Integral garage making house colder! 14 December 2022 at 9:51PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 9 replies 581 views

CEG90

Looking for suggestions and ideas from people who have experienced the same please! 

In this cold weather the internal door to our integral garage is letting cold air through. It’s a good internal door, but there are inevitable little gaps which are making the rest of the house much colder than it has to be. 

We were considering putting a sheet up, covering the door and the gaps, but I’m not sure how we’d do it. Has anyone else experienced the same issue with an integral garage during the winter who has any ideas on blocking the cold air coming into the house please? 

Thank you! 

GDB2222

You can get v shaped plastic draught excluder that works really well. Stormguard.

Lorian

If there is a bedroom over it check the floor is properly insulated too. Also consider if the main garage door could take some insulation but if it has any sort of spring mechanism to open it weight or bulk can be problematic. The internal door well draught proof it with stirmguard or similar. Or pir insulation attached to the garage side. Or put up a thermal curtain on the house side.

FreeBear

CEG90 said: Has anyone else experienced the same issue with an integral garage during the winter who has any ideas on blocking the cold air coming into the house please?

Have an attached garage here that had an interior grade (fire resistant) door separating it from the main house. Nasty cold draughts came in around the door, the worst being at the bottom. Have since replaced the door with a high security steel door (insulated and a 15 point locking system). This has killed the draughts, but still cold near the door. Fortunately, it opens in to a utility room which in turn is separated from the kitchen by another door (need to replace that one with a decent insulated door).

In your shoes, I'd seal the draughts as you can, and then hang a heavy thermal curtain over the door. Make sure it is snug against the wall - This will get you through this winter, and when the weather warms up, look at replacing the door with a better fitting one. It will need to be a fire door to comply with building regulations.

_Sam_

FreeBear said:

Fortunately, it opens in to a utility room which in turn is separated from the kitchen by another door (need to replace that one with a decent insulated door).

Similar situation here, the garage door opens into the porch area, after that there is another door to the hallway, and from that there are doors to the rest of the house. The porch area (though also integrated/flush with the house walls) is always colder than the hallway and when I open the garage door there is an obvious draft across the space from the up and over door.

So a bit of insulation and definitely draft proofing should help, unless you can create a physical barrier like a small room/porch separating the garage door from the rest of the house. In our case it also helps that the up and over door is south facing, so the garage warms up during the day a fair amount.

MikeJXE

If you don't use the main garage door you can seal it off temporarily, get some 100mm thick kingspan or similar, secure it to the door entrance inside of course. Some strong tape to seal round the edges inc the floor

glennevis

I have an integral garage which comes off my dining room and have put up two thick door curtains either side of the door plus a door snake to block the worst draught at the bottom. Adding the second curtain was a noticeable improvement.

piperm87

we have an integral garage but thankfully no internal door to it. Our problem is the bedroom above which needs insulating between the floors - during these cold temps there is a noticeable draft coming through in front of the skirting boards which are also cold and there is a 2 - 3 degree in temperature in the carpet compared to the half of the bedroom thats over the hallway - which is also cold as its only a single brick solid brick wall between the garage and hall stairs and landing.   crap design if you ask me!

housebuyer143

My integral garage has a thick door which has brush strips built into the side of the door and has draft excluder attached to the bottom.. No air comes through this door at all. 
 Maybe you need to install something like this? 

chris_n

housebuyer143 said:

My integral garage has a thick door which has brush strips built into the side of the door and has draft excluder attached to the bottom.. No air comes through this door at all. 

 Maybe you need to install something like this? 

That is fitted with intumescent seals to protect against fire I.e. what is supposed to be there. When I first saw this thread my immediate reaction was it should be an exterior door as the garage is effectively outside. I was surprised that it is supposed to be a half hour rated fire door and it appears at a glance that part L compliant half hour rated doors are not that common.