4 Ways to Winterize Your Garage
Fall is the perfect time to get your garage ready for cooler weather. Here are some ideas to help you winterize your garage.
Maximize Useful Space
The garage is often the most cluttered and poorly utilized space in the house. In fact, it is home to so much stuff – from sports and recreational equipment to seasonal decorations and garden tools – that there’s rarely room to park one car; let alone two in a three-car garage.
This fall, plan to get items off the floor, onto the walls, and into clearly labeled compartments with modular and overhead storage. You can easily purchase everything you need – shelves, cabinets, hooks, pegboards, and ceiling mounted storage racks – at a local home improvement store.
Mix open shelves with cabinets to keep everyday essentials in sight while concealing less-useful items. Store the kids’ sports gear in a bin near the trunk of the car; position surplus paper goods in a cabinet near the door leading into the house; hang hand and power tools on hooks from the pegboard.
With the holidays quickly approaching, move summer items to the back and pull forward any seasonal decorations, and winter sports gear. Move whatever you don’t plan to store in the garage to another location in the house. Make sure to label everything using a handheld label maker, so it all goes back where it belongs.
Inspect and Replace Weatherstripping
Replacing the weatherstripping around your garage door will keep rodents, debris, rain, and dust from getting in. It can also improve energy efficiency by keeping cold air out – an especially valuable quality in an attached garage. Materials needed for this project include bottom or threshold seals and side and top weatherstripping. Don’t forget to improve weatherstripping on any side entry doors, as well.
Install a Heating Unit in Your Garage
While weatherstripping, along with insulation will help keep cold air out, they’re likely not going to keep you toasty warm when you’ve committed yourself to completing workshop projects during the most frigid times. Installing an electric heating unit is a great way to heat a garage with minimal space requirements and construction costs. Most can easily be mounted on a garage wall or ceiling.
Schedule a Maintenance Appointment
Just like regular maintenance for your car, with proper care and service, you can extend the functional life of your garage door. Further, most manufacturers recommend scheduling preventative garage door maintenance by a licensed garage door repair professional, annually.
A qualified technician can help identify extensive wear and tear, and parts that need repair or replacement, as well as tighten any hardware that may have become loose over time. This service will save you money that you may otherwise have to spend on costly repair or replacement.
