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Step 13Insulate Door
Insulating the existing closet doors was a bit of an engineering gamble. The only material I found that would work is rigid foam thermal insulation board bonded to reinforced aluminum foil facers on each side. OK, so I copied that last line from the manufacturer's website, but you get the point. I purchased two boards of 2" thick Thermasheath 3 from Home Deport for about $50 per board. It's expensive, but it's also very light, is a built in vapor barrier, and has a high R-value. I figured two layers per door would give me enough insulation.
I knew that my closet door is hollow, so I figured I had about 1/2" gap to fit some sort of anchor inside the door. My basic idea was to drill four holes through the inside panel of each door. Then, slide a bolt through the insulation boards and affix them to the door with a spring-loaded anchor. I believe these are called "shelf track" wall anchors. The picture below should give you an idea of what I used.
I say this was a gamble because if it didn't work out, I'd have four fairly large holes on the inside of each door.
Two layers of insulation board are approximately 4" thick. Add in a little bit for the door itself and I needed a screw that's greater than 4" but less than 4 1/2". Unfortunately, the longest screw with an expanding anchor that Home Depot sells is only 4" long. My workaround was to push the bolt head approximately half way through the first insulation board. This gave me enough room to "pop" in each anchor. Then I just had to carefully screw tight each bolt until the panels sat firmly against each door. It's a little ghetto, but $100 sure does beat $600+.
One thing to note: I did not cut the insulation boards the exact same size as the closet doors. You can see I left a 1/2" overlap on one door. I did this to remove the air gap between the closet doors when they're closed. I didn't know if this would work at the time, but now it seems to be the right thing to do. After adding some weather stripping, it appears to be nearly airtight. The downside is that I must open the right door first.
Of course, gap tolerances for closet doors are all over the place. I found the best way to close the gaps is to use rope caulk. This stuff is a lot like silly putty. I kept adding it to the door frame until the closet door would leave an impression when closed. Also, by standing inside the closet with the doors closed, I could see where light was coming in. This stuff isn't pretty, but it got the job done. Now, the doors are virtually airtight, even a little difficult to close because the the whole air pressure thing. I don't know if it can be painted. I might try painting a test batch to see what happens.
The insulation boards settled slightly after installation, so now they drag on the ground a bit when opening or closing the door. However, it isn't harming the hard wood floors, and I suspect it helps with closing the air gap on the bottom, so I'm not too worried about this.
I knew that my closet door is hollow, so I figured I had about 1/2" gap to fit some sort of anchor inside the door. My basic idea was to drill four holes through the inside panel of each door. Then, slide a bolt through the insulation boards and affix them to the door with a spring-loaded anchor. I believe these are called "shelf track" wall anchors. The picture below should give you an idea of what I used.
I say this was a gamble because if it didn't work out, I'd have four fairly large holes on the inside of each door.
Two layers of insulation board are approximately 4" thick. Add in a little bit for the door itself and I needed a screw that's greater than 4" but less than 4 1/2". Unfortunately, the longest screw with an expanding anchor that Home Depot sells is only 4" long. My workaround was to push the bolt head approximately half way through the first insulation board. This gave me enough room to "pop" in each anchor. Then I just had to carefully screw tight each bolt until the panels sat firmly against each door. It's a little ghetto, but $100 sure does beat $600+.
One thing to note: I did not cut the insulation boards the exact same size as the closet doors. You can see I left a 1/2" overlap on one door. I did this to remove the air gap between the closet doors when they're closed. I didn't know if this would work at the time, but now it seems to be the right thing to do. After adding some weather stripping, it appears to be nearly airtight. The downside is that I must open the right door first.
Of course, gap tolerances for closet doors are all over the place. I found the best way to close the gaps is to use rope caulk. This stuff is a lot like silly putty. I kept adding it to the door frame until the closet door would leave an impression when closed. Also, by standing inside the closet with the doors closed, I could see where light was coming in. This stuff isn't pretty, but it got the job done. Now, the doors are virtually airtight, even a little difficult to close because the the whole air pressure thing. I don't know if it can be painted. I might try painting a test batch to see what happens.
The insulation boards settled slightly after installation, so now they drag on the ground a bit when opening or closing the door. However, it isn't harming the hard wood floors, and I suspect it helps with closing the air gap on the bottom, so I'm not too worried about this.
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