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A Quick and Easy Guide to Buying a New Garage Door

Whether you’re buying a new garage door for the first time, or replacing an old door that’s falling into disrepair, this article will help to explain basic facts and easy to remember tips on standard modern garage doors, widely available on today’s market. The garage door provides important functions that are vital to your house’s security, physical safety, plus, not-to-mention overall and all-around warmth and ambiance.  The ultimate goal here is to find a perfect garage door that matches all of your needs and positively enhances your entire property.

Advances in Garage Door Material Choices

The benefits of modern technology have also quickly advanced the garage door industry. Today’s garage doors are both more durable and faster than older doors with a few decades of use behind them.  Materials have also progressed beyond just the choice of wood or steel. Though wood is still an American favorite, wood composites and veneers have gained in popularity as a cheaper option.

Fiberglass, vinyl, and lightweight aluminum frames with glass panels are continuing to trend in the garage door industry. All three door materials have far better weather resisting capabilities than solid wood doors do with harsh seasonal weather. All three materials also beat steel in rust resistance as well. That’s why fiberglass, vinyl, and aluminum are also sound material choices if they sufficiently match your house’s overall look.

When choosing the right garage door you should always think very carefully on what level of performance is going to be required, the most common weather conditions that are going to be involved, and the desired life-expectancy of the product that you want to have installed, in order to be best able to decide on the right garage door choice.

Common Garage Door Options

Wood: This garage door material is a top of the line favorite for those who can afford its usually hefty cost.  The material is prized for its natural beauty. It’s very customizable, but, like all wood products with exposure to nature, it will always require constant maintenance and regular repair in order to prolong woods vulnerability to seasonal weather. For customers who love natural wood materials, though, it’s well worth the extra manufacturing cost and is still widely seen as a strong property investment. Woods downside is that it can be very heavy to open.

Wood veneer garage doors have become more affordable choice than solid wood due to advances in high-quality wood veneering. New versions of compact insulation and hard foam cores make wood veneer doors more energy efficient than solid wood doors. This product gives both the advantage of energy savings and the realistic natural look of wood.

Steel: This metal is notoriously strong, somewhat inexpensive, and because it doesn’t corrode or rot like wood does, it’s long-lasting and needs lower maintenance and fewer annual repairs than wood. Steel garage door custom finishes can be an ideal alternative to wood because of modern advances in imitating the classic wood look with a wide choice of “faux” wood finishes and inlays – Mimicking the classic natural beauty of wood for a lot less money.

Steel has become cheaper and easier to manufacture keeping it a top consumer choice in the marketplace. With proper scheduled maintenance, steel garage doors have a long-lasting shelf life which also gives it a strong economic appeal for homeowners who demand long-term reliability at a reasonable price.

Aluminum: This lightweight material has all of the advantages of steel without all of the heaviness. Embossed finish options are extremely durable, rust free, and are consistently very long lasting. What makes aluminum framed garage doors so popular is that they’re also very reasonably priced as compared to other material options. Aluminum’s only unfortunate downfall is that it’s very easily dented or bent.

Many new options have opened up for consumers thanks to better innovations in garage door technology, creating even more durable, long-lasting products by using high-tech materials. With a Lightweight aluminum framed flip-up garage door, one can install glass window panels which come in a wide range of colors, frostiness, and of course clear panes, that give a once dark and dismal garage a new bright perspective.

Fiberglass: This garage door material is a great choice for coastal areas with a high salt content in the air, due to its water and weather resistant attributes. Its corrosion resistant properties make it a much smarter choice than wood in a tropical, wet, or in overly humid conditions. Fiberglass’ downfall though, is its poor insulating properties which leave the material very lacking in cold weather conditions.

Fiberglass is durable, dent resistant, and waterproof. It has tint options for custom light allowance and is very affordable. Fiberglass is also lightweight so it requires very little maintenance and repair as compared to other heavier garage door materials.

Checklist for Purchasing a Garage Door

  1. Usage Requirements: How often is the garage entryway used on a continual basis? This will help you decide what type grade of garage door you will need for your daily requirements. It’s always better to get a slightly better grade product for your needs than fall short on an inferior product and then slowly pay on inconvenient and costly future repairs.
  2. Convenience Needs: Do you want a manually opening garage door or an automatic opener? In order to save having to get out of the car in adverse weather and struggle with opening and closing your garage door, some people insist on the convenience of automatic door openers. Security needs also become a big issue when making this important choice.
  3. Price Comparisons: Make sure to utilize all of the price options that are available to you. Also, be sure that you’re getting your money’s worth with the installer you’re intending to use. Vet the proposed contractor properly by checking their business references and personally verifying their important business documentation, such as licensing, bonding, and insurance coverage.
  4. A Firm Project Completion Date: When you do finally decide on the right garage door for your needs and budget, and also have decided on a trustworthy and dependable professional garage door technician for installation. Now, make absolutely sure that you get a strong guarantee from the contractor on a completion date, hopefully in writing.

Being endlessly stuck in construction mode is never fun for anyone who has been unfortunate enough to experience hiring an unreliable, often, disappearing without notice, disreputable private contractor. This is why choosing the right company for the job is as important as choosing the right garage door for your house. Follow our simple and easy to remember facts and tips on the numerous garage door choices on the marketplace and your project will be a smooth and successful one, just like you thoughtfully planned it out to be.

Get in touch with New York Gates today at 718-614-0616, they’re the top professional gate and garage door manufacturers, installers, and repair specialists in the five boroughs. E-mail them at info@nygates.com with your project specifics and NYG will reply back to you with the detailed answers to your questions.