Tips to Insulate Your Garage

It’s that time of year, again. The cold weather is here and, especially if you live in Utah, it probably won’t let up for many months. While this signifies the arrival of several terrific things, such as holiday cheer and our state’s infamously great snow for skiing, it also means that energy costs are likely to go up, in order to keep our homes clean. While many people take proper measures to insulate their home, properly, not nearly as many do the same for their garages. This is an overlooked mistake, as failing to insulate your garage will usually allow cold air to get into your home, anyways. If you’d like to avoid this mistake this year, here are some tips to help you insulate your garage…

Insulate the garage door

Not enough people realize that they can insulate their garage door. This is a major step towards making sure that your garage is properly insulated, as having a large, often metal, door that is exposed to the elements will undoubtedly leak cold air. To insulate your garage door, you can fasten rolls of fiberglass insulation to the door, or even foam board, by cutting strips of your insulation of choice and attaching it to each individual garage panel. Make sure that you choose a lighter insulation material, so that you are not adding too much weight to your garage door’s motor. Aside from adding insulation to the door, it is also important to make sure that your garage door actually seals off the outer elements from getting inside. Over time, seals will deteriorate and become less effective, and may need to be replaced.

Insulate the walls

In the same way that you insulate exterior walls in your home, you can just as easily do the same thing in your garage. To do this, either install standard batt insulation (the fiberglass kind) behind your drywall, or have a professional blow cellulose into your walls to keep the cold at bay. Not only will this help keep your home insulated, but it will also make it more comfortable for you to pursue other projects in your garage during this time of the year.

Be energy smart

No matter how much planning and production you put into your garage’s insulation, none of it is going to be very effective if you aren’t being smart about it. Sometimes the most effective way to keep your garage insulated is to just keep up on the simple things. Keeping your garage door shut when you aren’t using it is the biggest of these, as it keeps the heat from leaking outside, which will waste the energy you are paying for.