Do insulated garage doors make a difference?

[NewJeffCT]

We have a new house, with a two car garage. Unfortunately, the standard garage doors that they installed seem almost made of tin and quite thin. I'm sure it's some sort of aluminum or something, but when I go into the garage in the morning, I see frost on the inside of the doors. Given the fact that we have a 3rd bedroom above the garage, will changing the garage doors to insulated ones make a difference in that bedroom, as it can get cold in there if the door is shut...and, if we keep the door open, it will cause our heat to run more often. (Right now, we have a temporary nanny living there, but my in-laws will hopefully be coming from overseas within a few months!)

The garage walls & ceiling have insulation in them, there is just no heat going into the garage except for what it absorbs from the family room behind it and the 3rd bedroom above it.

[tonekat]

1. Well, insulated doors would keep the carbon monoxide in

...do you like your in-laws?

[NewJeffCT]

2. lol

yes, we're lucky in that my in-laws & I get along and my parents and my wife get along.

But, if I turn the car on, I always open the garage door.

[bunkerbuster1]

3. How well sealed are the doors you already have?

Not just that rubber seal on the bottom of the door, but along the sides and top? It's tough to get that to fit really tight like a conventional door, and if you don't have it sealed, insulation won't do bumpkiss for you.

BTW, as I type, I'm in the coldest room in my house, which is (you guessed it) above our garage.

[Dr.Phool]

4. If you don't want to pay for a new door

When I was looking to buy a house a few years ago, in Florida, this nice old guy showed us his house.

In his garage, he'd taken sqares of styrofoam board, cut to size of his garage door panels. In the summer it cut the garage temperature almost 40 degrees (the door faced south). So something like that would probably save your heat.

[achtung_circus]

5. Absolutely,

The styrofoam idea is an economical alternative. Use the blue stuff and apply it with construction adhesive. It comes in tubes that fit a standard caulking gun.

Even though the ceiling of the garage is insulated there is heat loss. Anything that slows heat transfer from inhabited space to the great outdoors, even indirectly like through the garage, will help.

[NewJeffCT]

6. thanks

Some good thoughts, I think.