DIY Garage Door insulation

[Txfshrmn]

I have the same West facing garage and put the foam board on the doors. It has helped a little but I will have to take a look at this product. I need to clean everything out of it and finish it out, but after the house was built it became the catch all. Another need to do I suppose. Reclaim m man space...

[elkoholic]

I'm doing this as soon as I get home! Like others my door faces west and by 1100 the sun is hitting it. By 1 I can't even go in there let alone work in it!

[Varmicon_qa]

What happens when you put the car you've just been driving in the garage? Won't that trap all of the engine heat in the garage?

[uglyslidedave]

What happens when you put the car you've just been driving in the garage? Won't that trap all of the engine heat in the garage?

WHAT?!?!?!?!? Cars don't go in the garage! The garage is reserved for man-cave-ness and the drinking of the beer!

[Skyjunky]

What happens when you put the car you've just been driving in the garage? Won't that trap all of the engine heat in the garage?

It will. Leave the garage open for a while.

[lilbradford]

WHAT?!?!?!?!? Cars don't go in the garage! The garage is reserved for man-cave-ness and the drinking of the beer!

Dave's got it figured out ^

[Leon County Slayer]

Agreed, cars don't belong in garages!! good grief!!

[Philemone]

Proper garage utilization.

[Varmicon_qa]

WHAT?!?!?!?!? Cars don't go in the garage! The garage is reserved for man-cave-ness and the drinking of the beer!

Wife's SUV goes in the garage. Built a man cave behind my house with A/C.

[RAGUIRREJR]

Wife's SUV goes in the garage. Built a man cave behind my house with A/C.

There you go!

[dbraud07]

Great idea, we use our garage as our gym. This would be clutch.

[Alex999]

This is seemingly an old thread, but I'll add my two cents.


A few years ago, I bought a garage door insulation kit from Amazon https://mechanicguides.com/best-gara...nsulation-kit/ That made a big difference. I found another day when the temp of the outside surface of the door was around 130, and the inside surface of the door at the panels was a little over 100 degrees. Big improvement, but still a giant 100-degree radiator.

This winter, I had a set of Amarr R-19 doors installed. Wow. What a difference. Today is brutally hot (way hotter than those other two measurements described above), so I took some readings with my thermal imaging camera. At one point, the ambient temp outside was 110 degrees (yikes), and the outside surface of the garage door measured 148 degrees! Ouch. But the inside surface of the door at the panels was only 91 degrees. I wasn't working in the shop today, so I didn't run the AC; the ambient temp in the shop was 85 degrees.

Bottom line, the Amarr managed to keep the inside surface of the door 57 degrees cooler than the outside surface, and only 6 degrees warmer than the ambient temp in the shop (25 degrees cooler than ambient outside temp).

I have taken numerous other steps to cut the shop temp over the years. I replaced my fluorescent lights with LEDs, insulated the walls and ceiling, and added a mini-split AC. But until now, the AC still struggled to keep up on a hot day. With the giant radiator that was my old garage door removed from the equation, I'm pretty confident that my mini-split can keep me pretty close to the 70 degree target all day long.

Final point: The garage door experts spend lots of time talking about the seals and hinges as being the most important thing on a garage door. That may be true if you're fighting a cold climate or don't have a West-facing door. But with a West-facing door on a hot day, your biggest enemy is the sun's radiant heat beaming directly on the garage door, not the ambient outside temperature. That's why the outside of my garage door measures 148 degrees when the outside temperature is 110. Radiant heat on those big panels is the killer, because it turns those high-square-footage panels into giant radiators. If you live in a hot climate with a West-facing door, the most important thing is keeping that radiant heat on the outside of the door, which means as much insulation as you can stand. (It also means a white door with no windows.)

[ZenDaddy]

Consider - checking your spring, chain, engine, and panel hinges on a regular basis. I've had my double door insulated for a while. I noticed the panels starting to separate. Brought in an expert who replaced spring and reinforced mounts. The two boxes of insulation do add additional weight.

I haven't found any tape that can stick to the door and insulation that will last thru the summer heat. Anyone got any suggestions?

[Leon County Slayer]

Consider - checking your spring, chain, engine, and panel hinges on a regular basis. I've had my double door insulated for a while. I noticed the panels starting to separate. Brought in an expert who replaced spring and reinforced mounts. The two boxes of insulation do add additional weight.

I haven't found any tape that can stick to the door and insulation that will last thru the summer heat. Anyone got any suggestions?

I used the airduct taipe and have had it on now for quite a while (5 years) and still to hold great.