Insulation of a sectional garage door
I wanted to insulate garage door. I have standard lifted up sectional door made by company Krispol. The gate is made of 40mm thick panels filled with polyurethane foam. I wanted to increase thermal insulation of the gate as well as its acoustic insulation to get better protection against cold and noise. Currently, you can buy Krispol gate with thicker panels (60mm) and with additional seals and “warm assembly”, but when I was buying my gate, there was no such product in the offer.
I decided to use a self-adhesive rubber mat as it has both good thermal and acoustic insulation properties.
It is flexible, extruded black insulation foam with closed cell structure, made on the basis of synthetic rubber. It shows high resistance to water vapor diffusion and low thermal conductivity.
It is used as insulation of pipes, tanks, fittings, prevents steam condensation and reduces energy losses. And also, among others for insulation of cars, campers, boats, yachts, garage doors, garden houses, etc. and in the ventilation, air conditioning, heating and cooling (HVAC) industries.
Technical parameters:
- maximum medium temperature: +110°C (+85°C flat surfaces)
- minimum medium temperature: -50°C
- thermal conductivity: ≤ 0.036 λ [W/(m K)]
- water vapour diffusion resistance factor: ≥ 7000 µ
- reaction to fire class: D-s3, d0
I bought several thicknesses of foam for various projects at home, but for the gate I used mainly 32mm foam (for panels) and 19mm (for an additional perimeter seal)
The weakest point in my opinion is the sealing between gate and wall. There is only rubber gasket in between.
I made an additional seal that fills the space between original gate seal and the edge of the wall. The recess of the gate in my case was filled with graphite polystyrene before plastering.
I cut strips from 19mm thick mat as it matched my gaskets thickness.
I glued the strips to appropriate length with a special glue for gluing rubber insulation K-Flex K-414.
Then, according to manufacturer’s recommendation, to protect the mat against UV radiation in case of outdoor use, it should be painted with a special protective paint for rubber insulation. In my case the mat would not be exposed to direct sun, but just to be sure I applied 2 coats of Armafinish 99 paint. The paint is available in 3 colours – white, gray and black.
In order for the gate to move freely over the seal, and to additionally protect the foam mechanically, I additionally covered it with self-adhesive foil for wrapping cars. The foil is resistant to weather conditions. Additionally, it is smooth, which reduces friction of door against the seal.
The mat is self-adhesive, so it was easy to put it on the fragment of wall between the seal and the light of the gate.
After gluing additional seal, I lubricated it to further reduce friction of the gate against the seal and adjusted pressure of the door panels to the seal so that the gate could move, but its pressure to the seals was as high as possible.
Then I prepared the gate for gluing the mats to the panels – that is, I replaced all the screws in the gate with screws of the same diameter and length, but with smaller, less angular heads so that the mat could lie better. In my case it was about 90 screws.
I covered gate panels with a 32mm thick rubber mat 
I made cuts in the mat for hinges and other far protruding elements.
I painted the gate with Armafinsh white paint. I applied 4 layers. 
The screws for adjusting pressure of rollers are turned down so that when opening their ends cannot pertrude into the mat.
