Garage doors for a "hostile" environment

[Andrew]

I intend to replace my "up and over" single garage door. I am considering replacing it with a twin walled aluminium insulated roller shutter door (such as the Seceuroglide) because:

• It will provide good weatherproofing in an exposed position

• Automatic operation is a convenience when the garage is my only off road parking

• The lack of a frame means a larger opening provides easier access

• The open door will not be an obstruction to the open car tailgate

Appearance is a relatively minor consideration.

I do however have concerns about how rugged such a door will be, given the comparatively lightweight construction. My garage faces a service road, and kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls hitting hard against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited control over such activities.

Does anyone have any comments - as this must be a fairly common situation. I am not too concerned about minor paint damage or scuffing, but rather the door becoming damaged such that it will not function correctly.

Andrew

[Harry Bloomfield]

I did that.

You loose the protection of the canopy, if it is of that type. You gain much better draft proofing and insulation. They also tend to drip inside from the roll, when opened up wet.

Obviously you still have the guides either side of the door, but you fit these within the opening, or to the back of the opening. With he first you loose some width, the second you loose some length.

They are supposed to be more secure than an up and over - there are locked into the guide rails all the way down. I would also not expect mine to be anymore susceptible to damage than the steel one it replaced.

[newshound]

neighbour on the shared access. Only very gently, but it was enough to jam a few slats in the guide. Had it been mine, I would have at least tried to spring them out and put up with the cosmetic damage. But not wishing to upset the neighbour, I let the kid foot the £400 bill (and he had to lend the guy his car while the installers fixed it since the car was trapped inside).

From this experience, particularly if I wanted a secure one, I think I would go for steel, not alloy.

[Roger Mills]

I agree. I was planning to use a roll-up door on my new garage until I examined one in detail in a showroom. I was appalled by the flimsy construction - particularly the way in which folded over bits of aluminium hook together to form 'hinges'.

I ended up with a sectional door - which is a different thing altogether, and built like a brick ****-house!

I would recommend the OP to do the same, provided it is acceptable for the door to slide under the ceiling as it opens.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Andrew writes

I can't add much as our doors have not been *tested* as you fear.

When I was researching door types I found quite a choice having remote operation. These were wide steel hinged panel tracked ones with a centre chain operation. AFAIR you lose some opening height because the lowest panel stays engaged in the vertical part of the track. Alt. my neighbour has a double width glass fibre one which fully opens. I don't know how the motor/door mechanism works.

Note to others from a previous experience.... do not try adapting a conventional spring balanced door by adding superficial feather edge boarding. The spring can't be adjusted to compensate for the extra weight:-(

regards

[Huge]

I have, and it can! :o)

[Terry Fields]

I had the same problem.

The original steel garage door had taken decades of abuse from activities such as you mention, including catapulting stones against it that took off the galvanising. In the end it looked dreadful, but not that much worse than some others in the area.

My immediate neighbour replaced his garage door with a glass-fibre one from Wickes, and I got him to do the same for me. They looked really smart next to each other.

On our first holiday following installation, the vandals had several 'goes' at the new garage door. In reality they slightly deformed a couple of panels, and slightly buckled the frame at the bottom, presumable from hefty kick, sufficient to crack the glass fibre on the inside only.

However, none of this shows, and they seem to have lost interest in it, as no more attempts at vandalising it seem to have taken place since that time.

HTH

[Tim Lamb]

Hmm... I ran out of adjustment long before the door was anywhere near balanced. Cheapo door perhaps. The other issue is the extra loading on the wires and conical pulleys.

regards

>

[Andrew]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread. It seems I was right to question whether an alloy door would stand up to abuse.

Roger - are you able to let me know the make of your sectional door - this sounds the sort of thing which I need?

This afternoon I went into a shop who "supply and fit" garage doors. The chap I spoke to was strongly in favour of alloy roller shutter doors, suggesting sectional door have similar construction (just larger panels), so will suffer from the same issues. Furthermore he said they were troublesome because they could "derail" on their tracks, particularly if they suffer any damage. I am not convinced by his arguments, although I am sure this may be true if they are not properly installed with adequate support. This may well be the case with some of the rushed "professional" jobs I have seen done around here.

The chap also told me how straightforward it is to replace damaged slats. However in my case I want a door to withstand function (if not cosmetic) damage!

Sectional doors seems to come as single skin steel, double skin with 20 mm insulation and double skin with 40 mm insulation. The insulation as such is not important to me - but would the latter be a stronger door?

Cheers,

Andrew

[Roger Mills]

My door was made by Hormann in Germany (UK division at

sections are very strong (and heavy!) and hinged together with proper heavy-duty hinges - not with bits of bent aluminium hooked together. [My door is made of steel, not aluminium, anyway.]

I went for double skinned with 40mm because I wanted good insulation when using the garage as a workshop. I have no means of directly comparing the 3 types for strength - but double skinned with rigid foam bonded between the skins has surely got to be stronger than single skinned. There may not be all that much difference between 20mm and 40mm for strength.