Take a look at your home. You love it right?
If you’re like most people you make sure that the roof is in good shape. The landscaping is properly done. Water drains away from your foundation. Your gutters are clean and firmly attached..
But there’s one area that you probably haven’t been thinking much about. It’s your garage of course. Take a look at it — a typical 2500 ft.² suburban family home will have a two-car garage, typically measuring 17 x 20. That is a 340 ft.² room. It’s as big as your family room and is equal to approximately 15% of the total square footage of your home.
And what do we see in this very large room? Almost one entire wall is taken up by one very large or two fairly large overhead doors. Typically they are constructed of thin metal, either a single layer or two layers with an air gap between them. None of us would think of adding on a room to one end of our house and only insulating two of the three exterior walls. So why do we put up with the fourth wall in our garage acting as a huge heat sink? It only makes sense to spend a little on garage door insulation and get back a lot of energy savings.
The fact that your garage doors usually make up the single largest non-insulated area in the house make him a perfect candidate for insulation and energy savings. You can save a lot of money on utilities with a quick one weekend project.
Another consideration: maybe all you do with your garage is store your vehicles and a new sports equipment. But a properly insulated garage can become much much more. The garage that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter becomes an extra family room without much extra expense. Remember we have a large room here almost 350 ft.². Here are just some of the potential uses for this wasted space:
- Kids birthday parties. Roll out some cheap carpet remnants, set up a few collapsible tables and let the cake fly. The kids can run around and holler to their hearts content and the moms can take turns riding roughshod on the herd or relaxing with a cup of coffee in the family room.
- Home workshop. Whether you like to try fishing flies, do woodwork or you are a gear head a comfortable quiet garage will add to the pleasure you get from your hobby.
- Temporary guest room. Yeah that’s right — leave the cars in the driveway, and set up a couple of roll away bed’s. Remember now that your garage is insulated it will stay cool or stay warm depending on the season. And if your company is a couple you provide them with much appreciated privacy.
The facts above are right off the top of my head. I’m sure that when you think about your own family situation you can come up with other even better reasons to properly insulated garage.
