Types of Garage Door Insulation

The insulation aspect of the garage is a critical aspect of the overall energy saving mechanism for your garage. If your garage is insulated but the garage door is not, then you maybe missing something important for keeping the garage cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The fact is that a lot of heat can leak through the garage door making it inefficient in terms of energy saving if it’s not insulated. The solution is you add insulation to the garage door. An easy way is to purchase garage door with insulation installed or you can install the insulation yourself.

The following paragraphs describe different types of garage door insulation that you can add to the garage door.

Reflective Foil Insulation

Reflective foil is an excellent insulation material that can be installed on the garage door. Usually the on-the-shelf insulation kits consist of two layers of air-filled bubble wrap enclosed in extremely durable foil. These on the shelf insulation kits are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. The advantage of these kits is the high R-Value they offer and that means less heat loss.

The reflective foil acts not only as a heat reflector but also as a moisture barrier that keeps the door dry. The installation process is relatively simple. All you have to do is to cut the foil based on the dimension of the door panel. After that, just tape the foil to the door.

Some reflective foil insulation kits also come with white vinyl coating which gives a white interior color rather than the usual aluminum look.

Spray Foam Insulation

Spray foam insulation is another excellent insulation for garage door. Spray foam insulation gives better R-value but is more difficult to implement if you are going to do it on your own. It’s more expensive to install as special equipment is required.

To install spray foam insulation on garage door, you will first need to put on a solid panel between the channels of each section of the door. After that you will need a special tool to inject the foam between the installed panel and the exterior door to form an insulating barrier.

Leave the insulating barrier to settle and it will bond to the panels you installed and to the wood or metal of the exterior door.

Fiberglass Panels Insulation

The fiberglass panels are highly popular for garage door insulation as they provide excellent R-value and are relatively easy and cheap to install. The fiberglass panels used in garage door insulation are pretty much the same as those used in attic insulation.

To install fiberglass panels to the garage door, you can buy those on-the-shelf insulation kits which usually come with readily made fiberglass panels. Some of them are pre-cut which means you can buy the panels with exact dimensions that will fit into the garage door.

Hooks are normally provided in the insulation kits and all you have to do is just put on the insulation panels according to the instructions that come with the kits. The fiberglass panels are generally covered with vinyl and they give a beautiful look to your garage.

Polystyrene Foam Insulation

Polystyrene foam insulation for garage door is similar to spray foam insulation except that polystyrene foam is readily made on the shelf. You can buy these insulation kits and install the panels on your own on the garage door.

The polystyrene foam insulation panels usually come with varying thickness that gives different R-value. As a result, you can choose how much insulation you need for your garage door.

To install polystyrene foam insulation on garage door, the panels can be easily slide in the door frame rails. Some kits include tape or fasteners to hold the panels in place. Thicker polystyrene foam can fits firmly and they dont require any taping or fasteners.

Most polystyrene foam panels are coated with vinyl to give them a beautiful look and to protect them from moisture.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Insulation Types. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.