Insulating a garage door

AnonnyMouseDave · 2023-12-12T10:41:56+00:00

Our house is a mid-terraced, town-house with a garage on the ground floor and a typical up and over garage door. The garage is, unsurprisingly, freezing cold in winter. We don't use the garage for a car and can go days or even weeks without opening the garage door. Has anyone got any experience of insulating a garage door like this? I am thinking of making three sections of double-thickness insulation board that can be slotted into opening behind the garage door to effectively create a removable wall on the inside of the door. How much warmer will this make the garage in winter? I'm happy to wrap up warm and run an electric heater in there, but it would be nice if it was OK under three layers, not freezing under six.

Bamaluz · 12/12/2023 12:09

You can buy insulation kits for garage doors but your idea sounds good anyway. We bought some really thick curtains, second hand, and doubled them up on the poles, so they can be pulled back to open the door.
We also stuffed an old duvet in the gaps around the edges but it's an electric concertina door so fits differently .

JamieKnows · 12/12/2023 12:44

I read that as "insulting" garage door.

Oi, garage door, ya big cold metal bastard

Ablondiebutagoody · 12/12/2023 12:47

What do you do in the garage that requires it to be less cold?

Original poster

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 13:02

JamieKnows · 12/12/2023 12:44

I read that as "insulting" garage door.

Oi, garage door, ya big cold metal bastard

Wooden, but lol!

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Original poster

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 13:05

Ablondiebutagoody · 12/12/2023 12:47

What do you do in the garage that requires it to be less cold?

None of your business! I used it as a store-room / workshop / hobby room / extra living room. Sometimes I am doing things reasonably active, but other times I am keeping fairly still, and I'd like to be able to sit still in a couple of thick layers and be reasonably cosy, not under 6 layers and frozen!

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Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 12/12/2023 13:18

They sell the kits in France, and lots of our neighbours had them, they seem to contribute something to the temperature.

DavidChecker · 12/12/2023 13:33

We had an integral garage that was just a heat sink. Have you anything external to stop rain and draughts getting under? That made a difference to us. Have you considered insulating wall-paper for the sides.
For your working/standing/sitting area I recommend a wooden floor. A sheet of sterling board on 2" bearers. Floor paint.

Original poster

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 14:38

DavidChecker · 12/12/2023 13:33

We had an integral garage that was just a heat sink. Have you anything external to stop rain and draughts getting under? That made a difference to us. Have you considered insulating wall-paper for the sides.
For your working/standing/sitting area I recommend a wooden floor. A sheet of sterling board on 2" bearers. Floor paint.

I have stopped drafts from the inside to some extent, but not that well. Part of the reason to insulate is to stop drafts, not just to insulate, IYSWIM.

As for other comments - sorry, they are irrelevant to my question. My question was all about how much good insulating the door will likely do - I am not interested in doing a full and proper job (various reasons) and know for sure that if I do the floor and walls as well as the door it will be much much better!

I have tolerated the cold in there for many winters already... I am not looking to turn it into a habitable room, I am looking to make sure that it is never biting cold and on a typical british winter's night it is OK if I wear a couple of thick jumpers.

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Ablondiebutagoody · 12/12/2023 14:39

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 13:05

None of your business! I used it as a store-room / workshop / hobby room / extra living room. Sometimes I am doing things reasonably active, but other times I am keeping fairly still, and I'd like to be able to sit still in a couple of thick layers and be reasonably cosy, not under 6 layers and frozen!

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Haha, fair point! I was wondering if you felt it was making the room above cold and could just insulate the ceiling but obviously not. Your original idea is a good one.

Original poster

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 14:44

Ablondiebutagoody · 12/12/2023 14:39

Haha, fair point! I was wondering if you felt it was making the room above cold and could just insulate the ceiling but obviously not. Your original idea is a good one.

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In an ideal world we would insulate the ceiling as well, but that's a whole 'nother conversation (and expense and hassle!)

