Do You Know How Much Your Garage Doors Might Be Costing You?

If like many folk you own a house with an integrated garage but have never gotten around to insulating it then it’s a good bet that that your garage is leaking more than heat. Fixing this could save you quite a bit of money.

It’s pretty straightforward to understand what the problem is. Any deficiencies in your home insulation will ensure a thermal exchange between the inside and outside air, or put more simply your temperature control systems will be struggling against the outdoors. This is an expensive way to fight a losing battle.

Unless insulation is applied comprehensively then thermal exchanges will always find the path of least resistance. For example, if you were to invest in cavity wall insulation but leave the single glazed windows in place then your wall insulation may as well not exist since heat will simply flow straight through the windows.

Similarly, fitting the latest in insulated windows will serve no purpose whatever if the walls aren’t also insulated as heat will just opt to leak through them instead, dragging your fuel budget along with them.

But what has this got to do with your garage? Well, an integral garage is by design a part of your home and typically furthermore the largest single inside space within it. When it isn’t insulated to a comparable standard as the remainder of the property then it gets to be a huge thermal weakness along adjoining walls, ceilings and access points.

The fact is, nobody would consider compromising the insulation of a room within the main house just because, say, it didn’t get used much. The effect would be felt elsewhere in the house, resulting in having to spend more money maintaining a comfortable temperature. Yet that is exactly how a great many folk treat their garage.

Insulating a garage is quite similar to insulating the rest of the home, with one particular and very large difference: the garage doors themselves. Most modern garage doors comprise a large steel panel that possesses all the insulating characteristics of, well, steel. It’s a fact that steel is quite simply among the most effective thermal conductors on the planet and therefore utterly useless at keeping heat either in or out.

Yet there is an extremely simple and cost effective solution. You can either install doors that have already been insulated during their manufacture, or go for one of the many DIY garage door insulation kits available. Installing insulated doors is the best (and most expensive) option but offers the best results and is invariably the only viable route with old wooden garage doors. Wood garage door panels are inherently better insulated than metal ones but still not really up to modern standards and they cannot take the extra bulk and weight of an insulation kit.

For much more information on this subject, check out these additional articles about quality wood garage doors and wood garage door insulation kits.