# frost on inside of garage door



## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,... Wait for the weather to warm up.....


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## fixrite (Mar 1, 2009)

You have not mentioned as to weather or not the door is insulated. If it is not then I would insulate the door. You can get kits to do a retro insulation of the door.If it is then probably your best bet would be to heat the garage with a baseboard heater, make sure the space around it is not cluttered or any flammables nearby.


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

There is excessive moisture in the garage. Find and eliminate the source.
Maybe dryer vent? Bath vent? 
Any openings in the walls and /or ceilings? Close them up.
Ron


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## Thurman (Feb 9, 2009)

Buy Ron lunch. Moisture on the garage door, with the interior of the garage, being warmer than the outside temps, will cause the moisture to reach it's "dew point". At this dew point, the moisture in the air will start to condense on any surface which is colder than the interior temp. This is why my sister and hubby run an pedestal type, oscillating fan on the inside of their twelve-foot (12 ft.) wide garage door in the colder winter months. Just this little $20 fan will move enough air to prevent this from happening. At least for them.


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

I am running into this issue as well. New house in August, insulated garage, ceiling and walls as well as the door and there is some frost at the bottom of the door (I don't think the door is sealed well enough--have an email into the contractor right now). We have one aluminum window the is double-pane low e efficient but gets a major amount of ice on it as the temperature dips.

What can be done to correct this? Do we add a heater to the garage? Would a fan blowing around air really alleviate this? The contractor suggested putting a coating on the metal .. http://www.dxengineering.com/Parts.asp?PartNo=PLD-11609-6

Hoping you smarties out there have an easy solution 
Thanks,
Heather J


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## ubenhad4 (Jan 13, 2011)

new house with aluminum windows


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

HeatherJ said:


> I am running into this issue as well. New house in August, insulated garage, ceiling and walls as well as the door and there is some frost at the bottom of the door (I don't think the door is sealed well enough--have an email into the contractor right now). We have one aluminum window the is double-pane low e efficient but gets a major amount of ice on it as the temperature dips.
> 
> What can be done to correct this? Do we add a heater to the garage? Would a fan blowing around air really alleviate this? The contractor suggested putting a coating on the metal .. http://www.dxengineering.com/Parts.asp?PartNo=PLD-11609-6
> 
> ...


Did you look for air leaks from the house into the garage?
Are the windows in the garage door?
Ron


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

There isn't any real leaks into the garage besides the metal service door. Yes, there is a 2 ft x 8 ft aluminum double panel, low e window located 6 feet off the floor that lets a ton of light in.


***The service door goes into the house and can't be accessed from the outside--forgot to add that****


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## forresth (Feb 19, 2010)

the garage is going to be wet. you are driving slush covered vehicles inside.

poorly insulated garage doors and windows will be cold spots. you can either waste lots of money insulating and heating your garage more or you can live with it.

or you can keep you garage colder and better vented so the humidity doesn't build up.


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

HeatherJ said:


> There isn't any real leaks into the garage besides the metal service door. Yes, there is a 2 ft x 8 ft aluminum double panel, low e window located 6 feet off the floor that lets a ton of light in.


Post some photos of the wall and ceiling sufaces.
What sort on insulation do you have in the walls and ceiling?
Ron


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

Hi Ron,
I've been trying to post some pictures but to no avail. I just tried to send a private message with a photo to you but I got a message that I haven't posted enough so I don't have enough privileges...ugh

The insulation in the garage is the two walls that touch the interior are spray foamed and the two "exterior" walls are R-19 as well as the ceiling. We did that ourselves. The ceiling is only 16 inches deep because it's a flat roof so basically TJIs. We've had some garage door issues with it not being tight up against the frame so they've come back some to fix that but not perfect yet. The frost, or should I say ice, that formed on the window at the bottom during our cold spells is like an inch thick.


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

Forrseth--thanks for the reply. I understand that it will be wet and messy in the garage, my concern lies in the consistent ice on the window and then as the temp goes up 5 or 10 degrees, the drywall edge because all water as well as the surrounding drywall. Eventually this is going to turn to mush and I would assume, we would have a mold issue. I am wishing now we would have had radiant tubes put in the floor to heat the garage a little (we have it in our house) but the GC was going to charge us 3k...we have found out since that the radiant heat guy was only charging 1500......


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## fixrite (Mar 1, 2009)

Seems to me that these are your issues, water on the floors from vehicle, moisture on the inside of the framing around the bottom and sides of the garage door as well as the window. So in order to correct your situation, you will need to either stop the moisture from entering your garage ( sealing all around your garage door, and possibly your window as well) and/or removing the moisture within by either heating or a combination of heat and air movement. I did have a moisture problem in my double garage, but have since installed new seals on the bottom of both doors, as well as add seals to the exterior of the doors ( got them from Home Depot, the good ones) Since I use my garage as a work shop I do not drive wet vehicles in my garage, so that lessons my moisture chances entering. I have also added a heater to my garage ( shop) and now have No problems. Oh yeah I have also insulated the ceiling with blown in insulation and venting as there is no living space above my garage. I have found that I do not have to have the heat on much to raise the temperature to a comfortable level to work in. You might also look to make sure the seal on the man door is good as well. I had to make sure my seals on my garage doors were good as they are located on the south facing side of my house where the wind tends to blow mainly towards my doors. Another cheap fix on your window would be a window film kit that shrinks the film tight, it might be that your window is letting in excessive wind and moisture. 
I think I have covered most things I can think of, hope this helps
Dale


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## forresth (Feb 19, 2010)

well, you are right to worry about the drywall. its probably shot already.


