In this day and age, garages aren’t just for cars anymore. However, whether your garage is a home salon, a man cave, a storage space, or a traditional parking spot: winter is hard on your garage. Garages typically aren’t finished like other areas of the home. They often have concrete floors, no insulation, and (of course) garage doors. All these factors diminish the space’s ability to retain heat during the winter. For some, this isn’t an issue. However, most of us have something that needs to be kept warmer than freezing in our garages, if not the whole garage. Fortunately, we have some tips to help get your garage ready for the harsh Utah winter.
Even if you use your garage primarily for parking and/or storage, chances are you have a couple things that need to be kept a bit warmer than the outside temperature. For example, many people keep extra fridges and freezers in their garages now. These cold storage devices are designed to keep their contents colder than the ambient temperature of their surroundings, but what happens when the outside temperature is colder than their insides? The simple answer is (unfortunately) that it depends. Some fridges and freezers are designed to completely shut off and will eventually match the outside temperature. Others, might not contain a shut off mechanism and may behave erratically because lower temperatures can affect the fluids they depend on for performance. The bottom line is that once temperatures drop below the temperature of your fridge or freezer, the best thing to do is get everything out that can’t handle a deep freeze. If your fridge or freezer doesn’t have an auto shut off mechanism for when it’s too cold, it should be unplugged.
If you need to keep your whole garage warmer for whatever reason, there are many solutions you can try. For those with a more permanent structure, it might be a good idea to put a layer of insulation between the floors and the concrete garage floor. Similarly, insulating the walls would also be a good idea. If you still have a full garage door entrance, we at Crawford have several insulated door options to choose from.
For those with not so permanent structures built into their garage space, there are still many options. Again, the insulated garage door would be a helpful addition. If there are any windows in your garage space, there are several weatherproofing kits available that have shown to greatly increase the insulation of window spaces. You can also setup some temporary insulation with inexpensive materials like cardboard and plastic. However, keep in mind that while it may perform significantly better than having no insulation, it doesn’t perform as well as permanent insulation. Also, the weakness of these materials means that they require attention and maintenance to be kept working optimally.
Whatever you use your garage space for, we at Crawford Garage Doors would like to help you get it ready for winter. Whether you need an insulated door, repairs, or maintenance: our service experts will be there for you. We’d also be happy to give you more information and resources about how you can prepare your garage space for winter. Just give us a call, we love answering questions about garages because we believe they are one of the most important spaces in your home.
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