Garage Doors

Garage Doors, are, as the name suggests doors for your garage (well duh!). Garage doors come in three main types and can be manually operated, spring assisted, motorized, and can also have remote controls used to get them opening as you get home. You can read below about different types of garage doors or you can take a look at our page about garage door openers.

One Piece Up and Over Garage Doors

These types of garage doors were really the first on the market to replace traditional barn type hinged doors on garages. They are made in one piece or panel and swing upward and outward when they open. They traditionally have a torsion spring built into the axle to give assistance when opening and closing them. One piece doors can be made from a variety of materials, but the most common is a galvanised steel panel built onto a welded steel frame. Typically the panel is painted to suit the rest of the home.

These sorts of garage doors are well known technology, cheap to make and fit, and simple to automate to enable you to use a garage door opener. Their downfall is that you must park your car away from the garage door to be able to open it, and they are quite obtrusive overhead when opened.

Sectional Garage Doors

Sectional garage doors are made from 3-4 panels that are hinged together. As the door raises the panels ride in a vertical track which curves into a horzontal track across the ceiling of the garage. When fully raised the sectional garage door it parallel to the ground just below the ceiling of the garage. Again, typically sectional garage doors are steel or aluminium panels fitted to a steel frame. The panels are usually pressed to provide a range of different finishes such as recessed panel look, faux wood grain, or even to simulate timber boards.

Sectional garage doors allow the car to be parked up against the door when opening or closing them. Automating them is typically done with a chain or belt drive motor simply 'pulling' or 'pushing' the door up and down through it's guides or tracks. When open the door is against the ceiling of the garage, so this means you cannot use the roof area for storage or so on.

One Piece Roll Up Garage Doors

One piece roll up garage doors are made from a rolled steel panel that is is ridged or corrugated. Widths of the panel are seam welded to product a door of the correct height. The actual panel rests in vertical guides mounted on the door opening and the whole panel is flexible enough to roll up onto an axle mounted on the inside and above the door opening. The steel panel is painted to suit the color of the home.

One peice roll up garage doors offer unparalled ease of use and take up an absolute minimum amount of space within the garage when raised. Their only real downfall is that corrugated surface of the door can be seen as unattractive by some home owners.

Garage Door Openers

For more information on garage door openers take a look at our garage door opener page.