So let’s introduce a little history to set the scene. Prior to the early 1980′s the de-facto standard material for just about all domestic garage doors was wood. The design and manufacture was essentially derived from earlier coach or carriage house (and even barn) doors and given the simplicity and aesthetic appeal of the product there seemed little reason to change.

Even though more modern materials such as steel, aluminum and vinyl were being used to make garage door panels even back then, mostly they were regarded as niche products aimed at commercial rather than residential applications. A significant reason for the lack of interest from the domestic market was simply aesthetics – the new doors just didn’t look anywhere near as stylish and people quite understandably were concerned about the obvious correlation between garage doors and property value.

When a single item can easily account for over one fifth of the immediate visual aspect of a house it’s important to make sure it looks smart and wooden garage door panels certainly achieve that, especially if they are stained or painted to match the wood trim on the rest of the house (doors, window frames, soffits, fascias etc). In fact, it was interesting to note that as metal and vinyl door panels started to gain a foothold they were often made with a fake wood grain effect – imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.

Aside from having a visually appealing natural texture and the flexibility to take an almost limitless number of colors and finishes, wood door panels possess certain other key characteristics worthy of consideration.

The first and (for many people these days) most immediate characteristic where wooden doors are concerned is their cost. Comparing basic entry level wood and steel doors of equivalent size and quality, the price differential for the wooden version averages out at some twenty percent higher.

When you start to move up the scale and account for thicker gauge steel and integral insulation then things can move around, but even so you tend to find that on a like for like basis, the equivalent wooden garage door will invariably cost more than its metal counterpart.

Second is the issue of longevity – how long the door will last – which again is not as straightforward as you might expect. Wood, being a natural material, is subject to a process of degeneration over time. It can both rot and warp out of shape, either of which will render the door panel unviable. The extent to which it will do so of course depends on three main factors: how well constructed it was in the first place, the environment it has to cope with, and how well it is maintained,

Steel doors don’t warp or rot as such, but they are easily dented or buckled and they can rust; and none of these conditions is easily treated or masked with a coat of paint (as is typically the case with wood). Vinyl door panels can shatter if hit hard and will eventually degrade and become brittle due to exposure to sunlight (specifically ultra violet).

Which type of garage door “lasts longer” is therefore not an easy question to answer. It depends on a variety of factors that include the material used, the build quality and environmental and operational conditions. It also depends on what is meant by “lasts”. A badly rusted and dented steel door may in fact operate perfectly well but still get replaced long before a wooden door might, simply because most folk cannot stand to look at an ugly garage door (even if it is still functionally ok). The useful lifespan of a wooden garage door is also to a large extent determined by how well its owner looks after it, rather than any fixed duration.

The third feature regarding wooden door panels is weight. There is no question that wood panels are significantly thicker and heavier than either metal of vinyl (it’s also the main reason why these alternative materials first started to appear in commercial applications that required very large garage doors).

This is not necessarily either a good or bad thing, it’s simply a fact, but there’s no doubt that the chunkier appearance of wooden door panels looks nicer and exudes an air of quality.

Also, the concept of “secure garage doors” is something of an oxymoron when looking at most standard metal doors, but wooden doors are intrinsically more robust. Wood is also a naturally effective insulator and outperforms all man-made materials used for garage door panels, though once again it’s not quite so simple, since it is quite simple to fit garage door insulation to any metal door (either pre-installed or using a DIY kit) and immediately turn the tables. And the reason you can’t so easily do the same with a wooden panel? It’s already too thick and heavy to take another layer of insulating foam.

So that’s a short and hopefully informative introduction to the subject of wooden garage doors and their enduring popularity. If you’re actively looking to make a purchase then why not check out this guide to buying a garage door for more tips and ideas.

Of course, there’s also always the option of consigning your garage to a more useful purpose in life (how about using your garage as a gun safe or a games room, or a gym or anything really other than a place to park a car)? Then simply sort the car out with a carport (and in keeping with my own prejudices I’m specifically suggesting that you consider one of the many excellent wood carport kits currently available because, well frankly wood carports look great and other types look for the most part outright plain and utilitarian and that’s not what I want stood next to my house).

