Garage Doors
Introduction
If you are lucky enough to have a garage it is without doubt a very useful space to have, however traditionally garage doors have been something of an ugly necessity. These days the variety of materials and styles of garage door have significantly increased allowing one to create a practical and increasingly more aesthetically pleasing frontage to one's house.
Door size
The standard width for a single garage door in the UK is 2.13m (7ft), but this will not permit many of today’s larger cars to pass through the gap. If you are building a new garage, or have room to accommodate a larger doorframe in your existing building, opt for a doorway that is at least 2.29m (7ft 6in) wide. Although these could be considered the standard sizes, most garage door manufacturers make their doors available in a variety of widths, with increments of just 1mm.
If space is extremely tight, you can usually create the vital extra millimetres by placing the supporting frame for the garage door behind the walls, rather than between them.
Door sizes are specified according to the dimensions of the door opening; the distance between the frame posts and the height from floor to head member (cross-beam). These measurements will also include an allowance for fitting. Most up-and-over doors need to be fixed to a wooden frame, while some doors come with their own frame which is screwed to the surrounding masonry. In the latter situation, the dimensions of the door will be quoted including the frame.
Materials
Garage doors may be made of a number of materials, ranging from traditional timber to less traditional Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), which is more commonly used to make car bumpers.
Opening mechanisms
Garage doors are also available with a variety of opening mechanisms. Their fundamental difference is their degree of ‘kick-out’ or lateral space required to open them. Doors that have no kick out are useful in situations where a door must lift vertically, for example when a car is parked nearby.
Doors that retract completely into the garage space are also useful where the garage opening is level with the property’s boundary line.
Automatic garage doors
Remote control and automatic door opening systems are becoming increasingly popular as a device for time-saving and security & safety.
A system is available for almost all types of garage door, although there is significantly less choice for canopy up-and-over doors.
The garage door is opened via an electric mechanism when activated by a remote control from the car, which usually uses a rolling encrypted code for extra security. Even the most basic system will also turn on a timed welcome light.
The mechanism usually works via a geared chain, but there are also those available that work on a Kevlar belt and purport to provide near-silent opening. In addition, automatic infra-red safety devices ensure that the door stops or reverses should it contact any object in its way.
Further information and useful links
- Introduction to house doors
- Introduction to painting doors
- Door security
- Full list of windows & doors topics
- Find a Garage Door supplier near you
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