© 2006 Portman Designer Garage Doors
Your choice of door type is dictated firstly by the suitability of each type of operating mechanism, either side sliding, up and over sectional garage door or standard up and over, then by personal choice, there are 3 types of garage to choose from which are described below. This is not an exhaustive technical description but designed to illustrate the most common pro’s and con’s:
Side Sliding Sectional Garage Door.
Advantages:
Very wide opening up to 12 metres without the need for a central pillar.
No door ‘throw out’, can be used in situations where the garage fronts directly onto the kerb.
No overhead mechanism if head-
Can be used on arched door openings.
Disadvantages:
A side sliding garage door has a track fixed to garage floor (ok on new builds, but refurbishments need floor and drive levels raising by 5 cm)
Up and Over Sectional Garage Door.
Advantages:
No door ‘throw out’.
No track attached to garage floor.
Can be used on arched door openings.
Disadvantages:
A up and over sectional garage door has a track attached to garage ceiling which reduces the head height.
Up and Over Standard Garage Door.
Advantages:
Least expensive option.
Disadvantages:
Track attached to garage ceiling which reduces the head height.
A standard up and over garage door ‘throws out’ so can’t be used in situations where the garage fronts directly onto the kerb.
Designer Garage Doors can be made from steel, copper, aluminium or timber, if you are specifying a side sliding garage door you have the option of specifying track and running gear only. This is particularly useful for timber faced buildings as the door can be made from timber sourced from the same supplier as the building frontage to ensure uniformity.
Colour. Choose from any one of 14 standard colours
You can choose from a huge variety of pre-
Steel doors tend to be pre-
Copper doors tend to be left ‘as is’ without additional embellishment to age gracefully
Aluminium doors are surfaced with a 3 mm solid piece of material, these types of designer garage door s are ideal for ‘own designs’ which are routered (or milled) into the surface. The design is then inlaid using other material, or more usually painted in a contrasting colour to the main colour to give a door which has a visual and textural appeal.
Wood doors are either left natural to show off the glory of the wood or routered out. Because of the thickness of the timber this door lends itself to having designs inlaid using a variety of materials ie glass, metal, plastics, etc.