Garage doors come in a wide variety of makes and models. Picking one out to match the design of a house may be a process, but it is one that is fully achievable because of the sheer amount of options that one can work with.

It is recommended that people seek out the aid and assistance of garage door professionals, who will be able to aid them with their decision making. These experts can help to select an option that looks good and functions well, while fitting in with the décor of the home.

A company specializing in garage doors in Elk Grove recommends that people look at their neighborhood when they are picking out a garage door. Attempting to match the visual tone set by the community may give people insight about what they may be looking for.

Finding an option that should match the design of a home and trying to have it fit well into the surroundings is tricky, but it is well worth it. The end result should be that the house looks great and fits in well, while allowing people and cars in and out.

Working with a professional should give owners insight into what they may consider as it pertains to the makeup of the door. For example, the common configurations for these units are completely rigid, segmented in traditional fashion, and bisected into a pair of units.

It will be up to the owners to pick out an option that works best for them. That being said, different options have different strengths and weaknesses, which should also be discussed with a professional.

Going to a professional for help and assistance will be a very beneficial move that is completely worth the effort. With the services rendered by these experts, owners can find an option that will fit their needs, be secure, and look good.

In fact, experts that specialize in this field should not only be able to help owners find a good option, but they also should be able to help them order it and install it. Installation is definitely something that should be taken care of by an expert, because exacting installation will be needed in order for it to work.

Essentially, the process is one that can be taken care of with the right amount of time and effort. The time and effort that is invested in this decision should become worth it when owners are able to see a tasteful and effective unit that validates the work that they have put into it.

Expert help is also an investment that is well worth it. By working with a company that specializes in this kind of product, individuals can be assured that the unit should be one that works effectively and is able to function well for a very long time.

It’s ok and sometimes worth it to look outside of your immediate area for garage doors, even if it is a little more costly to get it to your house.  There’s no rule that says just because you live in Sacramento you can’t look for garage doors in Roseville.

The money that goes to these professionals will be worth it because it will save the owners time and money hat would be spent on a general contractor or on installing the unit by themselves. Sometimes, it is simply better to retain the services of an expert in order to expedite the process as much as is possible.

All in all, the process is one that can be completed quickly and efficiently once individuals put their minds to it. Once everything is completed, owners will be left with a beautiful garage door that fits all of their need and functions exactly as designed.

With proper care and upkeep, the unit can last for a very long time. It will be up to the individuals to take care of it and keep it viable once it has been installed.

When someone is picking out a garage door, it is important that they select a unit that matches the design of their home and their neighborhood. Doing so will add an important visual aesthetic to the house that will make it very pleasant to look at.

There are many different aspects of the garage that you will want to consider as these things will impact how much garage storage space you have and whether or not it is practical to use this space for your car. And certainly one of the most important things that will impact the usability of your garage is the choice of the door.

If you choose to install automatic openers for parking your car, you will want to make sure that you always have extra batteries on hand – there is nothing more frustrating than having your automatic opener run out of batteries right when you need it to work.

Most automatic opening doors are overhead versions. When it is installed, you will want to make sure that you ask the installer if he or she can recommend a local garage door repair service in Sacramento to continue with this example.

You will want to make sure that you have this number on hand so that you can get any problems repaired right away so that it continues to be convenient for you. For example, if the garage door springs stop working, you will want to have these replaced as soon as possible.

There should be a door company that he or she could recommend as being reliable and easy to contact. In addition to making sure that it stays convenient, there are many other things that you should consider as well.

One of the other things that you will definitely want to consider is the width of the doors. Think about whether you would like to fit one, two or even three cars in the garage.

In addition to cars, think about what other things you would like to store there. Consider whether you plan to get a boat sometime in the near future or other large pieces of equipment such as riding lawn mowers. These pieces of equipment take up a lot space and you will want to make sure that you can fit them all in. You may want a customized width if you have a large pick-up truck that barely squeezes through the standard size.

Another issue to consider is height. If you have a particularly tall vehicle or a boat, you will need extra height, yet many people forget to think about his before they build it. Then, when their dream home is finally finished, they have to either redo the garage or deal with the fact that there is no place to store their boat.

