Melbourne Garage Doors

Garage Doors: Types and Characteristics

What guarantees the safety of the car stored in the garage? Of course, the entrance doors and gates, which can be placed next to each other, but more often are the garage doors.

In this article, we will discuss the design options for garage doors and the existing standard requirements for them. Having examined the material presented by us, you will learn how to choose the right doors for the garage with your own hands and understand what their advantages and disadvantages are.

What are Garage Doors?

Although wood and plastic can participate in the garage door manufacturing process, metal was and remains the basic material. Separate rules for gate manufacturing are not for garages.

They are made according to the standard 31174, where the requirements are formulated for all types of metal gates – including garage doors.

classification

The first sign by which large garage doors are classified is the direction and methods of opening them. For clarity, we present a brief annotation in the form of a table.

Gate opening method	Distinguishing features
Doors-gates with swing instruction	If you want to install the doors in the garage with your own hands, then a swing option is what you need. In any case, there is no complex automation, which requires the participation of a specialist for installation. The swing cloth design is often shielded.
Sliding garage doors	A distinctive feature of the gate with a sliding canvas, is the presence in the system of the supporting element – the supporting beam, which represents the main load. There are several modifications to the sliding gates: monorail, cantilever, suspended.
Modular doors	The main advantage of the type of sectional door is their maneuverability, although they also have many other positive qualities, which we will talk about. This gate design is ideal for a small garage area where there is no room to turn around.
Garage doors	Gate with a lifting and rotating cloth, you can consider one of the most reliable options for the garage. Unlike sectional garage doors, here the sash is one-piece and, moving along the guides, turns, smoothly moving from a vertical to a horizontal position.
Rolling gates	Roller gates have many advantages: they do not require additional space, they open easily, they do not limit visibility when leaving the garage. As a rule, they are installed on garages connected to a residential house or located in the basement. In the garages facing the street, they are sometimes not, due to the durability of the shutters compared to other options.

Different garage doors and for reasons such as the version of execution, which can coincide with the method of opening. Like any door, they can be frame, panel, panel, glazing elements, ventilation grilles or profiled inserts, as well as be insulated (see Heating garage doors: what to do) or cold. But sectional and movable gates stand out in the classification list, as they have completely individual mechanisms in their action.

Almost all automatic doors for the garage, at the same time, sometimes perform the functions of the gate and the front door. Although in some of them, as in swing models, there is a wicket. There are still folding gates that open like an accordion, but they are mostly installed not in private garages, but in production boxes.

What you need to know about swing gates

Since humanity first invented swinging doors and gates, they can be safely classified as classic. Swinging canvases that you can not only install with your own hands, but also make them if you wish. Of course, the price of a makeshift gate will be much lower, and in cases where savings are the main goal, this is a good way out.

Therefore:

• In any case, it is not difficult to find information on how to assemble canvases of wooden panels, weld steel sheet doors, insulate garage doors or decorate them. Only all this is quite laborious, and it will turn out, as it should, not all. But in the sale you can always find a budget model in the budget price range.
• Most likely, these will be two open hinged doors on the support frame, with no comfortable additions there. Passers-by to such gates may not be, which is not very convenient in the event that the owner of the garage has to not only take or put a car in it, but, for example, to spend a whole day there, doing repairs.
• Some companions manage to cut the main door themselves into a metal swing gate. At the same time, it is necessary to reinforce the perimeter of the gate with metal plates, weld the hinges, install a gasket around the perimeter, mount the handle and locks for the garage doors. And even if the presence of a ready-made gate in a garage door automatically increases the cost by a third, self-cutting it into a matte canvas can hardly be considered a good idea.
• When buying a cheap model, you will also have to think about how to insulate the garage doors yourself, since there will be no thermal insulation filling, there will be no such doors in the canvases. When ennobling the door from the inside by covering them, for example, with plastic or clapboard, and laying foam polystyrene or mineral wool under the veneer, thanks to the purchase cost of these materials, the total cost of construction will increase considerably.
• So, in the end, it won’t be entirely clear what the savings you were looking for initially meant. It is much easier to buy gates with insulated swing doors, which are made of sandwich panels. This multi-layered material with a honeycomb coating retains heat wonderfully. It allows you to reduce the cost of heating the garage in winter – this is where you need to look for savings!

The most expensive forged gates, the cost of which depends on the design and, in general, the high cost of handmade. At the same time, it cannot be said that they are more reliable than, for example, the steel sheet version, which has no decorative delights. Most often, forged furniture simply shows the garage owner’s level of security.

Sectional garage doors

The main advantage of the sectional canvas is the fact that it is almost impossible to decipher. Such gates are always insulated and do not require space either outside or inside the garage.

