Insulate garage doors. How to insulate garage doors yourself

The microclimate in general and the air temperature in the garage in particular are parameters on which the safety of the car and all other items located in the room directly depends. In order for the garage to become the most reliable shelter for your property and a comfortable place for repairs and other work, you need to carry out comprehensive insulation of the entire structure and pay special attention to the thermal insulation of the gate. You can handle all stages of insulation yourself. Read the instructions and get to work.

In order for thermal insulation to be as effective as possible, you must not only properly fasten the insulation, but also first take all possible measures to preserve heat in the room. For example, examine the condition of your gate. Maybe they are already very weak and it’s time to install them instead modern design good quality? This, of course, comes to this quite rarely, but even such unpleasant exceptions do occur.

As a rule, garage walls are relatively thin. Without high-quality insulation, they will practically not retain heat inside the garage. And even the most modern heating system will not help - condensation will simply begin to settle on the walls, which will lead to even more unfavorable consequences.

Therefore, the first thing you should do is insulate all surfaces and ceilings of your garage, and only then think about organizing a heating system. And the thermal insulation of the gate is an integral part of the mentioned complex work.

Pre-prepare all the necessary accessories for insulating the gate. It's better to spend time assembling them at the very beginning so as not to be distracted by this in the future.

Video - Insulating garage doors

Garage door insulation kit

  1. Vapor barrier.
  2. Waterproofing.
  3. Insulation.
  4. Bars.
  5. Dowels.
  6. Fasteners for steam, hydro and thermal insulation.
  7. Sealing compound.

It is better if insulation garage doors will be external. However, performing such a task is very often not possible. If the garage is located on a private local area, then it is still possible to insulate its gate from the outside. If the garage is located in a cooperative, you will have to be content with internal thermal insulation.

Condensation will form where the insulation comes into contact with the gate metal. Therefore, the metal parts of the structure must first be treated with a special anti-corrosion agent and covered with a vapor barrier material.

After laying the vapor barrier, it is attached to the gate wooden frame with cells according to the size of the heat-insulating material slabs. The insulation itself is laid as tightly as possible.

Previously wooden elements the frame must be impregnated with a special antiseptic. Can buy ready-made composition or cook it yourself. Heated drying oil has good antiseptic properties.

Traditionally, mineral wool and polystyrene foam are used to insulate gates.

Before you begin, take the time to properly prepare.

First stage. Clean the surface. Take a special power tool or at least an ordinary metal brush and remove traces of corrosion, cracked paint and other dirt from the gate.

Second phase. Prime the gate. To do this, buy a professional composition in a specialized store. The primer will protect the metal from corrosion. It is convenient to use a wide brush to apply the composition.

Third stage. Seal the gaps between the frame and the garage door leaf itself. To do this, it is convenient to use a special sealing rubber. It will simultaneously close the cracks and will not interfere with the gate opening normally.

The technology of foam insulation is extremely simple and can be easily done with your own hands. Follow all the recommendations given step by step and your garage door will be reliably insulated.

First step. Cut the foam sheets according to the dimensions of the gate. If in the future you plan to perform decorative cladding, for example, with clapboard, fasten the sheathing of wooden slats. You will place insulation in the cells of the sheathing, and nail the lining directly to the slats. If finishing cladding is not planned, the sheathing may not be done.

Second step. Lubricate the insulation board or the surface of the gate at your discretion with polyurethane foam or special glue for foam plastic, capable of ensuring its high-quality adhesion to metal surfaces. Foam must be present at the corners of the sheets. Also distribute it evenly along the plane of the insulation board.

Take into account the fact that as the polyurethane foam gains strength, it increases in volume, so apply it as evenly as possible.

Third step. Press the foam sheet firmly onto the insulated surface. If there is no sheathing, start insulating from the corner of the gate, carefully aligning each sheet before final fastening. It is recommended to lightly moisten the metal with water beforehand.

We applied the foam to the sheet, waited a few seconds until it expanded a little, pressed the sheet tightly to the surface, and after 20-30 minutes pressed it again. The foam expands, so you'll likely have to do a few of these repeated presses.

Fourth step. If desired, fill the sheathing with clapboard or other finishing material of your choice.

Mineral wool is also quite often used to insulate garage doors. Preparation for thermal insulation is the same as in the case of foam plastic: you clean the metal of contaminants and fix the vapor barrier. In the case of mineral wool, it is imperative to prepare the frame. The frame cells should be 5-10 mm narrower than the mineral wool insulation slab. This way the slabs will be laid as tightly as possible.

All wooden structural elements must be impregnated with an antifungal agent.

Fill all frame cells with insulation. Fix the mineral wool slabs on the sides using dowels. Attach waterproofing material over the insulation. A simple plastic film will do.

Sew a lining on top of the insulating “pie”. Attach the sheathing sheets to the sheathing using self-tapping screws. Instead of lining, you can use another material of your choice.

