Garage Doors
Are you in the market for new garage doors? When choosing, you will discover a number of benefits, as well as considerations before you buy. For instance, if you choose sectional garage doors, you will pay more than you would with a fixed overhead type of door. However, for the price, you usually enjoy greater benefits such as more head room, easier parking, and more weather protection.
A sectional garage door opens up and behind the framed opening, unlike an overhead door that opens in the middle. Because of this, you get between six and eight inches more height. You will also find a sectional garage door makes it easier to park. The advantage is that if you have your home close to an alley or sidewalk, walking room is limited. With a sectional garage door, you have the straight-up opening that eliminates the problem of parking a car in front of the garage door. Finally, a sectional garage door provides more weather protection. With a better seal, cold and hot air does not leak inside the garage, costing you more in utility bills.
Now, you might hear the terms, "garage doors" and "rolling doors", which are both access doors to the garage but there are notable differences that have an affect on the performance of the system. By understanding these differences, you will know which type of garage door is best for your needs. First, there is wind load, which is important for some areas of the country. Both a garage door and rolling door has the same principles when it comes to wind load. However, garage doors are made to withstand pressure with the help of reinforcement on the back of the panel. Rolling doors do not have reinforcement but withstand wind force by locking into door guides attached to the doorjambs.
Another important consideration is fire compliance. If you have foam plastic insulation, then both the garage door and rolling door would comply with the same code requirements. On the other hand, if you have steel, rolling door, it can be installed as a fire door if the wall is fire-rated. No, if you have a standard garage door, it cannot be installed in a fire-rated wall. Therefore, if you have concern over fire compliance, the rolling door may be a better solution.
Finally, you have the automatic operation of the garage door to think about. Both the garage door and rolling door meet specific UL requirements. However, the safety of the door operation depends on whether you plan to buy for residential or commercial uses. Today, garage doors are required to have a stop system, which means if there were to be a car, child, dog, or anything under the garage door and it were in the process of closing, once the door hit the object, it would stop. In fact, some will actually go in the reverse direction. This of all considerations when buying a garage door is at the top of the list, especially if you have smaller children.