Exclusive article from the owner of All 4 Seasons Garage Doors, Dan Watkins!

Dan is talking about how he became a believer in insulated garage doors. Dan is sharing with us his experience as a technician and business owner and how he became aware of the benefits of installing an insulated garage doors.

Without further due, here is Dan’s experience:

“I have been selling garage doors for 15 years now. The industry has changed a lot in these 15 years. The two biggest changes have been the number of new door styles and the increasing insulation value of garage doors. The steel carriage garage door has given people an opportunity to really add to the curb appeal of the exterior of their home. I will write more about this in my next blog article. For this one, I would like to focus on garage doors R-values.

What is an R-value? To put it in plain English, it is level at which it will keep the good air in and the bad air out. When you increase your R-value, you save yourself money. In fact, a garage door with a high R-value can save you hundreds of dollars a year. Some people will recoup their garage door investment in just a couple of years! For other it may take a few years, but you will start saving money the day your new insulated garage doors are installed.

When I first began selling garage doors, I wasn’t sure the insulation would help the customers. When I returned to the home after installation, people would tell me how great it was. That’s when I started to believe in insulation, but I still wasn’t 100% convinced. Then I installed them in my own home. The real reason I installed them wasn’t because of the insulation. It was the steel on the backside of the doors. I was running my garage door company out of my home and kept all of my supplies in the garage. My workers were in and out of the garage all the time. I didn’t want the new doors to get damaged and dented up. What it did to my energy bill was a total surprise. I live in the Atlanta area and the sun would beat down on my garage doors all day long. In the summer time, the garage would be 120⁰F! As soon as my insulated garage doors were installed, the temperature dropped to about the same as in the rest of my home. My energy bills used to run as much as $450/month. Now they never are over 0/month. I figured out that I save between $600-$1,000 a year. I’m now a big believer in insulated garage doors.

R-values for wood doors or uninsulated steel doors are less than 1.0. They allow cold/warm air to get into your garage and then into the interior of your home. When you install an insulated door, there is a trim with a rubber gasket installed around the perimeter of the door. That rubber flap seals the gap between the outside wood and the door itself. Without this, an insulated door would be useless. There are two types of insulation you can purchase for your new garage doors. The first material is a polystyrene insulation. It has a similar composition to a Styrofoam cooler. This type of insulation can get you between 6.0 and 10.0 R-value. The second and the better of the two insulation materials is polyurethane insulation. It can get you an R-value of somewhere between 12.0 and 19.4. The other benefit of polyurethane insulated doors is the added durability. The polyurethane hardens like a rock in between the two pieces of sheet metal. This makes the door much more dent resistant and adds another level of protection when the customer has “an accident.”

So you can see how important it is to add a little extra money to your next garage door purchase. You’ll quickly start saving the money on your heating and air conditioning bills. It helps regulate the temperature in your home and adds to the durability of your door. Just remember “cheap” and “value” are not the same thing. Start thinking about value when doing home repair/remodeling and you’ll save much more money in the long run.

That’s all, folks!

If you have any quesiton you would like to address Dan or us, feel free to comment!

Call All 4 Seasons Garage Doors at (678) 981-8454 for a FREE In-Home Design Consultation or to receive FREE estimates on insulated garage doors.