If you wish, you can use the simplest option for insulating garage doors using polyurethane foam in cylinders.

First stage. Buy polyurethane foam. About 5 cylinders of foam are required for 7 m2 of insulated surface. Calculate the required number of cylinders to insulate your garage door.

Second phase. Apply foam to the gate in an even layer. Allow the material to harden, and then cut off any excess foam that has protruded from the sides using stationery knife or other sharp device.

Third stage. If desired, decorate the insulation. Hiding foam is not very easy. But, for example, it can be covered with plaster. The insulation will not be completely invisible, however appearance the design will immediately become more aesthetically attractive.

If you have a sufficient budget, you can cover the foam with chipboards, lining or other material.

As a result of such insulation, a real monolith will be created on the gate. The advantage of this method is that the foam is able to efficiently fill even the smallest cracks. This material is not afraid of contact with moisture and lasts for several decades. In addition, the layer of foam will further strengthen the gate structure.

Good luck!

Video - Do-it-yourself insulation of garage doors

Often, car owners’ concern for their four-wheeled pet is expressed even more strongly than for themselves. And the construction of a well-equipped and high-quality insulated garage is one of the manifestations of such careful care. The issue of insulating the garage from the inside comes first here. And since the main source of leakage of such precious heat is the garage door leaf, the need arises to decide how to properly insulate garage doors.

It doesn’t matter what the garage space is used for: parking a car, storing things, a workshop, or anything else. The important thing is that it always remains warm. In this publication, we will tell you exactly how to keep the garage warm by insulating its doors. And let's start, perhaps, with a description of the main mistakes that many car enthusiasts make when they acquire a garage and equip it.

  • Ventilation. Availability of good ventilation system necessary in any room, and the garage is no exception. Alas, not everyone realizes this. Many people think like this: ventilation holes are an extra source of heat leaving the garage. In essence, this is true. However, their presence is necessary to avoid excess dampness in this room.
  • Metal gate design. Many owners of a car home (which, in essence, is a garage), when setting up a garage, install gate leaves of a solid structure, without a gate. Meanwhile, the gate will allow you to achieve less heat loss during the cold season. Whether it’s the case, when we want to get into the garage in winter, we open a small gate for a few seconds, or we have to open a large gate to do this. The difference, as you can see, is obvious. True, these doors will also have to be insulated. Their insulation is carried out similarly to the insulation of the door leaf.
  • Insulation. When deciding how to insulate a garage door, many owners, in an effort to save on insulation, use porous insulation. An example of such an insulating material is mineral wool. The reason why such materials should not be used is the following: most often garage doors are iron frame with the same canvas. Moreover, the thickness of the latter does not exceed a few millimeters. Because of this, during the cold season, condensation may form on the inner surface of the canvas due to temperature differences. Porous insulation absorbs this condensate quite well, as a result of which they lose their main qualities.

Materials

Now let's look at the question of how to insulate garage doors to ensure maximum thermal insulation. Actually, 4 materials are most often used for these purposes:

  1. Mineral wool;
  2. Extruded foam;
  3. Polyurethane foam;
  4. Styrofoam.

Each of these 4 materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. As for mineral wool, as we already wrote above, it is not particularly suitable for insulating garage doors. Polyurethane foam is quite expensive, and not everyone wants to spend a lot of money on a garage. Extruded foam, although it costs less than polyurethane foam, is still not affordable for everyone.



Based on this, we will consider insulating garage doors using polystyrene foam. Although he is quite afraid of fire, taking into account the ratio of the area of ​​the garage door to the area of ​​the rest of the surface of the garage, insulating the garage door with polystyrene foam is quite acceptable.

Preparing for insulation

To insulate a garage door with polystyrene foam, you must complete the following steps:

Before you insulate your garage door, its inside surface must be cleaned. This is done using an iron brush. Particularly large and deep areas of metal corrosion on garage doors can be cleaned using a brush attachment on a drill. After which you need to seal and, if necessary, weld all the cracks and holes on the surface of the gate.

To prevent further formation of corrosion foci, it is necessary to treat the cleaned surface of the gate with some kind of anti-corrosion agent or antiseptic. For these purposes it is quite suitable means is heated drying oil, or even better bitumen mastic. It is applied with a regular wide paint brush in two layers, perpendicular to one another.

After the anti-corrosion coating has dried, it is necessary to create a paving sheathing. It will become the basis for laying and securing insulation from foam boards. This lathing is made from bars with a cross section of 40x40 or 50x50 millimeters. The cross-section of the sheathing bars depends on the width of the end corners of the gate.

It is desirable that the bars are solid. The dimensions of the sheathing cells should be selected in such a way that they correspond as much as possible. The sheathing must be attached to the end corners of the gate. To do this, holes of 4 mm diameter are pre-drilled in the latter. The pitch between such holes should not exceed 200-250 millimeters. Next, the sheathing bars are fastened through the drilled holes with self-tapping screws.

