Garage Door Systems Specialists/ Experts.

Garage doors:

• Various types of garage doors exist in the south African market.
• This is to fill the need of homes/ garage buildings.
• The known garage doors are tip up garage doors which are made of wood supported with a steel frame and tension rods.
• The other tip up garage doors were made of steel in a single garage type with concrete balancing pillars on steel cables.
• These garage doors were later replaced by the:
• Steel/ Chroma deck roll-up garage doors which comes in single garage door or double garage door sizes.
• With advancement in technology, a wood grain finish is also available on the chroma deck type garage doors.
• Wooden sectional garage doors were later manufactured in single or a double version.
• Again with advancement in technology, steel chroma deck sectional garage doors were made.
• Again the garage doors come in a single sectional or double sectional format.
• The newest garage doors to fill the garage door market is the aluminum frame and glass panel sectional garage doors in single or double versions.

Which garage door is the best suited for my house:

• There are needs and necessities and they need to be balanced out when choosing a garage door for your house.
• It is all well that a garage door needs to add value to a property, but it also needs to add security to a dwelling.

All garage doors come with maintenance related aspects which are:

• Steel chroma deck garage door rubbers do wear out over time. These rubbers are not commonly available and thus retrofitting garage doors with rubbers is not commonly done or found.
• Some of the roll-up garage doors were galvanized which meant that one could not paint them. Paint would later peel off the garage door as paint do not stick onto a galvanized area.
• The steel garage doors do give a high level of security as one cannot easily force them open.
• Wooden garage doors do have much higher maintenance aspects.
• Their rubbers on the bottom panels do wear out and they can be replaced.
• Wooden garage doors need oil in order to give long life. If garage doors are not oiled, then they do dry out over time which assists in cracking of the garage doors.
• Wooden garage doors are also quite loud when being opened or closed.
• Due to the tension being on the sides of the bottom wooden panel, the garage doors do tend to bend like bananas and should a panel break, then one can not just fit a replacement panel.
• The whole garage door needs to be removed and a new panel needs to be manufactured in order to fit correctly.
• Steel hinges are very strong and also much noisier compared to plastic hinges.
• Wooden garage doors are much heavier compared to their steel cousins and thus much more strain is placed on all of the equipment attached to the garage door which.
• Thus much more regular maintenance is needed on wooden sectional garage doors.
• The newest garage door systems on the market are the aluminum framed glass panel sectional garage doors.
• This is also the most expensive garage door system in the south African garage door market. The glass type garage doors do give an exotic look to a property with their mirror finish, but these garage doors fail completely security wise.
• These type of garage doors should only be fitted in well secured complexes with patrolling guards.
• Due to the mirror finish, a light left on at night in the garage will allow every pedestrian to see exactly what is inside the garage.
• These glass sectional garage doors are the heaviest of all garage doors on the market.
• The strain they place on steel cables, hinges etc are higher then the wooden section garage doors.
• The garage door panels are made of hardened glass, which means that they are also more brittle compared to other types of sectional garage doors.
• This means, that the garage door installation needs to be 100% and they need to be maintained more regularly compared to other garage doors.
• Should anything go wrong, or maintenance is not undertaken regularly, then the garage door system will fail.
• A glass type sectional garage door, which is closed too hard via hand, will cause the glass panels to crack.
• One must remember, that a garage door is the biggest moving object in a house.
• A Double sectional garage doors weigh in an excess of 140kg each.
• It has two torsion springs which needs to be correctly tensioned in order to balance the garage door.
• This indicates, that a garage door should always be in the fully closed position for safety reasons.
• Garage doors which are left open for prolonged time periods, will also start bending like a banana as gravity and the sheer weight of the garage door is pulled down to earth.
• A balanced garage door would normally stand on its own weight in around the half way open position.
• The garage door should never fall down to the fully closed position as this will indicate that the garage door springs are incorrectly tensioned.
• It must also be noted, that garage door springs normally fail due to old age and they normally snap when the garage door is in the fully closed position. it is due to the most tension being present on the garage door spring at that point in time.
• It has always been advised, that no lubricant should be placed on a garage door torsion spring, as it will attract dust/ dirt and grime which will cause a grinding effect on the garage door spring.
• What is interesting is that, all of the broken garage door springs found in 17 years, is that all of the broken garage door springs were dry.
• Garage door springs do rust over time, and the rust also becomes a friction object on the garage door springs.
• Thus the garage door springs are not turning smoothly as they should, and this will also affect the operation of the garage door as it will become jerky. All of this will add to the breaking of the garage door torsion spring.
• It is therefore very important, to check the operation of the sectional garage door at least every six months.
• One needs to check, that the garage door is moving smooth and without any obstruction from the fully closed position to the fully open position and vice versa.
• Also note, that your insurance, will not cover the breakage of a garage door spring as it is deemed as a wear and tear aspect, failure over time.
• There is also no way to try and argue that the failure was due to a insured peril as it is not possible.
• There is no way, that any persons, can tamper, with a garage door spring from the outside of a garage door when it is in the fully closed position.
• If the garage door is not properly maintained it could break up and fall down. Injury to a person could be serious, and a injury to a minor could be life changing. This is why a owner, should call Exquisite Security to service and maintain their garage door systems.
• The personnel of Exquisite Security are well trained and Exquisite Security has years of experience in the servicing and installation of all types of garage doors and garage door motors. Exquisite Security specializes in all types of garage doors and garage door motors, be it Tip-up, Steel/ Chroma deck roll up, wooden and steel chroma deck sectional garage doors in singles and double.