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What are the Best Side Hinged Garage Doors?
Side Hinged garage doors are still one of the most commonly searched for types of garage door and the demand for this type of garage door has increased dramatically recently, a lot to do with people not using their garages for their car storage.
The garage is more often being used as an extra room in house to store almost anything and more often than not the value of what is stored inside is very high. Many garages are also being used as a workshop, gym, office, playroom and other uses where the garage door required is just for occasional access or in a mews style house as a main entrance for pedestrians.
Look at the side hinged garage doors available nowadays - they offer effortless operation, easy access and specified correctly also offer superb weather sealing and all this with minimal ongoing maintenance ever required as there are very few movings parts involved and also no internal tracking and mechanisms spoiling internal garage space. The lever handles and locks used are smooth and effortless to operate for anyone with back, neck, hand, or arm issues.
Which Materials are Best?
Traditionally people think of side hinged garage doors being constructed in timber, and there are many choices of designs and timber species available. We can offer Cedar, Idigbo, Accoya and Oak. Cedarwood is the main timber generally used, being light in weight and also in colour. Cedar can be stained or painted to almost any colour and is very stable in our moist and variable British climate. Unsorted redwood is a low priced softwood timber used for side hinged doors with very high rates of failure after a short period as it is not stable with the variations in air moisture in the UK. We do not offer such timber hinged doors and nor do we recommend them. The price difference may seem enormous until you begin to add in hidden extras required such as the sub frame, hinges, hardware, locking and final finishing of the doors, most of which is standard with many of the hinged doors we supply. Check the differences carefully!!
If the requirement is based on price alone then look to the single skin steel side hinged garage doors available as they are very stable and practical with some very nice pressed designs and colours available.
Insulated Options - Steel is not a material normally associated with side hinged doors but is now readily available with the fantastic option of a range of double skinned steel doors with a foam filled core providing a 40mm thick insulated garage door panel with incredible strength and security. These insulated doors offer components at much higher levels than most other doors as they have to deal with heavy panels therefore the hinges are stronger and the locking mechanisms used are usually far superior as the panel depth can take the mechanics internally of far more robust locking.
We also offer a very comprehensive range of insulated personnel side doors in the same construction to complete the security and insulation of your garage. These can be from a standard or purpose made range of sizes. GRP or fibreglass is also a great material for swing garage doors, it is a strong and stable material and is offered with some great designs always produced using a mould from an original timber door design with the limits only being the imagination. A good range of GRP doors are available and they are very low maintenance whilst looking just like the real timber equivalent in the colours and graining. Again, like the steel side hinged doors steel fixing sub frames are normal with GRP doors and therefore offer greater stability and strength in the overall product.
What Sizes are Available?
Generally side hinged doors in steel, timber or GRP are manufactured up to around 8 feet (2438mm) wide and around 7"6Â (2286mm) high. The doors can be made much larger but with limitations on the design and timber used as the weight and strength becomes more important as well as the hinges and fixing sub frame used to support the doors when fitted. Nearly all hinged garage doors are made to order although there are some standard sizes available for better pricing where standard sizes can be accommodated.
What Sub Frame is Required for Installation?
All side hinged garage doors require a fixing sub frame of some sort and these are normally either steel, aluminium or timber sections in a "goal post" arrangement. In most cases a timber sub frame is a nominal 70mm x 70mm but a 90mm depth is generally preferred to enable a door stop to be added and also provide more strength. In steel construction the frame is usually between 50 and 70mm wide and varies in depth. The sub frame is required for so many reasons including fixing the hinges, weather seals, a proper stop for the door panels to hold against when closed, squaring up the structural opening and making the doors work in the best possible way with the best sealing possible. Have you ever seen an internal hinged door inside your house without a sub frame? You would usually want the main door panels and the sub frame to match each other once treated, especially if the requirement was for a lighter stained finish and this is only achieved by using matching material frame. The steel box section frames have great stability and strength to enable the use of uprated locking systems in the doors they a supplied with. Steel and aluminium frames are generally powdercoated in a colour finish to match or contrast the main door panels. Certain steel frames can also be clad of course in a matching timber to compliment the main door panel.
How Secure are Side Hinged Doors
Security on a pair of side hinged doors can be first class, but only if the main door panels are strong enough in their construction, as well as the surrounding sub frame used. The best hinged doors for proper security are the double skinned insulated steel doors we supply from Carteck and Hormann with optional 3 point locking upgrade. The construction of these doors allows far more robust locking mechanisms to be built in and combined with double rebated edges and a super strong sub frame the overall result is a very secure set of doors indeed.? Timber and GRP hinged doors can also be secure if uprated locking is specified and they are installed with a steel or hardwood timber sub frame. If you want a super secure set of doors we can provide double skinned steel doorsets from commercial specification models, with rebated edges, 9 point locking and a specification of resistance that would be happily used in any secure room environment. Designs can be compromised when high levels of security are required as the construction methods do not allow fancy pressings and designs as the steel used will usually be of a thicker gauge than normal doors.? Windows will always reduce security levels especially of it is possible to see inside through the windows for any would be intruder.
The security levels can be the same in the personnel hinged doors we offer of course as they use exactly the same principals as the double hinged doors in all ways.
Cheap softwood or low quality single skin steel side hinged doors can never be very secure as the panels themselves can be forced and bent relatively easily making any type of locking relatively useless to the determined intruder. Think carefully about the security as add on locks can be clumsy and difficult to install as an after thought.
Conclusions?
As with many products now, the value of a product can truly reflect the price, something that soon becomes apparent if you take the time to investigate side hinged doors properly. A cheap pair of doors in low grade softwood timber will only last you a very short time before needing replacement. A proper set of high quality timber, steel or GRP hinged doors will last for many, many years indeed, a proper investment for your home without ongoing hassle and maintenance being required.
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