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Recent Blog Posts
Eco-Friendly Materials and Methods for Garage Construction
Every person plays a role in keeping our air, land, and water clean of health-damaging pollutants. In fact, you probably take at least one eco-friendly action every day, such as recycling or reducing your carbon footprint by conserving energy. So when you make plans to build a new garage, why not make it a priority to use earth-friendly building methods and materials? Two ways you can do this are to reuse or recycle construction debris and to choose energy-efficient building materials.
Reuse or Recycle Construction and Demolition Debris
When an old garage is torn down, what happens to the old siding, framing, roofing, and other materials? Historically, it all went to landfills. Today, more recycling and reuse of materials is happening.
The problem of construction and demolition debris is bigger than most people realize. The U.S. produces over 75 million tons of debris each year, including wood, drywall/plaster, brick/tile, and asphalt shingles-and that is just from buildings. Road and bridge projects produce another 470 million tons of concrete, asphalt, and steel debris. All told, construction and demolition debris outweighs municipal solid waste by a factor of two to one.
What Are the Options for Finishing the Interior of My Garage?
If your garage has an unfinished interior with exposed studs, you have probably wondered about the options for insulating and finishing a garage. After all, the garage is one of the most-used rooms in your house. In fact, if your garage is attached to your house, it is probably your most-used entryway. You will get daily enjoyment out of your investment in finishing this space.
For a typical 24' x 24' two-car garage, you should be able to insulate and finish the garage walls and ceiling for under $5,000, including top-quality labor and materials. If your garage is attached to your house, the wall adjacent to the home is most likely already insulated and drywalled as required by local building codes for fire resistance, which will bring the total cost even lower.
Garage Insulation Choices: Spray Foam vs. Fiberglass Batting
For insulation, two common choices are spray foam and fiberglass batting. Fiberglass insulation is roughly one-third the cost of closed-cell spray foam insulation and is considered very easy to install, but it allows a lot of air leakage. Closed-cell spray foam, in contrast, is substantially more energy efficient, as it provides a complete air, moisture, and vapor barrier. Spray foam insulation is also superior because it does not sag and settle over time like fiberglass batts tend to do and because it forms a tight seal around outlets, light switches, and other areas where drafts tend to be felt.
Understanding the R-Value of Insulation in Garage Doors and Walls
Are you tired of feeling a huge drop in temperature when you step out of your house into your attached garage during Chicago's coldest months? Whether you are building a new custom garage in Cook County or upgrading an old garage in DuPage County, the choices you make about insulating the space can make a big difference in your comfort.
What Is R-Value?
R-value is the power of an insulating material to stop heat flow. The higher the R-value, the better the insulation.
How Does Insulation Work?
Whenever one space is warmer than another, heat will automatically flow from the warmer space to the cooler space until the temperature is equalized. Insulation helps to prevent warmer air inside your garage from flowing outdoors. With no insulation, the air in your garage will be as cold as the outdoor air.
Imagine a winter day in Chicago when it is 30 degrees outside. Your furnace has heated your house to 70 degrees. If you open all the doors and windows of the house and shut off the furnace, heat will flow out of the house until, eventually, the interior house temperature is equal to the outdoor temperature of 30 degrees. This is why you may hear people yelling, "Shut the door before you let all the heat out!" during the winter.
Your Dream Home Is Not Finished Until You Have a Dream Garage
Your dream home might be a 1,800 square foot cottage near your relatives in Chicago or a 4,000 square foot luxury home in Wheaton within a short commute to your job. Whatever its size and value, it is yours, and you have put a lot of time and effort into making that house a home. But there is one thing you may not have finished yet, and that is the garage. Your dream home is not complete until you have the custom garage of your dreams.
Creating the Ultimate Custom Garage
Curb appeal. The first thing your dream garage needs is curb appeal. It may need a siding upgrade or some custom stonework to "dress" it to match the style of your home. It may need an upgraded garage door, such as a faux wood finish, a carriage style design, or windows. The exterior light fixtures must, of course, match the style of your house while providing functional illumination.
Interior lighting. Is your garage lighting limited to the auto-on light built into your garage door opener, and maybe one or two other bare lightbulbs? Do you find yourself leaving in the dark and coming home in the dark during the winter time? You are not alone, but chances are, the wiring is already in place to fix these problems. For just a couple hundred dollars, you can replace those bare bulbs with attractive and more functional light fixtures. Choose fixtures with a "smart" feature so that you can program them to light your departure in the morning and greet you when you come home at night.
Garage and Home Improvements With the Best Payback
The choices we make in home and custom garage improvements are generally driven by one of two factors: either we make upgrades for our own pleasure, or we plan to sell the house soon and are making improvements that will help it sell quickly for the best price. Ideally, we take both factors into consideration.
One important consideration is generally the payback value of a project. The payback percentage represents the increase in home value relative to the project cost. On the list of home improvements with the best payback, garage doors and other garage improvements are near the top.
