Darkening those garage windows--good grief!!!

[Orchidflower]

The decorative plastic pieces on my garage windows broke, so they were taken down by the painter last month. In the interim, being in Phoenix, the heat was bearing down thru those 4 - 11"x41" clear garage windows and became totally unbearable it was so hot in the garage; so, I cut 4 pieces out of white styrofoam sheets and covered each of the windows. This is a temporary solution only because, frankly, it looks ugly...it works, but it's ugly.

I've gone thru Amazon and looked at all the Gila brand residential film for these windows, but know it is hard to use without another set of hands; plus, it won't be as cheap as I would like.

I was thinking of taking the styrofoam out of the windows, spraying them with black Rustoleum and replacing them, but the fear is that the Rustoleum paint would stick to the glass with all the heat. Is this a stupid idea?

Anyone know of any other solution? Doesn't seem much on the net about it, so thought I would turn to the DIY's here.

 

[soupcxan]

I have used the gila product before for some exterior windows and didn't find it hard to work with by myself once I got the hang of it. Windows with curves are more difficult to cut smoothly but 4 square windows shouldn't take more than an hour or two. Amazon sells a 3'x6.5' roll of gila black for $15. To me, that is a far more attractive option than spraypaint.

 

[Mulligan]

I don't have a solution but my garage is hotter than hades with the 107 degree heat beating straight on my garage. I just leave the garage doors open all day long. I bet its 30 degrees cooler in there now.

 

[JPatrick]

Instead of using paint, you might try "plastic dip" which sprays on, and provides a plastic coating to the surface. The nice thing about it is that it you can peel it off if needed. You might be able to just go direct on the glass.
Plasti Dip Protective Coating Products | Plasti Dip Protective Coating Products | Rubber Dip Coating

 

[bbbamI]

We just put pieces of dark colored fabric over our garage windows. ...held on with painter's masking tape. Eh, doesn't look too bad in the garage and on the outside looks fine. It's temporary, but has been working for us for quite a while now.

Might remain permanent.

 

[kumquat]

Tin foil is good for things other than hats.

 

[Animorph]

Watch out the paint doesn't dissolve the styrofoam.

How about wrapping the styrofoam with a cloth with bird print or something? Or just mini curtains with blackout cloth.

 

[nphx]

I took a wet sponge with gererous dish soap - and "washed" the windows. The windows dried to a frosted haze. I did it to keep burgulars from peeking in the garage but it dampens the sunlight well. And when you want to re-do or remove just sponge and water.

 

[samclem]

The Rustoleum will dissolve polystyrene, at least to some degree.
If you are trying to reduce heat buildup in the garage, black paint or cloth is the wrong approach (even with insulation behind it). Plus, with insulation behind a black-painted surface in Arizona, that glass is going to get VERY hot if exposed to direct sun (since you've effectively created a hot-air solar collection panel without a way to get the thermal energy out). That won't be good for the seals around the glass, and the glass itself may crack. The problems would be most acute if you've got double-paned insulating glazing units rather than just a single pane of glass.

There is a clearish translucent adhesive film that you can put directly on glass (the inside surface). It's sticky, like shelf liner. We have it on the glass in our front door, it hasn't yellowed in 5 years, though it's not exposed to direct sunlight. I'd go with that for appearance, and see if you like it without any insulation behind it (it will allow enough light into the garage in the daytime for you to work, get in/out of the car, etc). If you think you are getting too much heat gain, tape your Styrofoam(TM) up on the back side of that. The light-colored obscured glass should look good from the street, burglars won't be able to see in, you should minimize heat gain, and the white surface ("frosted" glass with white styrofoam behind it) should reduce the temp of the glass by quite a bit compared to having a black surface back there.

Note that, by code, any exposed Styrofoam is supposed to be covered with drywall or other barrier to ignition. If you want to go deluxe, instead of using drywall you could spray it with an intumescent coating which is designed for this purpose. You'd have to search around to see if anyone sells these paints in small batches.

 

[Orchidflower]

Learning alot here.....