Love to mix different prestigious textures and details like stone, wood, and window shutters and then add some curves to these square lines with arches over a bay window, entry doors and the garage door? We do too! Love the timeless appeal of the Traditional Style? Let us introduce you to the Prestige XL Design garage door, here shown in single size, Chocolate Walnut color, with Pinhead windows.
The time has come for you to build your own house. And, of course, one of the factors you have to figure out is whether – and how – you’re going to design your garage!
What will it look like? What will you add to it? Will it be an attached garage? A man cave?
No matter what type of home you’re creating, you will need a garage. You might use it for storage, or as a place to work on your hobbies... whatever the reasoning, the garage is a multifunctional place.
As with many things, COVID-19 changed how people interact with their garages as well. People use them to escape from their daily, indoor, lives, and they’ve tried to figure out how to change them into a home office, home gym, teenager’s special place, or otherwise.
Because of how important a garage can be to a family, it’s an important investment that has to be carefully considered!
Despite what you’ll use your garage for, you’re likely curious about how it’ll look from the outside of the house, as well. You should probably try to choose a garage door that enhances your house’s outside aesthetic.
It helps to know the different types of garage doors – there are five – before you make your final decision.
If You Want Windows Above Your Garage Door, Choose High Lift Hardware
This elegant, contemporary house has two single, black Vog garage doors with windows right above them to harmoniously match its entry door’s design. This is often the case with the modern style.
This type – a high lift garage door – stretches over the tracks that help operate your garage door so that the door will hug the wall and extend higher before curving into the garage.
This can give you up to 15 inches more space above your head in your garage, and it will force the tracks to be closer to the ceiling.
This garage door high lift adds an industrial touch to this design. This is a great choice, for example, if you’re using an outstanding California all-glass garage door in your hip cottage to open up the space between your home consider high lift hardware.
Choose a High Lift Garage Door When...
- You want your garage door to look glamourous and fancy.
- You want to have windows above your garage door.
- You want to maximize the storage space above your garage door
- You need additional clearance to install a car lift or the like in your garage.
- Maybe you want to one day turn your garage into a safe space – you’ll have the necessary extra square footage to do so.
In this technical drawing, see how the track goes straight and then curves from the wall?
How’s It Look?
As mentioned, this garage door will affect how the door operates and runs along the installed tracks. Remember, with this machinery, it runs higher along the tracks before bending backwards and fully opening.
Because this isn’t the normal way that garage doors open, realize that, with this garage door, you’ll have to account for different types of maintenance due to how this will stress the components of the door.
Of course, the makeup of a high lift garage door will also be different than a normal door.
- Tracks:
As mentioned, when the garage is installed, its tracks will be placed higher up in the garage than a standard garage door. For example, if you have a garage ceiling that is 12-feet tall and a garage door that is 9 feet tall, you’ll need to have tracks that are 3 feet longer than usual.
- Torsion Spring:
Without the torsion springs, your garage won’t open properly. The torsion springs are the items that do the literal heavy lifting!
Thus, these springs are under extreme amounts of pressure, meaning that you have to make sure that they’re installed correctly – this means that they have to be balanced properly, or else they might prove to be dangerous to you and your family.
- Garage Opener:
With the garage door design like the one in this picture, you couldn’t install the rail in the window above this modern, black double garage door Flush Design.
The answer to all your problems is... a wall-mounted garage door opener.
When it comes to wall-mounted garage door openers, you can’t go wrong with the LiftMaster 8500W. This particular garage opener model is nearly-silent – much more quiet than standard garage doors.
This model also has additional security measures put into the device so that you can sleep easy at night. It also syncs with the MyQ app - with the app, you can monitor your garage with any device that’s connected to the Internet.
Cathedral Ceilings Means Inclined Garage Door Tracks Are in Your Future
The above drawing has to be extremely familiar to you – it’s how most people draw a basic house.
However, what you may not know is that the roof that’s drawn with these houses is a cathedral roof! If this is the type of roof you have on your house, that means that the best garage door opener tracks for your house are going to be inclined garage door tracks.
A picture is worth 1,000 words! When your garage door must follow the slope of the roof, it requires inclined tracks, like for this timeless beauty, also called the Eastman E-12 Design, here shown with Claystone color for the door and Ice White color real overlays.
Inclined Track Hardware Vs. High Lift Hardware?
- Inclined tracks follow the shape of your roof and keep the door flush against the ceiling.
- The high lift brings the garage door to the ceiling before the pitch, which means you’ll end up with a gap where your roof starts to incline.
- Make sure to check that you’ve balanced your torsion spring. It’ll end up with a lot of stress, so it needs to be strong!
- If you’re dealing with a steep roof, check out wall-mounted garage door models, such as the LiftMaster 8500.
These charming yet elegant Carriage House single garage doors are from the Townships Collection, in the Eastman E-11 design, with Moka Brown colored doors and Desert Sand colored overlays, with 4 vertical-lite Panoramic windows.
Make sure to choose inclined tracks when your garage:
- Has a cathedral OR vaulted ceiling.
