 50% of the total energy loss if it’s not insulated. A non-insulated garage door will responsible for all the heat loss as air will flow through the door. The simple solution is to insulate the garage door.
The following paragraphs describe in detail how to insulate the garage door the DIY (do it yourself) way.
The Length and the Width of the Garage Door
The first step in garage door insulation is to take measurement of the door. The particular measurements that you need are the length and width of each individual door panel and the door as a whole.
While you are measuring the length and width of the garage door, take note of the number of metal stiles on the garage door. The metal stiles are what the hinges are connected to for the garage door. The easy way to figure out the location of the metal stiles is to look at how each individual door panel is divided. The divisions will give you the hints of where the metal stiles are placed.
Insulation Material for Garage Door
The insulation material that you are going to use to insulate the garage door is polyurethane foam sheets. Buy the amount of polyurethane foam sheets based on the dimensions of the garage door. The thickness of the polyurethane should be roughly ¾-inch.
This thickness should give you adequate R-value to insulate the garage door. You can vary the thickness according to your needs. If you want more R-value, buy thicker foam sheets.
The polyurethane foam sheets usually come with a protective backing on them. The purpose of the protective backing is to prevent moisture from sipping into the insulation material. Each stile on the garage door should be covered by polyurethane foam sheets.
The number of polyurethane foam sheets can be calculated based on the dimension of the stile. The insulation foam sheet usually comes in 8-foot strips. For example, if you have 10 stiles that are 2 feet long, you would need at least 3 8-foot foam sheets.
The polyurethane foam sheets can be easily cut according to the dimension of the stiles. Use a good quality knife for cutting the sheets so that you don’t destroy the insulation material.
Steps for Insulating the Garage Door
When insulating the garage door, you could work on the door from left to right. The first step is to figure out the distance between the underneath of the end stile to the flat portion of the next stile. Next cut the foam sheets by about 1/8 of an inch shorter in order to slide the insulation sheet all the way under the stile.
Take note of the height when you are done with the length. Again cut the foam sheet about 1/8 of an inch shorter to prevent the screws that hold the hinges from blocking your foam sheets.
When you have the height and the length done, carefully fit the sheet underneath the stile and in between the lip of the door section. Remember to insert the same size of vinyl sheet if the insulation foam you are using has no backing.
The above steps to slide in the foam sheets are repeated for the rest of the door panels. There is a tricky part for the last section of the door panel. For this part of the insulation work, you will have to put your foam sheet under two stiles.
The recommended way to do the installation without breaking the foam is to cut the foam ½ inch shorter for more room. Again if your insulation sheet is without backing, cover it with a vinyl sheet of the same dimensions.
Cautions and Safety Steps
Take note that you are not supposed to remove any hinge bolts of the garage door. Some of the bolts may be under high pressure of the springs and tampering with the hinges could cause severe injury.
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