Getting too much sun in my garage!

[Rot 911]

I love having my garage door open when I’m working and now that the weather is warming up I have it open a lot. However, in the afternoon, the sun bounces off the concrete and turns the inside of my garage into an oven. What ideas have any of you come up with to have some kind of retractable awning on your garage? I’d go with a sunshade, but I don’t have enough places to tie it off. I found a few motorized ones, but they want stupid money for them. I just need it on the one side.

[RNajarian]

They have screens for garage door openings. I wonder if the screen would filter out the sun, or maybe a portable easy up

[stevej37]

Keep the doors shut and use a dehumidifier.

[Nostril Cheese]

anchor bolts

[VINMAN]

I have garage door screens on mine. They do help a little with the sun.

.

[pmax]

Retractable awning in front of a garage ? Noooooo.... save that for the family picnic area.

Plant some trees on the "left" side to block off the afternoon sun or build a car port.

Sleeveless shirts help too.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I've got the exact same problem with the garage I work in. In the mornings, the sun glares inside. I want the door open, but the heat can be a problem.

I was thinking, an outward opening tilt door wouldn't just be a sun block, but an awning when it's lightly raining outside, increasing the beer drinking square footage for those mulling about in the garage.


Figuring everything I come up with has already been invented- I did a quick search. Sure enough, it's been invented. I have to still go back to my day job. One day I'll come up with the million dollar idea.

Somebody ride back into town and get me a welder and a $%tload of square steel tubing.

Turn down the music for the best garage door experience. Something like this-

[pavulon]

open the garage doors 1/3 or 1/2?

[fastfredracing]

You need a few 911 hoods for sun shades !

[Baz]

Hey Kurt....you would probably never do what I did for my driveway area but you're welcome to take a look at some of the canopy stuff I have done here:

Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

My garage faces North thankfully so that helps a lot but we still have a lot of sun and heat here so until I have a nice carport type structure built I'm doing what I have to just to get by.....

[wdfifteen]

Close the doors (or not) and turn on the lights.
I have the same problem. Natural light is great, but it isn't often well distributed. I use 4 foot LED light bars even though I have lots of natural light.
When I'm under the car it's a particular problem. I got these Craftsman LEDs that work well. Yeah, I hate what has happened to the Craftsman name, but these work pretty well.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-3000-Lumen-LED-Portable-Work-Light/1000716822

[pmax]

Go sleeveless.

[Noah930]

EZ-UP canopy? Local building codes may (or may not) allow building anything more permanent.

[LakeCleElum]

Seems like a 3rd world problem as I still have snow in my yard.......

But, for summer, I put a roll up door on the back side of my 4 car garage. Gets a nice breeze in the summer.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

Getting too much sun in my garage!

Lucky you. My garage gets no sun and is a miserable place.

Baz's sunshade, Florida style!, looks like a great idea.

[flatbutt]

Powered vent in the roof?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Baz

Hey Kurt....you would probably never do what I did for my driveway area but you're welcome to take a look at some of the canopy stuff I have done here:

Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

My garage faces North thankfully so that helps a lot but we still have a lot of sun and heat here so until I have a nice carport type structure built I'm doing what I have to just to get by.....

that's what I was thinking. That sort of thing is used a bunch around here. In our old apt, they had something similar over the small dog park. There were a couple of houses in the neighborhood that had that sort of thing setup in their small backyard. I've also seen similar used in the outdoor portion of some restaurants. We have similar sun here in the Houston area to what you get in S. FL.

[Nickshu]

I had a solar shade made/installed on my garage door years ago. It works great. Cranks up and down. Box mounts on the upper garage door frame out side of the door. Cables on left/right that guide it and keep it from flapping in the wind. I ran mine within about 6" of the floor when fully extended. IIRC cost was about $1000 installed but that was back in around 2013. Local patio shade company. Very high quality unit has held up well. Brand is Insolroll.

Mine look similar to this, stock photo, not a garage but you get the idea, box mounts across the top of the garage door frame and cables like you can see here:


Then I mounted one of those industrial wall-mount oscillating fans high on the back wall. It's an Air-King from Amazon. Keeps it relatively comfortable in the summer, but you do have to put sockets on top of papers and such so the fan doesn't blow them off the workbench LOL. The picture does not do it justice, it moves some serious air.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00155VT9K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

..

[Zeke]

You have more or less analyzed the heat problem you have. Heat transfer occurs in 3 forms: radiation — you filter it; conduction — you block it; and convection — you stop it.

None of the suggestions will do much for the problem except the one saying leave the door closed. Therefore, you need more indirect natural light sources and possibly a fan or 2.

You could add some more LowE glass panels to the doors. Say one or 2 more sections with glass.

[javadog]

In my last garage, I just kept the doors shut and the A/C on. 1500 W of bright white fluorescent lighting took care of being able to see what I was doing.

Never did like the notion of the riffraff driving by and seeing what I had in my garage.

Nonetheless, if you persist in wanting to keep the door open, make sure that part of your problem isn’t a lack of insulation in the ceiling above the garage. The house I am currently renting never sees direct sunlight in the garage but also has no insulation above the ceiling, so it gets hotter than snot in the summer.