If the design of the garage door is such that it does not imply the possibility of removing the gate from the hinges, a slight problem may arise with attaching the sheathing bar to the lower end corner due to the inability to reach there with a screwdriver or even an ordinary screwdriver. In this case, the block must be secured exclusively at the end. By the way, it is also better to treat the bars with some kind of antiseptic before fixing them. If the gate or wicket has locks, bolts or a ventilation hole, the sheathing must bypass these elements.

When the inner surface of the gate is cleaned, treated with anti-corrosion and antiseptics, and the sheathing is securely fastened, you can begin insulating the garage door with your own hands using polystyrene foam. What does it mean to insulate a garage door with foam? This means covering as much of the gate's surface area as possible with foam. If the dimensions of the sheathing cells do not correspond to the dimensions of the foam plastic slabs, then these same slabs must be adjusted to the size of the cells, using a penknife or an ordinary, but thoroughly sharpened knife along a ruler.

The slabs are cut into pieces based on the width of the cell plus 2-3 millimeters. The same goes for heights. This is done so that the foam boards fit into the cells of the sheathing as tightly as possible.

This installation system will help solve two problems:

  1. The foam insulation will be securely clamped between the sheathing bars, which will eliminate the possibility of it sagging and falling out. In this case, no additional seal for the garage door will be needed.
  2. Thanks to such a dense laying of the foam, the insulating effect increases significantly. At the same time, no additional seal also not required.

For additional fixation of foam boards, you can use polyurethane foam as glue. However, insulating gates with polyurethane foam is a very risky business. Why is that? Let us explain: when drying, polyurethane foam tends to expand, creating pressure on foam board and pushing it out of the sheathing cell. Therefore, for more convenient and comfortable fixation, we recommend using specially designed for such purposes.

As for polyurethane foam, you also cannot do without it. This product is ideal for sealing gaps between the sheathing and the insulation, if any. This is where its expansion properties come in handy. In this case, the foam, expanding, not only presses the insulation against the sheathing frame, but this also achieves better sealing of the insulated surface, for example, swing gates. After drying, excess foam must be trimmed flush (level) with the sheathing frame.

As an additional insulation measure, you can install a seal for the garage door. This, in fact, rubber or silicone gasket is attached to the ends between the gate leaves. This ensures a tighter fit of the ends of the garage doors to each other, which prevents the penetration of cold air masses into the garage. Such seals are attached using a perforated metal strip and self-tapping screws.

The final stage of insulating garage doors with your own hands is their surface cladding.

To cover the gate, you can use OSB sheets, plastic or wooden lining or profiled sheet. Each of the data facing materials have both their plus and minus. Let's take a brief look at them, and at the same time decide what is better to sheathe garage doors.

  • Wooden lining. Is one of the most beautiful and practical solutions for facing the door leaf. However, they require pre-treatment with some kind of fire retardant and antiseptic.
  • Oriented Strand Board (OSB). Beautiful looking, durable and rot-resistant material. Can be painted or glued.
  • Plastic lining. Easy to install and looks attractive. But the strength of this cladding material leaves much to be desired.
  • Profile iron sheet. Durable, practical and durable material. However, as experienced garage owners assure, it is better not to cover the door leaf with a profile sheet. The reason for this is a fairly high probability of condensation forming on the side where the insulation is located.

As you can see, of the above facing materials, OSB is the most optimal. Therefore, if you are deciding how and how to insulate garage doors from the inside with your own hands and what to cover them with, oriented strand boards are the optimal material for this.

The optimal board for cladding gates is OSB.

In conclusion of all of the above, we would like to once again point out the importance of the fact that you need to approach the question of how to insulate a garage door with your own hands with full responsibility. A high-quality and reliably insulated garage door with your own hands is a guarantee of a constant acceptable temperature, and therefore the longevity of your mobile vehicle.

A garage is a place to park a car, protecting equipment from bad weather, and a workshop if the car needs repairs. Some residents store equipment, summer supplies for the winter, and old things in this room. For a comfortable stay in this room you need to insulate it.

Many people have no idea how to insulate a garage door from the inside. You can do this work yourself, following the special instructions described below.

Preparing for work

There is an option that is easy to use, but very expensive - to buy a garage door model with built-in insulation and interior finishing. Insulating your garage door yourself will cost much less. This does not require construction education or experience in finishing work, and insulation will take little time. Let's look at how to properly insulate a garage door with your own hands, with all the nuances.

Garage doors are made mainly from sheet steel, so they cannot retain heat in the room. It is not advisable to heat an uninsulated room, since you can get condensation in the room and ice on the walls and gates in severe frosts. Before sheathing the garage door, purchase the material you will use to insulate the garage door.

Can be applied different insulation materials, the cheapest and most effective option would be to insulate garage doors with polystyrene foam.