Another thing to give some thought to is what future owners of your home may want. If you are planning on selling the house later (perhaps to move into your retirement home) you will want to make sure that you include features that they may want as this may help them make the decision to make the purchase. In addition, they may be willing to pay more for the property.

Another aspect you ought to consider is quality. Make sure that you purchase from a reputable company so that you have to deal with as few problems as possible. The fewer repairs that will be needed, the less it will cost you in time and money in the long run. Remember that a lighter weight does not mean that it is less secure or  made of lower quality materials.

Talking of materials, you will also want to carefully decide what you want your garage doors to be made out of. There are many different choices when it comes to composition – you can have a cedar, metal, hard plastic, or wooden garage doors. There are benefits and drawbacks to every type of material and only you can weigh them up according to your own needs and budget.

One of the things that you will want to consider in relation to the composition is the siding of your home. You will often want the siding to match whatever material you choose so that it does not look out of place.

Finally, you will want your garage door to be efficient. It should be able to help keep the hot or cool air in your home, depending on what time of year it is. An energy efficient garage can save you are lot of money in the long run so if you can possibly afford it then think seriously about garage door insulation.

Many homeowners are unaware that their garage doors need insulation. What they do not realize is that because this type of door is very large, then if it is not insulated it can transfer a great deal of heat and waste a lot of electricity. Homeowners that have a garage that connects in any way to the main living space should think seriously about installing an insulated garage door.

This is especially important for people that use their garage as a work area or a play room for children and pets. Insulation will keep people in the home and garage warm during the winter season. It will also help keep them cool during the hot summer months.

Metal conducts both heat and cold very well. This means that metals doors have a higher need to be insulated. But whether your doors are constructed of metal or wood, both can be insulated. To check if insulation is needed simply walk into the garage. If you can feel a definite heat wave or chill, the door needs to be insulated.

The pricing of garage doors varies widely. The factors that contribute to the pricing include brand, materials used, cost of labor, color and style. Proper insulation will add to the total cost of having a new door installed. You should also understand that a cheap garage door will rarely come with good insulation. While it may seem expensive to pay for insulation now, it will save on electricity bills for years to come, which means it is important to get garage door insulation installed as soon as possible.

Yet despite the majority of home improvements costing an arm and a leg to carry out safely and properly, there are still very many types of home improvement that are highly cost effective, yet still produce an amazing result.

One such example is installing a garage screen door inside of your garage or carport even. This offers several great benefits leaving a major dent in your wallet.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all to installing a garage door screen is that it provides a gateway for the toxic fumes which frequently accumulate within a garage to exit the area safely, without causing any type of harm to the person inside of it.

For example, a running car left inside of a closed garage for too long can easily kill anyone who is inside breathing these fumes accidentally.  Garage screen doors will allow you to run their car without fear of being injured by these toxic gasses, due to the fact that the mesh screen allows the fumes to safely exit the premises.

Another benefit is one that you may already have heard about or at least have experienced firsthand. The screen door will prevent small insects and winged flying creatures from entering the area unattended.

This is a major benefit as you will no longer have to worry about being bothered and bombarded by flies and other type of creatures while you are trying to get things done inside your garage area. And of course you won’t have to be concerned about the buildup of fumes that would otherwise get trapped by a a regular garage door panel.

Security concerns are generally the reason that people choose this style of garage door. They are far more secure than standard garage doors, and especially up and over wooden ones. The smaller slats make these doors much more difficult for an intruder to penetrate and get in to steal your belongings.

Most roller garage doors have the same safety features that other garage door types offer, like for example the sensor that stops and reverses the door when something passes under it or the automatic reversal feature should it close onto an obstruction.

But roller doors also have another safety feature that many people forget about; they don’t have the same large torsion springs on them that pinches many kids’ (and adults) fingers. These springs, should they break, shoot off with incredible force and can cause major damage and/or very serious injuries.