Thus, by installing a sectional gate, the owner “kills two birds with one stone”: he saves heat and useful space in the garage.

• In their production, as well as in some swing models, they use sandwich panels. Only here they are not enclosed in a rigid frame, but divided into several parts, fastened together by rings. Thus, it is easy to transform the flexible canvas, guided by the twisting system.
• It consists of: guide profiles with polyamide rollers, which limit the movement of the blade; trees; cables, as well as drums, on which they are wound. Sectional doors move almost silently: the doors move smoothly, settling into the false ceiling space.

be careful! We will immediately say that in such a system there is no danger of the cable breaking, in which case the movement of the belt is blocked by the ratchet couplings. This precaution cannot be called superfluous, since the weight of the door can reach three hundred kilograms.

• This system is balanced by a spring mechanism, which at the same time reduces the weight load. Therefore, the sash is very easy to lift even by hand, for which it is necessary to pull a special handle. In some models, the gate opening is due to the cylinder mechanism.
• The design of the sectional door can be set in motion and automatically – for this they connect an electric motor. Virtually all models controlled in this way can operate the same way in manual mode.
• The switching modes are performed using a special key, which helps a lot when, for example, the web is blocked by a power outage. As a result, there should be not only electronic devices at the sectional gate, but also a mechanical lock.

A rather complicated mechanism of action in no way prevents the door from equipping the door, except that not all widths of the mesh allow. Here is the same situation as with a swing gate: if the canvas is equipped with an entrance door, then it costs thirty to forty percent more.

The price, of course, is influenced by the decorative decorative option of the face – it can be a mosaic, a beautiful relief and lighting.

Retractable Garage Doors

Sliding tarpaulin gates are divided into several groups. In all cases, when a certain force acts on the flap, it moves to the side, opening the opening. Only here is the principle of setting the canvas in motion a little different.

• For example, the mass of railway gates, the flap of which moves on rollers, falls on a guide beam rigidly fixed along the lower perimeter of the opening. Such gates have no restrictions in the size of the opening, materials for the manufacture of the fabric and, accordingly, their weight.
• Their mass is evenly distributed on the beam, which allows you to install the gate, which is also called sliding, even in a curved or short opening. Only for this purpose it is necessary that the canvas, similar to the variant in section, consists of several connected mobile elements. The only difference is that when they move, they do not rise, but they move sideways.
• There are models of sliding gates and with suspended canvas. There are videos here too, only they are not at the bottom, but, like the curtains, they are at the top. As a result, the guide beam is mounted on the top horizontal of the opening. Most often, the rollers are rigidly attached to the canvas, but some manufacturers also offer such options, where the sash moves along the rollers, which are an integral part of the guide profile.
• But if in the monorail version there are practically no restrictions on the weight of the canvas and the dimensions of the opening, then in the gate with a hinged leaf, the height of the opening and the scope of the beam installed in it play a decisive role. But this design allows you to install multiple doors, rolling in different directions.

Retractable gates can operate in manual mode or be connected to automation – the latter, by the way, is not necessary at all. And I must say that in a strong wind, when swing doors can be quite difficult to open, the sliding canvas does not cause such problems.

Raising garage doors

The door is opened with a tiltable frame, thanks to its smooth transition from a vertical plane to a horizontal position. Here, as in the modular models, the canvas is raised under the ceiling, and this movement is performed by means of levers and springs, and the frame is also made of steel tubes with a rectangular section.

Be careful! The advantage of this type of door is the absence of hinged joints, which are different for roller, sliding and sectional garage doors. Therefore, they are easier to manage, more reliable and cheaper to use. The canvas itself can be made of any material: galvanized steel sheet, profiled sheet, sandwich panels, wood, high-strength plastic.

Therefore:

• For long and trouble-free operation, the rotating blades are equipped with additional elements. For example, a limiter is installed in the lower part of the sash, a bar that prevents rapid deterioration of the rigid part of the gate. The rubber edge seal, which retains its elasticity for a long time, prevents moisture from entering the garage room.
• If necessary, you can purchase decorative plates for the door set, which compensate for the gaps between the door profile and the perimeter of the opening. They, by the way, can also play the role of decorative elements. The gate of a specific configuration can be ordered.
• For example, it may include polyurethane panels fixed to the inner surface of the web to improve its thermal insulation properties. Glass elements or additional locking devices can be installed in the work area. As an additional equipment, a side door can also be made in the kit for such a gate – of course, all in the same style.

Lifting gates are controlled via a button installed inside the garage or a remote control. Manual override is supplied as a standard product, but an electric unit must also be purchased to connect the automatic control.

Visit Melbourne Garage Doors for more information about garage doors in Melbourne, Australia.