Insulating Your Garage Door
With the cold winter months always looming, many of us have become thinking about ways to reduce our heating costs. Most of use are having a hard enough time making ends meet without the added expense of heat. You usually start with making sure that windows and doors are sealed to prevent drafts, but don't over look your garage door. The garage door is the largest door on your home and even if you don't actively heat your garage, having an exceptionally cold garage can increase your overall heating costs elsewhere in your home, especially if you have living space above your garage. The best way to help decrease heating costs in your garage is by purchasing garage door insulation kit. One product called Falcon Foam Garage Door Insulation uses EPS insulation and makes them in 54"x 20 1/4" x 1 1/4" panels. Each kit comes with 8 panels which is adequate to insulate a standard 7 foot high garage door. You can also purchase separate panels if you have over sized doors or more than one. The kit weighs less than 10 lbs so there is no need to worry about it interfering with your automatic door opener. You will need one kit per garage door. The kits cost less than $100 and are very easy to install. You don't need any special tools. Your basic tape measure, utility knife and straight edge is all you need. Owens Corning also makes a garage door insulation kit that is equally as effective and comparative in cost. Their product is slightly different in that it is in a roll made with a more standard fiberglass insulation with a vinyl exposed face. The R value on the Owens Corning insulation is 8 whereas the Falcon is about a 4.5. A garage door insulation kit will do more than just reduce your heating costs. It will add additional usable square footage to your home. You can start using your insulated garage as a workshop, space to throw a party or anything elseyou may want to use an additional room for. You can use the kits regardless of whether or not you have a vinyl or wooden garage door or if its a high quality brand like Clopay or its a lower end brand. For only $100 - $200 and a weekend of work, you can start saving money in heating costs. |