Tag Archives: steel garage door
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]
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]
It’s cold out there: Is your garage door insulated?
An insulated garage door can create a stable, dry, warm atmosphere all year round as well as vastly increasing the security, soundproofing and sealing properties of the garage door opening from dust, vermin, leaves and rain.
It will also help to save you some money on your energy bills. This is why the demand for insulated garage doors is increasing year on year as so many garages are now used for many other purposes other than storing a vehicle.
Insulated garage doors offer various advantages over standard garage doors namely:
1.They allow the garage to be used for other uses – e.g. hobbies, gym, play room, office, damp proof secure storage etc. etc.
2.They keep adjoining rooms and bedrooms above the garage warmer.
3.They offer increased security due to thicker and stronger door construction.
4.Weather stripping prevents leaves and debris blowing into the garage.
5.Weather stripping stops heat loss and prevents cold air getting into the garage.
6.An insulated garage door will help save on your heating bills and help the environment.
7.Reduced condensation.
The Original All Steel Carriage House Garage Door
The Original STEELHOUSE Door is an innovative “Modern Carriage Door“, manufactured entirely of steel.
The Original STEELHOUSE™ garage doors have two-sided steel insulated facing boards that are textured, roll formed and laminated to steel backers and then mechanically fastened and bonded to a 23 gauge steel section. Four-inch wide, two-sided steel insulated boards are bonded with epoxy cement and mechanically fastened to ensure positive attachment to the face of the door. All Original STEELHOUSE Doors come standard with CFC-free polystyrene insulation.
A “Reinforced Integral Truss System” (RITS™) gives the Original STEELHOUSE doors strength and rigidity that is unmatched by similar products. In addition to their distinctive style and curb appeal, the Original STEELHOUSE patented doors are half the weight and cost of wooden doors. Virtually maintenance-free, the Original STEELHOUSE doors will not warp, crack, or split. Quite simply, it doesn’t get better than that.
From a base of nine models and over 15 designer top sections, Original STEELHOUSE Doors offer more than 200 unique configurations to ensure diversity from one home to the next and from one subdivision to the next. Homeowners, builders, architects and municipalities alike, are using Original STEELHOUSE Doors to bring a fresh, handsome appearance to neighborhoods across [more]
When is it Time to Replace The Garage Door?
Garage doors are designed to last many long years. Products are available to help maintain the operation and beauty of garage entries, with a bit of annual maintenance. Many homeowners only think to replace garage doors when something happens that makes it necessary, such as being hit with a car or lawnmower.
Even without accidental damage, garage doors do suffer wear and tear over time, especially from the elements. Waiting too long to replace worn out doors and openers can create a serious safety hazard. Doors and openers that are worn cease to operate properly, and accidents can occur.
Energy efficiency is yet another reason to upgrade existing garage doors. Over time, the seals that help stop air loss around the garage doors weaken and wear out. Once these seals become too worn, air loss begins to occur, which creates an expensive power concern. For old doors that do not have insulation, replacing them with new, well insulated doors is an investment in energy conservation that can pay for itself in energy savings over the life of the door.
Signs to look for that a garage door is at the end of its useful life include lack of insulation and modern safety features, [more]
Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!
Did you ever think that a new garage door could almost pay for itself?
Garage door replacement ranked No. 2 in “cost recouped” on a list of 35 common home remodeling projects in Remodeling Magazine’s 24th annual Cost vs. Value Report.
The average midrange garage door replacement cost was estimated at $1,291. Resale value of the project averaged $1,083 – an 83.9 percent return on investment (ROI) at resale. In some cities, such as Charleston, W. Va., Honolulu, Providence, R.I., and San Francisco, the ROI for a new garage door was more than 100 percent.
Upscale garage door replacements were estimated to provide a 69.8 percent ROI – No. 4 among the upscale projects listed in the survey.
What does that mean to homeowners? You can have your cake and eat it, too. A new garage door can add to the beauty of your home as you live in it and enjoy it today, while also providing a high level of payback – nearly 84 cents of every dollar spent on the garage door replacement – when it’s time to sell.
What’s more, garage door replacement was one of the least expensive projects listed in the survey. That means a new garage door may be [more]
Garage Door Spring Tips
An important component in the mechanical make-up of garage doors is the spring system.
Without springs the doors would not rise and fall. These components should be in good, strong working condition at all times for the doors to function properly. The counterbalance springs do the actual lifting and closing.
When the doors rise the springs unwind. This provides the necessary power to do the lifting. When the door closes, the weight of the door winds the springs back up until the door is entirely shut. At this stage the springs are fully tensed again.
The springs need to be adjusted periodically.
When the typical door weighs about three hundred pounds and involves the co-ordination of pulleys, cables and springs, this is inevitable. It is not difficult to do a cursory check up. With safety glasses on one can pull on the red emergency release cord so that the doors are opened manually. By lifting it halfway and observing if it stays in place or falls, one can determine if it is out of balance. If it falls, then it is not in balance.
There are other assessment suggestions described on the site for testing the poor performance of the doors. When the doors need [more]
Garage Doors in the Kitchen!
Wait… what? Garage doors in the what?
It’s true. For those wanting to easily alternate between eating in a conditioned environment and eating al fresco, the simple choice just might be a garage door in this unlikely location. Just take a look at these four stylish examples and see what you think:
What do you think? Would you like this unconventional door-type in your kitchen?
Source: http://www.thekitchn.com/