How To Choose An Insulated Residential Garage Door

June 6th, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Installation
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If you’re considering replacing your existing wood garage door or steel non-insulated overhead door with an insulated garage door, I have some information to aid you in making a great decision for your new garage door.

Determine what overall thickness of garage door that you’d like to have; depending upon manufacturer you can find ¾’, 1”, 1 ¼”, 1 3/8”, 1 ½’ and 2” thick residential garage doors. These doors in my opinion can be separated into two groups, generally speaking any overhead garage door 1 ¼” thick or less is builder grade and 1 ½” thick or more is a professional grade garage door.

There are essentially 3 type of insulated doors and they are 2” hollow doors with add in or pop in insulation, sandwich style doors that are steel interior and exterior with insulation sandwiched in between or a foam back type garage door.

The hollow overhead garage doors tend to be noisy and tin can sounding when they open and close. When the pop in insulation panels are added the door becomes quieter and loses its hollow sound. This type of insulated garage door will provide some insulation quality and noise reduction and I would consider this product an entry level insulated garage door.

Sandwich type insulated overhead garage doors are the strongest and quietest of all garage doors as well as the best insulated and most durable.  Sandwich garage doors will normally be 1 3/8” or 2”, constructed with a steel interior and exterior and either polystyrene or polyurethane insulation.

Foam back overhead garage doors are really a builder grade insulated garage door disguised to look better than it really is. The foam back insulated garage door is basically a 2” hollow door with 9/16” polyurethane foamed in place and a poly vinyl backer. The gauge of the steel is decreased making the skin thinner and weaker and the polyurethane adds rigidity.

To sum things up if you are seeking a quality steel insulated overhead garage door pick the 2” sandwich door and you’ll be thoroughly pleased.

Blog provided by Sandy Springs Garage Door Company

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Garage Door Opener Repair Tips

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs
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Is your automatic garage door opener malfunctioning and in need of repair? If so here are some great ideas as to how to choose a garage door opener repair company.

First of all don’t just go to the internet and start calling garage door opener repair companies, do some homework first. Walk into your garage and look up at the motor to see what brand of garage door opener you have, if you can determine what type of drive it is, chain drive, screw drive or belt drive. If possible locate the model number as well as the date of manufacturer code.

Try to make your own determination as to what’s wrong with your garage door opener and if you know how to pull the emergency disconnect, do so and operate the door manually. I recommend only pulling the emergency release when the overhead garage door is in the closed position; this is for safety’s sake.

Next look for a garage door opener repair company that provides service in your geographical area and before you call look at the first 8-12 websites, see if their site is well done, do they list your brand of garage door opener and do they look reputable. Now look for independent online reviews and make sure they have at least 100 favorable reviews, any company that has been around for more than a year should have at least 100.

Now call the first garage door repair companies that have met your criteria for locality, reviews and service your brand of door opener. If they simply want to schedule a service call with you and only want your name, address, etc. hang up and call the next company. A reputable garage door opener repair company will take the time to ask you questions about the symptoms you’re experiencing, if you trust them try them.

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Garage Door Repair Guide Part 1

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs, Garage Door Springs
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Here are some things you can check before you call a garage door repair company. These are simple things to check yourself and might save you some time and money.

If your garage door opener doesn’t work at all, no lights hum or buzz check your outlet for power. If you have power, unplug the machine for 30 seconds and plug it back in. Unplugging the machine will reset many models of automatic garage door openers and save you a garage door repair charge.

If your garage door is closed and your automatic garage door opener will only lift the door a few inches to a few feet, return your overhead door to the closed position and pull the emergency disconnect. Once your garage door is disconnected from the opener try to lift your door manually by hand. Be sure to lift with your legs so as not to injure your back. If the garage door is heavy or impossible to lift, stop, pull the plug and call our garage door repair company.

If the door lifts easily by hand find the manufacturer and model of your garage door opener, then call us for free advice or Google the owner’s manual. There’s a good possibility that a simple adjustment of your garage door openers sensitivity will solve your garage door repair problem.

If your garage door won’t open at all but tries to open, stop to avoid further damage and repair costs, disconnect the door and try to lift manually. If your garage door won’t lift manually check to make sure it isn’t locked, if not inspect the garage door springs to see if one is broken. When you have a broken garage door spring it will usually be visible and the spring will be in two pieces. If you discover the spring is broken pull the plug to avoid further repair costs and call our garage door repair company.

Look for part 2 and thanks for reading.

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Carriage Garage Doors 101 (What you need to know) Part 1

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Installation
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If you’re considering a replacement garage door for your home and you’re trying to decide whether or not to install a carriage style garage door here’s some useful information to help you make an educated decision.

First and this is a big decision, you’ll need to decide some kind of budget, the more elaborate the garage door the more expensive it’s going to be. Stamped steel carriage doors are going to be by far more reasonable than custom made steel carriage doors or custom wood carriage doors. We’ll talk more about this in a moment.

