4 common garage doors for your garage door opening

Whether you’ve recently purchased a home or it’s time to repair or replace, here are some things to take into consideration when deciding on a new garage door.

As one of the largest openings and accesses into your house, it’s important to consider what type of garage door opening would best suit your home and your needs of the garage. Whether you’ve recently purchased a home or it’s time to repair or replace, here are some things to take into consideration when deciding on a new garage door.

This is the most popular type of garage door opening and is quick and easy to install. The reason for its name is because a third of the door overhangs from the garage door frame when opened, which forms a canopy.

Steel cables and conical drums attached to torsion springs help lift and keep the canopy door open. Keep in mind that garage door openings over eight feet wide are too heavy for the canopy mechanism to be used safely. Finally, with additional equipment and a motor, these types of garage door openings can be remote controlled, but tend to be more expensive to convert.

Gaining increasing popularity in the market are retractable garage door openings. The reason for their popularity is the ease at which you can convert them to remote control. Side-mounted lifting arms with tension springs are what help open the door panel. There are no use of cables. Steel runners using rollers at the corners of the door panel help keep it open.

If your garage door opening is over eight feet wide, then using a retractable-type opening would be your best bet. These types of doors can cope with heavier door panels. However, a disadvantage to the retractable door type is that due to the lifting arms and steel runners positioned inside the frame of the door, the width is reduced. This may be problematic for smaller width doors.

Another garage door opening gaining popularity is the sectional garage door. This type of opening offers greater security, insulation options and caters to a larger range of sizes. Its biggest feature and advantage over the other types of door openings is that when rising and lowering, it does not swing out (such as the canopy type).

Its smooth opening and closing properties work via four or more panels, which operate in vertical tracks that curve at the top into horizontal tracks following the garage roofline. Rollers attached on each of the panels gives them rigidity and movement enabling the use of larger widths, hence the flexibility with a variety of insulation options. This type of door opening can also be easily converted to remote controlled.

Similar to how the retractable garage door operates, the roller shutter door also doesn’t swing out. It's smooth functionality makes it easy to accommodate whereby it’s horizontal aluminum or steel panels are rolled up and down on a metal barrel. This mechanism allows for maximum garage width and height when open. Most roller shutter door openings are motor-operated as oppose to spring.

Aside from these four garage door opening types, there are many more that you can chose from. If you are undecided, make sure to contact a professional who can provide you with more details on which garage door opening will best work for you and your home.