  • Styrofoam has a small specific gravity, so no load will be placed on the structure. The material has low thermal conductivity, is environmentally friendly, lasts more than 50 years and does not absorb water. No thermal insulation required for installation special tools, since the foam sheet is easily cut with a simple stationery knife.
  • Stone wool(basalt) – fire resistant fibrous material, with high moisture resistance. Can be used in any room for sound and heat insulation, does not emit harmful substances. This material is easy to use. Sold in rolls.
  • Expanded polystyrene- one of the varieties of polystyrene foam, having the same composition. This material has lower thermal conductivity due to its increased density, and has different degrees of flammability, which are indicated on the packaging. To insulate garage doors, you need to use the NG or G1 brand. This material has a drawback: it is destroyed in the sun, so it requires additional finishing.
  • Liquid penoizol- a material that is sprayed from a cylinder and is able to fill all the cracks and bridges of cold. It sets in 15 minutes, hardens within 4 hours, and final strength occurs after three days. The advantage is ease of use, good thermal insulation qualities, and non-flammability. The insulation is seamless, no need to rack your brains about how to seal the gaps between the sheets of material.

It is better to order a garage door with a gate; if it is not provided, then it is better to equip it before the insulation work begins. The gate will help retain heat in the room during renovation work.

Insulation tool

Before you insulate your garage door, you need to prepare the tools necessary for this process:

  • screwdriver or drill;
  • core;
  • screwdrivers;
  • square;
  • level;
  • hard brush;
  • sandpaper;
  • roulette;
  • hacksaw;
  • construction knife.

Almost every owner has this set of tools.

Finishing materials

Even before starting work, you need to decide how to cover the garage door:

  • lining;
  • corrugated sheeting;
  • plywood, moisture resistant;
  • PVC panels.

Based on practice, it can be noted that oriented strand board (OSB) has many advantages:

  • strength and reliability;
  • easy to process;
  • does not require additional vapor barrier;
  • moisture resistant;
  • has an attractive appearance;
  • It's inexpensive.

This the material is suitable for rooms with high humidity.

To make a frame for insulation, you need to prepare bars with a cross-section of 40 mm, which are pre-treated with special antiseptic compounds to prevent rotting.

Preparing gates for insulation

Before you insulate your garage door, you need to preliminary preparation. Inspect your swing garage doors for rust and peeling paint. They need to be cleaned well; rust is removed using sandpaper with coarse grain, hard paint wire brush. Next, the entire surface is treated with fine-grained sandpaper for better adhesion.

The next step is to treat the surface with a degreasing solution. After complete drying, anti-corrosion primer is applied in two layers. It is worth noting that the second layer of primer is applied after the first has dried and perpendicular to it.

After the primer comes waterproofing, it is equipped if polystyrene foam is used as insulation; with other materials it is not necessary. Bituminous mastic is easy to use and is used to carefully coat the door leaf, and it is advisable to glue vapor barrier membranes to it. Can be applied self-adhesive material"Izolon"

Lathing

When insulating the gate from the inside with your own hands, you must strictly adhere to the instructions described below - this will help you avoid making fatal mistakes.

Lathing - installation of bars, pre-cut to the size of the gate leaf. It is desirable that the bars are solid. No need to neglect the framing of the bolts and ventilation holes along the perimeter.

Before installing the bars, you need to mark the door leaf and tilt the places where the holes for fastenings will be located. The step between the screws should be no more than 25 centimeters. You need to pre-drill holes with a 4 mm drill in the pre-designated locations.

The bars are screwed with self-tapping screws (wood-metal) of the required length. To do this, use a screwdriver. The bars should be 60 centimeters from each other - this distance is just right for the width of the foam layer.

Installation of foam plastic

Insulation of swing garage doors with foam plastic begins with marking and cutting the material. The layers must be cut in such a way that the foam fits tightly between the sheathing. The cutting line must be smooth and vertical, so the use of a flexible blade is unacceptable.

It is worth noting that you do not need to use foam plastic fasteners when installing it, since it will be absorbed by the finishing material. But for reliability, you can use special silicate glue or polyurethane foam, which can also be used for sealing seams and cracks.

Advice: you need to buy material taking into account the sheathing and its location on the swing garage door leaf, otherwise there will be a lot of scraps. You can use polystyrene foam for insulation, then you don’t need additional waterproofing, and it’s easier to work with - it doesn’t crumble. The only drawback is the high cost.

Stone wool insulating gates

The process of insulating a garage door from the inside with stone wool is not difficult even for a beginner. This good insulation, having an aluminum film on one side, which reflects 97% heat. Mounted directly on the door leaf using mounting adhesive. On the garage side, the insulation must be protected with any facing material.

Application of expanded polystyrene

For garage doors, many people use insulation such as polystyrene foam, which has good insulating qualities. The installation method is the same as when installing foam plastic.

Insulation of gates with foam insulation

It is not possible to insulate garage doors with your own hands using liquid foam insulation - this will require special equipment and qualified builders. The material is sprayed in several layers by a spray machine. The lathing for this method is mounted as in the previous case; it will be needed for fastening finishing.

