Are you ready for Knoxville's annual summer heat wave? If you have a "multi-purpose garage" like most of us, it can really elevate the impact of high temperatures on your day-today life.

As summer begins to pick up steam here in the greater Knoxville area, let's take a minute to talk about three ways to defend your home and health from the heat with an insulated garage door.

In addition, we offer up four other factors to consider with an insulated garage door.

1) Safety & Health

First, let's start with the most important factor—maintaining safety and health in a hot environment. Many people don't think about the garage being a potentially dangerous place in the summer. A closed, uninsulated garage can act like a large oven—creating unsafe temperatures in an otherwise ignored area.

To combat the heat hazard, an insulated garage door acts as a barrier, blocking heat from seeping into a cooler garage. For those of us who have kids, use our garages as a workshop, or appreciate spending time in the garage during the Knoxville summer, an insulated garage door (and fully-insulated garage, discussed later) could be more than a comfort feature—it could be a valuable safety precaution.

2) Climate Control Comfort

Next, climate control within homes in the greater Knoxville area could be dramatically impacted by the state of an attached garage. Your home has a thermal boundary, or the edge of the insulated space. The garage, however, can expose or impact the edge of your thermal barrier.

Around Knoxville, an uninsulated garage and/or uninsulated garage door will generally be within 10 degrees of the outside temperature, and that heat will move relatively easily into the house. The more interior walls or floors/ceilings shared with the garage, the more of an issue this can be. Therefore, having an insulated garage door (especially with a fully insulated garage) allows your garage to act more like a vestibule (think of the entryway at many restaurants). This vestibule effect can help regulate the temperature inside your East Tennessee home.

3) Energy & Expense Efficiency

Lastly, an insulated garage door also affects the energy efficiency of your HVAC system. This isn't rocket science—keeping the temperature more consistent and insulating your home more will result in a more regulated temperature. As a result, the impact of an insulated garage door on energy efficiency and the family bank account shouldn't be ignored.

Pro Tip:

If you're planning on using the garage regularly or are searching for utility bill savings, you may want to consider adding insulation to your garage walls, too. While adding an insulated garage door will certainly improve your Knoxville home's thermal barrier (especially as the largest opening in the house), it's impact may not be as strong if the garage door has a higher insulation rating (R value) than your garage walls. According to the EPA, homeowners save an average of 15% on their heating and cooling costs by properly sealing and insulating their home (source).

These improvements combined can really help put money back in your wallet each month.

In addition to the heat-related impacts of an insulated garage door listed above, there are a few other key factors that could provide an upgrade to your current garage door situation:

4) Reduced Outdoor Noise

If your attached garage door is adjacent to a living space or bedroom (even above the garage), upgrading to an insulated garage door can also reduce outdoor noise pollution. The same components that act as a barrier for heat can do the same for noise passing through the largest opening in your home. With an insulated garage door, the neighbor's creaky old garage door won't be so "alarming".

5) Quieter Door Operation

Speaking of loud garage doors, rattling, creaking, and groaning from garage doors can be an annoyance—especially early in the morning. The thicker, denser, sturdier components of an insulated garage door also make less noise when opening and closing than the standard steel garage doors. If you have one of these noisy garage doors, your Knoxville area neighbors will thank you for upgrading!

6) Enhanced Durability

Those insulated garage door components do a great job in providing a longer life for your garage door. With a stronger construction, it can withstand more rough treatment and weather for a longer lifespan (and provide better security for your home) than the common steel garage door.

7) Return on Investment

A new garage door can be a decent home improvement expense. If you're planning on selling or moving, return on investment is an important factor. For the financially minded, there are three key factors that determine your insulated garage door's ROI:

1. Increased Home Value
2. Increased Usage Value
3. Increase Aesthetic Value

With a new upscale insulated garage door, you can expect the value of your home to increase by about 85% of the cost of the door—not to mention the increased curb appeal for streetfacing doors (source). In fact, according to the 2017 Cost vs. Value Report, "a new garage door is among the best inexpensive remodeling projects that deliver the highest rate of return on the investment" (source).

“With the housing market as competitive as it is, making a great first impression to buyers by updating an outdated garage door is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to boost resale value,” says Heather Meiner, Brand Manager for Overhead Door, one of the most trusted manufacturers of garage doors and openers for residential applications.

That still leaves about 15% of the cost of a new upscale garage door on the table, though. If you're planning to continue living in your Knoxville home for any period of time before selling or moving, that remaining expense should be factored into your increased garage usage and improved curb appeal you should experience with the new insulated garage door.

After all, an improved quality of life has value too, right?

Selecting An Insulated Garage Door

So, how do you decide on what insulated garage door you should get? Our next post will cover the key components and decisions involved in selecting an insulated garage door for the greater Knoxville area.

Have Questions?

We can help you understand what your home's thermal barrier is and what your best options are with an insulated garage door upgrade for customers in Knox, Anderson, Roane, Union, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Sevier, Blount, and Loudon counties.

Click here or call (865) 573-1950 to tell us about your concerns, and we will happily provide you with a professional service call or estimate.