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Thread: Garage Door (Shop) Insulation DIY

  1. #1

    Garage Door (Shop) Insulation DIY

    I'm looking for input on the best way to insulate my 2-car, metal, garage door.

    My plan is to use either 2" R-Tech Styrofoam w/ foil back commonly found in any large home store -OR- the pink, Owens Corning Ridgid foam board version of the same thing. The R-values are: 7.7 or 10.
    $22/ea r-tech, $29/ea for the pink. I think the pink board is harder to work with but don't know. Any suggestions welcome.

    Note: none of the kits make sense to me as they often are designed for smaller garage doors.

    Questions:
    1. Relief cuts?
    2. Adhesive or not?
    3. Saw blade choices? 10", 50t Combo blade or a crummy stock saw blade that's never been used or something else?

    I made a diagram of the measurements all the individual panels and used a cut list optimizer to lay it all out. I can get away with 4 boards, 3 panels each, of the stuff.

    Please feel free to share your experience or tell me I'm an idiot, as long as I do it right the first time. Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Allen, my pole barn shop door is 16 x 11 and I used the pink board. I don't remember the thicknesses but I used 2 different ones because of the horizontal valleys in the door for rigidity. That gave me the maximum insulation thickness. Make sure you check the side, top and bottom seals and replace if necessary. I agree that the insulation kits they make for garage doors aren't very good.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Bear in mind that adding insulation to the door adds some weight. You may have to adjust the springs and the garage door opener might not be strong enough to open the heavier door. Something to think about.
    Dave

    Nothing is idiot-proof for a sufficiently ingenious idiot!

  4. #4
    I know the bottom seal has about a 6" gap. I wonder can I replace the gap or more likely I should just do the whole thing, they don't seem very expensive, the almost tube style heavy bottom seal.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    New insulated doors with a metal skin on the interior aren't very expensive if the door needs replaced anyhow.

    If you do want to insulate, you are on the right track. I've seen low expansion foam used around the sheets in the door, I'd do it that way if I was doing a whole door. One of the doors in my shop has DIY added insulation and it individual panels regularly fall out. I stick the offending panel back in with PL200 when it happens.

    Word of caution on cutting foam board, worst kick back I've ever seen happened to my wife when she was cutting a sheet of it. Not much weight to resist the saw wanting to throw a piece of foam board.

  6. #6
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    Best way to cut foam board: Sharpen the side of a putty knife and slice the foam. Easy, works great, no mess.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    You won't regret it.

    We insulated my west-facing, multi-panel, segmented, steel, garage-style, shop doors with regular white Styrofoam (mine was from packaging) cut to fit. I think we used beads of gorilla glue. It's not ideal, because the hinge gaps between segments, the sides (panel ends), and latch handle are still not insulated, but the difference was still amazing. Bottom cylindrical seals were cheap and easy to replace.

    [FWIW, "We" includes the teenage son of a friend wanting to earn spending money & use the shop. Insurance company recommended an inexpensive "umbrella" policy (which has more than paid for itself in other matters).]

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    recommend fitting all the foam pieces and glue them in place,
    THEN take "Great Stuff" or any expanding foam and going around
    all the edges... Move as fast as you can putting it on...
    This will help hold it in place and make it stronger...
    Just plan on the next day trimming the excess...

  9. #9
    Good feedback. I do like expansion foam and hadn't considered it for this, really, until now. Once consideration is if I'd have to remove it all prior to an (eventual) sale of the house. We aren't in any hurry whatsoever, having just bought it in April last yr, but I wonder if it is OK to make permanent or should I make it "undoable"?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Climate? Polyiso board will be about R 12.4. Are you looking to keep heat in or out or both? get the foil faced stuff if the door gets sun heating. Face the foil inward and it lightens up the shop.
    Bill D

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    Climate? Polyiso board will be about R 12.4. Are you looking to keep heat in or out or both? get the foil faced stuff if the door gets sun heating. Face the foil inward and it lightens up the shop.
    Bill D
    I didn't know you could face the foil inward and not lose the heat barrier.

    I'm trying to keep heat out and cold in more than anything else. I run HVAC (heat or AC) to the garage shop and can feel the heat emanating from the metal garage door as soon as the weather warms. Which is about now

    Climate is Pacific Northwest - Vancouver / Portland, OR area.

    I went with 1-1/2" R-tech w/ the foil side stuff. It's a tight fit. I previously thought I could use 2". 4 sheet will get me there if I don't mess up.

    My first cut I scored the foil side and used a long razor knife but am working on the sharpened putty knife idea still. Belt sander got it close
    Last edited by Allen Mattsen; 04-28-2021 at 7:51 PM.

  12. #12
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    I bought a 4x8 by 2" polyiso sheet with a bit of corner knocked off. I asked for a discount and got 70% off

  13. #13
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    Polyurethane glue works great to glue those foam insulation pieces to something or to each other. I recently did quite a bit of insulation using the green insulation from the blue box store. I was adding 1" of insulation to a garage ceiling to support the insulation better and to increase the R-value before coverng the ceiling with drywall. I had to cut strips of insulation to fit between the joists. This left me with quite a few narrow strips. I was able to edge glue those strips to make wider pieces to fill more joist spaces.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

    My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
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    i would use eps with a radiant barrier, the foil. it will perform a lot better next to a hot or cold metal door than a non-foil face product. I cut the panels a touch over size and then in half vertically. slid each side in behind the hardware, and then used foil tape for the seam. no need for the glue, or expanding foam or anything else. its tight to the top and bottom as well. best way to cut is a very sharp blade and then fold/snap like drywall, then cut the opposite side foil. the dust is terrible and sticks to everything when using a saw. my garage temps are about 20 degrees warmer in the winter and 20 cooler in the summer with a south facing metal garage door.

  15. #15
    So far so good. Thought I'd post a pic as an update. 20210503_175152.jpg

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