Author Archives: 1st United Door Technologies
Good Time for Maintenance of Your Garage Door
On a busy day your garage door may open and close 20 times, so routine maintenance is a must to keep it in good working order. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Regular garage door cleaning and maintenance will guarantee a great look and longer life of your door.
Appearance
Clean your garage door regularly with mild soap (like dishwashing detergent) and a soft bristle brush. Avoid using abrasive cleaners and very strong liquid cleaners which could damage the paint or cause delaminating. If you have a steel garage door, you can revive its luster by applying a car wax as it will protect against acid rain and dust. It is best to avoid waxing in direct sunlight to achieve better results. If there’s exposed wood, be sure to paint it.
Exterior Weather-Stripping
Clean the weather stripping around the frame and bottom edge with a good all-purpose cleaner. Lubricate it every 2 or 3 months with a Silicone-based lubricant to keep the stripping pliable. Never use a petroleum-based lubricant on weather-stripping as it will dry up and crack. Don’t forget the weather-strip between your door panels. It is important to let your weather-strip hang 1/2″ below the door base [more]
Don’t Wait Until Your Garage Door Doesn’t Work… Maintain It!
For those of you who have moved into a new home or have just installed a new garage door, be sure to take the time to thoroughly read the garage door owner’s manual. It may seem like a chore and take time, but one would be surprised at what they can find in most well written garage door manuals. The manual will contain safety and design information to help you insure that your garage door is safe to use and properly installed, and contain information on how to keep your garage door properly maintained.
For example, many garage door manuals will contain helpful tips for painting them. Most companies will tell you to pain BOTH the inside and outside of the garage door to keep everything even, and to never remove any parts of the garage door when painting. If you want to make sure that your garage door is completely covered in a fresh coat of paint, you need to call in a professional to dismantle it so that you can finish the paint job, and then have the garage door installed again. This usually does not happen, but again, do not try to dismantle any of the parts of [more]
A Blast from the Past
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Back to the Future,” you know why 1955 is significant. Writers used that particular year as part of the setting to illustrate small-town American life at the time. If we were able to hop in a time machine like Michael J. Fox and land in 1955 in small-town Connecticut, we’d discover the installation of an Overhead Door Corp. garage door opener at a lakeside home. When we decided we’d had enough of the 50s and wanted to come back to present day, believe it or not, that opener would still be working!
After recently purchasing a lakeside home built in 1955 in Columbia, Conn., homeowner Michael Matthews promptly began the renovation work that comes with buying and restoring an old home. That’s when he found a still working, 1955-era Overhead Door Model E Ultronic Door Opener in his garage.
“I love old machinery so when I saw this old opener I was just fascinated,” Matthews said. “The fact that it was still working was even better.”
Made of steel and weighing close to 50 pounds, the Model E Ultronic was an AC, chain-drive opener that, at the time, was state-of-the-art for its operational capabilities. It featured both [more]
Garage Door Windows: Things To Consider
Garage doors, equipped with windows, not only allows for a structural design to be implemented into the garage door but also has the added flexibility of enhancing a garage.
Garage door windows allow for light to come into the garage, making a dark and gloomy space bright and cheerful. This in essence also brings the benefit of making the garage space a more workable and desirable area to use for everything from crafts to handyman type hobbies.
Since, for many houses, the garage is a large space that is viewed from the street, garage door windows can also accent the home. The windows on the garage door can really make a statement and many homeowners have realized this and when looking at garage door window replacement consider changing the windows.
When a consumer begins evaluating the decision to look at garage door window, there are some things to consider. The garage door window ia a way to spice up the garage door. When looking at garage door window consider a tinted glass for the windows. Many homes have garages that face the sun, by tinting the windows the heat in the garage will go down and help keep the part of the house that is [more]
Ever Evolving Door Styles
Some things do come back in style if you wait long enough.
Think hip-hugger pants, shag carpeting and, yes, even wood garage doors. The wood garage doors of the 1970s are back in a big way. It’s one of many design trends that have come and gone.
The first revolution in garage door materials happened in the 1980s, when raised panel steel doors replaced wood ones. They continue to dominate the market today, mainly because they’re economical and low-maintenance. But for certain homes — especially custom homes or those with an Old World look — a big expanse of cold steel just won’t do. Frequently the garage door is a major part of the front of a home and people are finding that they can do something more interesting.
For this reason, wood has become the most popular option. But these aren’t the humble wood doors of two decades ago. First United Door Technologies offers wood doors in a carriage-house style that has an old-fashioned craftsman look. Made of the finest wood, they offer a much richer appearance and you can expect to pay four times or more what you would for steel doors.
Just as wood is beginning to catch on, the next [more]
Don’t Overlook The Garage When Getting Your Home Ready To Sell
There’s a lot of talk about curb appeal being the driving force drawing buyers into your home. It makes sense. If the house looks a mess from the outside, what buyer would want to set foot inside?