This method has a large number of advantages:

  • does not change its properties over time;
  • excellent adhesion;
  • high thermal insulation properties;
  • no cold bridges remain when applied;
  • does not require installation of vapor barrier;
  • service life 70 years.

Application of polyurethane foam

Once the layers of insulation are installed, you need to carefully seal the cracks. Optimal and simple option The garage doors will be insulated with polyurethane foam; all voids and cracks will be filled with it.

It is better to purchase professional material for the gun, this will help to significantly save material, since the gun helps to accurately distribute the foam in the right quantity. Foam tends to expand, thereby filling all voids. As soon as the foam has dried, it is cut flush with the insulation.

How to cover the gaps between the base and the insulation? To do this, you can use “Izolon” ​​- a self-adhesive material used as additional insulation and vapor barriers.

When insulating, the door leaf is often lined with penofol before installing the sheathing. This is an innovative, non-flammable, easy-to-use insulating material.

Insulation of gaps

When insulating the gate, gaps remain between the leaf and the slopes, into which cold air penetrates from the street. For complete tightness, these cold bridges must be eliminated without fail. For this purpose, inserts and thresholds are used.

Vinyl inserts cope well with this problem. They are used to paste over the edges of the gate, having previously covered them with two layers of paint. For better adhesion, there are special notches on the inside of the inserts.

Before installing the inserts under the threshold, the space is first cleared of dust and dirt. The material is fixed using a special mounting adhesive.

Insulating a garage gate

Before insulating a garage door, the surface is prepared. It needs to be done in the same way as when insulating large swing gates. Waterproofing and vapor barrier are installed.

After this, the sheathing is mounted using pre-prepared bars. First of all, they are screwed around the perimeter of the gate. Then you need to cut out a block equal in size to the diagonal line of the gate and screw it with self-tapping screws. The sheathing is ready, it needs to be treated with special compounds to prevent rotting.

In the case of a gate, the insulation is cut in the shape of two triangles and inserted tightly into the sheathing. All cracks are foamed as described above.

Finishing the gate after insulation

As soon as the insulation of the sheets with your own hands is completed, the question arises - how to cover the garage doors. There are a lot of options, you can use:

  • Railcar - which is environmentally inexpensive pure material. She has a presentable appearance, she tolerates temperature changes well, and is resistant to mechanical damage. Gates, swing gates, insulated, and finished with clapboard have an aesthetic appearance. It is mounted on wood screws to the gate frame.
  • PVC panels are easy to maintain, installation is not difficult, long term services. But there is a drawback: this material is susceptible to shock and mechanical damage. The panels are mounted on the sheathing using a construction stapler.

  • moisture-resistant plywood is a material with excellent environmental and technical qualities, the only negative is the high cost.
  • OSB panel - High-quality, inexpensive material for cladding work on garage doors, which even professionals recommend using.

The material is mounted on the sheathing using self-tapping screws. Before installation on garage doors, swinging ones need to cut the sheets to size, trying to eliminate large amounts of scraps. OSB has excellent characteristics, but to increase its service life it needs to be treated with special compounds or painted.

In custody

As you can see, the work of insulation is painstaking, but not complicated, and if you do it according to all the rules, then insulated garage doors will protect the room where the car is located from winter frosts.

It is worth considering one more important nuance - you should not use material such as mineral wool to insulate garage doors. The fact is that it absorbs moisture, which, when frozen, almost completely deprives the material of its thermal insulation abilities. This fact also applies to glass wool.

Do not forget that when cold and warm air a dew point appears - condensation, which, if the insulation is installed incorrectly, can reduce all work to zero. Now you know how to properly insulate a garage door and can do it yourself.

“A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation,” this catchphrase from the famous work of Ilf and Petrov has become a household name. After all, today not a single day in our life goes by without a car. But in order for it to serve faithfully, it also needs to be properly looked after and protected. He needs his own home. Moreover warm house. Let's talk about insulating garage doors.

Why do you need a garage?

For many car enthusiasts, a garage is also not just a place to store their iron horse, but also their own small service station, workshop, and sometimes a cellar or warehouse.

It should be remembered that according to SNiP 21-02-99 “Car Parking”, for long-term and proper storage of a car, the required air temperature in the garage must be at least +5°C. To maintain the required temperature in the garage, it is necessary to install a heating and ventilation system.

Choosing garage door insulation

Sectional insulated doors are optimal for installation. They will help to avoid many problems associated with insulating gates. They also open upward, which will help to avoid problems with opening the gate after a snowfall; they do not require a radius for opening the gate and securing the leaves after opening. After all, a gust of wind can move the sash and damage the car.

But if replacing swing gates with sectional ones is not part of your plans, then they need to be insulated. Indeed, in this case, metal serves as an excellent conductor of cold and collection of condensate.

To insulate gates, you can use various thermal insulation materials.

