Expert Garage Door Services for Oakland Residents

Garage Door Information

Single panel garage doors

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Single-panel doors are constructed from one monolithic panel. A single panel door swings up and overhead with a hinge on each side (jamb-type hardware) to a fully open position from the closed position. A disadvantage of monolithic panel doors is that the swing-up arc of the door occurs partially outside the garage. This means a vehicle must stop and park several feet in front of the door to avoid being hit by the garage door when it is opened.

Single panel doors can also be installed with (one piece track type hardware) that folds the door back with a single horizontal track on each side (mounted at the top of the wood frame) and a roller mounted to the top of the door on each side. A hinge on each side that attaches to the bottom of each side of the garage door. Using track hardware, a car can be parked much closer to the door, as the door is positioned entirely inside the garage door header when in the open position. Track-type hardware has less arc when raising and lowering the garage door than jamb-type hardware.^{[citation needed]}

Sectional garage doors

Sectional doors usually have three to eight panels and slide up and overhead. Sectional doors occupy the same internal garage space as a monolithic door. Sectional doors have two advantages over single-panel monolithic doors:

• Sectional doors do not require any space outside the garage to open. A vehicle may park very close to the garage before opening the door.
• Each panel of a sectional door has its connection to the door track. This increases reliability and robustness compared to monolithic doors, which have only a few track connections for the whole panel.

Garage doors can be made of many materials, but steel, aluminum, wood, copper, glass, and vinyl (polyethylene) are the most popular materials. Some manufacturers incorporate foamed-in-place polyurethane insulation within the monolithic panel and sectional garage doors.

The side sliding sectional door^[5]

• A lot of space under the garage ceiling.
• Can use the entire ceiling of the garage.
• Fast access to the garage

Roller doors

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Roller doors (sometimes called "sheet doors") are usually constructed of corrugated steel. They evolved from cover window and door coverings.^[4] Other materials can be used (e.g., transparent corrugated fiberglass) where strong impact resistance is not required. Corrugations give the door strength against impacts. A typical single-car garage roller door has a preloaded spring inside the rolling mechanism. The spring reduces the effort required to open the door. Oversized roller doors in commercial premises are not sprung (except in the US), and a manual pulley and chain system or a geared motor is used to raise and lower (roll up and roll down) the door. Roller doors cannot be effectively insulated.

In the UK (and other parts of the EU), 'insulated' roller garage doors are available, using an aluminum lathe filled with polyurethane foam for thermal and acoustic insulation.

Concerning thermal insulation, the roller door has a typical insulation R-value of 4.9 to 5.2. A sheet steel garage door has a typical insulation R-value of 0.5 to 2.7.

An application that needs more thermal insulation typically uses a foam-filled sectional garage door, which provides typical insulation R-values of 6.1 to 6.4.