Next you’ll need to decide if your new garage door is going to be insulated or non-insulated, solid without windows or have some kind of decorative windows. Insulated carriage doors are offered in different overall thickness, R value and open back garage doors or finished sandwich style doors.

Sandwich style steel carriage doors are going to overall be the most durable and the strongest of the steel carriage doors, however your choice of designs will be more limited. Sandwich style carriage doors will also provide the best insulating qualities.

Stamped steel carriage doors will be the most reasonable and the most durable. Custom steel carriage doors are next in line, these doors usually start with a flush steel garage door, (insulated or non-insulated) and then have some type of composite overlay attached to achieve the carriage door look.

Steel carriage doors with an overlay will give you endless design possibilities; however there can be major drawbacks to this type of carriage door and the most important information you’ll need to know is whether the door is being built by a name brand overhead garage door company or is manufactured locally by your garage door installation company.

I’ll talk more about this in our next segment; remember doing your homework now will save you time, money and potential grief later.

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Why I Wouldn’t Purchase an Overhead Brand Garage Door

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Installation
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If you are considering the purchase and installation of a new overhead garage door you’ll find that depending on where in the country you are located you may have as many as 12-15 different overhead garage door manufacturers to choose from.

I’m a big believer in the ability to select and choose the brand of product I desire and garage doors are no different. I also believe in purchasing a brand of overhead garage door that I can obtain parts and service from the company I choose and not being locked into one company.

Now the Overhead Door Manufacturing Company won’t like what I’m about to say but I think you the consumer should pay close attention. Overhead Door has a network of dealers across the country. Usually there is one dealer per metro area which means they don’t compete against each other, they only compete against other brands of garage doors. Now initially that sounds ok but here is where the problem starts.

Each brand of overhead garage door makes their garage door sections or panels unique to their brand of door. The garage door hardware used to be generic industry standard hardware but much of it is now proprietary. Since Overhead Door Brand products are exclusive to one dealer in any given area, if you purchase their product and later need a replacement garage section or hardware your only choice is to purchase from them. NO COMPETITION, NO Mercy, meaning you are STUCK purchasing from them at whatever price they want to charge you.

Most other brands of garage door manufacturers have multiple representation in every city which means as a consumer you have overhead door companies competing against each other for your business. Competition keeps people honest and pricing fair. Furthermore if you purchase a garage door installation from a particular company and are later unhappy someone else can compete for your replacement parts if needed.

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Overhead Garage Door Rollers

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs
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Garage door rollers are one of the most important moving parts on your overhead door. Your garage door rollers are what support the weight of your overhead door when the door is rolling up and down on the tracks. Residential garage doors today weigh as little as 50 pounds and as much as 700 pounds which really stress the garage door rollers.

Many of today’s garage doors come from the factory with nylon rollers without ball bearings. These rollers although initially very quiet, wear quickly and eventually bind rather than roll freely. This particular type of roller is ok for lightweight non-insulated garage doors but should never be installed on heavy insulated overhead doors or carriage doors. Although these nylon garage door rollers without bearings shouldn’t be installed on heavier garage doors, companies will use them anyway to save money. When these rollers start to wear and begin binding rather than rolling they will put extra stress on the garage door sections causing them to rip or tear and will also put additional stress on the automatic garage door opener.

Nylon bearing-less rollers will squeak as they become worn and also cause the overhead door to creak and groan. The additional drag will pre-maturely wear out your automatic garage door opener or at bare minimum necessitate opener service.

The best bet is to always use garage door rollers with bearings and the more bearings the better. Garage door rollers with bearings come in long and short stem steel rollers with either 7 or 10 ball bearings. In my opinion the 7 bearing garage door rollers are useless, you’re far better off with 10 ball bearings they’ll last 3-4 times as long as the 7 ball rollers.

Steel 11 ball bearing rollers with a nylon tire on them are the quietest and most durable residential overhead garage door rollers you can purchase and are suited for any weight or size of garage door.

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How To Choose A New Garage Door Opener

May 30th, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers
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In times past when it was time to purchase a new automatic garage door opener you the customer only had a few choices to choose from and all the garage doors were pretty much the same. Today there are many choices and most importantly the garage doors today require a garage door opener specific to the weight and operation of the garage door.

If you currently have a standard raised panel steel garage door or an old school wood garage door you can use virtually any type of drive or horsepower and as long as you buy a name brand professional garage door opener you would be ok.

If your garage door is a carriage style garage door and especially if it’s a 3 section door then the only type of garage door opener that will long term operate your carriage garage door is a screw type garage door opener. Screw drive garage door openers are available from Liftmaster, Genie and Overhead and they’re available in ½, ¾ and 1 horsepower equivalents. For a 3 section carriage garage door more horsepower is better and although a chin drive machine or belt drive machine may initially operate the garage door it won’t do it for long.

