3 ways to insulate garage doors

What is the use of insulation for garage doors?

First of all, insulation garage door It is of course a concern for his "four-wheeled friend." If create good conditions for your car, it will last much longer. After all, a car can also “catch a cold” and “get sick” from a too cold or damp room. And like every patient, he will require treatment, which costs a lot of money. Therefore, it is cheaper to prevent a “disease” in advance and prevent its occurrence.

The garage can be used not only as a car parking, but also as a warehouse of old things or even a place of a man’s personal space. There may be small workshop with a set of different tools for creating different useful things or repairs. And even just a relaxation room for spending your leisure time with friends. Therefore, you need to carefully consider the insulation of this room and the garage door, in particular. To keep it warm in winter and cool in summer, that is, create the most comfortable conditions for being inside.

According to the laws of thermodynamics, heat will be transmitted through the garage door in two ways, which we will discuss below:

• First way - this is actually the surface of the flaps themselves (we are considering gates that are closed by flaps), by transferring heat from a warm body to a cold one. Cold refers to the external environment, and the surface of the gate is warm accordingly.
• Second way - This is a convention of warm and cold air, which occurs by opening and closing the wings. In this case, a huge amount of heat is lost. In places of loose fit of the flaps to the wall opening, there is also a significant loss of warm air.

Therefore, the solution to these two problems minimizes heat loss and creates comfortable conditions for staying inside the garage at any time of the year. To solve this problem should be set reliable barrier between heat and cold or vice versa depending on the season. The construction norm of SNiP 21-02-99 says that in winter for the optimal location of the car in the garage, you should maintain the temperature at +5 degrees Celsius. This will allow you to easily start the car and moisture will not condense in its internal cavities.

What is the best way to insulate a garage door?

For high-quality insulation of garage doors, the modern market for heat preservation materials will provide a wide field of choice. It is best to choose traditional insulation today, such as Styrofoam, extruded polystyrene foam and foil foamed polyethylene. These three heat-insulating materials will do their job perfectly. Below we will consider each option individually - the properties and the step-by-step process of laying the heat insulator on the surface of the gate.

Some may wonder why it was not mentioned. mineral wool. Very simple, better not to use this material is for insulating garage doors, although many do. Mineral wool has the ability to absorb moisture well.And since the garage is a place where regularly the humidity level will exceed the normal indicator, thereby contributing to its concentration in this insulation, which loses its properties from this.

Additional insulation of garage doors

There are several ways besides laying insulation, which will help to reduce the outflow of warm air, thereby creating comfortable indoor conditions.

• it ordinary curtains, but not like in the apartment, but from dense material that holds cold well and does not immediately let it into the room. It’s very simple to build them - first pull a steel thread or a thin rope, and on it with the help of rings attached to a dense material, for example, tarpaulin, then you hook the canvas. This is useful for those who often open the gate or, due to circumstances, one leaf should be open.
• At the first stages of building a garage or installing a gate, many car owners do not take into account the fact that less heat is consumed through a small hole than if you open the gate fully or partially. That is, it’s better to build a small doorway at the gate, then you don’t need to open the entire garage to just take, for example, a tool such as a hammer for hammering nails. Therefore, when ordering a gate, ask for separate doors.
• You can additionally insulate the joints between the gate and the wall, as well as put the sills so that less heat escapes through the cracks. Good for this vinyl material appropriate thickness and size. Attach the vinyl tape to the edges of the joints where cracks form with nails or mounting glue. This will create an additional barrier to heat loss.

Insulation of garage doors with foam

Styrofoam is the best option for insulation of garage doors, since it has excellent heat preservation qualities nor does it absorb moisture. Also, this material is quite easy to lay on the surface and is very light, which is important for the total weight of the door leaves. At the same time, foam is the cheapest insulation material that is available to absolutely everyone.

Foam Stacking Steps

• First process and thoroughly clean the inner iron surface of the door from rust and paint residues. Then paint them or waterproof them with bituminous mastic, you can also put polyethylene, but this is at your discretion. It is possible not to waterproof the gate at all, since the foam does not react to moisture at all and does not lose its properties.
• Second phase consists in creating a crate of wooden bars between which you will lay foam sheets cut to the required size. For this, strips with a size of 50 × 50 millimeters are suitable, depending on what thickness of the corners (sides) at the edges of the gate. Do the crate with a step of about 30-50 cm, decide for yourself based on your case, since the gate can have a different configuration.
• Then mount between the battens planks the foam panels themselves, previously cut into pieces of the required size. The material can be glued to the iron surface of the gate leaves using polyurethane foam, which is also a good insulator, whether it is moisture or sound. Or use any convenient adhesive that is in the nearest hardware store.
• Final stage - This finish is another material. For example, plywood sheets or plastic panelsthat will create an additional layer to preserve heat and give an aesthetic finished look.

Garage door insulation with extruded polystyrene foam

Creating a protective barrier against heat loss using extruded polystyrene foam is the best option, as it has several advantages. Unlike polystyrene, this insulation material possesses good rigidity and the best physical indicators for maintaining heat indoors.If you purchase extruded polystyrene foam, as this insulation material with one foil side is also called, then waterproofing is not required at all.

Moreover, for laying insulation on the surface of the garage door no creation required wooden plank systems (crates), since the high density of this material allows you to directly mount panels on any surface. To fix on a metal gate, you need a good mounting glue, preferably which is designed specifically for such work. Liquid Nails quick solidification is quite suitable. It is better to choose an import manufacturer, for example, from Germany, to be 100% sure of the quality of the adhesive.

Cut the sheets of extruded polystyrene foam that are the right size and stick to the surface. It is desirable to seal the joints with mounting foam, it can also be used to sticker panels on metal. Then create another layer of plywood, wood planks or plastic panels, which is more like it. You can glue even the wallpaper, but it is advisable then to putty the surface with a cement composition.

Insulation of garage doors with foil foamed polyethylene

The last type of insulation used more often in combination with other thermal insulation materialsand, for example, with already presented foam and extruded polystyrene foam. You can certainly apply only one of this material, but if you want a more efficient insulation it is better to combine two options. The insulation is a foamed polyethylene on one side of which a layer of foil. This gives not only excellent thermal insulation, but also good waterproofing. It is most often used specifically for the latter, along with the properties to keep heat well.

In order to insulate and waterproof with foamed polyethylene, lay the material directly on the previously cleaned metal surface of the garage door. In our case, you can simply stick its good adhesive, such as instant "fast nails." The material is quite flexible and easy to go to even the most inaccessible places. If you do not use additional heaters in combination, then the work on insulation from heat loss is completed.

If you combine foil foamed polyethylene with other heaters, then put foam on top of itif you chose it, having previously built a crate or fasten extruded polystyrene foam. After that, you can create another layer of foamed polyethylene in order to achieve maximum thermal insulation and waterproofing too. Get a kind of triple sandwich, which will be a fairly effective barrier to the release of heat from the room. Your garage will be warm and cozy if there is an additional indoor heating.

Conclusion

In the complex, all the tips and options for warming garage doors will help to create a really good thermal insulation, which will last a very long time. Since all the materials presented have a long service life of about 50 years.