Garage Door Insulation

[Sam Dotson]

I'm just finishing up modifications to a two car garage to turn it into a suitable workshop here in Texas and I need to find a solution to insulate the garage door. I put r-13 in the walls, but the best r-value garage door insulation kit I can find is only r-6. I have been considering installing two layers of 3/4 inch of Polyisocyanurate Insulated Sheathing or Extruded Polystyrene Insulated Sheathing. I have room for 1 1/2 inches and this would provide at least R9 for the garage door. Has anyone done this? Do you have any concerns?

Is there a problem with painting either of these materials?

Sam


http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Sheathings/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbaxx/R-100317820/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#BVRRWidgetID

[Tom Stenzel]

Try googling "Insulating a sectional garage door" (without the quotes) and look at the images. You should find pictures of what others have done. They lead to other forums so I'm not providing links. You're not in uncharted waters with this project.

More than one garage I've been in used sheets of cardboard taped to the door. These jobs happen when the car breaks down, and entire budget for the insulating project consisted of the deposit bottles they could conjure up-if that much. It helped a little!


My concern would be the weight of the panels. Can the tension on the counterbalance springs be increased without damage or replacement? Can the garage door opener handle the increased load?

-Tom Stenzel

[Sam Dotson]

Yes, I will need to adjust the tension on the garage door spring. There isn’t a door opener on this garage door, and I don’t think this insulated door will be much (is any) heavier than a standard insulated garage door.

Thanks!

Sam

[Bob Coleman]

Sam,

I did what you are proposing last christmas. Worked out really well. I used a half inch sheet and a one inch sheet. The half inch against the door panel and slid up into the groove where the panels mesh. I had to get creative with some cuts to get it all in, but if you cut it right, it will jam in just fine and stay with out any fastener/tape/etc. Each section went in as a top and bottom piece with the 1/2" and 1" cuts offset. I used aluminum tape to cover the joints, mostly for appearance sake (and I had some lying around)

Good Luck!

228576

[Sam Dotson]

That's good to know. Thank you.

Do you think three 1/2" sheets would be easier to get into place than two 3/4" pieces? I can’t find any 1" material down here in the south.

Thanks again

Sam

[Matt Meiser]

Someone I know (who used to be around here but I haven't seen him in a while) had the back of his spray-foamed.

The real problem with anything with exposed foam is that its prone to damage from an errant board or anything else. That and the stuff burns really nice.

[Jim Andrew]

My nephew used styrofoam, and used a can of spray foam around the edges to fill in the cracks. Looks like you could use a lightweight metal, like a coil of aluminum to cover the inside. The panels have a flange you could screw or pop rivet to. Or maybe some 1/8" panel of some kind. Might need a 3/4 hp garage door opener.

[Kerry Wright]

I did exactly what Bob did except I used 1 1/2 sheets. Works great, as for the additional weight, it wasn't enough to affect the springs at all.

[Chris Tsutsui]

Maybe it's a bit ghetto but I used R-13 Johns manville comfort therm. It's a little puffy, but it's plastic faced so no fiberglass dust mess, and I taped the perimiter around each batting to fit the garage panels making them as air tight as possible.

The results were dramatic improvement in insulation and sound. The garage door is very quiet during opening and closing with that fiberglass batting in there. Fiberglass batting is one of the best sound absorbing materials out there, and this method is dirt cheap. I did this back in 2009 and I wish I had done it sooner. I think a roll of fiberglass batting is somewhere between $10 and $20?

I didn't have to adjust the door springs because the fiberglass weighs hardly anything.

228655

[Stew Hagerty]

The biggest thing with a garage door is not the extra insulation over & above the R6. It's the weather seal. I have a "sandwich" door (steel-insulation-steel) so I already have a decent R value. But no matter how good the R value is, if the wind blows in around the edges, it's gonna get cold in there. First, get good seals around the outside and the bottom. Next, adjust the door outward so that it has as little play as possible. Finally, (and I wish I had photos to show how I did it) add a Strip Brush around the inside as a secondary seal. Here are links to the brush and holders that I used.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TANIS-Strip-Brush-1VKU2
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TANIS-Strip-Brush-Holder-1VKU1
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TANIS-Strip-Brush-Holder-1VKR7?Pid=search

Note that these particular sizes or styles may not work for your door, but that there should be sizes & styles that will.

[Sam Dotson]

Thanks everyone. I've decided I will go with three 1/2" sheets of Extruded Polystyrene Insulated Sheathing in the door cavities. I would've used fewer thicker sheets of they were available at my local Lowes. Depending on what they look like, I will either cover them with hard board, or just paint them.

Stew, if you come up with a picture of your strip brush installation it would be much appreciated because I don’t get where this is installed.

Thanks everyone for you input and recommendations.

Sam

[Stew Hagerty]

Stew, if you come up with a picture of your strip brush installation it would be much appreciated because I don’t get where this is installed.

I dug around and found a photo that I took a while back to give to my wife's uncle.

