Tips for buying a New Garage Door

One of the easiest ways to enhance the curb appeal of your home is a new garage door. When it comes time to figure out just which style, material and options to select, here are some tips that may prove helpful.

Tip #1 – Decide on a Look

Are you looking for a traditional garage door to match the rest of the home’s design? What about contemporary, ranch or other? You want to make certain that the garage door – a central point of your home – blends in nicely with the home’s architecture and style. Deciding on a look should be one of your first considerations.

Tip #2 – Choose Your Door Material

Types of garage door materials include wood (great for traditional styles), aluminum, steel and fiberglass. The material you choose may also depend on where you live (humidity, extremes of weather), maintenance and upkeep, and durability. The most popular, based on styles, maintenance and cost is a steel door.

Tip #3 – Select Door Type

Garage door types include a roll up or tilt-up design. Tilt-up doors rotate out and upward when opening. They have a disadvantage in that they may not open if objects are left too close to the door and they also tend to allow moisture, snow and other debris into the garage. Roll up or sectional overhead garage doors consist of several sections, usually 4 to 5, that roll over tracks and rest against the ceiling when open. Roll up models save on space and are considered stronger and safer.

Tip #4 – Pick Design and Options

Will you want insulation in your new garage door? This option will cost you a little more, which is well worth it if you live in a climate of weather extremes. Windows, special paints and decorative hardware are some considerations.

Tip #5 – Get the Best Warranty

Wherever you buy your new garage door, get the door with the best warranty you can – on both the product as well as the installation.

Garage Door Wins!

Now here’s a kid that must be heavily influenced by the likes of the Jackass crew that do really crazy stunts and pranks. Watch as Drew-o runs full speed into a garage door. While it’s incredibly FUNNY, especially in the end of the video when you hear his delayed reaction, we don’t recommend the you try it!

 

Customize Your Garage Door

When it comes to customizing your garage door, the sky is the limit. The various options can help you match the design of your home so that your garage and house are harmonious structures. Just keep in mind that the most durable material is steel. A garage with raised-panel doors, hardware and lighting fixtures that go with the colonial look of you home can add some style to the once plain garage.

It appears that somebody needs a new garage door!

Submitted by Jeremy at Bullfrog’s Garage Door

Steel Doors: Safe, Secure, Durable Garage Doors for Your Home

As a homeowner, you make every effort in ensuring that your home is unique, comfortable, and structurally sound. But sometimes homeowners fail to take into account the safety and security of the family and loved ones, and not pay enough attention to the various entry points of a home, including the garage door. A door is not only to allow you to enter and leave the house, but also to ensure the safety and security of the home. Steel garage doors provide just the safety and security required to ensure the family’s safety.

Steel garage doors are not only sturdy, they are also durable and can withstand any and all types of weather conditions, including the wet weather of Spokane, or the heat of Phoenix.

 

Another reason for selecting steel garage doors is the aesthetic beauty of these doors. A friend, relative, or visitor to your home sees the garage door first when pulling up to your house. The garage door should not only look good, but also look appealing and inviting to visitors, and represents the owners own sense of aesthetics. Steel garage doors do not require much maintenance. The doors can also be custom ordered from hundreds of designs to select from.

Garage Door Advancements in Energy Efficiency, Safety and Curb Appeal

The cooling weather of Fall marks the time to rethink that garage door. This is the season when homeowners usually make efforts to seal up the biggest opening in the home.

It’s also a popular time for garage door replacement. It’s that time of year when weather has a distinct effect on the garage door business.

Steel isn’t a good insulator, so to compensate; manufacturers double up the panels and fill the space between them with polystyrene or polyurethane insulation. Polyurethane insulates better than polystyrene, but it tends to break down after a period of time, whereas polystyrene lasts forever.

Polystyrene is a flat, sheet-like material, similar to a Styrofoam cup. Polyurethane is pumped into a door as a liquid, then expands and fills the space between the metal sides of the door. There are some synthetic problems with polyurethane. It can dry erratically, leaving unprotected spots in the door. That problem is detectable when a homeowner sees granulated polyurethane draining from the door. A polyurethane-lined door, however, can often have a better R-value than the rest of the garage.

Insulation with polyurethane and polystyrene has made doors so efficient that there often is a 15- to 20-degree difference in a garage after new doors are installed. That can play a big role in heating costs.

While energy efficiency plays a big part in the selection of a garage door, safety is also a key consideration. Safety plays an increasingly important role in garage-door design. All new garage doors incorporate many new safety technologies and innovations such as easy-to-set torsion springs and advanced reversing mechanisms.

Garage doors are also more than just practical openings, they often make up the largest percentage of the front of the house and mean a great deal in the appearance of a property. It is, in fact, a home’s fashion accessory.

One of the most popular features is the carriage house design which originally was made with large hinges on heavy wood that gave the doors a striking presence. Manufacturers are taking these old traditional styles and providing fresh design choices. To enhance appeal, manufacturers introduce “high-definition” lines that feature more complex designs that give the look of texture and create shadow lines.

 

These days, garage door manufacturers, are up-to-date with the demands of the consumer, continually creating better looking and better functioning garage doors. So, no matter whether it’s a remodel or new construction project, and no matter how far out the ideas are for a garage.