If you want your home to reflect your style and tastes, even on the exterior, it can be really fun to mix details and textures like using stone and wood or adding shutters with arches. Your garage door is a great place for some flair, too! This traditional home is complete with the Prestige XL Design garage door, shown here in a single size with Chocolate Walnut paint and Pinhead windows.
Things are happening and your home dreams are finally coming true. The next few months are going to see real construction on your home, including a possible attached garage or man-cave (an upscale detached garage). We are celebrating with you!
Every home needs a garage space… every family deserves one! Families hold more than just stuff in a garage… they’re places that fill you with positive energy or that give birth to big dreams. So many household names have started in household garages.
The pandemic catalyzed many people repurposing their garages. They were figurative escape rooms, home offices, extra bedrooms, etc. This repurposing isn’t going to stop anytime soon, which means that investing in a garage update isn’t a silly cost, it’s an investment in the resale value of your home as well as in your peace and sanity.
Choosing a garage door that ups the curb appeal of your home is the most exciting part! Before you choose a lift type, though, allow us to make sure you have all the information.
Want High Windows? You Need High Life Hardware
This modern, elegant home is completed with 2 single-size Vog garage doors with Black paint. The windows above the doors blend the look together with the entry door. The more windows, the more natural light, the happier the family!
What does high lift garage door hardware do? It extends your door tracks so that the door goes up before the horizontal curve, essentially “hugging” the wall. This uses your vertical space efficiently, giving you a foot or more of headroom in your garage by moving the tracks closer to the ceiling.
Using high lift tracks in this garage adds an industrial touch that complements the natural, noble textures. Whether you choose the classic California all-glass garage door for your ultra-cool pool cottage or for your home office, if you have mezzanine or high ceilings, this is the best choice.
You Need High Lift Hardware When:
- You want a glamorous transition between two rooms in your home, and your house has high ceilings.
- Your garage has (or you want) windows over your garage door.
- It’s important to have storage space above your garage door because you use your garage to hold a great deal of valuable items. The more wall space you have, the more overhead space you have, too.
- You park your car in your garage so you need high clearance.
- You want to keep your options open for what you’ll do with your garage in the future. No one wants tracks right over their head, no matter what you use your garage for.
This blueprint-type drawing shows how a high lift garage door uses straight tracks to angle the door slightly away from the wall.
What Does This Choice Look Like?
Since this type of hardware changes the way your door moves along its track system, it puts a different type of stress on the system components. This choice makes the door travel farther up before it goes back, so the parts need to work differently.
- Tracks:
Each installation is unique but for the most part you’ll have tracks that are a couple feet longer than your door. So, if you have a 10-foot ceiling in your garage and your door is eight feet high, you’ll have two extra feet of tracks than if you were to use standard hardware.
- Torsion Springs:
If you think that the garage door is what’s doing most of the opening and closing work, you’d be in company with most people. But you’d still be wrong. It’s okay! Just know that the torsion springs are what actually do the work and that they need to be balanced properly because they’re under extreme pressure. This balance will allow your door to operate smoothly and safely.
- Opening System:
It’s really important to you that you don’t have tracks right over your head in your garage. Don’t mess it all up by having the opening system right smack in the middle instead! You couldn’t have a rail above windows like this anyway, so a garage like this black double door from Flush Design needs something different.
That option is a wall-mounted garage door opener system.
Which one do we recommend, you ask? That would be the LiftMaster 8500W. This system is quiet because it doesn’t use a chain-drive system and it also has an automatic lock, so you feel safe and secure. The horsepower makes high lift and vertical systems a breeze. Plus, the included MyQ app lets you open and close your garage door anywhere you have your smartphone or tablet.
Cathedral Ceilings Require Inclined Tracks
Real-life roofs that look like the one in this child’s picture require inclined tracks. Every time your garage door is on the opposite side of the roof, this is the solution.
Photos say it all! Sometimes a garage door has to follow an inclined slope, meaning the tracks need to follow that slope as well. (Here’s a real-life geometry example!) This home’s door features the Eastman E-12 Design with Claystone paint and White real overlays.
How Do Inclined Tracks Differ from High Lift Hardware?
- If your roof is on an incline, inclined tracks follow that angle. This keeps your door flat on the ceiling. High-lift hardware, on the other hand, brings your door to ceiling height before the pitch. This leaves a gap at the roof incline.
- Torsion springs need to be strong and balanced for high lift hardware since there is a large amount of stress on many components.
- High, inclined roofs need a wall-mounted system like the LiftMaster 8500.
Aren’t these Carriage House single garage doors from the Townships Collection charming and elegant? These are the Eastman E-11 design, shown in Moka Brown paint and Desert Sand overlays. The four vertical-lite Panoramic windows complete the look.
You Need Inclined Tracks When:
- You have cathedral ceilings in your garage.
- You have a vaulted ceiling in your garage.
- Your door is on the same side as the slope of your garage’s roof.
