Three different factors are bound to influence your choice of garage door material – namely kind of house, the amount of space you have, and what your budget is. You may opt for Up-and-Over garage doors, Side-hung garage doors, Roller garage doors, and Sectional garage doors. You can buy any of these four as made from glass reinforced plastic, steel or wood materials.
If your house is restricted in space and has a short drive, you will need a roller garage door then. Such garage doors will roll vertically upwards so that you don’t have to dodge upswings or overhangs.
If you want to be able to use flush parking within your garage, you need a sectional garage door. This type of garage door differs from other garage doors based on how the open door gets stored.
The larger garages benefit from using overhead garage doors. These garage doors are also called up-and-over garage doors and swing outwards before moving upwards to remain parallel to the ceiling of the garage. Usually, overhead garage door models are built using glass reinforced plastic – but you can also get some models constructed out of steel or wood. Your garage area should have plenty of room to accommodate the overhead garage door because such garage doors have to be able to swing open and shut freely.
A garage that can easily accommodate the size of overhead garage doors may also accommodate side hung doors (which are the oldest garage doors around and perhaps the simplest because they are just doors that hang on hinges at both sides of the garage entrance and close at the middle of the entrance way.
The wooden garage doors are good-looking yet demand more maintenance compared to other materials (plus they are more expensive.) If you are not too concerned about sticking to a budget, or about expenses for long-term expenses, then these wooden garage doors are perfect for you.
Steel garage doors offer the highest level of security to homeowners, but you should also consider other parts of your garage and home that will need higher security standards such as windows, door frames and various other entry points.
Glass reinforced plastic happens to be the most popular type of garage door material now. You can use glass reinforced plastic for all kinds of garage doors except the side-hung type of garage doors. The material is the least expensive around. It can be designed to simulate wood, glass or a glossy type of metal.
Garage door openers come in two varieties and they are meant to cater to the residential and commercial requirements. The commercial garage door openers are available as trolley, hoist, jack shift, and slide. Trolley garage door openers are used on sectional doors, jack shift model is used for grills and shutters. Hoist garage door openers are for heavy doors that are often use for industrial purposes. Slide garage door openers are use for single and double parting slide doors.
Overhead garage doors are equipped with springs to make it easier to lift them. Most of the demand is for wood and steel doors though they are also available in aluminum and fiberglass.