Insulating an uninsulated door :P

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maineah1214

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Aug 6, 2013
44
Maine
I have a sunroom off of my cape that has baseboard heat. Well, had baseboard heat. My furnace ran constantly to keep it above freezing out there, so I ended up draining the zone. Every year since then, I have used that 3M plastic to keep the cold air out of my house. Clearly, this is not ideal and the room that leads into my sunroom is very cold in the winter.

I don't have $2000 to drop on a new set of insulated french doors right now. I am trying to come up with a cheap and effective way to insulate this better, since it is basically like having a huge hole in the side of my house when it gets cold.

I was initially thinking about the blue foam board insulation, but it only has an R value of 10 and its relatively expensive, at least compared to fiberglass which has a higher R value.

Would there be any drawbacks (besides aesthetic) with buying a couple rolls of fiberglass insulation and packing the door frame with it, then sealing the whole thing with the shrink wrap? Looking for alternatives, but at about a 42 square foot opening I could do fiberglass for 30 bucks or less, and have a high R value.

Thoughts??

Thanks for any suggestions!

edit: I should clarify, currently there is a set of uninsulated wood/single pane french doors there now.
 
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Insulating curtains would be much more eye catching.
 
To help make your decision cost wise, I would figure out how much not doing anything is costing you. You might be saving money by spending a little more than you anticipated.
 
I have a basic front door, which we never use. We also have a storm door. Every winter I put f/g insulation between the doors. works well. i'd do your idea in a minute. We shrink wrap all our windows too, getting some age on them. Comfort level is much better than without. That stuff is pretty neat.
 
Keep in mind everything you do should be easily/quickly removed for fire exits. I have never been in a house fire, but when people are overcome by smoke, knocking their way thru a winter enclosure might not work well.
 
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Buy some blue foam. Go to Walmart and pick some cheap fabric that looks good and cover the foam.
 
I'd probably go with curtains as well. Growing up we lived in a farm house built in the 1800's. The front door was solid wood, and leaked bad enough that you could feel freezing drafts just blowing through. Every winter we nailed a heavy quilt over the door as a curtain, since we still used the door. If you put your hand behind the quilt, it was probably 40-50° between it and the door. But on the inside, it was basically room temperature.
 
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