Condensation and your Garage Door

Over our 97 years in manufacturing, we have learned that condensation can be an issue in many garages. While many associate the presence of condensation with a manufacturing defect, it is important to understand the issues surrounding condensation and how it may impact your garage and garage door.

Condensation occurs when the moisture in the air is in contact with a cold surface and water droplets accumulate. It often occurs in a warm garage with high humidity, which is the concentration of water in the air, and a colder surface such as the glass section of your garage door. Essentially, it is characteristic of a warm, humid garage and a cooler garage door surface due to a colder exterior temperature. The lower the outside humidity, the faster the interior humidity will be drawn out causing noticeable droplets. People often assume the windows are leaking, but in reality, it is quite likely condensation.

More garages today are conditioned, often heated, as opposed to garages of the past, so this issue is unfamiliar to most. Understanding the impact of a conditioned garage and the environmental region can preserve the longevity of your door and the garage. Consistent condensation can cause structural damage to various aspects of the garage and the garage door.

Unlike the entry door to the home, the garage door will not maintain the same controlled conditions as the garage holds more humidity and additional variables than the entry door.

Condensation can present itself from a variety of conditions. The geographic and environmental impact can play a part if additional moisture is brought in regularly from wet or snow-covered cars or boats. Use of a humidifier or refrigerator or freezer units can contribute to more condensation. It is not only what is in your garage that can impact the humidity and condensation. It can even present more prominently when the laundry room is located nearby the garage. While there are many other factors to consider such as the ventilation and vapor barriers in the garage, we have solutions!

Now that you are educated on how condensation presents itself, we have some suggestions to mitigate the situation. We highly encourage the use of insulated glass on a glass section of your garage door. This decision alone can remedy the issue of condensation on your garage door. The insulated glass helps to balance out the humidity and temperature ratio and reduce condensation.

We also suggest utilizing quality weather-tight seals around the door, wiping snow and rain from cars, managing the appliances and heating systems, and opening the garage doors at intervals to balance out the humidity and temperature. If condensation persists, we suggest reaching out to your home builder or find an HVAC professional with whom to consult.

You have a lot of options in the market today, but your best bet is a Fimbel door. Using advanced materials and technology together with classic craftsmanship, our doors are built to be beautiful and built to last. In this video, you will get a closer look how to buy a garage door, but here are the basics:

• Our vinyl-coated steel platform on the American Legends offers the Carriage Style design we love with a smooth, clean appearance of the surface and overlays. Our standard offerings come in four sections with a customizable top section to accommodate any height and design preference.
• The Estate Collection, built on a single sheet of smooth, white Versatex offers vast design capabilities. While nearly every aspect of these products can be customized from the height and width to the top section to the profiles on the face to whatever your heart desires, our standard offerings are three sections with big, beautiful windows.
• All Fimbel tops are engineered to keep your door free of defects when properly installed and maintained.

Either construction method will bring you a low-maintenance, long-lasting, gorgeous door that will serve your garage needs both inside and out.

To find out more about our products, please use our dealer locator to find a dealer near you!