The style and color of your garage door have a significant impact on your home’s curb appeal. No one wants to look out of place when it comes to their home or business. Choosing the right model of garage door that matches your home or businesses’ decorum is very important when considering a significant property investment like a garage door. We have compiled some helpful and easy to remember information below on the best models, materials, and styles of garage doors that are commonly sold on the marketplace today.
Garage Door Styles & Sizes
There are many styles of garage doors to choose from. Matching the right style to your building will successfully combine both building and door into one perfect cohesive picture that provides a positive long-lasting statement to all who see it.
Five Standard Panel Designs:
- Carriage House – These garage door designs come in solid one-piece garage doors or segregated panels, they are commonly made of steel and come in many faux wood finishes that add a look of old traditionalism while still providing modern convenience.
- Flush Panels – This is a flat, lightly textured garage door panel that tends to blend in with the rest of the building or its surrounding walls.
- Long Raised Panels – Adding some depth using long-raised garage door panels helps to make the garage area of the building stand out.
- Short Raised Panels – These types of panels are also used to add some depth to a garage door. Houses or businesses with a lot of trim like Victorian, Colonial, or Tudor style buildings also benefit from using short raised panels.
- Glass Panels – Glass is the latest addition to a new line of trending garage door models and glass panels are available in many different shades and colors. Light-weight aluminum frames allow glass panels to run the full length of the garage door from top to bottom, adding a perfectly matching contemporary and popular look to any modern construction.
Steel Garage Doors
Steel is the most popular and economical material used to manufacture garage doors. Steel panels and one-piece steel doors are offered in many colors and can also be painted to suit.
Steel garage doors come in three types of layers:
- Single – The most economical model of steel panel is a single layer sheet of galvanized steel over a hollow core.
- Double – This option has a steel skin of galvanized steel with an under-backing layer of either polyurethane or polystyrene core, providing both insulation and soundproofing.
- Triple – The three layers of this product add a galvanized steel covering around the polystyrene or polyurethane core, offering the best protection against potential damage.
Garage Door Hardware
Hardware is the hinges, handles, decorative plates, etc., which relate to the style and functionality of the garage door. The hardware attached to the garage door must reflect the overall look of the building. Example: Use rustic style hardware on a Ranch House.
Know What You Need
Before going out and buying a new garage door a little pondering is in order. Think about what you plan on using your garage for most. Have a teenager or band member who needs to keep that drum set in the garage? Use your garage more as a shop than a place to park? In both of these scenarios you’re going to want a well-insulated and soundproof garage door with a higher R-value.
R-values range from 3 or more for climates with moderate weather conditions, to all the way up to a 10 R-value for areas with consistently extreme weather. The amount of intended usage the garage door will endure also needs to be determined so that the proper spring cycle (lifespan) can be calculated and included in the model purchased. One opening and closing of a garage door equals one cycle. A 10,000 cycle spring will last approximately seven years.
Common Garage Doors
Common garage door types include sectional paneled doors, up-and-over, roll-up, and sliding doors. The sectional paneled garage door is one of the most prevalent materials used in modern residential homes in the United States. This is the standard, steel garage door panels which are attached to rollers that are guided by a tracking bracket.
For older set-aside garages, swing style doors are the most common type of garage door. Heavier wood doors can be upgraded to lighter, lower maintenance, better insulated steel side-doors that come in many realistic faux wood patterns and styles – Successfully matching most vintage looking structures.
Common Garage Door Materials
Garage door materials range from steel, aluminum, wood and wood composites, plus include fiberglass, vinyl, and glass panels. Steel and wood are the two most popular materials. Steel and fiberglass being on the lower end of the price bracket whereas glass and solid wood are at the top.
- Steel – This material is easily upgraded to thicker layers of galvanized steel sheets and comes finish coated, pattern engraved, or painted. This material’s Pros are that it’s low cost and versatile. Its Cons are that steel is susceptible to rust in wet and humid climates.
- Wood – Solid wood doors are very pricey and they also are very heavy. A solid wood garage door is made of pressed, glued, layers. This helps to keep the garage door from warping in normal weather conditions.
- Wood Composite – Composite wood doors are made of hollow wood frames filled with cores of polystyrene insulation. Coverings for the composite door are offered in either hard fiberboard or quality wood veneer.
- Aluminum Frames – This lightweight material is becoming very popular in the modern contemporary circles. Aluminum frames are usually used to hold rows of glass panels together. Aluminum is highly susceptible to denting and scratches but is more corrosion resistant than galvanized steel sheeting.
- Fiberglass – The durability of fiberglass is what makes this garage door material a good choice for very active garages with high traffic and a lot of lawn equipment and storage items moving in and out, along with wet tropical locations. Fiberglass is very dent and crack resistant and is manufactured with two sides of fiberglass sheet over a polyurethane insulation core secured to a tough steel frame.
- Vinyl – As a garage door material, vinyl is one of the most abuse-proof garage door panel on the market. Like fiberglass, vinyl garage doors are built on steel frames and have an insulated polyurethane core. The downside of vinyl is that the color choices for this material are very limited.
Matching a new garage door to your residence or business is as simple as doing a little bit of online research first. Luckily, we did the research for you and condensed it all into this article in hopes of making your important garage door choice a little easier. Once you compile a list of your garage door needs, intended uses, functionality requirements, and just as important, visual aspects, you will now be ready to enter the marketplace knowing exactly what you are looking for with also exact specifics that you can to give the retailer so they can further streamline a perfect match for your needs. Make sure to always check important installation contractor information like licensing, insurance, and guarantees, along with warranty information on your new garage door. Follow these simple instructions and you will never have to suffer the humiliating pain of buyer’s remorse, at least not concerning your new garage door purchase.
Looking to install a garage door or security gate for your New York City business or residence? Get in touch with New York Gates at 718-614-0616. Or, E-mail them at info@nygates.com with your project specifics and NYG will reply back with detailed answers to your questions. They’re New York City’s top security gate and garage door professionals in the five boroughs.
