Buying a garage door is a daunting process whether you are building a new home or renovating. New garage doors are a big investment item and there are many different styles to choose from. Garages are offered in increasingly complex variations but the underlying choices remain largely the same. Those two choices are the material of the garage door and its type.
You also have the choice of self-installing or paying to have a professional install it for you. It is recommended you choose the latter due to the complexity of even the most basic garage doors. In this article, we go over the most popular types of material, which ones are considered better quality, and why.
Material
The typical choices of garage door material are: steel, wood or fiberglass/aluminum.
Steel garage doors are the strongest of the three. They have the ability to be disguised to look like wood or painted another color. Steel doors that are made of hot-dipped galvanized steel, as most are now, don’t require repainting nearly as much as wood doors do and don’t rust.
Premium steel doors are doors that are 2 inches thick, filled with insulation and covered in 24-gauge steel. These doors are less likely to sag, keep the garage at a more stable temperature and are generally quieter to operate.
Fiberglass garage doors are doors with an aluminum frame and fiberglass in-between. This is a very lightweight door and can be good for places with lots of salt in the air, which fiberglass happens to be very resistant to. Fiberglass door are good for areas where you need to let the light in and are interested in a modern looking garage door.
Otherwise it isn’t a very good choice because it ages poorly, breaks easily and doesn’t keep in heat well.
Aluminum doors are much like steel doors in that they durable and can be finished in many different ways. Aluminum garage doors are very light and cheap which makes them a popular choice. Unfortunately, aluminum dents very easily so they tend to get ruined faster than steel garage doors do.
Finally, wood garage doors are sought after because of their sleek style and low price. Wood doors are beautiful if you can afford to keep them well maintained and aren’t afraid of the short one year warranty offered on most wood doors.
Some Final Notes
If you are selling your house, or plan on selling your house soon, it may be tempting to choose one of the cheaper garage door options. But, remember that your garage is one of the first things someone sees when they come to view your home. One report from Remodeling Magazine 2013 concluded that a garage door returns 75.7% of its cost when the house is sold.
Having a stylish and good quality garage door makes a significant difference in their perception of how much your house is worth. Thus, it makes sense to think into the future and choose a garage door that will last and raise the value of your house should you sell it.