Well, maybe your house isn’t quite a mess. You have taken the time to fix-up the landscape, power-washed the house, and even painted the mailbox. But did you overlook what can be the biggest eyesore — the garage? It’s the largest architectural element on the house. So it really, in this day and age, is impossible to dismiss the garage door as an important architectural element.
But the garage door is more than an architectural element. It can be a trigger point for buyers. They’re driving down the street in a tract-home neighborhood and suddenly they spot a custom wooden garage door. It’s striking and different and often gives them reason to stop and take a closer look, maybe even come inside.
If you have a house that has a nice garage door, it sets the stage for the fact that everything else in the house is going to have attention to detail and it really does differentiate homes that are on the same street. With [more]
Garages likely left open to ventilate, keep openers functioning
As it gets warmer, we tend to see people leaving their garage doors open about 12 inches. Does this really keep the house cooler? It seems like it would just let in more heat
There could be a couple of different reasons some people leave their garage doors slightly ajar.
Letting in some air to drain off some of the heat in the garage wouldn’t necessarily make the house itself hotter, but it could keep the garage cooler, especially if there were a breeze blowing from the right direction. And it’s possible some people might have some heat-sensitive junk stored in the garage or maybe something that doesn’t smell so great.
But probably the main reason: garage-door openers.
Hot air rises, right? It’s probably hot enough in your garage as it is, assuming it’s not air-conditioned. But up near the ceiling it’s a lot hotter. Many garage-door openers come equipped with a heat sensor that sort of pulls the plug on the opener when the mechanism gets too hot. That’s to prevent fires. So leaving your door up a few inches helps keep the garage a bit ventilated. Of course, you don’t want to leave it up high enough for a burglar to wiggle [more]
June is Garage Door Safety Month
The International Door Association and the Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association have designated June as Garage Door Safety Month.
Garage door manufacturers, like First United Door Technologies, and garage door dealers throughout the U.S. and other countries are working to increase awareness of the possible hazards of garage doors and automatic opener systems, and the need for periodic inspection and maintenance to keep them safe.
It’s important that the public is aware of garage door safety and that safety checks should be done to insure it’s in proper working order by using these ten garage door safety and security tips.
1. Make sure garage door opener control button is out of the reach of small children.
2. Do not let children play with garage door remote controls.
3. Consult the owner’s manual and learn how to use the garage door’s emergency release feature.
4. Visually inspect the garage door each month. Look at springs, cables, rollers and pulleys for signs of wear. Do not attempt to remove, adjust or repair these parts or anything attached to them. A trained door repairman must make adjustments to these parts, which are under high tension.
5. Test the garage door opener’s reversing mechanism monthly by placing a 2 x 4 board or a [more]
Carriage House Garage Doors Are Opening Up Homes to Beauty and Value
Garage doors just aren’t what they used to be. The garage door is a fundamental part of the blueprint, structural design and sanctuary of a home. The garage door is one of the most important visual features of a home, representing up to a third or even more of the front. They are now eye-catching, beautiful and — dare we say it? — even “cool.” In a marketplace where enhanced curb appeal, residential diversity, and neotraditional architecture are in demand by municipalities, we’re seeing an onslaught of more unique garage door styles, especially steel, three-section, carriage house-style garage doors.
Carriage house garage doors help us recall the charm of that turn-of-the-century swinging barn-door style, behind which hid a jaunty horse-drawn carriage. Today’s doors may look attractively retro, but they are also durable and they open overhead like any other modern sectional garage door.
Original carriage house doors were made of wood. Garage doors today are made from various materials including wood, composite and steel. Each type offers its own benefits, characteristics and costs.
Most builders and homeowners want affordable beauty with low maintenance. That means a moderately priced, steel, carriage house garage door. Because they are all steel, all the parts expand and [more]
12 Reasons You Need A New Garage Door & Opener
Here are a dozen reasons why you need a new garage door and garage door opener.
1. New garage doors can increase the value of your home.
An online survey says that 71% of homeowners who recently replaced their garage door believe it increased the value of their home. When nationwide real estate agents were shown “before” and “after” photos of houses upgraded with new, stylish garage doors, they increased the list price of the home anywhere from 1 to 4 percent. That means a $2,000+ investment in a garage door could increase the sale value of your home by as much as $7,000 if you’re selling a $175,000 home. Look at some dramatic “before and after” photos at GarageWowNow.com, and you’ll see the difference a new garage door can make.
2. New garage doors can put money back in your pocket.
The Federal Government’s Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 extends tax credits for energy efficient home improvements. This includes qualifying insulated garage doors. That means that adding a new garage door in 2009 can save you money by helping to lower home energy consumption and costs AN D it will help pay for itself this year through the tax credit incentive, [more]