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BlueMongoose · 12/12/2023 18:39

AnonnyMouseDave · 12/12/2023 14:44

In an ideal world we would insulate the ceiling as well, but that's a whole 'nother conversation (and expense and hassle!)

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We use our free-standing one for DIY etc., and we're planning to have ordinary double-glazed doors/windows/UPVC panels put on instead of the metal door. Not a proper brick wall, though, which may need foundations/building regs because garage floors aren't designed to be load-bearing.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 12/12/2023 20:33

We had an up and over garage door. I didn't matter to us so much that it made the garage cold, but the bedroom above was always cold. The bedroom had really good carpet and insulating underlay, but that only helped a bit. For various reasons we invested in a roller shutter garage door which is amazing and makes the garage so much warmer, not least because it fills the doorway, and has drafts around the edges, rather than needing a gap around the edge to swing.

Sparehair · 12/12/2023 21:52

I’m not sure insulating the door will make that much difference tbh. The cold in our garage seems to come through the floor ( concrete). We have a roller door that creates a really strong seal so it’s not draughty but it’s still freezing in there- I don’t need to chill wine, beer and mixers in winter. However, we do have an exterior wall ( which I assume you don’t have) so that probably doesn’t help.

Original poster

AnonnyMouseDave · 13/12/2023 11:01

Sparehair · 12/12/2023 21:52

I’m not sure insulating the door will make that much difference tbh. The cold in our garage seems to come through the floor ( concrete). We have a roller door that creates a really strong seal so it’s not draughty but it’s still freezing in there- I don’t need to chill wine, beer and mixers in winter. However, we do have an exterior wall ( which I assume you don’t have) so that probably doesn’t help.

Thanks... our cold could be coming from the concrete as well - I'm sure it is, but the door seems to be the biggest issue. We have no external wall but one wall separates us from next door's horrible cold garage just like ours!

I have been thinking about a new garage door too, but potentially a new garage door (whilst it would be nice) might be five or ten times the cost of insulation and not do the insulating job as well.

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simolias · 13/12/2023 15:48

I know you said you are not interested in making it a habitable room but that is what you are using it for. We viewed a house with a temporary easy to remove stud wall that was insulated. From the front they still had the up and over garage door and used that part for storage. They then built a stud wall internally, insulated it and plasterboarded it but not plastered. They had those gym foam tiles on the floor that helped warm it too. Easy to remove when they moved if the new owner didn't want it.

RuffledKestrel · 13/12/2023 20:27

Insulated roller door alone made my garage habitable. When it's 2°c outside it's about 10-12 in the garage. Same type of house as you, the room above the garage is also always toasty.
Putting that foam garage flooring down I suspect will make it even warmer as that seems to be the only bit where the cold is coming from now.

GasPanic · 14/12/2023 11:36

I have done this.

First of all I bought one of those bubble wrap kits from amazon. This worked a bit but there were still drafts round the edges.

I bought some interlocking PU panels from B&Q. These slot together like a jigsaw. I built a wall with them in front of the door, they are easy to cut to shape, and sealed the edges with draft excluder. Really I think the best thing is to build a wooden frame around the door that holes the PU panels in place and I may do this next year. There is also an air gap between the PU panels and the door, which I could probably fill with bagged insulation to improved the performance.

It makes the garage quite a bit better. It would probably be better still if I taped up all the edges of the PU boards, but then it would be harder to disassemble when I want to open the doors (a couple of times a year normally). The PU panels will stand some dismantling, but probably would not be good if you wanted to disassemble them once per month and would probably break up eventually.

Melroses · 14/12/2023 12:21

This is interesting - I have been looking a replacement insulated garage doors but I don't think we have enough space above the opening for a lot of the roller or sectional ones. I didn't realise you could get kits for up and over doors.

I would need to open it occasionally - the ladders are in there - and there is no space to store a dismantled wall.

Now down a rabbit hole of weather strips to keep the leaves out.

Also, I hadn't considered the uninsulated concrete slab which would make spending thousands on a replacement door less attractive.