Reliable Garage Doors and Garage Door Installation in Santa Maria

When your garage door gives out and garage door repair won’t fix it, it provides you with an opportunity to replace it with a more durable, reliable alternative that transforms the exterior of your home. Garage doors come in many styles, materials and designs, but which one best suits your needs and will provide the performance that you need? Knowing what makes a door more reliable and durable can help you make the right choice before you need garage door installation services in Santa Maria.

When we talk about the most reliable garage door, we don’t mean a specific make and model of the garage door. Instead, this refers to the materials and styles that offer the most reliable operation over the long term. Let’s consider the most reliable materials first.

Reliable Materials for Garage Doors

Go beyond the home improvement store when shopping for garage doors in Santa Maria to shop a wide selection that offers options in each durable material. While aluminum garage doors make the most frequent appearance in California homes, steel, wood and plastic garage doors offer the most reliable material choices.

Plastic Garage Doors

Before you laugh at the thought of putting a plastic garage door on your home, understand that this doesn’t refer to the same type of plastic as children’s toys or a laundry basket. These doors use durable polyethylene, also referred to as resin, a lightweight material that offers a tough door that resists UV rays. Plastic garage doors require little maintenance, can’t corrode or rot, and operate silently. Many of these garage doors use the same type of high-density plastic as truck-bed liners. Plastic garage doors come in a variety of styles and designs with a range of panel shapes. They don’t look plastic, instead appearing like wood or ceramic. This garage door type offers the second-lengthiest warranty – typically at least 20 years.

Steel Garage Doors

Steel doors for garages combine durability, low maintenance and rigid foam insulation. For the most durable and reliable designs, look for a garage door with at least 24-gauge steel panels. These options either feature a smooth finish or a textured, wood-grain pattern that affords the homeowner the appearance of wood without any chance of rot occurring. Steel by itself could rust, but choose a garage door finished with a polyester topcoat on top of a baked-on primer to obtain rust protection. While aluminum doors typically give out at 15 years of age, many steel garage doors last so long that the manufacturers offer limited lifetime warranties.

Wood Garage Doors

While factory-made wood doors don’t offer that type of warranty, custom-made wood garage doors typically come with a 15-year warranty. The type of wood and how the garage door maker treats it, affect how long it will function well. The most common woods used include a hemlock frame or a Douglas fir frame. The panels typically use either hardboard or Douglas fir. When treated with waterproof sealant and either varnished or painted with exterior paint and a top-coat sealant, a wood garage door can retain its appearance for years. It still requires more maintenance than steel, but choosing wood can provide a unique design with carvings and a custom finish that enhances curb appeal and will function reliably for many years.

Insulation Helps With Reliability

In your search for garage doors near me, also keep in mind insulation’s contribution to garage door reliability. Insulation on the garage door doesn’t matter as much if you need it installed in a detached garage. If you need to install a garage door to an attached garage, an insulated garage door serves your purpose better since it will help reduce heating and cooling costs. Garages offer an entry point for cold and hot air if not properly insulated.

Look for a garage door that features insulation with an R-value of at least five to 10. This door inhibits the outside weather from affecting the temperature conditions inside your garage. Weather sealing and other reinforcing options help the right door perform better.

Garage Door Openers Affect Reliability

While many garage door installers suggest the easy-to-install belt drive or chain drive garage door opener, that’s not your best choice for reliability’s sake. For both quieter operation and more durable performance, choose either a jackshaft garage opener or a direct-drive unit.

The jackshaft design installs on the wall beside the garage door. It uses no ceiling space and offers the second-quietest operation of any garage door opener. A motor drives pulleys that raise and lower a torsion bar to open and shut the door.

The direct-drive garage door opener features only one moving part – its motor. It travels along a J-arm to open and close the garage door. Considered the quietest operating door opener, it offers dependable operation over the long term.

Contact Us for Santa Maria Garage Door Installation

Don’t lament when you think your home needs a Santa Maria garage door repair service. Learning that the garage door company can’t repair your home’s garage door offers you an opportunity to replace it with one of the new garage doors that provide more reliable operation for a longer term. Whether you choose plastic, steel or reinforced wood, contact Precision Garage Doors for the garage door installation services Santa Maria trusts for home improvement.