Garage door types in Luton, Bedfordshire

Different types of garage doors

There are so many different types of garage doors available today. The right type of garage door is often key to enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your property and can even have a major impact on your properties value.

When you consider the cost of a new garage door and think about how much it improves the look of your property, as well as the amount of money it can add to the asking price of your home, it becomes easy to understand why buying a new garage door is near the top of the home improvement list.

Not only do they look great but it has been reported that you can recover up to 80 plus percent of the cost of a garage door if you sell your property shortly afterwards. Not many other home improvements rate this high percentage of cost recovery.

When you consider that a front facing garage door can account for almost twenty percent of your properties front facade, it follows that an old, dented and shabby looking door can make an otherwise desirable property difficult to sell.

Another thing to consider is that on properties that have an integral garage that leads to the house, many homeowners use the garage door to gain access to their property more than the front door, so it really should look the part.

So what are the different types of Garage Doors?

Garage doors tend to come in four basic styles and they operate in different ways too. some are hinged to swing out, some to swing up, others roll up in a shutter motion, while others slide to one side or another.

The garage door style to choose for your property

The swing out garage doors or sliding barn style garage doors are often chosen by people who need to keep the garage ceiling clear or if they want the distinctive look they offer. But generally speaking, the most popular choice at present is the sectional roller shutter garage door.

Before purchasing a roller shutter garage door, we will measure the space between the top of the garage door opening and the ceiling or overhead framing of your garage. Standard tracks will need headroom of about 14 inches. If that isn't possible, we can supply you with a low headroom track. We strongly suggest a pre order consultation as there are also tracks available that are specially made for garages with unusually high walls or oddly shaped ceilings.

We always suggest that you choose a style of garage door that suits the style of your property. There is nothing that sticks out like a sore thumb than an ultra modern garage door on a period property or vice versa. That being said, there is some middle ground that can sometimes be achieved, but we can advise you accordingly. For example, some manufacturers of modern roler shutter garage doors make them in styles that copy the old swing doors. They come complete with imitation strap hinges on the sides and a pair of handles flanking a deep groove in the center.

Most of the styles of garage doors we supply and fit, whether traditional or contemporary, feature distinct panels and trim. Doors with true frame and panel construction are usually sturdier than those with the decorative detail that is simply glued or fixed on for effect. Some of our most popular styles have glass panels on the top row of the garage door, these look elegant and allows daylight to flood the garage with natural light. We can even supply and fit roller shutter garage doors with shatterproof glass or frosted plastic in all the panels, for a clean, modern look.

Materials that make up our garage doors

Some of our garage doors use a good deal of wood as it offers authenticity that other materials can only copy. Wooden doors can be made to order in whatever size you require, and are robust in construction. The main issue with wooden doors is that they will need frequent repainting, particularly when subjected to all the British weather can throw at them.

Wooden doors can have wide ranging price. The cheaper ones have usually been constructed with a lightweight wooden frame, filled with foam insulation and wrapped in a plywood or hardboard skin. The more expensive wooden garage doors tend to be manufactured with premium woods such as mahogany, redwood, or cedar and solid woods of this quality are certainly not cheap.

Metal garage doors are a much better choice than wood if you want to avoid a lot of maintenance work. Steel is a popular material choice because it is inexpensive but very durable. Remember though, unprotected steel will rust, so you need to touch up scratches quickly.

Steel can also be relatively easy to dent and to keep this risk to a minimum you should choose garage doors with thick gauge panels. We also have steel garage doors with a fibreglass overlay, which resists dents and will not rust. Fibreglass will need periodic repainting or restaining, though, because the colour can fade a little over time.

Some steel doors have a lifetime warranties on the hardware, laminations between the steel and any insulation, and possibly even the factory applied paint. These warranties are not usually provided on cheaper doors.

Aluminum always used to be a very popular choice as it was rather inexpensive. Today though, they have been replaced mostly by sturdy garage doors with heavy duty extruded frames and dent resistant laminated panels.

The less expensive aluminum doors have frames and panels that can be made from other materials, such as high density polyethylene. Because aluminium is light, it is a good choice if you have an particularly wide double door; as it tends not to put so much strain on the operating mechanism.

Garage door insulation and energy savings

Considering the size of a garage door, a lot of cold can get through unless you get one that is well insulated. Because of its sandwich like construction, an insulated door is far more durable, and the enclosed back panel gives a garage interior a more finished look as well as keeping the cold out and heat in. It should be noted that any energy savings will amount to nothing unless you heat the garage or treat it as part of the rest of your house. A separate garage is unlikely to be heated, but an integral one will benefit from heating, it also helps with cold winter starting issues too.

If you are looking for high quality Garage Doors then contact ACE Garage Doors for a QUICK QUOTE today. We cover all areas of Bedfordshire and have supplied spare parts for Henderson garage doors all over Luton.