<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hi Steve and Bob</span><div><font color="#222222" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
Many thanks for your replies.</div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><i><br></i></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<i>Steve Houlihan wrote : Are you asking about a door between the living space and the garage or the door you would drive a car through to park it in the garage?</i></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">My apologies for the lack of clarity. Yes, I am asking about the doors one would drive a car through.<div>
<br></div><div>I should mention that we currently have no door from the house unfortunately, that being part of a longer term plan (as part of a pantry-to-utility room conversion) when funding permits. So we are currently entering the garage, which contains freezers, garden equipment and other tools we regularly need, via these main (car) garage doors.<div>
<br></div><div>So I guess what I am really saying is that the new garage doors will need to be usable by pedestrians too, at least in the medium term, preferably without too much loss of heat each time we enter the garage that way. So we were imagining that we'd either need a small door within the larger doors (rare to find), or to have side-hung door(s), so that we only open one side when we enter on foot, as we currently have and do.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Bob Klahn wrote :<i> A less expensive option would be to construct a sealed, insulated, seasonal inner door/barrier, and to accept the limitations of the prime garage door. Done properly, you should only lose a small portion of floor space.</i></div>
<div><br></div><div>That sounds good. When you say seasonal, are you thinking of an easily-removable one? I guess we could make it in two sections, and the section on the side we go in and out of could be moved sideways to be stored up against the back of the other, out of the heating season (we don't do any cooling in our temperate maritime climate). Perhaps we could make it of EPS or polyiso between ply or hardboard (HDF). I wonder how we should fix the HDF to the insulation, and how to deal with sealing it all around the edges and fixing it. Then we'd need a way of getting into the garage in winter; a small door within this inner insulated barrier I guess. In which case that side might need to be stronger than hardboard, to support the hinges and the door, and I suppose the post for that inner door would be a thermal bridge. Perhaps that is hardly significant in the context of a 1950s brick and block house with concrete lintels providing thermal bridges all around, and metal ties between the two skins doing the same, not to mention floor joists protruding through into the (fibreglass insulation-filled) cavity, and with the insulation at the eaves tapering at 45 degrees to a point of only an inch thickness, where I have had to leave a one inch air gap under the roofing felt so that our newly-installed suffit vents can ventilate the rest of the loft.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The other minor issue as I think about it is that if we replace the current main doors with side-hung softwood doors similar to the present ones, then the current type of top-of-door stays, which prevent the doors from banging around in the wind, protrude into the interior space when the door is being opened. This would mean the inner insulation barrier would need to allow for this, by means perhaps of a cut-away, with a small insulated box up there on the inner face of the insulated barrier (with an open face on the outer side of the box), to accommodate the stay.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I have subsequently come across insulated, sealed metal side-hung garage doors at <a href="http://www.thegaragedoorcentre.co.uk/insulatedsidehingeddoors.php" target="_blank">http://www.thegaragedoorcentre.co.uk/insulatedsidehingeddoors.php</a> , but metal is perhaps not the best in environmental/energy-cost of manufacture terms, and at only 40mm thickness can't be enormously insulating, though possibly lower maintenance than softwood. Quite apart from the higher financial outlay.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks for your thoughts on the subject, which are much appreciated.</div><div><blockquote type="cite" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial;font-size:small">Paul Hadfield<div><div>Springside</div>
<div>Scotland Lane</div><div>Burton Overy</div><div>Leicester</div><div>paul at hadfields . org . uk</div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 27 July 2012 03:33, Bob klahn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Home-NRG@dnaco.net" target="_blank">Home-NRG@dnaco.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Paul,<br>
I'm not aware of the existence of such a thing. But I said that of
pull-down attic ladders - until I saw a remarkable Swedish metal
unit that sealed tight as a bank vault.<br>
The cost, however,t was enough to make most homeowners blanch.<br>
<br>
I suspect any garage door capable of sealing properly would echo
that sticker-shock.<br>
A less expensive option would be to construct a sealed, insulated,
seasonal inner door/barrier, and to accept the limitations of the
prime garage door. Done properly, you should onlylose a small
portion of floor space.<br>
<br>
I hope this helps. <br>
<br>
Bob Klahn<div><div><br>
<br>
<div>On 7/25/2012 7:43 AM, Paul Hadfield
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>
<div><br>
</div>
Thanks to all for the fascinating learning experiences on this
list.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Just a private enquiry, and after largely lurking here for
several years I feel I should know the answer to this, but can
anyone point me to the right way to go with finding some (or an)
environmentally optimal, well-draught-proofed and
well-insulated, door(s) for a built-in garage, preferably of a
sort available in the UK, for our house.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The garage is within the (ground-level) thermal envelope of
the house, and is used largely for storage, but possibly for
future use as a workshop if it can be well insulated (and
cleared out!).</div>
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>Our house is 1955 cavity wall of typical brick and concrete
block construction in the English east midlands, and our
existing side-hung softwood doors, with windows in them, have
suffered poor maintenance over the years since the house was
built, but are otherwise aesthetically pleasing to us.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks in anticipation.<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
Paul Hadfield
<div>
<div>Springside</div>
<div>Scotland Lane</div>
<div>Burton Overy</div>
<div>Leicester</div>
<div>paul at hadfields . org . uk</div>
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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