Wood Garage Doors

Most home owners love the look of a wood garage door.  Not only do wooden garage doors look beautiful and natural, they are also very affordable.  Here are some tips on wood garage doors.

Wood garage doors offer great looking exterior doors at an affordable price.  There are two types of wood garage doors,  tilt up and sectional roll up wood garage doors.  Tilt up doors come in one piece and open by first pulling out and then up. They are usually made from soft woods. 

Sectional roll up wood garage doors are either made out plywood or high quality woods such as oak and redwood.  Sectional roll up doors are usually paneled and in four sections, they usually roll up on tracks inside the garage.

Wood garage doors are very affordable and are priced from about $400 to over $1,000.  High quality woods can be much more.  There are a few drawbacks on wood garage doors, they erode quickly, usually due to the weather and are poor insulators. 

Most home owners need to seal or paint their garage doors ever couple of years to make sure they stay strong and look great.  However if you are looking for a beautiful natural looking garage door, wooden garage doors can’t be beat.

Garage Door Openers

One of the top garage door accessories is the automatic garage door opener.  Practically all garage doors in homes built today come with a garage door opener.  However for older homes, every 10 years or so, you will probably need to change your garage door opener.  Here is some information.

Garage door openers are better than ever before. Today you can find garage door openers in two main style, either metal chain driven or belt driven.  Metal chain driven is usually more common, but there is usually lots of vibration and noise.  Belt driven garage door openers are usually much smoother and less noisy.

Garage door openers usually come with great features such as a remote control.  Today’s remote control is super small and can be worn on a key ring, so you can take it almost anywhere.  You can also program your garage door opener, changing the password or code whenever you would like.  Years ago, a garage door opener could open many garages in a single neighborhood.  Today you can rest assured that any code you choose will usually be unique to your home only.

Many people also put keypads on their garage, so they can open their garage from the exterior.  There are also key locks that just require a key instead of a special number to punch into a keypad.  If you are remodeling your garage door, look into upgrading your garage door opener.

Insulating a Garage Door

One of the more important features regarding garage doors these days is insulation.  Insulation is key to keeping your garage and adjoining rooms warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  Insulation can also sound proof your garage to make your living area more quieter.  Here are some tips on insulating your garage doors.

Two types of garage doors that are can be insulated very well are steel and aluminum.  Steel doors usually have two skins and can be filled with either polyurethane or polystyrene insulation.  Both insulators work extremely well, however polyurethane has the capability of providing better insulation. 

If saving money on energy costs is important, steel or aluminum doors can help you take a bite out of your energy bills.  Many rooms that are near the garage in the winter can be a few degrees lower than the rest of the house and insulation can play a key role in warming those rooms up.

Wood garage doors, although popular are not very good at insulating your garage.  You can use a variety of products to make your wooden door better such as weather stripping and covering up large cracks.  You can also find lots of molding products that can also help.  If you are looking to buy a new garage door as well as save on energy costs, take a look at the following suggestions.