What Are the Best Insulated Garage Doors for Calgary Winters?

Calgary gets cold, really cold. In case you’ve forgotten the chill of winters past, the average high temperature last January was -0.9 ° C.  So if you’re thinking about ways to stay warm this winter, now’s the time to take action. You can get started by finding out how much of an impact insulated garage doors have on your home’s temperature and what you can do about it.  These are our top tips for installing the best-insulated garage doors Calgary has to offer. 

The Benefits of Garage Insulation in Calgary

Insulated garage doors are an essential choice for Calgary homes and can significantly increase your garage’s insulation and keep energy costs low. They’re available in various styles to suit your home’s design and several materials suitable for the harsh Alberta climate. No matter where you live, there are many benefits of installing insulated garage doors.

Energy Saving Benefits of Insulated Garage Doors

Most people overlook their garage as a significant source of energy loss. After all, they aren’t generally considered a part of the house. Yet, garage doors often share a door with your home or have a room above them that’s attached to the main house. What’s more, garages aren’t built with the same attention to gaps and leaks as your living spaces are. So, they’re often the least energy-efficient part of any home. It’s easy for the cold air that leaks into your garage to filter in under your home’s doors or to rush in when you enter and exit your garage via an interleading door. When you restrict the access of cold air into your garage, you limit the amount of cold that seeps into your home. That means you’ll use less energy keeping your home’s interiors warm. Studies have shown that thermal insulation can reduce heating & cooling power consumption by up to 54%. 

Insulated Garage Doors Are Extra Durable

Manufacturers build insulated garage doors differently from traditional garage doors to ensure they retain heat. They usually have a steel or aluminum frame and solid-core insulation sandwiched between single or dual steel panels. This makes them twice as strong as single panel doors and less likely to dent when bumped or to warp in strong winds.

Insulated Garage Doors Protect Items Stored in the Garage

Most people store hardware materials like paint in their garages, but its primary purpose is to protect our cars from the elements. Temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius are harmful to cars in several ways. For instance, cold temperatures cause:

• Shorter battery life
• Low air pressure in tires
• Unreliable spark plugs and wiring
• Thickened brake, transmission, and engine fluids

Not only do these aspects make it inconvenient to run your vehicle, but they can also cause permanent damage over time. Likewise, paint, fertilizers, and other chemicals can become unstable when stored in fluctuating temperatures.

Choosing the Best Insulated Garage Doors for Calgary Homes

Since insulated garage doors are becoming ever more popular nowadays, you’ll find a wide range of options when choosing a garage door. It makes sense that homeowners in Red Deer will need a different garage door from those residing in Calgary.  Here’s how to choose a practical garage door for your Calgary home.

Garage Door Ratings

The first thing you need to understand when choosing insulated garage doors is how the manufacturers measure their doors’ insulating properties, i.e., R-values. R-values indicate how effective the garage door is at preventing heat loss. The higher the rating, the less heat passes through the door. Since garage doors vary in thickness across their construction, these values are usually highest at the centre of the door. Many manufacturers rate their doors according to the highest value, but this is misleading. Ratings that take the entire door assembly into account are more accurate. Usually, these averaged-out ratings are between 5 and 10, whereas ratings for the door’s centre will be much higher. An R-8 rated garage door is about 90% airtight, whereas a door with an R-32 rating is about 97% airtight.

The Best Materials for Garage Door Insulation

Although conserving energy is the main criterion when choosing a garage door, durability is also an essential factor. Garage doors are large, complex mechanisms that can malfunction in severe weather. So, it’s crucial to choose a garage material that can stand up to the Calgary weather while helping to keep your home toasty inside. The following is how the most common garage door materials measure up:

Cost-Effective Steel

Steel’s a low-maintenance and affordable option for Calgary homeowners. Although steel doesn’t have good insulating properties on its own, steel garage doors are expertly constructed to ensure maximum insulation and have high R-values. The doors consist of layers of galvanized steel with insulation in between these layers.  Steel doors are strong and fireproof, making them an excellent choice from a safety and security perspective. They stand up well to the corrosive effects of snow and won’t buckle in the wind. Most steel doors have a lifespan of well over 15 years. Nowadays, you can get steel doors in a vast range of design options to suit your house’s style. They’re easily moulded into attractive patterns and can imitate the appearance of other materials, like classic wood.    

Appealing Wooden Garage Doors

Wooden doors are an attractive choice that suits most home designs. The best benefits of wooden garage doors are their good looks and flexible arrangements. Since manufacturers put wooden doors together piece by piece,  they’re highly customizable. Like most beautiful things, wooden garage doors don’t come cheap. They’re also a high-maintenance option, and you must seal them properly, or they’ll rot after lengthy exposure to wet weather. If you want a wooden door for your Calgary home, it’s best to opt for one made from thick wood with at least an R-9 rating.

Lightweight Aluminium Garage Doors 

Like steel, aluminum is a low-maintenance option. It’s lightweight and easy to install and places little strain on the garage mechanism. Unlike steel, its lightweight nature makes it unsuitable for extreme weather. It dents easily and is most suited to balmy coastal areas. If you want the attractive modern looks of aluminum coupled with the durability of steel, NWD Modern Tech™ steel garage doors are a good option for your Calgary home.   These doors comprise a 24 gauge steel face with a thick expanded polystyrene core and a bottom weather seal. 

Other Garage Door Materials

You’ve probably heard about a host of other types of materials used to manufacture garage doors, such as fibreglass and vinyl. These types of doors don’t tolerate cold temperatures well. As such, they’re better suited to warm coastal climates. 

Other Factors That Affect Your Garage Door’s Insulating Properties

Apart from the door materials, a few other factors can affect your garage door’s insulating properties. Windows are an attractive addition to garage doors and can bring some natural light into this otherwise dark room. Unfortunately, they aren’t very energy efficient. Glass and acrylic panes allow a lot of heat to escape from your garage. It’s best to choose energy-efficient windows if you want maximum insulation against Calgary’s cold weather. An ill-fitting door’s another aspect that can defeat all your best efforts at insulation. The bottom line is no matter how ideally insulated your door is; it can’t keep the cold out if there are gaps above, alongside, or beneath it. The best way to ensure maximum insulation is to get a reputable garage installation company to fit and maintain your garage for you. High-quality garage door hardware such as the track, rollers, and a frame limit energy loss by ensuring your door rolls into place effectively, every time. Keeping all these moving parts clean and well-lubricated, also ensures efficient, effective operation.  Installing weatherstripping around the door will prevent cold air from getting in around or under your door too.

Get The Best Insulated Garage Doors Calgary Has to Offer

When it comes to the need for garage insulation, Calgary is in a league of its own.  It’s never too early or too late to prepare for winter. Call Express Garage Door Services in Calgary to install or repair your insulated garage doors so you can enjoy all these energy-saving and environmental benefits. We provide free estimates and no-obligation quotes on the type of top-notch insulated garage doors Calgary homeowners need.