Melbourne Garage Doors
What Type of Garage Door Could You Choose?
The materials
- Wood: Not widely used in garage doors, this material requires regular maintenance.
- Aluminium: This material is mainly used for roll-up doors. It offers rigidity, lightness and manoeuvrability.
- Steel: The most popular material for sectional and overhead garage doors. This type of door is made up of insulated panels and two treated steel strips. Resists both bad weather and shocks.
- PVC: Less widespread because less resistant to shocks, PVC is however light, economical and very easy to handle.
Our advice: Depending on the material chosen, your garage door will be more or less efficient in terms of insulation. Prefer a sectional garage door with ceiling discharge or an overhead door with panels 40 mm thick for better thermal insulation.
The type of opening
You have the material, now let’s see the different opening options for your garage door:
Sectional ceiling garage door: the best thermal performance.
With its vertical opening, the ceiling sectional door, made up of several hinged panels, allows you to take advantage of maximum space inside and outside your garage. Without overflow and with minimum space requirements under the ceiling, the sectional door is fixed to the ceiling and slides on vertical and horizontal tracks. With the sectional door, your garage will find all its functions.
Advantages:
- Preservation of the entire width of your garage.
- Perfect for large openings and narrow spaces. In fact, the door panels slide in rails to fit horizontally to the ceiling.
- High thermal performance, thanks to the ultra-insulating 40 mm panel.
- “Connected home” compatible.
Disadvantage:
- The sectional opening requires freeing the ceiling.
- Without a gate (optional), access to the garage requires full opening so as not to have to bend down.
Side sectional door: space saving on the ceiling and practical for pedestrian opening.
This sectional panel door opens and stores along the interior wall of your garage. As a result, you can use the entire height of your garage which remains completely clear. In addition, this door offers you pedestrian access much cheaper than the traditional gate.
Advantages:
- Small footprint: takes only 100 mm along the wall
- Motorized door with integrated pedestrian opening.
- Pedestrian crossing without full opening
- Compatible with large openings
- “Connected home” compatible
Disadvantage:
- The side opening requires freeing the section of wall where the door will push back.
Rolling Garage door: the most aesthetic and the least bulky inside your garage.
The roller garage door rolls up on itself in a compartment reserved for this purpose and integrated into the ceiling. It is a very popular garage door because it takes up little space.
Advantages:
- The smallest interior footprint: it optimizes garage space; it is preferred for small and cluttered surfaces.
- Little interior overflow
- Motorized door
- “Connected home” compatible
Disadvantages:
- The safe requires a lintel drop of up to 40 cm.
- Access to the garage requires full opening so as not to have to bend down.
Up-and-over door: a good solution if you want a wicket door.
Its difference from the roll-up door is the panel assembly, which is made from a single block. As a result, during the ascent, the door overflows to the outside. A non-overflowing variant exists allowing parking at the door to the outside, but to the detriment of the interior space. This type of door does not allow the entire height under the lintel to be cleared.
Advantages:
- Takes up little space
- Easy to automate
Disadvantages:
- Not suitable for lower garages
- May interfere if the garage is directly on the road
Hinged Garage Door: an authentic style garage door
Also called “French opening” if the doors open inward or “English opening” if the opening is outward. It is an authentic configuration made up of two leaves. This type of opening implies an overflow that is not suitable for sloping driveways and leading directly onto the public road.
Advantages:
- Economic
- Does not take up space inside the garden
- Can be automated
Disadvantage:
- Overflows on the outside
- Poor thermal insulation quality
- Not suitable for sloping walkways leading directly onto public roads.
Our advice: Depending on the space you have available for opening and the configuration of your garage (width of your vehicle + obstacles on the wall or on the side, drop of the lintel), choose the garage door that will suit your use. All the doors can also be motorized.
What accessories to choose to complete your garage door?
Motorization
- Offset motor: Used on most overhead and sectional garage doors with a motor, chain or belt, fixed to the ceiling.
- Integrated motorization: Used on rolling garage doors in a box with a motor in the winding axis as on a roller shutter.
- Articulated arm motorization: Used on swing doors with a motor similar to gates placed outside or inside the garage.
The accessories
Motorization is a comfort that can be accompanied by options that are just as comfortable:
- Gate: this small door integrated into the leaf avoids having to fully open the garage door when you are on foot or by bike
- Porthole: if you feel like inserting small openings in your door (not compatible with all materials), there is a large choice of possible shapes depending on the supplier (rectangle, square, circle, half-moon, etc)
- Wireless remote control: in addition to a wall switch, a remote control will be very practical so you don’t have to get out of the car when you enter your garage
Today there are Digi codes and fingerprint readers. These are secure and practical equipment to transform your garage into a real secondary access to your home.
Security
In addition to the options mentioned above, most products on the market are equipped with safety systems: fall arresters for lift-up models, obstacle detection and motor blocking if the gate is open. All these requirements must be NF labelled.
Our advice: Don’t neglect comfort as a user. Motorizing your garage door seems essential for everyday use. Add a digital code for quick access without remote control (on foot or by bike).