Adding insulation to your garage door can be a great way to help regulate your garage's temperature during extreme heat and cold, but how effective it is can depend on other factors, like whether certain walls are also insulated, and how airtight the door is. Further, the calibration of your door is a crucial part of the process to help avoid any damage.

Look for Other Sources of Heat Gain and Loss

Garage doors can definitely be a heat sink, especially if they directly face the sun, but while adding insulation can help the garage, it may not be as effective at moderating the temperature of any rooms inside the house. If you're trying to regulate garage temperature to help certain rooms from being too hot or cold, you'll need to take a few other things into account.

Any room the shares a wall or floor with the garage should be insulated, but that's no guarantee that it was insulated when the house was built. For example, if a room adjacent to or above the garage is always hotter than the rest of the house, it's the wall or floor that needs the most focus, not just the garage door. Make sure those walls and floors are properly insulated. In addition, the roof is often the highest source of heat gain or loss, so make sure that's insulated how it should be as well.

Make Sure Your Door Is Weatherproof

Insulation can have a dramatic effect, but it can also easily be undermined by any leaks in your door or frame; insulation can't stop hot air from entering or escaping from holes or gaps.

To start, make sure there's no damage to your door in the form of warping or cracks. Everything should be solid, in place, and move without tension or too much noise.

Second, check your door's weatherstripping. Weatherstripping gets less effective with age and can let much more air and moisture in as it deteriorates. Replace this if necessary to get a snug seal.

Finally, make sure your door is properly balanced. An imbalanced door can leave gaps along the frame, so by making sure the door is balanced correctly, you'll ensure that the insulation you add will be much more effective.

Recalibrate Your Door When Finished

No matter which method you use to insulate your garage door, you will inevitably be adding weight to it. Because of that, your door springs will need to be recalibrated to its new weight. This is especially important on wider garage doors, where the difference between the old weight and the new weight will be much greater.

Whether you have side-mounted sprints or torsion springs, this part of the process should be handled by a professional; the tension in these springs can be extremely dangerous to try to work with. However, getting them properly adjusted will increase their life span and help you avoid any damage to your door or your door opener. For more information, contact companies like Durbin Garage Doors LLC.