Winterize Your Garage With These Simple Tricks That Will Save You Hundreds

Routine maintenance is essential for any part of the home, and the garage is no exception. Whether you’re keeping the garage door springs well lubricated or making sure the floor is properly coated, keeping your garage in good shape ensures that all the tools, vehicles, and outdoor gear you keep inside will stay in good shape, too. As winter rolls in, and wet weather and freezing temperatures become the norm, it’s even more important to take the proper steps to maintain and winterize your garage. Follow these straightforward winter garage maintenance tips, including safety inspections, weather sealing and insulating, upgrading lighting and storage systems, and treating wood, to get your garage ready for snow, ice, salt, and cold.

Why Is It Important to Winterize Your Garage?

Winterizing the garage is the process of preparing the space for the wet and freezing conditions of winter, such as when you winterize a pool by draining it and storing the components in a warm, dry location. Ideally, when you winterize the garage you will be able to prevent damage to your vehicles, tools, and any other stored items, while protecting any essential infrastructure, like pipes or vents. Consider these key reasons for why you should winterize your garage:

• Keep the Vehicle Safe: Freezing garage spaces make it more difficult to start the car and may drain the battery at a faster rate, so winterizing can help maintain a more stable temperature for the car and the vehicle components.
• Protect Stored Items: When the temperatures outside drop, items like paint, sprays, and liquids may decompose at a faster rate or split into parts. Insulating the garage helps to prevent this issue, while protecting other stored goods from moisture and temperature changes.
• Safeguard Water-Using Equipment: Some equipment, like pressure washers, garden hoses, and pool pumps, may have water left inside after use. If this water freezes, it can damage or completely destroy the equipment from the inside, but by keeping the garage relatively warm with insulation, you can prevent this from occurring. 
• Pipes and Other Essential Infrastructure: Just as the water inside water-using equipment may freeze, if you have any pipes, tanks, or other home infrastructure inside the garage, it’s necessary to ensure the garage is winterized to prevent freezing and bursting.
• Reduce the Risk of Moisture and Mold: When you seal the cracks and gaps in the walls, windows, and doors, you can help to prevent moisture from entering the garage, which in turn will reduce the risk of mold and mildew growing and spreading.
• Protect the Floor: Seal the concrete floor to create a protective layer against salt, dirt, oils, and other debris that may otherwise damage the concrete.
• Reduce Energy Loss: If the garage is attached to the home, then you may be able to reduce energy waste by insulating and sealing the garage to prevent heat loss, which will ultimately help to lower your utility bills and reduce the load on the home’s heating system. 
• Creates a More Comfortable Space: One of the best reasons to winterize the garage is that it creates a comfortable space for you to work on projects or hobbies during the winter, rather than being cooped up inside the house.
• Deters Pests: Sealing the holes and cracks in the garage isn’t just to keep moisture out and heat in, it also helps to deter any pests from seeking shelter inside your garage this winter.

Top Winter Garage Maintenance Tasks 

The moderate temperatures of fall are perfect for tackling winter garage maintenance and winterizing tasks, allowing you to prepare the garage for the winter season to keep out pests, reduce energy loss, and protect your vehicles, tools, and other items. Tackle these winter garage maintenance tasks to make the most of your garage as colder temperatures arrive.

Weather Seal and Insulate 

Drafts from outside the garage can seep through gaps and cracks around the windows and doors, or even through the walls if the garage has not been properly maintained. Not only does this lead to heat loss and energy waste, but these gaps and cracks can also allow moisture to seep into the garage, creating a prime location for mold and mildew growth. Pests may also use the gaps and cracks to enter the garage and nest in the warmer area during the winter months.

In order to prevent these issues from occurring, it’s highly recommended to use caulking to seal any gaps and cracks around the windows, doors, and walls. You can also add weatherstripping to the garage door to help seal the gap at the base of the door. Once you have sealed the garage, the next step is to add insulation to the walls and the garage door. This will help to prevent heat from escaping the garage in the winter, reducing the risk to any items stored inside the garage, while improving overall home efficiency.

Related: Most Homeowners Forget This Critical Garage Door Tune-Up. Are You One of Them?

Improve Storage Systems

Having random tools and items piled up throughout the garage can increase the risk of unseen pests nesting in the garage and may also inhibit proper air circulation, leading to poor air quality and energy waste. Additionally, if any of the tools or items are vulnerable to freezing temperatures, they may be damaged if left in the garage throughout the winter months. 

Ideally, you should install new storage systems, like shelving and racks, or take advantage of existing storage systems to clean up and organize the garage. This will reduce the random items on the floor, clearing space to walk more freely, making it easier to spot any potential pest problems, and it will also help to identify any items that should be taken into the home before winter hits.

Upgrade to LED Lighting

If your goal is to use the garage throughout the winter months, then it’s recommended to install LED lighting, since LED lights use significantly less energy and last much longer than standard incandescent bulbs. This not only reduces the amount of energy you are spending on lighting the garage, but also reduces waste. 

Consider the Floor

The floor of the garage is often overlooked, but when vehicles, boots, and winter tools drag in ice, snow, and salt, the floor can become cracked, chipped, and damaged. To help protect the floor from damage this winter, it’s a good idea to add a coating of epoxy, polyaspartic, or polyurea. This will provide a durable coating that is easy to clean, reducing the need for frequent repairs.

Related: Experts Reveal the Most Durable Garage Floor Coating You Can Buy

Inspect Garage Door Safety Features

The last thing you want to happen when you are walking or driving into the garage is for the garage door to close on you or slam shut. In the interest of safety going into the winter season, it’s highly recommended to inspect the garage door safety features, including the release handle, roller brackets, sensors, and auto-reverse features to ensure that the door is operating safely at all times. If you find any problems with these safety features, contact a repair professional to fix any issues before winter hits. 

Check the Garage Door for Proper Balance

Similarly, checking the garage door for proper balance will help to ensure that the door stays in place. Unbalanced garage doors can put unnecessary strain on the components of the garage door system, like the torsion spring, which can lead to issues with safe operation. 

To check for proper balance, simply disconnect the garage door from the opener, then manually lift the door to the halfway point. A balanced door should stay in that position without assistance, rather than slamming into the floor of flying open. If the door is unbalanced, contact a garage door pro to adjust the springs. 

Lubricate Moving Garage Door Parts

Lubricating the moving parts of the garage door using a silicone-based lubricant helps to prevent the rollers, brackets, hinges, and springs from seizing or wearing down prematurely. This is especially important during winter weather, since cold air tends to be dryer than warm air, which causes the moving components of the garage door to seize up easier. 

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Examine the Torsion Spring and Other Key Components

Keeping the garage door operating properly often begins with a simple inspection. If you check the torsion spring, brackets, hinges, and rollers of the garage door and find that they are in good condition, then you are all set. However, if you detect any problems with these key components of the garage door, then it’s advised to contact a garage door repair professional to fix the issue before it can get worse. Broken springs and unaddressed damage can cause serious injury or may lead to emergency repairs, which will drive up the cost. 

Clean and Treat Wooden Doors

If you have a wooden garage door, then part of your winter maintenance should be cleaning and treating the door to protect it from snow, ice, and salt. Similarly, if you have a regular wooden door to enter the garage from the side or the back, then you should also take the time to clean and treat this additional door. Untreated wood is susceptible to moisture, which can seep into the wood fiber and cause the wood to rot from the inside. Moist wood is also a prime location for mold, mildew, mice, termites, and other pests, so it’s better to clean and treat the wood before any problems can occur that would leave the garage vulnerable.