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

Hi Fixrite!
Thanks for your information. I'll definitely get to working on the garage seal. The GC is hopefully coming back out in the next few weeks to take a look at it and have one of his people re-align it. I think it's off a bit. Part of our issue too with the water in the garage is the driveway concrete 'raised' up during the winter so there is a lip so the water doesn't "roll" out of the garage. It sits at the lip that is by the door. Pretty annoying if you ask me. We'll see what kind of fix we have for that one! We have no other opening except a door into the house and the window is fixed so it doesn't open.

I really appreciate your info. We'll see what the next few weeks bring


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## Jackofall1 (Dec 5, 2010)

Alright, just a question, what happens to the water that forms from melting ice and snow off of the vehicles, if the door is completely sealed to the floor?

The answer --- at least what I have seen ---- the water will leak under the door seal until it freezes, generally freezing the seal with it. Next day you open the door, or try to, the openner will groan, and pop, the ice breaks (hopefully) and door goes up.

Lesson --- I made or left a couple of small openings to allow the melt water a way out, would have been nice to have a drain basin in the garage, but I don't think that is allowed by code.

Insulating a garage in my opinion is a mistake, that is if its for vehicle parking, what happens is the constant melting and freezing causes more problems, 1/ The vehicle experiences rust much sooner 2/ The frost in the unheated insulated garage in much worse causing ---- you guessed in damage to drywall.


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

HeatherJ said:


> Hi Ron,
> I've been trying to post some pictures but to no avail. I just tried to send a private message with a photo to you but I got a message that I haven't posted enough so I don't have enough privileges...ugh
> 
> The insulation in the garage is the two walls that touch the interior are spray foamed and the two "exterior" walls are R-19 as well as the ceiling. We did that ourselves. The ceiling is only 16 inches deep because it's a flat roof so basically TJIs. We've had some garage door issues with it not being tight up against the frame so they've come back some to fix that but not perfect yet. The frost, or should I say ice, that formed on the window at the bottom during our cold spells is like an inch thick.


There are picture posting instructions at the top of the Building & Construction forum.
Ron


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

That's a good question. Right now our water just pools but I guess I was attributing that to the driveway lip. I wonder what happens for people have nice garage floors--here in Minnesota we can't have drains in the garage or else this would be a non-issue (the water pooling).

I understand what you're saying about insulation. I was hoping to keep the garage a little warmer for two reasons. One, I'm a house painter and my utility sink is out there and that's where I clean my brushes and equipment and secondly, I didn't want it so cold out there and for it to effect the warmth in our house. Probably naive of me, but just thought it would be better.

It's not balmy in there by any means--I've been meaning to put a thermometer in there so monitor the temps. Thanks for the insight tho


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

Shoot! I found the instructions but it says the files are too large. I have to run out for an appointment but I'll try to post when I get back!


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## fixrite (Mar 1, 2009)

Garage floor drains are allowed by code at least here in Canada. Some contractors actually slope the floor to the door which sounds like what has been done here. From what I understand the moisture is getting in from around the door, wind blown moisture. If that is taken care of via good seals it should take care of her wet drywall, which will need to be addressed or there will be problems down the road. The moisture on the floor brought in by the vehicle can be taken care of by installation of heater with a fan that has a temperature setting so it is not on when not needed. 
Dale


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

HeatherJ said:


> That's a good question. Right now our water just pools but I guess I was attributing that to the driveway lip. I wonder what happens for people have nice garage floors--here in Minnesota we can't have drains in the garage or else this would be a non-issue (the water pooling).
> 
> I understand what you're saying about insulation. I was hoping to keep the garage a little warmer for two reasons. One, I'm a house painter and my utility sink is out there and that's where I clean my brushes and equipment and secondly, I didn't want it so cold out there and for it to effect the warmth in our house. Probably naive of me, but just thought it would be better.
> 
> It's not balmy in there by any means--I've been meaning to put a thermometer in there so monitor the temps. Thanks for the insight tho


What are you using to heat the garage?
Propane heaters produce moisture as a by product of combustion.
Ron


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## HeatherJ (Jan 14, 2011)

One quick post and then I gotta split for a few hours--no heat source in the garage and only one opening, the garage door. One service door that leads into the house and one fixed window 2 ft x 8 ft. I'm hoping when I get back I can get the pictures online.

Thanks guys!


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