-
Decorate Your Garage Doors This Summer
A garage door isn’t uncommon to have connected to a house. However, it can be a little outdated looking just being painted. What’s the best way to spruce up your garage door? How can you make it look amazing without overdoing it? We’ll go over some ideas to get you one step closer to having an eye-catching garage door area.
First Things First
Renting- If you rent, you may need to get the owner’s permission and make sure they’re okay with you making the changes. They may have conditions to negotiate to ensure it’ll still look nice. They may only let you make changes to the surrounding grass, or say potted plants or decorations only.
Own- If you own your home, then this isn’t an issue to update your door. Now you just have to figure out if you want to plant flowers, pot plants, paint the garage door or change it completely.
Plants and Flowers
Ivy- You can plant ivy to grow around your garage door. It looks beautiful and elegant as it drapes around it. However, you need to make sure the ivy you decide on can handle the amount of sun and shade the area gets.
Potted trees- A small species of tree is always a wonderful look to arrange near your garage.
Hanging baskets- A beautiful way to delicately showcase your favorite flowers. Pair colors for a homier look, or choose bright, stand out colors.
Bushes- Rose bushes are a popular choice to dress up a yard. Especially a focal point like your garage door.
Design
You don’t have to settle on just changing the color of your garage door. You can also consider changing it all together, especially if you’ve gotten some dings in it throughout the years. There are all kinds of designs with or without windows with different styles to choose from. Thomas V. Giel Garage Doors, Inc will make the changes for you if you decide to switch your door out.
Color
There’s no limit to this unless your landlord gave you a specific color only. Matching a nice paint with the outside of your home can be tricky though.
With many ways to decorate around your garage doors, or designs you can decide on. There’s no reason to keep hating your current doors. Let’s get your garage door needs taken care of and your home looking even better.
-
Understanding R-Value and Why It Is Important
You’re ready to shop for a new garage door and want to make sure you make the best selection. One term that you need to be familiar with is the door’s R-value.
Here’s what you need to know about R-value and how it relates to your garage door.
The Basics of the R-Value
A garage door’s R-value refers to how much insulation the door has. A higher R-value means that the garage door is created from materials that don’t conduct heat well, allowing it to provide high levels of insulation. An R-40 value is considered a high R-value by the US Department of Energy.
Lower R-values mean that the garage door is manufactured from materials that conduct heat well. This means that it does a poor job of providing insulation for your garage.
Why Insulation Matters
Your garage door encloses a space that would otherwise be a large hole in the side of your home.
A garage door with poor insulation qualities will allow the air temperature inside the garage to quickly change temperature, creating a space that’s uncomfortable and expensive to heat and cool.
Selecting a garage door with insulating qualities helps you keep the space at a comfortable temperature and use less energy to do so.
Is a Higher R-Value Always Better?
With R-values, you need to consider the price of the garage door and how much more efficient a high R-value is at insulating your garage.
Insulation R-values adhere to the law of diminishing returns. This means that as you increase the R-value, the amount of additional insulation gradually gets smaller and smaller.
For example, an R-16 garage door isn’t twice as effective at offering insulation as an R-8 garage door.
Instead, an R-16 door provides a 5 percent improvement in energy efficiency. An R-32 garage door is 7 percent more energy efficient than an R-8 product.
For garages that are heated or cooled, look for an R-9 to R-13 garage door. If a garage functions as a living space, an R-13 garage door is ideal.
Purchase Your New Garage Door
Thomas V. Giel Garage Doors, Inc. offers a wide selection of commercial and residential garage doors, as well as installation and maintenance services. Contact us at 724-443-1437 or visit us online to get started!