As regards appearance, roller garage doors have come a long way in the last few years. Not so long ago, adding a roller door to your home immediately made it look like an auto shop, but with new technologies that allow them to be painted or have a faux wood finish, these blend in with the style of your home very naturally.

When choosing between a standard garage door and the roller variety, choosing a roller door will provide extra safety and security to your home, without sacrificing anything where style is concerned; a the perfect combination for any garage door. The next step up of course is installing a garage door opener.

• sticking panels
• slow or sluggish over head motors
• springs that break
• clickers that don’t function
• breaking garage door motor chain

If you have experienced one of the issues listed above, there are a few things you can do to accomplish a Wayne Dalton Garage Door Repair. The overhead motor for example does not need to be replaced with a Wayne Dalton garage door motor. Even though the garage door system is considered a luxury garage door, you can swap out the motor with a cheaper motor from your local hardware store such as Home Depot or Lowes. These motors will usually have the same amount of horse power and work just as well than the expensive brands at a third of the price.

If your garage door springs have broken, the safest advice is don’t even try to attempt to fix these yourself. Call your local Wayne Dalton repair service or any garage door repair service. Springs are under extreme tension and are extremely dangerous. Too many people get hurt and even die from each year from accidents arising from adjusting garage door springs. Do yourself a favor and (unless you are confident you know what you are doing and have the necessary equipment) call the professionals who are trained to deal with potentially extremely hazardous torsion springs.

Garage door chains and tracks are very easy to fix yourself. You can get all of the replacement parts from any local hardware store and repairing them is easy. Just simply swap out the bad parts with the new parts. Hopefully this article has been useful to get you on the right path to fixing your garage door system. Follow the link for simple advice on fixing Genie garage doors.

Remote Control:

One of the first things you should consider when purchasing an automatic garage door is the remote control unit. Some remotes have a single button, whilst some may have two or more. If you have two garage doors, then you should look for a remote control that has two buttons. These garage doors will allow you to control each door separately so that you do not have to open both at the same time.

Drive System:

The next aspect to consider when choosing an opener is the drive system. Screw systems are used to actually lift the garage door and have relatively few moving parts and so require less maintenance. Chain driven systems use a metal chain to move the door along a track. These types of garage door openers are generally less expensive, but can generate more noise than the screw variety of units and may require more maintenance.

Power:

When buying a new garage door opener the amount of power also needs to be considered. You can choose between a door with 1/3, 1/2, or 3/4 horsepower. This decision is essentially based on the weight and type of door you have. If you have a double garage door, then you should buy an opener with a minimum of 1/2 horsepower.

Speed:

Garage door openers also come in different speeds. More expensive types open the door quickly so you do not have to wait so long. However, even these garage doors will always be closed at a slower speed for safety reasons.

Lighting:

One last aspect to consider when buying a garage door opener is lighting. Some models include a security light incorporated into the opener. The light is activated when you open the garage door. Some remote controls can actually turn on the light without opening the garage door as well.

Hopefully these simple tips should help you in your research and purchase of a new garage door opener. Check out also these tips for buying a garage door.

It’s hard to make any plausible case that a solid block of vinyl enhances visual appeal, and the ease with which metal dents and deforms quickly makes metal garage doors look as though they have seen better days. By contrast, wooden garage doors are naturally attractive and retain their beauty with age. Scuffs and scratches actually lend them character and are anyway easily repaired if needs be requiring little more than basic handyman skills to deal with most situations.

It’s no coincidence that wood garage doors are still first choice among architects, builders and homeowners; solid wood garage doors always add a touch of quality in the same way that solid wooden window frames totally outclass aluminum and uPVC window systems. It is also much easier to match wood types and colors to existing architectural features such as the main doors and windows of a house.

As already mentioned, wood is easy to work and repair and when properly treated wooden garage doors can easily outlast so-called maintenance-free materials such as steel, aluminum, fiber-glass and vinyl (also called polyethylene).

Metal doors are prone to attracting dents and to buckling (even simply kicking a ball against a metal garage door can ruin its appearance), and while steel doors tend to be less susceptible than aluminum, steel is heavier and will eventually rust. Fiber-glass and vinyl, while being lightweight and initially robust will over time degrade and become brittle and crack due to exposure to ultra-violet light and they are not realistically repairable once that happens.

