The garage door is often an overlooked aspect of a home, but it plays a crucial role in security, curb appeal, and functionality. Choosing the right garage door can significantly impact your property value and your daily routine.
Types of Garage Doors
Garage doors come in several types, each with distinct characteristics. The most common types include:
Sectional Garage Doors
These are made of sections, like panels or squares. The sections roll up on tracks to open. When closed, they look like one large door. They roll up to store horizontally under the ceiling space. Sectional doors are very common.
Roll-Up Garage Doors
These roll vertically to open and close. You see them commonly in self-storage units. They roll up and wrap around a drum placed above the opening. The drum stores the door when open.
Slide to the Side Doors
These garage doors slide horizontally to open. Sections connect together on rollers and equipment, sliding along rails on both sides of the garage door opening. The sections are stored by stacking together when open.
Side-Hinged Garage Doors
These swing open to one side like regular doors. They commonly have one or two door sections that swing out or in on hinges. Sometimes called swing-out doors. They take up space inside or outside when open.
Tilt-up or Up-and-Over Garage Doors
They are one solid panel that tilts at the top and lifts up to open vertically on tracks, staying partly horizontal. Provides full drive-through height when open. The panel usually lifts over and behind the garage’s opening when open.
Benefits of Garage Doors
Investing in a high-quality garage door brings numerous benefits:
- Security – Garage doors with locks, safety features, and automation give protection against unwanted people entering your garage. They provide security for items stored in the garage. Sturdy garage doors also make it harder to break into the rest of your home through that entry point.
- Convenience – Features like automatic openers make using your garage simple. You don’t have to get out of your car or strain to open heavy doors by hand. Keypads, smartphone control, and other features also add easy access.
- Save Energy – Well-insulated doors with weatherstripping save on electricity bills. They block outside air and elements from entering the garage space. Helps regulate temperature so you add less heat or cooling.
- Curb Appeal – Upgrading traditional tilt garage doors to nicer modern sectional doors greatly improves the outside look of a home, adding value and impressing guests.
- Durability – Heavy-duty steel, aluminum, fiberglass, and wood garage doors last for many years. They hold up well in all kinds of weather. Quality garage doors improve function and make your home last longer.
Picking the Right Garage Door
When selecting a replacement garage door or putting one on a new build, think about:
- Materials – Common options include wood, steel, aluminum, and fiberglass. Consider durability, appearance, insulation properties, weight, and cost.
- Insulation Value – For energy savings and comfort, pick an insulated door with an R-value of 12 or more. Higher is better to block outside temperatures.
- Style – Many design options like raised panels, windows, decorative hardware, color, and finishes let you match your home’s look.
- Budget – Prices range widely from $500 to $5,000 installed depending on materials, size, features, and quality level selected. Have a budget in mind.
- Maintenance – Some materials like steel need periodic repainting. Wood requires staining/sealing. Check that the design allows easy access to hardware for lubrication and adjustments.
Wooden Garage Doors
Various types of wooden garage doors are a wonderful choice loved by many homeowners. Here’s more on their benefits:
Advantages of Wooden Garage Doors
- Attractive Appearance – Wood’s natural grain patterns and colors add beautiful, warm character to homes. You can stain them in various custom shades. They fit nicely with natural architecture styles using wood siding and stone.
- Customizable Design – Wood doors are highly customizable with carved decorative hardware, arched tops, custom etching, window styles, and sizes. You can create signature doors making a home truly unique.
- Good Insulators – Wood offers better thermal insulation than metal garage doors, lowering energy costs. Their solid panels with weather seals prevent drafts well. Some can match insulated steel doors.
- Very Durable – Quality thick wood doors last for generations with proper installation and maintenance, outlasting their metal counterparts. More dent-resistant than thin metal too.
While heavy wooden doors were once the most common style, lighter metal doors gained favor for easier lifting by automatic openers. But wood still offers unbeatable aesthetics for many homeowners wanting beautiful architecture.
Keeping Garage Doors Working Well
Follow this routine maintenance to keep any garage door operating smoothly for years:
- Check Monthly – Give doors a quick monthly once-over to spot loose hardware, damaged components like springs and cable pulleys, corroded tracks, and worn weatherstripping needing repair before causing operational failure.
- Lubricate Hardware – Apply garage door lubricant to pulleys, rollers, and hinges every 6 months avoiding dirt buildup and rust accumulation which binds mechanisms. This prevents excess operational strain.
- Wash and Seal – Clean grime and dirt off wooden and metal doors when dirty avoiding salt, chemical, and environmental damage. Reseal and repaint surfaces annually for protection.
- Confirm Door Balance – A balanced door opens smoothly without drifting up or down unexpectedly signifying worn extension springs needing adjustment. An unbalanced door strains opener systems.
- Inspect Weatherstripping – Check perimeter weather seals yearly for compression wear and missing sections permitting air leaks wastefully cooling/heating the garage. Replace strips proactively.
Following prudent preventative maintenance keeps garage doors operating reliably for decades avoiding premature failures and service calls. Safety and function are preserved diligently.
Automated Garage Door Benefits
Attaching automated opener systems to existing doors or having them factory-installed on new doors allows for convenient push-button or remote-control access.
Benefits of Automated Doors
- Super Convenient Access – With one-touch wall buttons or handheld clickers, doors open automatically when pulling up saving having to get out in bad weather.
- Enhanced Security – Automated doors with encrypted openers prevent break-ins by thieves lacking matching remotes or codes. Auto-locking upon closing is common.
- Increased Safety – Automatic stop and reverse functionality prevents doors from closing on people, vehicles, or objects avoiding accidents even when distracted people forget to watch movement.
- Smart Technology Integration – Advanced models sync with home automation networks, video cameras, smartphones, and smart speakers like Alexa allowing door control through apps and voice commands.
Conclusion
Garage doors must endure year-round weather alongside constant vehicle contact. Selecting durable, reliable doors suited to your budget and home style keeps garages accessible and secure safely. Properly maintained doors have worked like new for decades as one of the best home upgrades protecting valuables stored inside while enhancing curb appeal. If considering an upgrade, weigh all the easy-to-understand factors this article presented to make an optimal choice. Safety and security ride on quality garage doors.