Stone wool - heat insulator based on basalt fiber. Non-flammable material. It has high thermal insulation properties, which allows to minimize heat loss in the building. Vapor-permeable material, using water repellents, does not absorb moisture, is non-toxic. But when working with it you need to use tools personal protection: gloves, respirator, thick clothing, since cotton wool fibers have a size of several micrometers, when they get on the skin they cause itching and burning, and when they get into Airways, cause a reaction in the mucous membranes.

Foamed polyethylene , otherwise known as synthetic winterizer, is a common material for thermal insulation and as a filler for upholstered furniture. Foamed self-adhesive material - izolon - is produced on the basis of polyethylene. It can also have one foil side for better thermal insulation.

Expanded polystyrene - a type of foam plastic. It is very popular among developers. It has excellent thermal insulation, is not hygroscopic, and supports combustion very well. It is not toxic in itself, but when heated to 70-80°C it begins to release a very toxic gas - styrene. Therefore, if your garage doors “look” to the south, using polystyrene foam as insulation is not recommended.

Also soluble in acetone and other chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Polyurethane foam - sprayed lightweight and durable material. Has a very low thermal conductivity coefficient. Non-toxic, but flammable. Possibility of application of this material self-limited. To spray it, a special installation is required, which will mix the components of the material during spraying.

Preparing garage doors for insulation

Before starting work on insulating the gate, it is necessary to ensure high-quality preparation of the surface.

Inspect the gate for damage to paintwork, dirt, rust and oil stains. If there are metal defects on the gate itself, they must be removed. You also need to clean the structure from dirt and rust using a brush with metal bristles. Additionally, treat the surfaces with a rust converter and coat the metal with a primer. The measures taken will protect your gate from further corrosion, extending its service life.

Check the gaps between the gate frame and the opening. If there are any, provide for the possibility of installing a rubber seal. Check constipation mechanisms. Adjust and, if necessary, lubricate the locks.

The insulation must be protected from mechanical damage. To secure the finishing of the gate, it is necessary to install additional wooden lathing on the gate.

Insulation of gates with various materials

Insulation with stone wool. Most designs of swing garage doors are made from a corner with a shelf length of 50mm. This shelf size is sufficient for inserting insulation. Stone wool definitely need to be covered vapor barrier film, otherwise the average daily temperature difference will lead to condensation in the insulation, and, as a result, it will get wet. On the garage side, mineral wool must be protected. For this you can use siding, OSB board, wooden lining.

Insulation with foamed polyethylene (isolon). Using self-adhesive material will greatly simplify the insulation of gates. Self-adhesive material is available in thicknesses from 2mm to 10mm. Izolon can be coated on one side aluminum foil, which will provide a thermal reflection coefficient of 97%. No additional covering of the material is required. Although the material is easy to damage.

Insulation with polyurethane foam. One of the most progressive insulation methods, but at the same time one of the most expensive. Main feature insulation is applied in liquid form. After foaming, it increases in volume up to 20 times, filling all the cracks and voids, forming a perfect seal. Has excellent sound insulation. Closed-cell polyurethane foam (specific density from 40 kg/m3) acts as a vapor barrier. Good adhesion at the level of 2 kg/cm2 to any materials and does not require the installation of additional fasteners.

Insulation with polystyrene foam The most common method of insulating swing garage doors. The low cost of the material and its excellent thermal insulation properties have contributed to its widespread use.

A budget option is gluing sheets of expanded polystyrene to metal gate plates using polyurethane foam. The seams between the sheets must also be sealed with foam.

Most gate frame designs used small gussets to increase rigidity. The foam under these scarves must be cut to a smaller thickness. If you make a mistake when trimming, the gaps formed must be filled with foam.

When working with extruded polystyrene foam, which has increased rigidity, external finishing may not be carried out. It is enough to glue the joints with aluminum self-adhesive foil.

But it is worth remembering that using polystyrene foam on gates that “look” to the south is not advisable. When hitting straight sun rays On metal it heats up quickly. Expanded polystyrene already at a temperature of +75-80˚С begins to decompose, releasing styrene.

Additional measures to ensure thermal insulation of the garage

Because the swing gates have very large area opening, it is necessary to reduce this area. Ideal option is the equipment of a small gate in the plane of the gate.

Seal all junctions between the gate and the frame with thresholds or rubber gaskets. Create an additional air gap between the gate and the main garage room. Such a layer with a thickness of 200-400mm can be created by hanging it on the garage wall with inside thick fabric or tarpaulin curtain.

The temperature in the garage largely determines the condition vehicle, but, above all, its rubber technical elements. Moreover, the warmer the room is, the more comfortable it will be to use the car inside. winter period. Finally, the temperature here also affects the microclimatic conditions in basement(if any) under the garage. And in order to retain heat inside the garage, it is necessary to carefully insulate it. So, today we will talk about how to insulate garage doors with your own hands.

Is it necessary to insulate gates at all?