Garage Door Replacement Has Excellent Payback Value
Garage door and entrance door replacements rank near the top of all home remodeling projects for their payback value, according to the Remodeling 2018 Cost vs. Value Report. In the Chicago market, installing a new upscale garage door (steel with R-12 insulation) has an estimated cost of $3,000 to $4,000 and an estimated payback value of 90%. Installing a new entryway door has an estimated cost of $1,000 to $2,000 and an estimated payback value of 100%.
What Home Buyers Want for Garages in 2019
Thinking about possible home improvements in 2019? Want to make sure those home and garage improvements are going to make your home appeal to future buyers? According to the National Association of Home Builders, these are some of the top features currently desired by home buyers:
- 92% want a convenient, roomy laundry room.
- 92% want exterior lighting.
- 90% want energy efficiency to control HVAC and electricity costs.
- 86% want good garage storage space.
If you are planning to do some work on your garage in the coming year, you should consider the following:
Garage storage. A well-designed storage system in the garage can boost your home value for several reasons. First, today's home buyers are mostly Millennials, who prefer a streamlined look in their homes without a lot of clutter. Second, the garage is usually much more conveniently accessible than an attic or basement. Third, particularly in suburban homes, homeowners are more likely to enter their home through the garage than through the front door on a daily basis, so they want this space to feel welcoming.
3 Solutions for Mud, Slush, and Snow on Your Garage Floor
Ah, the joys of winter in northern Illinois! The garage floor is filthy, but it is too freezing cold to hose it down. Even worse, slippery spots can form on the floor, posing a risk of a slip-and-fall. The last thing you need during a Chicago winter is to be hobbling around on crutches. So what can you do? Here are three recommended hacks for keeping that garage floor a little cleaner and safer:
Solution 1: Coal Shovel and Squeegee
Like most household maintenance chores, having the right tools can make all the difference. If you have been trying to use a push broom or snow shovel for winter floor cleaning, you have learned that those are not the best-suited tools for the job. Debris runs off the sides of a snow shovel, and a push broom is not ideal for muddy, slushy conditions. The solution is a coal shovel, which has sides to keep the debris in the shovel until you're ready to dump it outside. Other people swear by a heavy-duty push squeegee for pushing water out the door.
Improve Your Home’s Curb Appeal With a New Garage Door
When some part of your home, like a garage door, needs to be replaced, you should not just automatically buy the cheapest option or an exact replacement for the one that broke. Your home may well be the most valuable asset you have. When the time eventually comes to sell it, you will want to get the best possible price for it. This means that you cannot wait until you are ready to put the house on the market to think about maximizing its value to potential buyers. Rather, protecting the value of your home has to be an ongoing practice, like changing the oil in your car and buying new tires when the old ones wear out.
At a minimum, any major part of the home that breaks, like a garage door or furnace, needs to be repaired or replaced. However, that alone is not enough to maintain the value of your home. You also need to update your home's look and functionality, both interior and exterior, to keep up with changing lifestyles and tastes, at least to the extent that your budget allows.
Garage Maintenance for Above-Freezing December Days
The Chicago area often gets a few days with 35- to 40-degree temperatures in December, giving homeowners a last chance to complete some lingering outdoor maintenance chores. Here are a few suggestions for garage maintenance on one of those days:
Clean the Garage Gutters
The Chicago suburbs had an unusual fall in 2018. We went from leaves on the trees to leaves on the ground to snow on the ground in a matter of days. If you did not have the chance to get your gutters cleaned out earlier, now is the time to do it. Leaves which are just lightly frozen together should clean out fairly easily.
If the gutters get clogged up with masses of frozen leaves, water will not be able to drain off the roof the way it should. Remember that winter in northern Illinois usually involves a series of freezes and thaws, so your gutters need to be capable of draining off water all year long. Clogged gutters can lead to water damage affecting your roof, walls, and foundation, both inside and out. If water gets into areas of your home and garage that are not intended to be waterproof, such as wooden door frames and drywall, you can end up with rot and mold.
Holiday Decorating Themes for Your Home and Garage
If your home's front door and garage both face the street, your holiday decorating plan will be greatly enhanced if you decorate around your garage and driveway, as well as around your front door and walkway. You certainly have no shortage of options to fill up your outdoor space. As you have surely seen in home improvement stores, today's outdoor holiday decorating options go way beyond the traditional strings of lights and plastic Santas.
Some innovative outdoor decorating items you might want to consider this year include:
- Oversized ornaments or snowflakes you can hang or place around the yard.
- Pre-lit faux birch trees in a range of sizes, creating temporary landscaping in a yard that lacks mature trees.
- Light projectors that project an image of falling snow across the entire front of your home and garage, or even a picture of your family Christmas card photo. Image projections are an easy way to dress up a plain, light-colored garage door.
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