When winter approaches, homeowners commonly take steps to mitigate or prevent winter damage. Homes receive a lot of attention, as do landscapes and lawns. But garages are often left out in the cold.
That’s a mistake, because cold weather has the potential to cause damage within your garage that may turn out to be quite costly or disruptive. Taking steps now to prevent cold weather damage from occurring within your garage can payoff big during the harshest winter weather.
Performing some or all of these 4 action steps will help to ensure that your garage (and everything in it) sails smoothly through the winter months:
- Weather-stripping: It’s likely that you routinely check the weather stripping around the windows and doorways of your house. Worn or damaged weather-stripping allows cold air in and warm air out. And that can make your home less comfortable and more expensive to heat.
But the weather-stripping in your garage needs attention, too. Even if you’re not heating your garage, sound weather-stripping can help to keep temperatures from falling to outdoor lows in an attached garage.
- Insulate: Many garages are completely lacking in insulation. But the proper installation of insulation can make a notable difference in the temperature extremes that occur within your garage interior.
Installing insulation can be a great do-it-yourself project, but take care to do the job right. If insulation is ill-fitting or packed too tightly, it will be considerably less effective.
- Check the Door: The size of garage doors offers lots of potential nooks and crannies for allowing cold air to seep in. And the garage door itself will do little to keep winter temperatures at bay if it’s uninsulated.
If your garage door is old and uninsulated, you might want to consider replacing it with a new insulated door. Alternatively, you could purchase a do-it-yourself kit for insulating your existing garage door and eliminating gaps.
- Install a Unit Heater: If you want to assure that the temperature within your garage won’t fall to damaging levels, consider installing a unit heater. Many types of purpose-designed garage heaters are available, including choices that are extremely energy efficient.
Electric heaters are easier to install than gas heaters, but over time, gas heaters will likely heat your garage much more economically.
Winter-Proofing Your Garage Can Save Lots of Headaches…
It’s unlikely that you’ll need to keep your garage as toasty-warm as the interior of your house. But preventing your garage interior from becoming too cold can prevent lots of potential problems.
You won’t have to worry about any water lines that run through your garage freezing and bursting, for example. And you’ll be able to store just about anything in your garage without worrying about freeze damage.
So while you prepare lawn, landscape and home for winter’s assault, don’t leave your garage out in the cold. Doing so might prove to be a costly mistake.