If you have a garage on your home, then you might be wondering – is your garage door right for you? In this post, we’ll help you answer this question by discussing the three main types of garage door available. These are single panel, sectional and roller.
Single panel garage doors
Single panel garage doors, as their name suggests, are made from a single panel. They swing upwards and outwards to allow the vehicle to enter.
A disadvantage of single panel doors, however, is that the door could potentially hit the car as it opens. Understandably, no-one wants damage done to their car. There’s a simple solution though – just keep your car a few meters away when the door opens to avoid it getting hit. The problem is also avoided with other types of garage doors, such as sectional and roller doors. We’ll look at these types of garage doors next.
Sectional garage doors
Sectional doors are made up of three to eight sections or panels. The panels are typically made of steel or aluminium, but they can also be made of wood, glass or vinyl. Sometimes foam insulation is also added to give the door insulatory properties.
Sectional garage doors enjoy a few advantages over single panel garage doors:
- Unlike single panel doors, sectional doors don’t swing outwards when they open. This means that there’s no risk of the door hitting the vehicle.
- Every panel of the door connects to the door track, which makes sectional doors more reliable and robust than single panel doors.
- Sectional doors generally open faster than single panel doors.
Roller garage doors
Finally, let’s look at roller garage doors. Roller garage doors are probably the most popular type of garage door in the UK today. That’s because they’re fast, easy to operate, stylish, and they’re also very strong and secure.
Some roller doors have a manual pulley and chain system to roll the door up and down, although most use a motor so they can be opened at the push of a button.
Roller garage doors are typically made of corrugated steel, although other materials can be used, such as corrugated fibreglass. Insulation materials can also be added to give the door thermal and acoustic insulatory properties – usually, polyurethane foam is used for this purpose.
One disadvantage of roller garage doors, however, is that their insulation properties are not as high as those of sectional doors or single panel doors. Therefore, if a high amount of insulation is needed, single panel doors or sectional doors are typically recommended instead.
Conclusion
In this post, we’ve covered the three main types of garage door – single panel, sectional and roller. So which one is best? Well, that depends on you. The type of garage door you choose will depend your budget, needs and style.
If you’d like to discuss garage doors with us in more detail, just give us a call on 0121 605 6005 or email us at sales@actionshutters.co.uk. We provide free surveys and quotations – so don’t be shy!