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Preparing Your Garage for Winter: Insulation Tips and Tricks

Preparing Your Garage for Winter: Insulation Tips and Tricks

Carefully winterizing your home is crucial to keeping you and your property safe for the upcoming season. Regardless of whether your garage is to the side of the house or directly attached to the home with rooms above or below it, you'll need to take special care when it comes to developing a quality checklist. In fact, it should be one of the first areas you tackle in your winterization mission.

Adequately preparing your garage for winter helps keep the items inside safe - this often includes your cars, equipment, and other stored property. However, for garages that are directly attached to your home, it also helps to keep the house insulated from the cold. Our team at Koala Insulation of South Kansas City has put together five important insulation tips and tricks to prioritize when winterizing your garage this season.

5 Ways to Prepare Your Garage for Winter

Inspect Door and Mechanisms

One of your first moves should be to check out the condition of your garage door and system. Checking for cracks, gaps, weathering, and other damages ahead of time will save you before the first snow hits. Not only are you more likely to find better deals and assistance if you need it, but it also puts you ahead of problematic weather that could quickly damage the fixes you’ve made.

It also gives you the opportunity to check the insulation and air sealing around the door. Does it sufficiently keep the cold air out? Are insects and rodents able to find their way into the warmth through small openings? After you’ve taken care of the gaps, make sure the mechanisms are well oiled, tightened, and running properly. There’s nothing worse than your garage door locking up in the middle of an incoming snow storm!

Prepare Exposed Pipes

If there are water pipes running through your garage, it’s important that they’re properly insulated before the cold starts to set in. Frozen and burst pipes affect unprepared homes every winter, with an average of 37% of frozen pipes occurring in underinsualted basements. Regardless of where your garage is located, a burst pipe can cause significant damage to the structure, plumbing, and property inside of the unit.

It’s especially important to consult an industry contractor if you’re unfamiliar with what kind of pipes are running through your unit. Insulating your pipes takes careful consideration - too much and you could risk a fire, too little and you’re not going to have enough protection. With an insulation expert, they can guide you on the proper insulation and amount of material to apply to pipes. In addition to indoor pipes, be sure any outdoor spigots are properly drained, prepared, and covered before the first significant frost sets in.

Seal Off Air Leaks

As mentioned earlier, it's important to inspect your garage and storage rooms for any gaps, cracks, or openings. Having quality air sealing not only improves the indoor air quality of a space but also prevents pollutants and pests from easily getting into your unit. Additionally, it keeps the desired heat. According to the Department of Energy, about 90% of U.S. homes have poor air sealing and insulation, mostly due to infrequent updates and deteriorated material.

Luckily, sealing the gaps and openings is considered an easy job - you can either choose to call a contractor or take the time for a DIY project. However, what most homeowners miss are the smaller, hidden cracks throughout their homes that aren't as easy to spot. While your doors and windows are the most common culprits of air leaks, there are other openings in your building envelope that could be causing a problem. Pipe and wire holes, foundation or wall damage, and even insect and rodent hiding spots are common, undetected places that are more difficult to spot without a trained eye.

Check the Insulation Material

Insulation can be found in many places throughout your home and garage - throughout the walls, ceiling, and even the floors if you're above a crawl space, basement, or hollowed foundation. It's especially important when your garage is connected to other rooms in the home. Updated insulation can not only help with temperature regulation, but in many cases, the material can improve noise reduction, which can be especially helpful if you have a noisy garage door.

With Koala Insulation of South Kansas City, you can schedule a free evaluation to have our team come and inspect your home. With a thorough read on your building's current condition, we can give you an accurate breakdown of poorly installed material, inadequate coverage, and deteriorating insulation. Our evaluation also covers air sealing, taking care of two important steps on your garage winter preparation checklist.

Seal Flooring

Finally, if you store your vehicles or other large equipment in your garage or storage unit, you may want to consider sealing your floor. This can not only help insulate the area but also prevent salt damage from affecting the concrete underneath the equipment. For most sealants, it's important to regularly wash the area - wear and damage increase the rate of deterioration for most sealants.

Properly prepare the space beforehand, making sure the floor is clean and free of debris and dust. After that, you can apply something like epoxy to seal the flooring and provide a quality barrier between the surface and your vehicles and equipment. While sealing the floor isn’t necessarily a required step to winterizing your garage, it’s a great option if you’re continuously going in and out of the unit.

Contact Your Local Insulation Expert

Especially for homes that are attached to a garage space, it’s important to ensure your unit is well insulated and adequately prepared for the upcoming winter season. Even for storage sheds and disconnected garages, the time taken helps keep your property stored inside safe throughout the colder months. While most jobs can be handled yourself with a bit of quality insulation education, it’s always a good idea to consult your local insulation contractor for unfamiliar tasks.

At Koala Insulation of South Kansas City, our team of industry experts is dedicated to making your home comfortable and safe while also prioritizing your time and budget. We offer free evaluations, giving our team a breakdown of the current conditions of your home's insulation. From there, we work with you and your household to determine the best course of action to prepare the rest of your home for winter. Contact our team today to learn more about properly insulating your garage and the benefits of insulation throughout your home.