To find out whether the gate really needs insulation, you need to understand one extremely important point. Yes, even without taking into account winter cold The usual thermal fluctuations during warm and daylight hours can lead to the formation of condensation in the garage. A permanently increased level of humidity negatively affects not only the condition of the object, but also the body of the vehicle: metal surfaces become covered with rust, electrical wiring begins to rot, and mold or mildew appears in the corners of the garage.

As soon as the condensation freezes, it will begin to crack due to moisture. finishing material. But there is great news - such a seemingly serious problem is quite difficult to solve! You just need to select an insulating material, and then carry out the appropriate measures to insulate gates and doors yourself. As soon as the work is completed, the temperature in the garage will not fall below 5 C. Let's find out how to do this.

What can you do? Getting ready for work

There are several options: for example, you can simply purchase and install modern garage doors High Quality, which are already equipped insulation material, or carry out work on thermal insulation of existing gates on your own, which, of course, will cost much less. This will not require much time, nor will it require special skills in construction.

Note! The garage door itself is thin, so it is unable to reliably protect against the cold in winter. Heat metal garage generally unreasonable, since the only thing you will achieve in this case is the formation of condensation on the walls.

It is also worth noting that it is better to insulate the gate from the outside, although this is often impossible. At internal insulation condensation will appear in those areas where the insulation comes into contact with metal surfaces, for this reason all surfaces should be protected with an anti-corrosion agent, and the heat insulator itself should be fixed as tightly as possible in order to avoid air gaps. A wooden frame is built on top of the insulation, which will serve as a base for future cladding.

How to make heating in a garage with your own hands

Previously, we talked about how to choose the type of garage heating and do it yourself; in addition to this article, we advise you to read this information

Now - directly to the workflow!

Instructions for insulating garage doors

The thermal insulation procedure consists of several stages; let’s get acquainted with each of them in more detail. By tradition, we begin by selecting materials and preparing all the necessary equipment.

How to choose insulation?

In this case, the characteristics and quality of the heat insulator are extremely important. Of all the known insulation materials, the following is suitable for our case:

  • mineral wool;
  • Styrofoam;
  • polyurethane foam;
  • extruded foam.

Each option has its own strengths and weaknesses. We also note that even before insulating the garage door with your own hands, you should correctly determine the required number of materials. Go ahead.

If we talk specifically about polystyrene foam, then it does not have high enough fire safety, but it has increased moisture resistance and low heat conductivity. Mineral wool is more fire-resistant (so to speak), but its moisture resistance leaves much to be desired. Polyurethane foam spraying is new way thermal insulation is expensive, albeit effective. This method has several significant advantages.

  • After installation there are no seams left.
  • Polyurethane foam weighs quite little.
  • It can be applied to any surface, even unprepared.
  • The material is resistant to temperature changes and chemicals, it is durable and strong.

But due to the high cost, this method is not very popular - as a rule, foam plastic is used to insulate garage doors. Therefore, in this article we will focus specifically on this material.

Necessary equipment

You don’t need any specific tools - almost every car owner should have everything they need at hand. So, for work you should prepare:


How to insulate your front door yourself

Previously, we talked about several ways to insulate the front door, what tools and materials are best used for this, in addition to this article, we advise you to read this information

Calculations of the required number of consumables

First, measure the gate and determine what and how much you will need. For finishing cladding can be used various materials: plastic, plywood, lining, etc., but in practice best option in this case, OSB boards, which have a number of advantages:

  • reliability;
  • affordable price;
  • strength;
  • ease of processing;
  • excellent aesthetics;
  • low vapor permeability (you don’t have to use additional vapor barrier).

For the garage you will need material marked OSB-3 or OSB-4 one centimeter thick. After completing the measurements, calculate the required number of slabs (for reference: standard dimensions one slab is 250x125 centimeters). Often, a couple of slabs are enough, and after work there are a lot of scraps left, which will also be useful in the future.

OSB boards will be fixed to the sheathing made of wooden blocks of 40x40 millimeters. The lathing will be created around the perimeter of the structure and along the area of ​​the door leaf, and attached to the load-bearing parts (these can be profiled pipes or steel corners). When calculating the dimensions of the sheathing, you need to take into account several points (this is another important point regarding how to insulate a garage door with your own hands).

  • Dimensions load-bearing elements.
  • Dimensions of foam sheets.
  • The fixation step for future cladding (at least 400 millimeters).

The bars will be fastened with self-tapping screws (their length depends on the thickness of the load-bearing elements); for OSB boards, the best option is screws equipped with a press washer.

Note! It may be necessary to treat the internal iron surface with a special anti-corrosion primer that can protect the material from rusting. The primer can be anything, it is only important that it is intended for a fairly wide temperature range. Before applying the primer, the surface will need to be degreased with a solvent.

To install polystyrene foam to metal (as well as to fill the resulting gaps), you need to purchase polyurethane foam. It is advisable that it be professional, that is, a special gun is used for application. This type of foam has less expansion, and it is much more convenient to apply it with a gun.