If your overhead garage door is a 4 section or more raised panel steel or wood garage door any of the different drives will work just fine. Liftmaster, Genie and Linear make an excellent selection of chain, belt and screw drive machines. A basic garage door opener installation will be a chain drive opener and if you want something a little quieter the new screw drives are pretty quiet.

Ultimately the quietest garage door openers available today are the belt drive openers with a DC motor which offers very smooth starting and stopping and almost silent motor noise.

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How To Choose A Garage Door Repair Company

May 30th, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Repairs
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When you search on the internet for garage door repair you’ll have hundreds of choices to choose from and many repair companies advertising can be very misleading. So here’s a little help.

Add a city or location to your search term such as “garage door repair Lawrenceville”, next look at the entire first page to see what catches your attention. Look for duplicate advertisements for the same garage door repair company so you don’t unknowingly call the same company twice.

Beware of the offers that sound too good to be true because they most likely are, not very many things in life are free so pay attention. Reputable garage door service and repair companies will list access to their online reputation and look for at least 85 favorable reviews from an independent source not just what’s posted on their website it could be made up.

If you contact a garage door repair service and they don’t ask very many questions of you and just want to send a technician out for free or not stay away. An experienced garage door company can ask a few questions from you about the problem your garage door or opener is having and can make a general assessment of what’s wrong and a pretty firm estimate right over the phone. If they’re unwilling to provide a phone quote keep shopping.

Make sure the garage door repair company you are calling actually has a home office nearby and not across the country, if they don’t skip them and move onto a company with hometown roots they have the most at stake.

One final note remember big name advertisers build those expensive advertisement costs into your garage door repair, so like it or not you’ll be paying for more than you bargained for.

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Garage Door Repair Checklist

May 30th, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Repairs
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If your existing garage door or automatic garage door opener is in need of repair here is a checklist you might find helpful in choosing a garage door repair company. Always check a garage door repair company’s online reputation before you call, if it’s not good keep looking. Look for a minimum of a 100 independent reviews.

1  Most folks turn to the internet and perform a search such as garage door repair or garage door opener repair, this type of search will yield 100’s of results so narrow your search by adding your city.

2  Its inaccurate to think that a Local garage door repair company will provide faster service, less expensive garage                                    door repairs or better warranty service if you need it.

3  In today’s marketplace very few companies only service the geographical area they’re located in most garage     door companies have to service an entire metro area to survive.

4  Make sure the garage door opener repair company you choose has their home office in your metro area if not     choose another company. Out of town companies are usually bad news.

5  Describe the problem you’re having over the phone and ask for a quote before they ever come to your home.      if they won’t provide a quote over the phone call someone else.

6  Beware of free, you don’t go to work for free and neither does your garage door opener repair company.

7  When the repair technician arrives ask for them to confirm the quote before the work starts, no surprises.

8  Most garage doors and openers can be repaired so beware of being sold new products if you don’t need them.

9  Make sure the garage door repair company you choose checks springs, all hardware and safety mechanisms.

10 Always have your garage door repair company leave the old parts behind, this holds them accountable and gives you recourse if there’s a problem and can confirm whether or not parts were really needed.

11 Doing your homework will ensure that you pick a quality company for your next garage door repair.

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Choosing A Garage Door Repair Company

May 30th, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Repairs
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As simple as this sounds I think it’s very difficult in today’s economy to choose a reputable garage door repair company that will perform quality overhead door repairs without taking you to the cleaners so here’s a few things to look out for.

Just because a company does a lot of advertising doesn’t make them reputable in fact this type of garage door repair company is most likely to rip you off. Advertising today is costlier than ever and remember when you contract a garage door repair company YOU the CUSTOMER is footing the bill.

Online reviews are important so look for a garage door company with at least 100 favorable reviews, if they’ve been in business for more than a year or so this is a reasonable number of reviews. Take a moment and read the details of the reviews and see if some of them fit the kind of garage door repair you’re in need of.

DON’T BE FOOLED by the word Free, all companies are in business to make money and free doesn’t pay your bills so it certainly won’t pay theirs.

Look on a potential garage door repair companies website and see if they operate in multiple cities across the country if they do stay away, these repair companies are notorious for ripping people off.

Most garage door repairs can be diagnosed and quoted right over the phone, this saves you time and saves you from being held hostage by a scheming company who will only quote you in person.

When you contact a garage door repair company by phone ask them if their office is located in Georgia and where it’s located. If they say it’s out of state or that they are a “mobile company” and don’t have a physical office stay away.

Operating expenses, material costs and labor costs are similar for virtually anyone see if there’s a huge difference in prices investigate, garage door repair companies that charge too little will go out of business along with your warranty etc. The companies that are really expensive or will drop their price if you don’t bite at the first price will usually take you and the your wallet to the cleaners.

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