As much as a quarter of your home’s frontage, Patriot Garage Door says a lot. Look for durability, energy efficiency and low maintenance.
Steel doors with polystyrene insulation offer R-values up to 10. Choose from multiple door panel designs and stains. Budget-minded options include embossed wood-grain texture over steel and polyester paint.
When you think of a garage door, the overhead type probably comes to mind. This is because this is the most common type of residential door and the most widely used by professional contractors. It’s also a reliable and cost-effective choice for homeowners that doesn’t require complex installation or maintenance.
Historically, the first garage doors were swinging and opened up on hinges mounted to the sides of the doorway. While they worked fairly well, this design had a few drawbacks. For starters, the doors were often heavy, causing their hinges to wear out quickly. Additionally, they would not open if snow or other materials were piled up in front of them.
To address these issues, a man named C.G. Johnson developed the first upward-operating garage door. This innovation proved to be a game-changer and gave rise to the Overhead Door Corporation and other companies that quickly emerged to meet consumer demand.
Today, there are many types of overhead garage doors to choose from. The most popular are sectional overhead doors. These are fabricated from individual metal slat sections that are interlocked together. They are sometimes referred to as rolling steel doors or coiling garage doors. The slats can be either straight or curved to fit different needs. They are a great option for homes that want to minimize storage space while still providing a large opening.
Another popular type of overhead garage door is the bifold or trifold door. These are designed to offer the upscale look of traditional swinging doors without requiring the space that the doors need to swing outward and move beyond the garage wall. These types of doors can be further accentuated with decorative hardware such as strap hinges, latches, pull handles, ring pulls and clavos.
Regardless of which type of garage door you choose, it’s important to keep in mind that these doors are required by law to be equipped with safety components. These include photo eye sensors and a pressure or auto-reverse system. These safety features help prevent accidental contact with occupants, equipment and vehicles. This helps to ensure that the garage door does not close too forcefully and is not causing harm to anyone in its path.
Sectional
When you choose a sectional garage door, you’ll enjoy style and efficiency all in one. These doors are designed with many panels that move vertically and lay flat against your garage ceiling when open. They run along tracks placed on the sides and ceiling of your garage, and they’re operated by torsion springs or an automatic opener, allowing you to open and close them manually or with a remote control.
Like single-panel doors, modern sectional garage doors are available in a wide variety of colors and materials to fit any aesthetic, from sleek steel to warm wood grains. You can also find a multitude of decorative options, including windows or patterns that allow natural light to fill your garage. This level of customization allows you to bring your garage into your home’s design seamlessly, and it’s a great way to increase curb appeal and boost your property value.
In addition to their stylish designs, modern sectional garage doors offer a number of cutting-edge safety features. These include auto-reverse functions that prevent the door from crashing down if something gets in its path, and sensors that keep track of objects that might get caught under the door. This technology reduces the risk of injury or damage to your car or belongings while making your garage safer for children and pets.
These doors are also well-insulated to help regulate the temperature inside your garage, resulting in energy efficiency and reduced heating and cooling costs. Insulation also helps to keep outside noises at bay, allowing you to focus on your work or hobbies in peace.
While these garage doors are more expensive than single-panel models, they offer a higher level of functionality that’s worth the investment. They’re more durable and require less maintenance than single-panel doors, which can save you money over time. They also feature more complex mechanisms than their simpler counterparts, so they may cost more to repair if something goes wrong.
A sectional garage door requires a little more headroom than single-panel doors, but it’s still a good option for most homeowners. You should make sure that you have enough room to accommodate the tracks and rollers if you want to install one, and check that there are no obstructions near the tracks so that your garage door can travel freely.
Slide to the Side
If you have the space, a slide to the side garage door can offer a beautiful and unique look for your home. This type of door is similar to a sliding shed, closet, or patio door that slides along a track, but on a much bigger scale. This style of garage door is easier to open and close than a vertical-sliding door, as it doesn’t require a lot of room above the garage.
The design options for this type of garage door are limitless, and homeowners can choose from an array of custom finishes and colors. They can also add windows or inserts to the doors, creating a unique and stylish look that complements the architecture of their home. This style of garage door is incredibly energy efficient, and it offers a high level of insulation that helps to keep the garage at a stable temperature and prevents external temperatures from impacting the interior environment.
This type of garage door is typically less expensive than a sectional garage door. However, it is important to note that the installation process is more complex, so you should hire a professional for the job. When you install this type of garage door, it is critical that the tracks are accurately spaced and properly aligned. It is also necessary to ensure that the ground beneath the tracks is level and clean. Otherwise, the doors could develop misalignments that can cause them to malfunction or become difficult to operate.
Another advantage of a slide to the side garage door is that it does not create a lot of noise when it is opened or closed. This is especially helpful if your garage is located above a living space or office. This type of garage door also has several security features that help to deter intruders. For example, many of them have steel frames that have reinforced corners and are equipped with strong locks. Additionally, they can be fitted with motion sensor lights that activate when there is movement around the garage.
In addition to these security features, some slide to the side garage doors are equipped with smart lock systems that allow for remote access and integration with other smart devices. This allows you to control your garage door from anywhere, ensuring that it is only open when you want it to be.
Side-Hinged
Unlike roller garage doors, which are a pain to operate because you need to wait for the door panel to lift vertically, side-hinged garage doors open at your convenience. All you have to do is open the narrower leaf a little, which only takes minutes and allows you to enter the garage or leave it. This type of door also does not require any heavy lifting and is therefore easy to fit for those who suffer from back or neck problems.
Side-hinged garage doors are very durable and if fitted correctly, they are highly secure. They use the same principals as traditional double-hinged doors and, if uprated locking systems are specified and installed with the correct steel or timber sub frame, these doors will achieve high levels of UK security ratings.
The main advantages of a side-hinged garage door are that they take up very little space inside the garage and can be easily customised to suit your needs. They are perfect for situations where the ceiling of the garage is obstructed with shelving, gas meters, electrical units or even when access to internal storage is restricted by internal walls.
Additionally, they are very quiet, as they don’t require any overhead tracks and are free of mechanisms which squeal when opened. This makes them the ideal choice if you live in a quiet neighborhood and don’t want to disturb your neighbors with your garage door squealing every time you open it.
They can also be made to measure and are therefore suitable for any garage. They can be used as an alternative to a front door and, because they can be partially opened when not in use, they provide excellent privacy. Homeowners often like to keep one half of the door open when they are working in the garden or retrieving gardening tools, for example. This way they can quickly dart across and retrieve the tool without having to fully open the door. This helps them save energy and money on heating bills too. These doors need a fixed sub frame, which can be manufactured from timber, aluminium or steel depending on the material of the door and are normally supplied in a kit with a fixing bracket and a good quality ‘door stop’.