What to Look for in a Good Garage Door
Garage doors provide security and also help to improve the aesthetics of your home. A good garage door is a nice addition to any home, and will be a joy to use. A door that is poorly installed or badly made will be frustrating to come home to. They can be noisy to use, get stuck when opening, and offer a generally annoying experience.
If you’re looking for a new garage door, then you should consider reliability, ease of use, appearance and security:
What Makes a Good Garage Door?
Garage doors can be made out of a number of different materials. Usually, you will see modern homes have a steel or aluminum garage door, but some have timber doors, or even glass-reinforced polyester/glass fiber doors. This choice is both an aesthetic one, and a functional one. Steel and aluminum are light, easy to operate and easy to maintain. They are usually sold pre-primed, ready for painting to match the rest of the building.
Wood looks stunning, especially in older or more rustic properties. However, wood rots more easily and will therefore need more regular maintenance. GRP can have a look similar to that of wood, but is easier to care for.
Choose Your Door Style
Once you’ve decided the look of your garage door, the next decision is the opening style. There are several different types:
– Up-and-over
– Roller
– Side-hinged
– Sectional
– Round the corner
The up-and-over style of door is the one that is most commonly used these days. It can be opened either manually or electronically, and it is popular because there is not a lot that can go wrong with it. Some doors of this style are retractable, and when they open the door slides back into the garage. Some are ‘canopy’ doors which are so named because when they open they leave a ‘canopy’ projecting into the driveway.
The problem with this type of door is that you need a large drive to use them. You can’t drive all the way up to the garage door and then open it, because the door swings into the driveway as it opens.
Sectional and roller doors are a better choice if you have a small driveway because they open vertically. This means that they take up less space. They are also strong and secure, and provide good insulation. The downside is that their mechanisms are more complex, which means that they are more expensive to install and more difficult to maintain.
Side-hinged doors are nice for a traditional family home. They have two leaves, just like a normal double door. They’re not something you would want for a two car garage, but if you have a small garage and just want to park your bikes/car in there then that’s all you need. They can be quite attractive and are also quite low-maintenance.
Parking your car in a garage is a good move from a security point of view and can reduce your insurance premiums. Make sure that whatever garage door you choose has a robust locking mechanism for best results. If you’re still undecided about which garage door to get, contact a professional near you for recommendations.