How To Seal A Garage Door From The Inside (2 Ways To Do It!)

Gary Evans
by Gary Evans

Does your home garage double as your workshop? If you answered yes to that question, you may want to consider protecting it better. To be more specific, you should look more into sealing your garage door.

Sealing the garage door from the inside is beneficial to your home in many ways. Now, how exactly do you go about sealing the garage door from the inside?

Creating a seal over your garage door can be done in a few ways. You can form a complete seal over your garage door by investing in a compatible form of insulation. Alternatively, top, bottom, and side seals can also be used if there are specific spots you need to target.

Forming a better seal over your garage door is one of the smartest and easiest ways to improve your home. See how you can do it for your own home by reading on.

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Why Do You Need to Seal Your Garage Door?

Sealing isn’t always regarded as a necessity for garage doors, but that shouldn’t be the case. The aforementioned process provides so many benefits that should be viewed as essentials for that part of your home. It’s also something you can do relatively quickly, especially compared to installing the garage door itself.

Let’s discuss the benefits of sealing your garage door by hitting on more specific points below. Check if they are benefits you would want to have as a homeowner yourself.

Better Protection from the Elements

Failing to seal your garage door means you’re leaving it vulnerable to the forces of nature. Strong winds combined with rain could cause puddles to form along the garage floor or corrode the edges of the door. Those winds could also blow in all kinds of debris that may cause a mess inside your garage.

Even if the moisture doesn’t enter your garage, the elements can still present a problem. All that cold air coming in from the openings could cause the temperature to drop in that part of your home. You’ll have a hard time getting work done while dealing with the cold temperatures.

Keep Pests at Bay

The elements are not the only garage invaders you have to worry about. Insects and rodents may also use the openings along your garage door to gain entry to your home.

It’s hard to keep track of those pests since they often move around at night. The best you can do to keep them away is to lean on garage door sealing.

Prevent Excess Noise from Entering Your Home

Some folks don’t want outside noises interfering with their work inside the garage. Sealing up the garage door helps with that. The seal keeps the external noises away from the garage. At the same time, the seal also prevents you from producing the kind of noise that could disturb your neighbors.

Reduce Heating and Cooling Costs

One more reason why you should seal your garage door is because doing so saves you money in the long run. The seal around the garage door prevents the hot or cold air from escaping your home. The savings may be small at first, but they will pile up over time.

Method 1: Insulate Your Garage

If your goal is to create the possible best seal around your garage door, then you need to look into insulation. Insulation provides the benefits we just discussed and it also forms a complete seal over the garage door.

Opting to insulate your garage door is a good move. To ensure the insulation does its job, you have to know your options better.

Generally speaking, homeowners can choose from three types of insulation for their garage doors. Those choices are batt insulation, foam board insulation, and reflective insulation. Let’s discuss those options in greater detail below.

Batt Insulation

Batt insulation is the first type you can use for your garage door. This type of insulation is made from fiberglass with some paper thrown into the mix. Batt insulation is a good option for homeowners because of how affordable it is, but it has some notable drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that batt insulation doesn’t work well with all types of garage doors. It won’t work on flat doors in particular.

This type of insulation also lags behind the other options in terms of temperature regulation. If you deal with extreme temperatures in your area, you may want to look at the other options.

Foam Board Insulation

Foam board insulation is more versatile than batt because it fits steel, wood, and even flat garage doors. The foam boards can be installed over the garage door. They can also be cut up to fill in the small openings.

The polystyrene used in foam board insulation offers decent temperature regulation without adding too much bulk. That helps if you want to minimize the profile of your garage door.

Reflective Insulation

Last up we have reflective insulation. Reflective insulation is aluminum foil placed over cardboard or polyethylene. It excels at keeping the heat away, which makes it more appealing to homeowners in certain parts of the country.

Reflective insulation works really well on flat garage doors. Use it over the door then fill the edge gaps with batt or foam board to create a very secure seal.

Method 2: Use Garage Door Seals

Insulating your garage door makes sense as a long-term solution. However, you may not have the time or the resources to invest in insulating your garage door right now. In that case, you should consider purchasing garage door seals.

Garage door seals don’t provide the kind of comprehensive protection that insulation does. What they can provide though is immediate protection for your home. Use them while you save up for insulation.

Homeowners can also choose from different types of garage door seals. They vary in terms of which part of the garage door they protect.

Seals for the Lower Portion of the Garage Door

You have some options available if you need a bottom seal for your garage door. First off, you have the aptly named bottom seals that excel at keeping debris outside of your garage. Threshold seals are placed over your garage floor and they prevent water from getting inside.

The bottom and threshold seals can also be used together. Try them out together and check out the secure seal they provide.

Seals for the Sides of the Garage Door

For the sides of the garage door, you can use brush seals, reverse angle mount seals, or weather stripping seals. Brush and reverse angle mount seals are remarkably durable, but they may not be necessary for your home. Weatherstripping seals can still provide adequate protection and they are more accessible too.

Seals for the Top of the Garage Door

You will need a top seal for the upper edge of the garage door. Top seals are often made of rubber and they offer a decent amount of coverage. The top seals are especially important if you want to regulate the temperature inside your garage more effectively.

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Related Questions

Should You Use Insulation Kits to Seal Your Garage Door?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using insulation kits to seal your garage door. If anything, you should even seek them out.The great thing about insulation kits is that they give you all the tools you need to install the insulation. The fasteners, the tape, and sometimes even the knife you’ll need to cut the insulation are all in the kit. You just have to focus on following the instructions and executing them properly.The downside to using insulation kits is cost. You can save some money by purchasing only the insulation and using what tools you already have at home.


Could the Seals You’re Using Prevent Your Garage Door from Closing Completely?

Yes, the garage door seal could be the reason why your garage door is not closing all the way. The seals you’re using may not have been installed properly. It’s also possible that they’re damaged and need to be replaced.Take a closer look at the seals and see if they’re interfering with the operation of your garage door. If there’s nothing wrong with the seals, go ahead and check the cables, springs, and tracks. Damage to those components can affect how the garage door works so address them as needed.

Gary Evans
Gary Evans

Gary Evans is passionate about home improvement. He loves finding out how to make improvements in the easiest, most practical, and most affordable ways. Upgrading his home kitchen is one of his ongoing hobbies. Gary is also a long-time content creator and enjoys spending his free time tending to his hydroponic vegetable garden.

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