Wooden blocks should be treated with an antiseptic to prevent them from rotting. The antiseptic can also be anything; Moreover, it can even be paint that has antiseptic characteristics. Finally, ordinary polystyrene foam (not extruded) needs to be protected from moisture, for which you can use bitumen-based mastic, vapor barrier membrane, isolon and so on.

Stage four. Preparatory activities

Step 1. First of all, treat all wooden elements with an antiseptic. Do this in one or two layers, depending on specific means(if there are several layers, then each of them needs to be given time to dry). To apply, use a regular brush, but start working only with protective gloves - most of antiseptics are made on the basis of aggressive chemicals.

Step 2. Next, begin preparing the inside surface of the garage door. Carefully inspect the surface, clean off any traces of rust found. Any paint that has already peeled off should also be cleaned off. Next, in order to increase adhesion, the entire surface is carefully treated with sandpaper. Finally, the metal is coated with a degreasing solvent.

Step 3. Proceed to apply the anti-corrosion primer, and apply it in two layers: the first along the canvas, the second across, after the previous one has completely dried.

Step 4. When the surface is dry, proceed with waterproofing (as noted above, for regular polystyrene foam This - required condition). There are several methods of waterproofing, let's get acquainted with each of them.

  • Using bitumen-based mastic.
  • Using isolon.
  • Using a vapor barrier membrane.

It is necessary to cover the entire surface with waterproofing, which will later be covered with a heat insulator.

Stage five. Installation of sheathing

We continue to consider how to insulate garage doors with our own hands. According to the previously drawn up diagram, cut the bars the right size. To attach them, make holes in the frame with a diameter of 0.4 centimeters in increments of about 20 centimeters. To fix the bars themselves, you need to tighten them with clamps and, using a 0.25 centimeter drill, make holes in them according to the depth of the screws.

Stage six. Laying foam

The foam will be laid in the voids between the sheathing bars. To do this, first measure the dimensions of the cells and cut the insulation using a metal ruler and a mounting knife. It is important that you make each sheet of foam a few millimeters larger than the required dimensions, on each side. So the insulation, being quite elastic, will fit extremely tightly.

Video - Technology for cutting foam plastic using a knife

There are several ways to fix the heat insulator between the sheathing beams, let’s get acquainted with them.

Method number 1. You don’t have to attach the foam at all, since the sheathing slabs will already press it against the gate quite tightly.

Method number 2. The material can be glued using polyurethane foam. Great option, especially since foam will already be needed in the work.

Method No. 3. Finally, you can use “liquid nails” glue, which, as far as we know, is intended specifically for this.

Note! Polyurethane foam has excellent adhesion, but before application it is still advisable to moisten the surface somewhat. This is explained by the fact that the foam hardens only when exposed to moisture.

Take a sheet of polystyrene foam, apply foam to one surface along the entire perimeter (a little, in the center - in a zigzag manner). After this, wait about ten minutes for the material to increase slightly in volume, and press the sheet to the desired location on the gate. After another fifteen minutes, press the foam again to make sure that its adherence to the surface is as strong as possible.

After attaching the last sheet, fill in all voids and cracks using the same mounting foam. When the foam dries (and this will take at least a day), the excess is cut off with a knife. Now get started last stage work!

Stage seven. Sheathing

Measure the gate with a tape measure and determine exactly how to cut the OSB boards. It is important that they completely cover the sheathing with insulation, but at the same time it is necessary to act on the principle of maximum integrity of the slabs. If joints cannot be avoided, then they should be placed exclusively on the bars.

For cutting slabs you can use electric jigsaw or a hacksaw. Next, place the slabs in place; if necessary, make cutouts for ventilation holes or locks. Use screws for fastening - it will not only be secure, but also look beautiful. The vertical mounting pitch should be 150 millimeters, but the center and horizontal spacing should be 250 millimeters. Drive the screws into the pre-drilled holes.

Note! If you have difficulties with the tight fit of doors or gate leaves, you can paste over problem areas sealant tape or tube (these are sold in large assortment, and you can choose for yourself optimal sizes and shape). This will significantly reduce heat loss in your garage.

Gates, lined OSB boards, they already look excellent on their own, but if you wish, you can paint them with paint of any color you like. Of course, all this depends solely on personal preferences, since the main thing is already ready - the garage door is insulated. For a more detailed look at how to insulate a garage door with your own hands, we recommend watching the thematic video below.

Video - Thermal insulation of garage doors

As a conclusion

As a result, let us remind you once again how important it is to insulate the gates and the garage itself as a whole. Even normal (not taking into account winter) temperature fluctuations during warm and daylight hours can lead to the formation of condensation in the garage. A permanently high level of humidity negatively affects not only the condition of the room, but also the body of the vehicle: metal surfaces become covered with rust, electrical wiring begins to rot, and mold or mildew appears in the corners of the garage. As soon as the condensation freezes, the finishing material will begin to crack due to moisture. But high-quality insulation will allow you to get rid of all these troubles!