Small Projects #29: Insulating the Garage Door

Just insulated the garage door. Cost me $80 for four 4×8×2” foam panels. Very thinly foil skinned on the front side and an equally thin film logo printed back.

3/4 complete, gotz 2 move stuff around to finish.

Cut the foil side first, snap, fold, and cut the back film. Use a fresh razor blade or very sharp knife.

I cut a partial row off the short side of a sheet. Each 4’ wide piece is cut to length to fill two adjacent spaces in the door. The lengths are cut by placing the factory edge to the left of the space with the film up. Score the film with a line by eye about 1/2” in from the right end. Recutting deeply makes the piece easy to snap and fold. Then cutting the back film is simple as long as your blade is sharp.

The support grid for the 16’ x 8’ (two car) door is in the center of each of the four horizontal panels forming the roll up door. The insulation panels were inserted foil side out behind the horizontal stiffeners and are held firmly in place without tape or glue.

The foil film is so thin it’s iridescent.

Use a knife with a blade long enough to go completely thru the foam for trimming panels that were cut oversize and got stuck. (DAMHIKT)

Precision, although generally desired, is not needed here. Better to cut 2” undersize than 1/2” oversize.

The project was easy, took the hump with the stump about two hours, needed only a rule, knife and straight edge to install. Oh yes, a stepstool is needed to get the top row installed.

The cutting, installing, and trimming makes a lot of styrofoam mess. It looked like someone had tried to murder a beanbag chair afterwards. The static on the styrofoam beads makes them cling and a chore to clean, but an air hose helps.

I ran the door down, kicked on the window shaker and was down what felt like 10° in an hour. SUCCESS!

My window shaker ain’t much but it’s a LOT better than nothing!

One side benefit is that the shop is now a lot quieter with the door up or down. With the door down street noise is essentially eliminated in both directions.

Here in Florida this is going to really help the shop this summer.

-- The hump with the stump and the pump!