Matching Your Home’s Style
Where garages were once in a purely utilitarian light, they have become an integral part of a home’s design and an essential part of modern life. Over the years, garages and garage doors have only improved in aesthetics, design, and material.
There has also been an increase in the types of garage door you can install.
Here are seven top features for selecting the right garage door to complement your home.
1) Architectural Consistency
Pick a design that complements your home’s architectural features when choosing a garage door style. For example, if you reside in a Craftsman bungalow, a design that uses window grilles and trim accents, look for a garage door with comparable or matching characteristics.
Modern homes benefit from garage door designs featuring clean lines. Steel doors can often be a good choice with their combined strength and energy efficiency, resembling garage doors made of wood or something that mimics wood and looks well with more rustic homes.
Remember that many garage doors come with customization possibilities that allow you to match your garage door’s look with your home.
2) Convenient Operation
Convenient operations can mean different things to different people. It’s whatever makes using your garage door most accessible. Look for:
- Remote operation
- Garage door systems that can be controlled via apps
- Efficient opening and closing via roll-up or liftgate designs
Some homeowners want to find that perfect balance between convenient operation and aesthetics. For instance, carriage-house doors that swing outward from the center look great when paired with a house with a similarly old-fashions look. But you have to ensure there is room in the driveway for the doors to swing open and closed without anything getting in the way.
3) Low Maintenance
Although natural wood has a warm appeal that cannot be denied, maintaining it can get old quickly. For example, a wood garage door needs seasonal maintenance, if not regular refinishing, to look and function at its best due to its year-round exposure to the elements. Thankfully, modern material science has made it possible to achieve the appearance of wood without the need for near-constant maintenance.
A local garage door installation expert can advise you on the best materials for your local weather conditions. They can also tell you what garage door opening systems and designs require the least amount of maintenance on your part.
All garage doors require at least a little maintenance to extend their life, but a good design should only need a little effort.
4) Insulation
Like many people with garage access, you may rarely enter through the front door and instead use the garage as your primary entrance. So whether you’re trying to keep cool air out in the winter or cool, air-conditioned air in during the summer, you’ll want to make sure you aren’t losing anything because of a drafty garage door. Similarly, suppose you store anything temperature-sensitive in your garage or perhaps use the extra space there as a workshop or gym. In that case, you want the temperature in there to remain stable.
Insulated doors can help you maintain the temperature you want and save you considerable money in fuel and energy costs. Look for a garage door with an insulated polystyrene or polyurethane core. The lightweight will not strain your garage door system while handling your insulation needs.
5) Wind Resistance
Choosing a replacement garage door based on aesthetics and wind resistance makes sense if you reside in a region that frequently experiences hurricanes and strong winds. In addition, building rules in many places require the installation of a garage door that is strengthened to resist gusts of a specified minimum speed. Check with your garage door installation expert if you’re unsure about local requirements.
Requirements aside, a garage door that can withstand high winds also means it can likely stand up better to other harsh weather conditions such as ice, snow, rain, and hail.
6) Glass Panels
A garage door with glass panels can add a lot to giving a home a sleek, modern look. Glass panels allow natural light to enter the garage during the day and, at night, provides an attractive focal point to a home’s contemporary design. Glass panels can be colored and tinted to meet whatever design, privacy, or light regulation needs you might have,
7) Customization
Finally, having a garage door that you can customize to fit your specific design wants and needs can often be a deciding factor. Many manufacturers can put together garage doors specifically to meet your design concepts. You can specify practically every aspect of construction, from fundamentals like the size to specifics like the materials used, decorative accents, glass location, and the paint, stain, or finish coating applied. This can result in a unique piece of art that will stand out on the block and complement your home nicely.
Garage Door Installation by Hostetler & Askew Door
Are you looking for the best garage door for your home?
Contact one of our installation experts to help guide you through your options. Quality and satisfaction mean a lot to us at Hostetler & Askew Door, and we are dedicated to providing top-notch service you can trust.