Limited Space Solution: Front of Rear Low-Headroom Hardware
You Need a Front or Rear Low-Headroom Lift When:
- You have a very low garage ceiling.
- Your remodel includes replacing old, swinging doors on a detached shed or garage. These used to only require two inches of headroom!
- If you want to read up on this choice more, as well as learn details about openers, read this FAQ.
This she-shed owner chose a California full-view garage door because the way it was built meant that it has less than the 10 inches of required space for standard lift hardware. The owner also wanted to make sure that her garage door tracks weren’t highly visible, since this was a retreat space for her.
You Need a Front- or Low- Headroom Lift When:
- You have between 7 and 10 inches of headroom over the garage door. In this case, you must install a FRONT low-headroom lift.
- You have between 5 and 7 inches of headroom over the garage door you must install a REAR low-headroom lift.
- How are these choices different than standard garage door lift hardware? Well, when your garage door moves from a vertical to a horizontal position and back again with less space, the dual rollers and tracks move only the top section of the door. This allows the opener to easily move the top part so that the lower section can smoothly follow along the tracks.
- Most people think that even if you don’t have a lot of space on the ceiling to spare, that a ceiling-mounted system isn’t a great option. However, it’s the only option. A wall-mounted system or a manual (human) system wouldn’t be enough to open the door fully. If you still choose one of these, though, know that you’ll always have about eight inches of space between your door and the opening hole. If you have to make this choice, do it with the LiftMaster 87504-267 opener, which is the newest model after the LiftMaster 8550.
- This isn’t the best option, but it’s a last resort when nothing else will work.
Back to Basics: The Standard Garage Door Lift
You sure don’t see this every day! The left-side garage door needs inclined tracks since the door is on the same side as the roof slope, while the right-side door can use a standard lift. This is an interesting case! Have you seen more new or remodeled homes using garage doors with an arch? Designers and architects are bringing this style back. This traditional-style home chose doors in Classic MIX Design that are quite pleasing to the eye.
You Need Standard Lift Hardware When:
- You have 10 inches or more of headroom.
- You have the choice between extension springs over the dual horizontal tracks or torsion springs. Experts usually recommend the torsion spring option.
- You choose an electric garage door opener that’s mounted on the ceiling, such as the newer version of the LiftMaster 8550, the new LiftMaster 87504-267.
Think About these Things Before Purchasing Your New Door
The swinging garage door effect is a fun one! This homeowner chose the North Hatley SP garage door design in Ice White paint that matches the windows and entry door and added Richmond Arch windows with decorative hardware.
Should You Choose Insulated or Non-Insulated?
Oftentimes home improvement projects end up costing us more than we originally planned, which makes us want to cut costs and corners. Oftentimes, people think that a non-insulated garage door is a good place to do this.
Think about these things first:
House Beautiful shares this article about how heating and cooling your home is the largest form of energy consumption. It can add up to about half of your energy bill! This means that one of the best things you can do to “go green” in your home and save energy is to use insulated, properly sealed doors and windows… this includes your garage door.
You might not heat your garage, but it can still be protected from the weather. This will help keep it less expensive to heat the parts of your home that you DO want to stay warm and cozy.
Green Builder Media says that spray foams, such as polyurethane, give one of the highest R-values per square inch. They also are high-quality insulators for small spaces and can help to seal air leaks. The GARAGA Standard+, which has an R-value of 16, works well because it will save you money for up to 25 years by keeping your home energy efficient as well as keeping you comfortable.
Up Your Home’s Curb Appeal
A high-quality garage door will last you up to 25 years, and of all home improvement projects it has the highest resale value because it lasts for so long. Consider a door that:
- Has windows. Natural light is your best friend!
- Isn’t boring or white. Character counts!
- Is financially smart. One double door is the same price as two single doors! Read more about this here and then go with the most visually appealing option.
This brick and wood combination is striking! You almost don’t even notice that it’s a detached garage. The design option is the Shaker-Flat XL garage door design with Stockton windows. Chocolate Walnut paint gives the perfect finishing touch.
Work with Professionals and Invest in Confidence
Are you choosing to transform your carport into a garage? Or are you building your detached garage on the side of your house or your attached garage on the side of your kitchen? No matter the situation, here at Huneault Portes de Garage Doors Inc., we’ll help you see the project through to the end. We pride ourselves on offering you custom options to fit any lifestyle, design dream, and budget. No matter the problem or the request, tell us your situation and we’ll figure out a way to solve it or do it.
Call us today at 613-675-4473.
Most homeowners only have to buy one or two garage doors over the course of their homeowning lives. This is a huge decision that you shouldn’t have to make alone! Overhead doors and garage door openers are our specialty. It will give us great pride and happiness to help you complete your project with professionalism and ease, while sticking to the budget you’ve set.
If you have already found the garage door you want for your home…
Ask us for your free quote and we’ll email you ASAP.
If you want to “see” what your design ideas would look like on your current home…
Use our Design Centre. It’s easy and fun!
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