Preparing Your Garage For Any Weather (Our Top Tips)
Today's garage doors are marvels of engineering. Stylish, quiet, and capable of being controlled remotely from anywhere on earth, they make life easier and safer for homeowners in Highlands Ranch. But as impressive as they are, they could still use some help in dealing with caprices of Mother Nature, who is both unrelenting and unforgiving. In this post, the garage door repair experts at A Better Garage Door provide helpful tips you can use to prepare your garage door for any weather.
Seven Ways to Bolster Your Garage Door's Defenses
Garage doors are built to last up to 30 years. If you want yours to fulfill its potential lifespan, take the following tips to heart.
Arrange for Regular Maintenance
One of the most common reasons garage doors die before their time is improper maintenance. Like your car, a garage door is a complex mechanism that needs regular tuneups to ensure everything's in proper working order and to address any small issues before they blossom into big, expensive ones. Arranging for regular maintenance is the best way to fend off the need for garage door repair and ensure your door will be there for you no matter what's happening outside.
Install Insulation
Most garage doors do not come with insulation already installed. It's up to the homeowner to add it. Fortunately, adding insulation to a garage door is much easier than most people think and can usually be done in the afternoon by any reasonably competent DIYer. Insulating your garage door will help protect the opener, chain, tracks, and other components from weather-related wear and tear. That, in turn, will help the entire mechanism last longer.
When it comes to garage door insulation, you have several choices, including:
- Fiberglass batts
- Rockwool batts
- Rigid foam panels
- Ceramic batts
The following table compares the basic characteristics of each insulation type.
| Characteristic | Fiberglass Batts | Rockwool Batts | Rigid Foam Panels | Ceramic Batts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal Insulation (R-value) | R-2.9 to R-3.8 per inch | R-3.0 to R-3.3 per inch | R-4.0 to R-6.5 per inch | High (varies by manufacturer) |
| Soundproofing | Moderate | Excellent | Low to Moderate | Excellent |
| Moisture Resistance | Low | High | High | High |
| Fire Resistance | Non-combustible, but degrades at high temperatures | Non-combustible | Varies, may melt in high heat | Excellent, highly resistant to extreme heat |
| Installation Difficulty | Easy to install but requires proper safety gear | Slightly harder to cut and fit | Moderate, requires precise cutting and fitting | More complex, typically used in specialized applications |
Most homeowners opt for rigid foam panels because they are simple to install and work like a charm. You can buy the insulation separately or purchase a garage door insulation kit from the local home center. It will include everything you need to insulate your door, including directions. Once the insulation is in place, you can expect your garage to be 10 - 12 degrees warmer in the wintertime than it is now.
Replace the Weatherproofing Strip on the Bottom of the Door
When the garage door reaches the bottom of its run, it rests against either the garage floor or the end of the driveway. Neither is perfectly flat, creating a space at the bottom of the door through which air could move freely. To prevent this, every garage door installation has a strip of weatherproofing attached to the bottom of the door that fills the space. After countless openings, closings, and the coming and going of dozens of seasons, this weatherproofing wears out and must be replaced. To find out if yours needs replacement, open the door most of the way and inspect the weatherstripping. If it's worn, replacing it is a relatively fast process.
Replace the Molding Around the Door
No garage door fits its opening like a glove. There will always be a gap between the door frame and the door itself, bridged by molding, sometimes called the door stop. If your door is over a few years old, there's a good chance this molding has begun to wear out, allowing for the free flow of air into and out of the garage. Making sure the door stop molding is always in tip-top shape will ensure your door, and by extension, your garage, is not subjected to any more wear and tear at the hands of nature than it needs to be. Inspecting this molding will only take a few minutes, and replacing it can typically be done in a couple of hours.
Seal Up Any Cracks
It only takes a tiny crack to allow warm air in the garage to escape and cold air to rush in. So, one of the best ways to weatherproof your door is to inspect every panel - including the edges of the window panels - for cracks. If you find any, seal them with a caulking gun and some good vinyl latex exterior caulk. Don't bother caulking any of your panels if you find large cracks in them. Instead, ask a garage door provider about replacement panels. They can probably get some from the manufacturer if they don't have any that match your door.
Seal Any Switches and Outlets in the Garage
Above, we detailed several ways air can seep in through and around your garage door, thereby subjecting the various components of the door to unnecessarily harsher conditions, eventually shortening the door's life. But there are other ways cold, damp air can find its way into your garage, and one of the most common is around the faceplates of outlets and light switches. In most cases, you must break out the caulking gun we discussed earlier and seal the gaps using a quality vinyl latex caulk.
Don't Forget the Garage Floor
To withstand the weight of a car or cars, most garage floors are made of concrete. Over time, however, constant use along with salts and other materials brought into the garage on the tires of the car can weaken the integrity of the concrete, causing it to crack. When that happens, cold air from under the house enters the garage. You can prevent this from happening by applying a coat of polyurethane, waterproof paint, or epoxy resin to the floor.
Of those three coatings, waterproof paint is the easiest. The only downside to waterproof paint is that it won't last as long as epoxy or polyurethane. But whichever coating you choose, it will bridge any cracks that develop and prevent cold from leaking once it has been set up. As a bonus, it will make cleaning the floor much easier.
Check out this video to learn more about applying an epoxy coating to your garage floor.
For Expert Garage Door Installation in Littleton, Contact A Better Garage Door
On cold, miserable nights, your garage door can be your best friend, enabling you to safely and comfortably inside. If you want to ensure a trusted friend has a long, healthy life, take the above tips to heart. For expert garage door repair or 24/7 emergency service, contact A Better Garage Door at (303) 920-2267.