Insulating a garage for winter, above all, means knowing how to insulate your garage door. As the largest opening in the structure, the garage door invites temperature and moisture change, so it’s crucial to insulate your garage door before winter strikes. Fortunately, there are many realistic, cost-effective ways to protect your entire garage from the elements.

Choosing an opener for your garage door goes beyond price. There are several types of garage door openers to choose from based on power, performance, sizing, advanced “smart” features and so on. As such, it’s important to know the differences and what you need to best suit your needs before you buy.

Here’s a little myth-busting from inside the garage. That garage door opener of yours? It really isn’t opening anything. Garage doors are heavy. That noisy chain (or quiet belt or fancy screw) would be out of luck without a torsion spring. Typically running horizontally above the door on the inside of the garage, torsion springs are heavy-gauge steel wire coils that generate torque to counterbalance the garage door’s weight. Winding or unwinding as the door opens or closes, torsion springs ensure smooth operation when the door is in motion.

Four or five times a day, on average, homeowners open and close their garage doors. Most give it no more thought than turning on a light — until pressing the button doesn’t work. Why? Garage door openers are more complicated than changing a lightbulb, and the prospect of troubleshooting potentially expensive if common garage door problems can be daunting.

A garage door treated as an afterthought gives the impression of a not particularly well-thought-out home. Consider that most homes built in this century have attached garages, and the doors thereof take up as much as 30% of the front facade. That’s a big chunk of curb appeal to be swallowed up by builder-grade blandness.

Garage doors, whether on residential or commercial property, are big, heavy and, when opened manually, awkward. It’s little wonder, then, that the invention of the electric opener followed the first overhead garage door within a few years of its introduction in 1921. Garage door safety, however, evolved more slowly. Only since the 1970s has an industry standard existed for garage door openers. In 1993 that standard became federal law.

Your home’s garage door is more than just something functional — it’s one of the focal points of your exterior, and an opportunity to feature a unique look that can enhance your curb appeal.