Question:
I am finishing half of my garage and am going to heat it. As I live in
the northeast I have to insulate my garage door. The commercial
products available (vinyl or plastic with a small amount of fiberglass
insulation) appear to be cheap and I am told they donot work that
well. Does anyone know of an alternative method? The door is alluminum
with a hollow shell
Answer:
I purchased and installed my present double wide gd about 15 years ago, before
the sandwiched insulated doors were popular and readily available. It has a
white foam insulation like was previously (may still be) available in kits to
insulate a sheet of paneling. Don't remember the name of it, but it is not like
the blue board that the home centers have now. But anyhow, it also had a sheet
of hard plastic covering the foam and didn't look too bad. But the first
winter I had to drill holes in the bottom channel of each panel to drain the
condensation. It still drips when the door is raised. And believe it or not,
there are rust stains around each weep hole.
I have installed several of the Clopay sandwiched insulated doors and friends
have had no problems with them. The Clopay comes in two different thickness,
and the thinner one sells for around 330.00 around here, with the non sandwich
insulated going for about 240.00 And the larger home centers like Lowes has
them in stock. Figure that the door will last you 20 years, for another 4.00
per year, I would go with the sandwiched door.
Insulation kits are available off-the-shelf for doing this job. I've only
ever seen them in Alaska but the manufacturer (Frost-something as I recall)
was one of the national brands. The kit consisted of an insulation blanket
which covered the entire inside of the door.
