Garage door / insulation advice please

rubble2

Hi,

Our house was built about 20 years ago, we have lived here for 5 years. The house is a four bed detached with an integral garage and the fourth bedroom built directly above the garage.
The bedroom gets noticeably cooler than the rest of the house (to be fair, the room gets warm enough when the heating is on but it rapidly cools down once the heating is off).

When we first moved in I sealed all the visible gaps around the perimeter of the bedroom (between floor and skirting) and also put foam sealant in the garage on the wall/ceiling join.

I don't unfortunatley have any information about the level of insulation that exists under the bedroom floor, I assume that it would be the minimum the house builder could get away with.

The garage door is a standard metal up and over type ( I did attach some foil insulation to the inside face of the door but not really convinced it made much difference).

The garage as I say is integral so one side of the garage borders the hallway/stairs, the back wall borders the kitchen/utility leaving only one side and the front with garage door exposed.
There is no window and no further access door to the garage other than the up and over one.
I want to replace the door  with an automatic one and feel that if I am doing that anyway I 
may as well spend big and get a decent insulated sectional door ( I am thinking of Hormann LPU67 Thermal).

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of these doors and if the benefits are obvious?

My other option I suppose is to rip out the bedroom floor and/or garage ceiling to install further insulation but in all honesty I would rather avoid the inconvenience and mess if replacing the door as suggested would give a reasonable benefit.

Thanks in advance

silvercar

You aren't heating the garage, even if you are insulating the door, so it is always going to be a lot cooler than the room above. My gut feel is that insulating the bedroom floor keeps heat in the bedroom, whereas insulating the garage door keeps the heating transferred from the bedroom in the garage rather than allowing it to escape. So keeping the garage at say a few degrees warmer than it would be by not insulating the garage door, still maintains a large heat difference with the room above and won't make that much difference to the room above. If you want to keep heat in the bedroom then insulating the floor would be best. I would do it from the garage, far less messy than lifting floor boards etc.

womble12345

Could you just stick some of this on the garage ceiling?
Knauf XPS Laminate Plus Insulated Plasterboard Tapered Edge - 27mm x 1.2m x 2.4m | Wickes.co.uk

FreeBear

rubble2 said: My other option I suppose is to rip out the bedroom floor and/or garage ceiling to install further insulation but in all honesty I would rather avoid the inconvenience and mess if replacing the door as suggested would give a reasonable benefit.

Garage doors will always be draughty, some better than others.. I'd go for lifting the floor and insulating between the joists rather than ripping the ceiling down in the garage - That ceiling is likely to be cement board to act as a barrier in case of a fire. For that reason, I'd also avoid using polystyrene or PUR/PIR to overboard the ceiling from inside the garage.

mexican_dave

The garage ceiling should be a fire-barrier with double layer 15mm plasterboard (or cement board) but putting a flammable insulated board up against that seems to be pushing the fire resistance to it's limit! So yes, either take up the bedroom floor and insulate between the beams.

Mr.Generous

mexican_dave said:

The garage ceiling should be a fire-barrier with double layer 15mm plasterboard (or cement board) but putting a flammable insulated board up against that seems to be pushing the fire resistance to it's limit! So yes, either take up the bedroom floor and insulate between the beams.

My neighbor took the bedroom floor up (because it was uneven) in these exact circumstances, ie over the garage. No insulation whatsoever under the floor. He stuck some loft rockwool stuff in and said its a vast improvement. Big job though. 

Nearlyold

We have the LPU67 Insulated sectional doors. They are very well made, obviously if you're not heating the garage they not going to make the garage toasty but they do keep it that little bit warmer and the bedroom above, they are also draught free. Our neighbour was impressed enough when he came over to have a look at them to order a set himself.

Albermarle

What is on the bedroom floor. Carpet, laminate ?

ThisIsWeird

I cannot see an insulated garage door achieving anything other than the most marginal of improvements to the comfort of the bedroom.

Adding insulation doesn't, in itself, make a room warm. For warmth, you need heat. Where will the 'heat' come from to make the insulated-door garage warmer? It'll gain a small amount from the house and the bedroom, that's all. 

I doubt very much you'd notice the improvement in the actual house's rooms, especially the bedroom.

How to effectively improve the insulation in the bedroom above an integral garage? By insulating the bedroom, and not the garage.

I think you'd first need to find out just what already exists between the garage ceiling and the bedroom floor. Next-to-zero point adding insulation to the garage ceiling - one of the easiest (tho' almost certainly the least effective) solutions - if there is a void in the space above it. If there is a void, then every chance it's partly ventilated to the wall cavity, so will be 'cold'. Adding insulation under this - to the garage ceiling - will therefore be pretty pointless.

So, what's in the 'void'?! I guess you either make a small access hole and send in an endoscope, or you remove a larger section and stick yer head up there. What you find, or not, will likely determine the best way forward.

The OP - Rubble2 - has already carried out a couple of sensible moves by air-tightening the room perimeter, and also dittoing the garage ceiling (probably less effective). The very simplest and cheapest solution - which should make a difference - would be to lift the bedroom floor covering (carpet or laminate), and laying down whatever thickness of fibre insulation you can on to the subfloor, even if it's only 8mm. Sealed fully together, and around the perimeter, to ensure the floor is draught free.

Anything else will require floors taken up, or ceiling down. Make sure it's worth it.

rubble2

OP here,

Interested to see the further input to my original question, just to update things - we have decided against replacing the garage door due to the limited predicted benefit it would produce.

The bedroom in question is a spare room so seldom used, it does actually heat up quite quickly when CH is on but soon loses the heat when radiator is off. Due to the limited time the room is actually occupied and the relatively high cost in time and effort to produce a discernable improvement we have decided to just bear the cost of extra heating for when the room is in fact used (not often) and to look at the long term potential improvement in insulation next time that redecoration is on the agenda and the disruption caused can be tolerated.

ThisIsWeird

rubble2 said:

OP here,

Interested to see the further input to my original question, just to update things - we have decided against replacing the garage door due to the limited predicted benefit it would produce.

The bedroom in question is a spare room so seldom used, it does actually heat up quite quickly when CH is on but soon loses the heat when radiator is off. Due to the limited time the room is actually occupied and the relatively high cost in time and effort to produce a discernable improvement we have decided to just bear the cost of extra heating for when the room is in fact used (not often) and to look at the long term potential improvement in insulation next time that redecoration is on the agenda and the disruption caused can be tolerated.

Thanks for the update, and that sounds very sensible.

When you compare the cost of doing an insulation upgrade to one room, against the tiny additional cost of providing extra heat to it as and when required, then it becomes even more of a no-brainer.

When the time comes to redo the flooring, then consider the options.