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How to insulate garage wall and door?

Our garage gets extremely hot and I want to insulate it by attaching foam / batts to the door and a wall. I'm hoping people can suggest the right materials and techniques.

The garage faces north and west and is totally exposed to sun for most of the day. Above the garage is a balcony (concrete) so that also absorbs heat. The door is a single piece door that folds up and under the ceiling. The south wall is the shared wall with the neighbour's house.

The garage is single brick except for two columns of doubled brick. I'm hoping I can stick some batts in the spaces between the double brick columns.

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EricL

Hello @jeremiah

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about insulating your garage door and wall.

For your garage door, I suggest having a look at the GI Building Sciences 10mm 0.5 x 24m 12m² Reflecta Garage Door Insulation. it has been designed to mount onto single or multiple panel garage doors.

The ideal way to install insulation on your brick wall is to build a timber stud wall. This will allow you to mount the insulation bats in the traditional manner. You can then cover it with standard gib rock panel, and you won't have to deal with complicated mounting systems.

I also recommend having a quick look at this discussion - How to insulate a garage tilt door? by @lydp. This discussion should give you more ideas on how to insulate your garage door.

Here is a link to our best advice: How do you add insulation to a garage or shed?

Let me call on our experienced members @TedBear and @Adam_W for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

ayoung70

HI Eric

I'm very interested in this topic as well. Have just moved into a townhouse where I will need to use the single inbuilt garage for storage and overflow living. (no car) It also contains my laundry. However, mine is a roller door, not a panel lift. Is there anything like GI Building Sciences 10mm 0.5 x 24m 12m² Reflecta Garage Door Insulation. for roll up doors not panel tilt ?

thanks

Adele

MitchellMc

Hi Adele (@ayoung70),

I'll give GI Building Sciences a call after the weekend to see if their product can be used on a roller door. Their product appears to be aimed at tilt doors, but having a look at other products on the market designed for roller doors, they appear to be very similar. The only caveat to them is that they recommend ensuring that the insulation doesn't interfere with the door's ability to roll up.

I am not aware of any other insulation product we range that is specifically designed for roller doors.

Many thanks for your patience.

Mitchell

MitchellMc

Hi @ayoung70,

I've emailed GI building sciences and will update you when I hear back from them.

Mitchell

RSS

@jeremiahFoam insulation will work. A quick search Bunnings Foam Insulation shows items that will work. All these products can be screwed and possibly glued with the right product, to hold it in place.

Foam insulation does not need to be covered like bats do, but areas like the wall where they may get knocked and damaged easy, covering would be recommended. In this case, consider framing out and then install the foam as suggested by @EricL for insulation bats. As the foam is not strong enough to have things mounted to it, a wood frame is needed to mount a covering over the foam.

MitchellMc

Hi Adele (@ayoung70),

GI building Sciences is currently testing their Reflecta-Shed Plus for suitability on roller garage doors. It's 4mm thick and would be more suitable for that use than the garage door insulation, which is 10mm thick. They are concerned that the 10mm product will inhibit the roller doors function. I'm looking forward to hearing back from them after testing, and I'll let you know their results.

Mitchell

___CC

Hi there, @MitchellMc

Did you receive any feedback on the roller garage doors insulation, or can you recommend what the current best option is?

Thanks in advance.

Jason

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @___CC. We're pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading about all your projects and plans.

Mitch is currently enjoying a well-earned break but will be back on the site after Christmas. I will ask him to get back to you as soon as possible.

Jason

MitchellMc

Hi @___CC,

I'll reach out to the manufacturer to see if they have made progress in this area. However, they'll likely be shut over the holiday period and might take some time to respond.

Will the roller door still be used, or will it be permanently closed?

Mitchell

___CC

Hi there, it won’t be used on a regular basis as I’m making it into my office, however I don’t want to cut off access completely, if possible. The garage door faces west and you can’t even touch the door in the afternoon it’s so hot, so you can imagine how hot the garage space is. Looking at all options. Thanks in advance.

MitchellMc

When you say it won't be used on a regular basis, will it be used at all @___CC? You can certainly use the Reflecta garage door insulation on a non-functional door. It's only installed using dabs of silicone, so it can be removed later if you need to start using the door again.

However, in your situation and if you don't need to use the door, I'd be looking at building a temporary stud wall in front of the door, installing insulation batts and cladding with plasterboard or sheeting. A R2.5 batt will provide much better heat reduction, and the wall can still be deconstructed later

Mitchell

Nailbag

Hi @___CC

The alternative solution that @MitchellMc will also provide far better insulation properties over just having the Relecta products fixed to the door itself.

Last year a friend of ours son has had to return home to live and without a spare bedroom they needed to convert their old single attached garage which also got extremely hot. So, I built a frame as @MitchellMc described behind the roller door with a single door incorporated. The frame was densely insulated and lined each side with OSB board mainly cosmetics. The frame was positioned with around a 100mm space between.

Access was by using a remote to open the roller (we converted it from a manual) then the door within the new wall. This provided added security, weatherproofing and an air gap for that added insulation properties. And of course at some stage in the future a few hours would have the wall dismantled to make it a garage again. There was also quite a bit of additional improvements I had to do internally to make it bedroom habitable including a whirlybird which also made a big difference on hot days.

Nailbag

___CC

Hello @MitchellMc and @Nailbag, creating a wall definitely seems like the best option. I have a roof and no one above so could install a whitely bird. With this wall, and insulation, is it possible to know how many degrees I’d save, or if I might need an aircon in the false wall.

@MitchellMc, another thought regarding access and a doorway, do you think sliding doors, like cupboards do doors, would work for this scenario? I’m thinking it would give a wider access area if required.
Thanks, both 😊

Nailbag

Hi @___CC

No its not possible to know how much cooler the room will be with whirlybirds installed, others than to say it will be cooler. if you want to achieve even a higher degree of effectiveness consider fan forced models. These push the air through with better models being thermostatically controlled.

Not sure what you mean my using cupboard doors sorry.

Nailbag

MitchellMc

Hi @___CC,

A cavity slider unit could be integrated into your wall. However, any penetrations would affect heat transfer.

As for cooling, it’s really difficult to give an exact temperature drop, but installing a whirlybird or fan-forced ventilation will definitely help. For peak afternoon heat, you might still need some form of air conditioning to keep it comfortable, especially if the west-facing wall gets direct sun. The insulation plus airflow will reduce the extremes, though, so it should be much more usable than an uninsulated garage.

Mitchell

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