Garage Door Installation: Choosing the Garage Door That's Right for You

Posted: Jul 18, 2012
Author: Doors by Nalley of Lake Norman, Inc.

Are you considering having a new garage door installed? It's important to know a few things about the different options available and which one is best fitted to both your situation and taste.

The most common type of garage door to have installed in a residential area, and the kind which you are most likely to be familiar with, is the sectional garage door. This door is comprised of three or four separate panels (or possibly many more, though such a design is usually used commercially), each connected to the next by a hinge. As the door rises to the open position, the hinges bend, enabling the garage door to follow along the curved track. The benefit of having this type of garage door installation is that the door never has to move outward away from the garage. It simply goes upward and backward.

Another type of garage door you may be considering having installed is the swing up, or tilt up garage door. These garage doors look and function almost the same as the sectional doors, except that they are in one piece: their lack of sections means they must swing outward away from the garage as they are being raised to the open position. When considering this type of garage door installation, be aware that these garage doors need a few extra feet in front of them while being opened.

The last option for non-commercial garage door installation is the swing out garage door. These garage doors are intended for either areas which have no overhead space into which the garage door may be raised, or for people who prefer to take a more aesthetic approach. As may be obvious, swing out garage doors open outwardly, away from the garage, requiring much more room to open. But for those who want their cake and to eat it, too, there does exist the option of choosing either a sectional or swing up garage door that simply looks like it swings out – requiring less or no outward space to be opened.