Types of Garage Doors – Pros and Cons

Types of Garage Doors

Shopping for a new garage door can be a confusing and frustrating process. There are several different garage door styles to choose from and each has their own benefits and weaknesses.

Below are the pros and cons of five popular types of garage doors to help guide you when selecting the best option for your home. Once your choice is made trust the experts at Action Door for residential and commercial installation.

Canopy Garage Door

Canopy Garage Doors are a type of single panel garage door that only uses vertical tracks on the sides of the door frame to flip open. About one-third of this up and over garage door is designed to protrude outside offering a small amount of extra shelter beyond the garage.

A Canopy Garage Door will typically require manual operation. However, this garage door is built with a torsion spring which makes it easy to manually open and close. Canopy garage doors are typically light-weight which adds to the ease of moving it up and down on its vertical track. Cables on the side additionally help guide and lift the door.

There are a few disadvantages of canopy garage doors. If you have vehicles parked close to the edge of the garage, they will need to be moved back further as the canopy door swings outward. In addition, this style of garage door can be noisy when opened or closed.

Although rarer today, canopy style doors are usually one of the cheapest garage doors sold. With no wheels or track leading back into the garage, canopy garage doors often require less maintenance than other designs.

Retractable Garage Doors

Retractable garage doors are also single panel garage doors but differ from canopy style doors in many ways. An opened retractable garage door will fully retract back into the garage, unlike the canopy garage door which partially hangs over the outside.

An advantage of a retractable garage door is that it is designed specifically for electrical operation. These automatic garage doors typically run smoothly along horizontal tracks that guide back into the garage, which reduces noise when opening and closing.

Retractable garage doors will require more space inside your garage than other options. All retractable garage doors will have horizontal tracks running across the ceiling of the garage. In addition, any automatic retractable garage door will require an overhanging garage door opener that will shrink the available height in your garage.

The retractable garage door mechanism depends on several factors in its operation. As a result, this complexity can lead to a greater chance of failure. If this happens, schedule service on your garage door immediately. Action Door takes both non-emergency and emergency service requests.

Roller Garage Door

Roller Garage Doors are designed as a compact solution and are typically built with corrugated steel panels. This allows the entire garage door to smoothly roll up into a box directly atop the opening in the garage.

Roll-Up garage doors are the most compact garage doors on the market. They do not have horizontal tracks leading back into the garage like retractable garage doors. The added space can allow for more storage room on the garage ceiling. In addition, access doors to the roof or attic within the garage will not be blocked.

Roller style garage doors are often more expensive than other garage door types but are very limited when it comes to appearance. It is nearly impossible to hide the lines from the corrugated sections of the door. These panels also make it difficult to customize your door with a different coat of paint. There is the costly option to switch the roller garage door out completely for the sake of appearance, but even then there is only a small selection of designs to choose from.

Roller Garage Doors are very durable, secure, and usually require little maintenance once installed. Due to the nature of their steel frame, they can withstand harsh weather conditions. Most roll-up garage doors are insulated to keep your garage free of extreme outside temperatures.

Roller doors are normally quieter than most other garage door designs as they roll straight up or down from their compartment above. Most roller garage doors are built with automatic operation.

Sectional Garage Doors

Sectional garage doors are the most popular design of garage door on the market. A sectional garage door uses both vertical tracks on the side of the garage and horizontal tracks on the ceiling of the garage to lift and close the door. Sectional doors are typically built with automatic garage door openers for quiet and smooth operation.

Sectional garage doors are the middle ground between single-panel designs and roller doors. These doors are usually made up of 3-8 large panels that retract up overhead to the ceiling of the garage. This can limit the storage space on the ceiling of smaller garages.

The outside vertical tracks of sectional garage doors allow you to maximize the width of the opening in your garage. They also allow for insulation to keep the inside of your garage warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer.

These doors are on the expensive side due to their well-engineered design. Sectional garage doors require multiple tracks and a variety of parts needed for operation. As a result, there are more potential places for problems to occur within the mechanism. Frequent lubrication and maintenance are required to keep your garage door running smoothly. If a breakdown does occur, do not hesitate to have your garage door serviced by Action Door.

Due to the popularity of sectional garage doors, there are many options when it comes to appearance. There is a large selection of sectional door designs and finishes available to match your home.

Side-Hinged Door

Side-Hinged garage doors use steel hinges to open outward unlike any other garage door design. This allows for maximum height in your garage enabling more ceiling storage space and drive-thru room for larger vehicles.

However, side-hinged garage doors usually require manual operation and are not used for driving in and out of. Side-hinged doors are typically installed by those that are using their garage as a workshop or for long-term vehicle storage. Since side-hinged doors install in pairs, it is great for controlling how much fresh air or breeze you want while working on projects in the garage.

In rare cases, side-hinged garage doors will be installed with an electric garage door opener. With these style of doors, you will want to make sure to not have another vehicle or anything else of importance in front of the door as it swings open.

Since side-hinged doors meet in the center, they are inevitably less secure than their counterparts. However, due to the simplicity of the design, side-hinged doors are easier to maintain than other doors.