Just How Valuable is Your Insulated Garage Door?

First, just to be clear, when we ask ‘how valuable is your insulated garage door?’, we’re talking about straight-forward, money-in-your-pocket valuable. It’s not something that most homeowners consider about their garage doors – that it actually saves money or is a way for them to get more money.

We realize that might sound a bit far-fetched. We don’t necessarily mean you can make money by projecting movies onto it on a Friday night and charging admission (but think about the popcorn and soft drink revenue too!). To give you an idea of where we’re going with this, just think of some of the basic ways your garage door protects your hard-earned cash.

It Protects Your Belongings

Without a secure door on your garage, everything in it would be there for the taking. But with a good solid door, you now have a space to keep many of the things you would otherwise keep in your home, so you have more living space.

It Helps Your Car Last Longer

Without an insulated garage door, your car would be under more stress to start-up in colder winter temperatures, potentially increasing maintenance costs and decreasing its lifespan.

Yes, these ‘money-saving’ traits of a garage door might be a bit of a stretch, but we mention them just to start you thinking about all the other ways your garage door is valuable, in an actual bottom-line way – especially if it’s insulated.

Here are just a few ways you can actually have more cash in your pocket with an insulated garage door.

1. Lower Energy Costs

If your garage door is connected to your house, especially if it’s underneath a living space, it can have a significant effect on the costs of warming and cooling your home. A couple of years ago, a homeowner decided to see if the claims made by the salesperson were true about how much warmer his garage would be if he installed an insulated garage door.

After installing the door, and armed only with a basic thermometer, pencil, and paper, the homeowner began recording temperatures inside and outside his garage. During a cold snap where the temperatures outside dropped below freezing, the temperatures inside the garage remained well above freezing at an average of 7 degrees Celsius.

2. Lower Furnace & Air Conditioner Costs

You change the air filter on your furnace regularly, right? If your heating and cooling equipment have to do more work, that means your filter needs to be changed more often.

But saving the cost of some filters is just the start of the hard savings you get from an insulated garage door. Furnaces and air conditioners aren’t cheap. Not to mention the fact that they will always break down at the worst possible time. That means, instead of regular repair costs, you’ll likely face ‘emergency’ repair costs. The less work the equipment does, the longer it will last and the fewer repairs it will need.

3. Higher Home Value

You might think, with the hot real estate markets here in Markham and across the GTA, you don’t need to worry too much about increasing the ‘curb appeal’ of your home. But that sort of thinking could mean you leave thousands of dollars on the table. Think about this instead. If you add just one percent of value to a $500,000 home, that’s $5,000. But, if that home is now worth a million dollars, which is below the average price of a detached home in Markham, that same 1% is now worth double, or $10,000.

Beyond being able to show lower energy and repair costs to prospective buyers, consider that insulated doors generally look better, last longer, make the garage quieter, keep out more pollution, and open up the possibility of creating more usable space in the garage (like a workshop or home gym). So now how sweet does your home look to that buyer?

If you’re ready to install an insulated garage door, and ‘pocket’ all the benefits, give us a call at 905-472-9178, we’ll show you what’s possible.