- Exists on the same side that the roof slopes on.
Limited Space? Choose Front or Rear Low Headroom Hardware
Choose front or rear low headroom hardware when your garage:
- Is extremely low.
- You’re replacing very old swing doors on an old, detached garage or shed.
If you want to know more about these types of lifts and openers, read this.
The California full-view garage door of this ‘she-shed’had less than the 10 inches needed to install standard lift hardware. As well, the homeowner wanted the garage tracks to be as invisible as possible since this was her retreat from it all and she wanted the space to be pretty, cozy, and elegant.
Technically, when do you have to choose front or rear low headroom garage door hardware?
- If the headroom over your garage door is from around 7 inches up to 10 inches, you must have a FRONT low headroom hardware lift.
- If the headroom over your garage door is around 5 inches to 7 inches, you must have a REAR low headroom lift.
- These hardware lifts are different from standard ones because you’ll have less overhead space to deal with. As such, you’ll need double tracks and rollers, which will help the opener to move more easily and smoothly.
- Although you may not have as much overhead space as you want, you will still NEED to install a ceiling-mounted garage door or else you won’t be able to properly operate your garage door. If you’re considering this, we suggest the LiftMaster 87504-267 opener, the next gen of the well-known LiftMaster 8550.
- These types of lifts are no fun to deal with, and you shouldn’t choose these ones unless you have no other options to fit in the space in your garage.
Common Is King: The Standard Garage Door
The garage door on the left needs inclined tracks while the one on the right side can manage with a standard lift. Also, here’s a fun fact: Architects and designers are rediscovering garage doors with an arch, so if you like this chic aesthetic, check out Classic MIX Design doors.
Why Choose a Standard Garage Door Lift?
- If the headroom over your garage door is 10 inches or more.
- You can either choose between extension springs, installed over the two horizontal tracks, or torsion springs. Experts recommend torsion springs.
- Want to install an electric, ceiling-mounted door opener, like the LiftMaster 87504-267, the new generation of the well-known LiftMaster 8550?
Other Elements to Consider Before Making a Choice
If you want to your house to look a blast from the past, check out the North Hatley SP garage door design! Here shown in Ice White to match the windows and entry door color, with Richmond Arch window Inserts and decorative hardware.
Think About Insulation!
Especially if you’re trying to build your house – or other project – from the literal ground up, you might want to get it over with as quick as possible. As such, you might want to cut corners in order to lower costs.
If this is something you’re considering, you might think of not insulating your garage. However, if this is what you’re thinking, you should think a bit harder.
Consider this:
According to House Beautiful, heating and cooling your house is the "biggie" when it comes to energy consumption, accounting for as much as half of your home's total energy usage.
If you’re at all interested in making your house more sustainable or more “green,” you should focus on making sure you’re not wasting energy. If your garage isn’t insulated, you’ll end up losing a lot of heat from your main building, which will mean you have to spend more money.
It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s not sustainable at all.
However, if you put insulation in your garage, you’ll be able to keep it a more reasonable temperature there so that it’ll be less expensive to keep your house a constant temperature.
According to Green Builder Media, a spray foam, such as polyurethane, offers one of the highest R-values per inch. It also packs a lot of insulating power into the smallest spaces and seals air leaks. Choosing GARAGA Standard+, which ranks R-16 for its R-value, is a smart decision since it will have a positive impact on your power bills for more than 25 years AND you will feel more comfortable in your garage and in your house.
Improve Your House’s Image
Keep in mind that a quality garage door can last upwards of 20 years if it’s well-maintained. Also, the garage door will end up having the best resale value of all home improvement projects:
- If your garage door has windows, you might end up with more natural light than you know what to do with!
- Try not to choose a door that’s a boring or bland color.
- Choose between one 2-car garage door and two 1-ca garage doors – one large one costs the same as two small ones. Read more.
Don’t you love how the brick and the wood textures create something unique and chic? We almost forget it’s a detached garage! Shaker-Flat XL garage door design, with Stockton window inserts. The rich Chocolate Walnut color adds a deep layer much needed to enhance all these light colors.
Leave The Hard Decisions to Those in the Know
No matter what type of project you’re working on – transforming your carport into a garage, or building your detached garage or your attached garage – reach out to us at Seacoast Overhead Door Inc.
We have a team of specialists, and we can help you make all the hard decisions. We have a history of building extremely customizable garage doors and all their associated hardware.
Because of all our experience, we can answer all of your questions, and we can come up with solutions to any problem you have. If you already have a plan, we can help you streamline it, so it’ll work as seamlessly as possible.
Contact us at 603-755-9430.
Especially if you’re looking for a garage door opener, you should reach out to us. Overhead doors and garage door openers are things we know loads about, and we want to help you have an easy time of your project.
Call us and we’ll work with you for your needs and within your budget.
Do you already know which garage door you want? That’s fine, too! We can help you out and give you a free quote to check how it’ll fit into your budget.
If you’re looking for a specific garage door, but you want to see how it’ll look on your house… you can do that! Check out our Design Centre tool and see how the garage door looks before you buy it.
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