Shopsmith Forums

I am going to have to insulate my garage doors in the next month or so. As far as I can tell I have two options, foam or fiberglass batts. I would welcome any advice from those of you have tried either one. I am not particularly fond of having fiberglass strands floating around the shop so I am leaning towards foam but the fiberglass seems to give a better R value.
Paul

SilveRboard works ,,,,, the better the r- value the better off .

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Building-Mat ... vZasbsZcyf

I've always purchased garage doors that were already insulated and installed them. The insulated doors I've bought had foam insulation and it works very well. If I had an uninsulated door, I would use foam like the factory doors have.

masonsailor2 wrote:I am going to have to insulate my garage doors in the next month or so. As far as I can tell I have two options, foam or fiberglass batts. I would welcome any advice from those of you have tried either one. I am not particularly fond of having fiberglass strands floating around the shop so I am leaning towards foam but the fiberglass seems to give a better R value.
Paul

I replaced my garage door years ago when my shop shared the garage. I bought an insulated door and it is foam. I would go with foam and I doubt the difference in the R factor will make much of a difference.

I would go with foam as well. Just had new garage doors put in last year, with foam panels, and what a difference in temparature that makes in my garage (workshop in my half). I also put in a new window that also helped with the temparature.

jsburger wrote:

masonsailor2 wrote:I am going to have to insulate my garage doors in the next month or so. As far as I can tell I have two options, foam or fiberglass batts. I would welcome any advice from those of you have tried either one. I am not particularly fond of having fiberglass strands floating around the shop so I am leaning towards foam but the fiberglass seems to give a better R value.
Paul

I replaced my garage door years ago when my shop shared the garage. I bought an insulated door and it is foam. I would go with foam and I doubt the difference in the R factor will make much of a difference.

If R value makes no difference, why bother insulating?

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

masonsailor2 wrote:I am going to have to insulate my garage doors in the next month or so. As far as I can tell I have two options, foam or fiberglass batts. I would welcome any advice from those of you have tried either one. I am not particularly fond of having fiberglass strands floating around the shop so I am leaning towards foam but the fiberglass seems to give a better R value.
Paul

I replaced my garage door years ago when my shop shared the garage. I bought an insulated door and it is foam. I would go with foam and I doubt the difference in the R factor will make much of a difference.

If R value makes no difference, why bother insulating?

Did I say R value made no difference??? NO I said the DIFFERENCE in the R value between foam and fiberglass IN THIS APPLICATION may not be significant in practical terms.

Back when I did this the only option I knew about was the vinyl back fiber glass. The advantage was it just stapled over your existing garage door and provide insulation and some what of an infiltration barrier.

Short term is was nice, pretty easy to put up and help a lot with the winter cold we get in IL.

The bad part is that it got torn and rips started happening along the tack strip and now has large sections which I had to remove. A lot of the air infiltration has long since been gone.

Bottom line it worked really well for a few years, moderately well for a few more and now it needs replacing which I really don't relish doing because of the fiberglass exposure.

We are planning on replacing the whole door with an insulated one, perhaps this year. The bad news is it looks like we will have to spend about $1500 for it, installed.

Ed

Did mine using the 4x8 sheet of 2 inch thick white foam Home Depot and Lowes sell. I cut to fit the cavity in the door and it is held in by the reinforcing bars that span the width of the door.

Mind made a HUGE difference in temperature in my garage. Door is west facing so it got full afternoon sun.

My door is 6 8 ft by 18 so it took over 4 sheets. My neighbor did his with foil backed 1 inch foam it seems to work also. I think mine may have a higher r factor but we are both able to work in our respective garages all summer long with 10000 BTU units.

Having used both SilveRboard and the foam garage door kits. I would choose SilveRboard if you don't mind the bright aluminum faces and the blatant advertising. . I found it far easier to cut cleanly with far less flying foam kernels and the slightly improved R and added radiant heat reflection is a plus in the direction of the SilveRboard. Of course, you'll need to do a bit more cutting with the SilveRboard since it doesn't come in garage panel kits. Price difference is negligible.

Happy insulating!
John