From: Derek Harling <derek.lola@sympatico.ca>
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net <shop-talk@autox.team.net>;
vintage-race@autox.team.net <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
>My "Race Shop" in my new home is the usual 20x20 domestic garage
>dedicated to race cars and equipment [no dirty street cars allowed
>inside!].
>
>The door is a modern, painted, galvanised steel, sectional lift up -
>insulated with vinyl faced polystyrene foam blocks.
>
>On the few occasions I've open the big door in the past few months I've
>experienced considerable water running out - at the most inconvenient
>times and in the most inconvenient places - of course!
My shop is the back 20x30 of of a 20x50 garage building. The door which
separates the insulated shop from the the uninsulated garage for the dirty
street cars is of the fully-clad metal type. Each panel is a sealed unit
with steel on both sides. The inside of the panel is foam. This type will
have no appreciable condensation and no channels for it to sit in. Of
course, my door is mounted on the garage side, so the pretty fake-wood
pressing faces the shop and anything that were to fall off the opened door
would fall on the dirty street cars.
Your door is the single-layer steel door like the one on my garage. This
has the channels of which you speak. You door has blocks inserted at the
factory. They do not fit tightly to the edges of the panel, so there is
ample area of steel which is exposed both to the cold air outside and the
warmer air inside. Condensation ensues, especially if you intermittently
use some kind of heater which exhausts into the shop space, like a torpedo
heater. Been there, done that with such a door and heater at my previous
home.
The solution to your problem is either fix the door you have or replace it
with a door like mine.
To fix the door you have: Finish off the inside of each panel. An option
is to fill the gaps between the edges of the foam blocks and the steel with
canned foam. Be sure the foam is a type that will not eat the existing foam
blocks. Then screw or pop-rivet some type of plastic, metal or wood
paneling on the inside of the existing panels. If you use a wood product,
underlay it with some poly sheet as a vapor barrier.
If you want to replace the whole door, call around town for door companies.
I found that I could get my door installed for less than I could buy one
from Home Depot or Menards. I paid $425 installed for a 7x10 door. I
imagine yours is a standard 7x16 and would run a bit more. Just call around
to make sure you are not paying more to do it yourself.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Chev Suburban
LOON, MAC
pethier@isd.net http://www.visi.com/mac/
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