228727
You can see how the tips of the bristles rub lightly against the side of the door. You don't want a lot of pressure against it, you just want the tips touching lightly. At the top of the door you have to do something different. You have to use the right angle holder and attach the bush to the top of the door itself instead of the door frame. You also probably need a brush with shorter bristles at the top too, or you can just do what I did and buy brushes all the same length and just trim the bristles on the top shorter. Oh, and I just thought of something else. I had to trim the bristles on the sides to clear the door track brackets. These brushes clearly aren't air tight, but they do dramatically cut down on air infiltration.

[Bruce Lundgren]

Sam, I did the same thing that Bob did and used 3M spray adhesive sprayed first on the metal door then slide-in the first panel and then sprayed adhesive on that surface and installed the 1/2 inch foam panel. Mine was a bit more tricky to do because my door had hurricane braces horizontally which is code in S.Florida. The door had no insulation previously so the Summer heat just radiated into the garage. The test was last Summer and it made a huge difference and the Mitsubishi split A/C unit worked great and was much more efficient and less costly to run then before. Beiing in Ontario you probably have the reverse problem with Winter and heating the space. It took a couple of weekends to do but I wish I'd done it sooner. Cost was around $200 but well worth it.

[Sam Dotson]

Thanks Bruce! I've actually moved back home to Texas after 8 years in Ontario, so I will be more worried about being cool in the summer, although I would like to stay warm in the winter as well.

By the way, you mentioned another subject I was going to post on later. I have been looking at air conditioning and heating equipment as well and the Mitsubishi split unit is one of the systems I was interested in. What do you think about the unit?


Sam

[Bruce Lundgren]

The split system works great. I've had it now for+/- 3 years. The unit is A/C only since it doesn't get very cold here in S Florida. My shop is in my oversize 2 car garage. In mid-summer it takes about an hour to cool things down nicely. I don't have a window and the walls are cement block so installing a conventional window A/C unit wasn't a practical solution. I had it installed but after watching it done would try it myself next time. It's mounted high-up on the side wall and there's only a +/- 2" hole through the wall connecting the pipe to the outside unit. Controls are in a remote. The unit has lots of features and can be programmed to suit your use. It's worked flawlessly (hope I didn't jinx myself saying that). Good luck with whatever you decide,Sam.
Bruce

[David Hostetler]

I'm just finishing up modifications to a two car garage to turn it into a suitable workshop here in Texas and I need to find a solution to insulate the garage door. I put r-13 in the walls, but the best r-value garage door insulation kit I can find is only r-6. I have been considering installing two layers of 3/4 inch of Polyisocyanurate Insulated Sheathing or Extruded Polystyrene Insulated Sheathing. I have room for 1 1/2 inches and this would provide at least R9 for the garage door. Has anyone done this? Do you have any concerns?

Is there a problem with painting either of these materials?

Sam


http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Sheathings/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbaxx/R-100317820/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#BVRRWidgetID

I did just that a couple of years ago with the same product. R5 twice over should be R10. Face the shiny part to the garage door, and glue the first layer in, then face the shiny part to the inside of the shop and glue the second layer in so the shiny parts point away from the middle of the foam sandwich, voila you have bi-directional radiant barrier on top of your R10. You will still get some leakage around the joints, not much you can do there, but overall it is well worth it. I need to have my springs replaced as they were tired before insulating. They hold the door open in the full open position, but that's about it. yes the door is heavier, but no heavier than a factory made insulated door.

I am not sure exactly why you would want to paint the foam board. I have seen quite a few of these done, and they all have the foil facing inside...

[Sam Dotson]

The foam board I'm using are light blue and dont have a foil / shiny side.

Thanks!

Sam

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I was going to just get insulated sheathing and cut it to fit. But the panels on my 18' garage door are all over 48" wide. My waste would have ended up being almost 50%!

So I went with this kit from Lowes:http://www.lowes.com/pd_222457-10477...%2Binsulationb (http://www.lowes.com/pd_222457-10477-8+FT+GARAGE+DOOR+INS_0__?productId=3025310&Ntt=garage+door+insulationb&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dgarage%2Bdoor%2Bins ulationb)

Installation was a snap. I had 3/4 of it done in about an hour. The last 1/4 of the door has windows that are inset. The panels would have been too thick to fit. So I routed the panels to remove the region where the windows are. I also did not want the white styrofoam to show from outside so I used this to black out the windows:http://www.lowes.com/pd_66804-74130-...&storeId=10151 (http://www.lowes.com/pd_66804-74130-10369877_0__?newSearch=true&catalogId=10051&productId=3286142&UserSearch=gila+privacy&Ntt=gila+privacy&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151)
Note that the link is not quite right. The stuff I used was plain black and only cost ~14.

You have to get the insulation shipped but shipping was only 7$ and it arrived in > 3 days!

Total cost ~125$. The doors look like they came from the factory. There is a vinyl on the back that hides the styrofoam and provides some protection. Unfortunately I never really measured the heat in the garage so I can't give an objective opinion on how good it performs. But it subjectively seems much better :).
Salem

[Sam Dotson]

I looked at that solution as well, and it would have been far less work than what I'm doing, but it only has a R factor of less than 5.

Sam

[Steven Green]

I did it last winter when I expanded my shop into what used to be the spot for my wifes car.. We won't talk about that. I sprayed automotive adhesive that was foam friendly on the frames and used one sheet to hold in the one that fit inside the frame. I had to bevel the outer sheets for clearance but it worked very well.