4 Key Factors for New Garage Doors

Choosing Styles

Did you know that the garage door translates to about 1/3 of the front of your home? This is why you do need to consider style, design and other features if it is going to work well and enhance the look of your home. Of course, this is often where buyers become confused because there are so many models available. The best tip here is to start with style.

Homes come in many styles, and that means garage doors will, as well. For instance, you might have a traditional style home or one that is straight out of the contemporary or modern period. Your home might even be historic and take the carriage‑house style. Fortunately, Garaga offers you 23 different styles (around 5x the number less than 20 years ago). This guarantees that you have several styles that can work with your home’s looks. For example:

• If you have a modern home with contemporary lines, your garage door cannot be one designed for a more antiquated property. We might recommend a fully windowed garage door because of its sleek lines and look.
• Perhaps you have a charming Craftsman or bungalow styled home. This is one with the iconic low-pitched and overhanging roof line. Typically just over a full story and sided with classic materials like wood, brick and stone, it often features dormers and oversized windows. Your garage door will have to integrate with this appealing style and feature panels and embossed designs.
• Maybe your home is the classic, country carriage house design that needs equally classic arched carriage doors so common to homes of that period.

Just from this small sampling, you can see that manufacturers are working hard to satisfy the needs of consumers. Integrating everything from decorative windows to traditional raised panels, they ensure that each home can be equipped with garage doors that enhance its curb appeal.

So, step one is to consider styles and choose accordingly. Step two and three is a reminder…

What About the Weather?

As an extension of your home, your garage is likely going to serve as another living space, or at least as a reasonably climate controlled storage area. Today’s owners are putting the garages to use as work room, craft rooms and even “man caves”. What all of this means is simple – garages cannot be freezing dead zones suitable only to parking a car and storing lawn equipment.

Fortunately, it is easy to find a properly insulated and weatherproof garage door, that can boost the temperature inside of the garage by as much as 100 to 200 F (5 to 80 C). Doors with thermal resistance of at least R-12 are able to retain heat longer and keep conditions far more comfortable.

Because a garage door can be the main entrance into a home, it has to do more than just retain residual heat from cars, though, and should be fully insulated and weatherproofed. As you select a door, keep in mind your needs for proper heat and cold management and weather proofing.

Also keep maintenance in mind…

Maintenance Is a Must

That old garage door may have lasted as long as it did because it received proper care and upkeep. Today’s new doors don’t need as much work because they have baked on paint, use galvanized steel (rather than heavy wood that changes with seasons and temperatures) and are far more weather resistant. Why paint a wooden garage door every two years when you can just purchase a long-lasting steel door?

Of course, it is not just the door that needs maintenance. There are other components to consider, and you will want to ensure that everything used (from hinges to hanging equipment) is of the utmost quality. If one door is priced much less than another, ask why there is a difference. You should hear that parts and doors will last for at least two decades. Be very clear in your questions about maintenance, and buy only from a firm that explains everything to the fullest degree.

After you have narrowed down the styles, done some basic research about insulation and weather stripping and learned how much maintenance is needed, it is time to “test drive” your main choices…

Doing a Test Drive

Did you know that modern technology gives you the option of “virtually” test driving any of the new garage doors long before you buy them? In our online Design Centre we give you three different ways to try out a door before ordering it.

1. You can design the door and choose everything from windows to panels and colors to see what looks best.
2. When done with a design or when just beginning to consider options, find one of the pre-existing homes in our Design Center similar to your own, and test out a few doors
3. Design your door, upload an image of your home and actually test it out on the property using the software!

This wonderful technology lets you switch colors, include or remove windows, add hardware and sample any number of options to find out what will look the best on your home. You can even send images to family or friends and find out what they think. If you need a bit of inspiration, or image gallery lets you look at what others have done and learn the precise models and colors used.

Let’s Get Going!

You now have four key factors to consider, along with good answers or resources to use, as you get started choosing your door. Knowing that style, R-value, weather proofing, and other elements are up to you is often liberating, but just as equally confusing. We hope this has cleared up major questions. If not, contact us at 613-547-4566.

You can also pay a visit to our showroom and speak with us about the full array of options available. If you need to save a bit of time, send us some basic information and we can provide an online quotation.