Garage Door Insulation Kit Types

Using a garage door insulation kit to insulate your garage door will keep your garage warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and reduce street noise. It also can qualify you for a federal energy tax credit and increase the value of your property.

There are four main types of garage door insulation kits:

• fiberglass panels
• panel foam
• reflective foil
• insulating foam

We’ll start with the fiberglass kit. The major manufacturer of this kit is Owens Corning, pioneers in the insulation industry. The kit has eight panels for a single door and includes a fastening system enabling a quick and secure method of attaching and holding the panels in place. Installation can be done in less than one hour for a single door. The cleanable vinyl surface resists denting and tearing and brightens the garage.

PanelFoam kits are made of expanded polystyrene panels with laminated plastic faces for durability and easy maintenance. The panels fit inside the channels of the door frame rails making installation relatively easy with no tape, glue or screws needed. These kits come with all the materials to do a single garage door. So remember, if you have the double garage doors, you will need an insulation kit for each door. There are some brands that offer kits with just the additional panels which is nice if you have a garage door with the windows along the top.

The garage door insulating kits with the insulating foam are available from another leading manufacturer, Dow. The insulation in these kits is polystyrene which is well suited for metal doors. Panels have a durable plastic surface and fit flush to the inside of the garage door. They can be cut to fit if need be. You then inject the foam insulation being careful to fill every space in the door. By bonding to the metal of the door, the injected foam insulation eliminates any possible voids.

Reflective foil insulation is our final option. This is the one for the solid garage door without the sections in the door. The foil insulation covers the entire surface of the inside of the garage door and can be cut to fit around parts of the frame if necessary to create a tight seal. This type of  kit is available in double foil or single foil types. The cost is minimal between these two types of insulation. Again, the kit comes with everything you need to install the insulation and can be done in an hour.

The R,factor is a consideration when selecting the type of garage door kit you will purchase for this easy weekend project. This is the measure of the resistance to heat flow which can be determined by the type of insulation and its thickness. But it should not be the determining factor in the type of insulation used to insulate your garage doors. The type of garage doors does make a difference. Solid wooden doors cannot be effectively insulated with the current insulation kits on the market. If your garage doors have the new hurricane bracing, both panel and reflective foil insulation will work with a little more trimming and work to get to the panels themselves.

Some common concerns to garage door insulation are the cost of the kits and the effect the insulation will have on the operation of the garage door. Most of these kits of all types of insulation can be found at major home improvement stores or purchased online through garage door manufacturers such as Texas Garages that offer several types of insulation kits with reasonable prices and delivery options. They usually range in price from $85 up to $200 for double garage door kits.

Any tools needed are probably sitting in the garage right now such as a utility knife, straight edge, tape measure, and work gloves. A one year warranty is common with these kits along with complete instructions. Some have videos you can download and watch before beginning the installation. So do a little research, adjust the budget to ensure some long term savings on heating and cooling your garage, and pick a Saturday morning.

Update: We had a question from a reader that brought up a technique that we personally use on another part of our house to block heat during the summer. It is so effective, that I thought it deserved to be included in this article…

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Todd wrote:
I live in CA and my garage door faces the sun. I have my network server in the
garage and it gets really hot. What is your recommendation for the best
insulation for my metal door?

HI Todd,
We have the same thing here in VA with our deck. Southern exposure, and the afternoon sun cooks it. Obviously, I am going to recommend a garage door insulation kit.  That will help a lot.  But to really take it to the next level, you have to get the sun off of the door. We took a piece of sailcloth and hooked one of the sides to poles extending up from the deck rail about 4 ft. Then the other end hooks to bungee cords that are fixed into eyelets on the roof.

It was a lot less expensive than an awning, and we can take it down in a flash is there is going to be a bad storm with a lot of wind…For your metal garage door, you should begin with a Falcon Foam Insulation Kit. If you still feel that the space is too hot, then you can add the technique described above.

Okay – I hope that helps some of you guys here in the south. It occurs to me that we could also do this in the space just in front of our garage doors…it is already paved, and that provides another outdoor entertainment area at very little cost.