When it comes to home remodel and repair jobs, it is important to determine if your current garage doors need to be replaced. This would be especially important if the garage doors on your home were installed 10 years ago or more. In the past decade, materials and technology for garage doors has changed substantially.
Therefore, older doors or those that are damaged or worn not only look bad and have issues with functionality, they also allow hot and cold air inside, which means you spend more money each month on utilities than necessary.
Keep in mind that you can save money when buying garage doors without sacrificing on quality. A perfect example is that going with sectional doors would increase the price substantially whereas a fixed overhead door would be more affordable. Both options work well although the higher priced option does offer a few features the other door type does not. In this case, you would simply need to set a budget and then look at door options within that price range.
If the budget can afford it, a sectional garage door is one of the top choices. With this, the door opens up and behind the framed opening. Therefore, you end up having as much as eight inches more height. Because of this and the way this type of garage door opens, parking larger vehicles is generally easier.
Then, because of the additional space, if your garage were small, every extra inch would make moving about easier. The greatest benefit of a sectional garage door is the seal, which is the best you can buy to keep hot and cold air on the outside and not in the garage and ultimately, the home.
Another possibility is with a rolling garage door. While garage doors and rolling doors serve much the same purpose, they are notably different. For starters, you need to choose the option based on your geographical area. The reason is that garage doors are designed to handle a certain wind load whereas rolling doors are not.
This means rolling doors do not have the same reinforcement backing as garage doors. However, many brands of rolling doors can handle high winds because of the way the guides are locked and the attachment to the doorjambs.
No matter the type of garage door you decide on, along with seal and wind tolerance, you want to consider fire compliancy. The type of door you want to purchase would have foam plastic insulation. This material is fireproof so it protects the garage and home from potential fire but the insulation would make the doors more energy efficient.
Remember, if you have a fire-rated wall, a standard type of garage door would not be allowed so in this case, rolling doors would be the better choice.
Along with the features of garage and rolling doors, you would need to decide on features. One of these would be the automatic door opener. Many types now being sold are designed so a light comes on to illuminate the garage when the doors open and close, which is a nice security feature. Additionally, many garage door openers are made to open if they were to come down on an object. This automatic reverse feature has saved many lives, especially those of small children who get under a closing door.
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It seems the majority of our customers go with sectional garage doors, because of the reasons you mentioned — higher elevation, and easier to park larger vehicles in. Thanks for sharing this post.