Does Your Garage Door Affect Your Home's Energy Efficiency?
Published by High Desert Garage Door & More • Southern Utah Home Services
Most Southern Utah homeowners think about their garage door when it squeaks, sticks, or stops opening. Fewer think about it as part of their home's energy performance — but it is. A garage that shares a wall with living space, or sits under a bonus room, can be a major source of heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter if the door and seals aren't doing their job.
High Desert Garage Door & More is one of the few companies in the area that works on both sides of this problem. We handle garage door repair and installation, and we also run blower door and duct blaster energy testing — the same diagnostic tools HVAC contractors and energy auditors use to find where a house is actually losing conditioned air.
Where garage doors lose energy
A few common culprits we see on service calls around St. George, Hurricane, Cedar City, and Washington:
- Worn bottom seals. The rubber astragal along the bottom of the door hardens and cracks over time, especially with our summer heat, and stops sealing against the slab.
- Gaps at the top and sides. Weatherstripping that's shrunk, warped, or was never installed correctly leaves a gap the width of a pencil — enough to move a lot of air over a full day.
- Uninsulated door panels. Older doors, or basic single-layer steel doors, offer little resistance to outside temperature swings, which matters if the garage is attached or has ductwork running through it.
Why testing matters, not just guessing
A blower door test pressurizes the house and measures air leakage; a duct blaster test does the same for your duct system specifically. Instead of guessing that a garage door seal is a problem, we can measure it — and see how much it's actually contributing to air leakage compared to windows, attic penetrations, or the ductwork itself. That's useful whether you're chasing a high utility bill, prepping for a Southern Utah summer, or trying to figure out why one room never gets comfortable.
What we'd recommend checking first
If your garage door is more than a few years old, or you can see daylight around the edges when it's closed, that's worth a look before you assume the HVAC system is the problem. We can inspect the door and seals, and if you want a clearer picture of the whole house, follow up with a blower door or duct blaster test.
High Desert Garage Door & More is licensed, bonded, and insured, serving St. George, Hurricane, Cedar City, Washington, and surrounding areas in Kane and Garfield County. Call (435) 680-2859 or email service@highdesertgarage.com to schedule a garage door inspection or an energy efficiency test.
Need help with garage door repair, HVAC, or energy testing in Southern Utah? Call (435) 680-2859 — same-day service available.
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