Classic wood garage doors also provide a useful lesson in simplicity of design. Using solid wood rails and legs with panels channeled into them and typically swinging outwards on hinges there is no complicated internal framework just waiting to fail or extraneous fastenings to corrode. Most metal and vinyl garage doors on the other hand employ either an “up-and-over” system or the more recent “carriage style garage doors” design that looks as though it might swing outwards but in fact is sectioned and rolls upwards.

In both cases, complex mechanisms using garage door springs are vital to the operation of the door. And it is a near certainty that, even if you regularly maintain the mechanism, you will at some point be required to adjust your garage door springs and possible repair and/or replace them which is not a trivial task.

Get behind any set of garage doors though and the full story is revealed. Only solid wood doors look good on both sides and are not just an outer shell concealing latch mechanisms on the inside. This is critically important to anyone considering using their garage as a secondary living space.

Not only do wood garage doors look good both from outside and inside the garage, they offer superior insulation and security characteristics – heat simply flies through metal and vinyl and neither material supports the sort of proven, quality locking mechanisms typically found in solid wood doors. Although it is relatively simple to add insulating panels to the inside of a metal door, the result is never especially easy on the eye and the result compares poorly against a pre-insulated wooden garage door.

For those looking for ultimate protection then high security wooden garage doors internally reinforced with steel are able to resist even the most determined attackers for a considerable length of time. These not only protect your property but can form the basis of a garage “safe room” to prevent intruders threatening or harming you or your family.

In summary then, wooden garage doors are not only the best looking option, but last better than the alternatives and are simpler, more environmentally friendly and score highly where security and insulation are concerned. There’s no escaping the fact that a wood paneled door is far and away the most expensive option, but there’s always a price to pay for quality and don’t forget either that wood garage doors can increase the value of your home.

Now, when it comes to security in the modern world, most people are familiar with the idea of taking sensible precautions to protect their home by fitting locking bolts to windows and deadlocks on entrance doors. Yet when it comes to the garage it’s surprising how many folk assume that the flimsiest security measures will suffice.

Not only do many people’s garages in fact contain items of considerable value, to a burglar they also often provide an easy route into the main house.

Even if you don’t keep an expensive car or several in your garage, you quite likely have a good stock of tools ideal for assisting a break-in and if your garage is integral to or otherwise adjoins your house it also provides excellent cover for anyone attempting a break-in to really go about their business completely unobserved. Most integral garages also provide an obvious weak link – direct access via the internal door to the house.

It should be obvious what the answer is: secure garage doors. Unfortunately, the majority of budget vinyl and steel garage doors just aren’t up to the job. They have woefully ineffective locking systems that the average person could defeat with a bit of effort and most burglars can dispense with in seconds. They are also of course made from materials that are either easy to deform or break.

Due to the more robust nature of wooden garage doors, these often have much better locks but are still no match for a determined intruder who is likely to deploy considerable force, using either a jemmy (a powerful steel crowbar) to pull at weak spots or simply kicking the panels in.

However, there are garage doors available that can withstand a prolonged attack from even the most determined intruder. In Europe the certification covering anti-intrusion (ENV 1627) specifies a number of classes, where for example a Class 1 certified door is resistant to attempts to break it down or the application of hook and traction from outside.

ENV 1627 Class 3 high security doors are guaranteed to resist a sustained attack from even the most experienced burglars using a variety of tools for at least 20 minutes. Being essentially still wooden these doors still retain their elegant appearance but contain high tensile steel inserts within.

High security garage doors are not only effective as a deterrent against intruders, but can also serve as a primary component for constructing a safe room. A safe room (also often called a “panic room” – a term originally coined to enhance the dramatic appeal of a film of the same name) is a well protected enclosed space that can be used to shelter people and/or valuables from attacks of various kinds (criminals, storms and so on).

Given the high level of primary protection that high security garage doors offer they are also ideal as the basis for creating a secure garage gun safe for example, or even converting your garage into effectively a large safe for storing all manner of valuables.