Garage door
Everything You Need to Know - The Complete Guide
Choosing a garage door is not an easy task, especially when you consider that most of us will only make this purchase once or twice in a lifetime given how long-lasting this product can be. As a garage door manufacturer since 1964, we aim to provide you with all the information you need to choose the ideal garage door for your project.
Here you will find a list of elements to consider when choosing your garage door. This depends on both the technical constraints related to your building, as well as your budget and desires. Indeed, for this third point, the aesthetic possibilities are almost endless and largely depend on your tastes in choosing your garage door. However, no stress, a garage door is also an evolving product whose aesthetics you can somewhat change over time if you wish, by adding decorations or portholes or after the installation, or by adding motorization if you did not initially want this and your door model supports the addition of motorization, of course.
The major types of garage doors
Sectional garage doors
Sectional garage doors open vertically and slide beneath the ceiling. This allows for maximum clearance without encroaching on the exterior space when opening and occupies minimal volume in your garage. Your parking space inside the garage, as well as in front of it, is thus preserved.
A sectional garage door is made up of panels, installed horizontally, which articulate when the door opens. On a 2m high door, there are generally 4 panels. The panels are connected by hinges, only at the two ends on smaller doors. On wider doors, you can also find hinges in the center of the panels for added strength. Rollers are installed on the end hinges and they slide in the rails present on each side of the door. These rails are always in 3 parts: a vertical line where the door rests when closed, a horizontal line that supports the open door, and a 90° curve that links the first two and ensures the panels transition from one position to another.
Regarding space, allow for 8cm of clearance for an applied installation on our sectional doors and 16cm of lintel drop to have the space required for motorization. These doors are very easily motorized, but may not be the best solution if your ceiling is low.
Our sectional doors are built with panels comprising insulation of 40 or 60mm thickness. This insulation is complemented by the 3 bi-material peripheral seals and a floor seal to resist wind and weather. They thus offer a low thermal transmission coefficient, allowing you to maintain excellent thermal and acoustic comfort in your garage to work warmly all winter (and coolly all summer).
Sectional doors that do not extend out of the garage during the opening phase, as previously mentioned, are considered non-protruding and can thus be installed on garages built along the sidewalk or road.
In case of a mishap, let's say if the hood of your car comes too close to the panels of your door, it is always almost easy to replace the panels of a sectional garage door. In any case, if the manufacturer of your door offers you these replacement panels (yes, we do).
Sectional garage doors can have a wicket door added, decor, or portholes to be customized according to the desires of your project, as we detail below.
Configure your garage door and get a free quote
Create a garage door to your liking with our interactive configurator.
You can choose from all our ranges of up-and-over and sectional doors.
In just a few clicks, select the dimensions, color, designs, and windows you want for your Spadone garage door installation project.
Tilt-up garage doors
Overhead garage doors are constructed with a single-piece frame that tilts towards the ceiling when the door is opened. When opening, the frame can protrude outside the garage, which is known as an outward tilting door. This type of door cannot be installed in a garage directly facing the road for obvious safety reasons. Alternatively, the door can remain inside the garage (as with sectional doors). This is known as a non-protruding tilting door. For this second type, the space inside the garage occupied by the door during its operation is larger. The Spadone overhead garage doors are all protruding when opening.
Mechanically, the door frame is supported at both upper ends by rollers moving in a horizontal rail installed on the ceiling. The two lower ends of the frame are each connected to a swinging arm. To lift the door, these swinging arms are activated by springs that offset the weight of the door for the user (or for the motor).
All types of overhead garage doors are available on the market, from the most economical to the most high-end, to suit all budgets. The insulation qualities of the doors correspond to this range level. Thus, the lowest prices offer doors in simple ribbed sheet metal, and this can go up to 60mm for the most insulated doors. As a manufacturer, we have chosen to offer three insulation thicknesses on our overhead doors: 20, 40, or 60mm. On the most high-end doors, dual-material flexible seals perfect the insulation of the panels, filling the gap between the curtain and the fixed framework.
We also offer carpenters and architects a range of cladding doors to create wooden up-and-over doors, with cladding that matches the facade or is even fully concealed within it.
Regarding space requirements, allow for 6cm of jamb clearance necessary for surface-mounted installation on our up-and-over doors, which is slightly less for sectional doors. And 15cm of lintel drop for the space required for motorization or 8cm for a manual door. These doors are very easily motorized, like sectional doors.
Up-and-over garage doors can be fitted with a wicket door, which is even standard on some of our ranges, as well as decorative elements and portholes, to be customized according to your project's desires. We detail all these points below.
Configure your garage door and get a free quote
Create a garage door to your liking with our interactive configurator.
You can choose from all our ranges of up-and-over and sectional doors.
In just a few clicks, select the dimensions, color, designs, and windows you want for your Spadone garage door installation project.
Side garage doors
A side garage door, also known as a sliding or side sectional door, is a door whose panels articulate and are stored on one side of your garage when open. It thus offers maximum clearance, without encroaching on the exterior space (non-overhanging door), nor the ceiling. However, it neutralizes one side wall of your garage.
These doors are designed with 40mm thick insulated panels, placed vertically, which articulate during the door's operation. The panels are connected to each other by hinges, similar to "ceiling" sectional doors, and at the top, a carriage or rollers allow the panel to be hung on a guide rail. This rail is divided into 3 parts: the straight part above the lintel that supports the door when it is closed, a second straight part that supports the door on the side wall when open, and a 90° curve to connect these two parts. On the ground, the hinges are connected to guide rollers that also slide in a rail. Thus, the panels are well guided at the top and bottom, making your door more resistant to weather and break-ins. This design makes it suitable for low ceilings. Note that unlike sectional and up-and-over doors, side doors are not equipped with springs. This is not a problem, as lateral movement, by nature, requires less force than vertical lifting.
On the insulation side, the excellent thermal performance of the panels is complemented by peripheral sealing joints when the door is closed. On the ground, brushes are placed under the panels to limit air entry, without causing friction that would prevent opening.
We have chosen to offer this door only in a motorized version for now. In addition to the comfort of use, our ONE motorization systems include a partial opening function, allowing, as the name suggests, to open the door only by 1 meter when desired, to allow the passage of a pedestrian, a bicycle, or a trash can, without having to open the entire door. This intelligent motorization avoids the costly addition of an integrated wicket door.
Swing doors / Service doors
A swing door, or French door, consists of 2 or 3 panels that open outward or inward into the garage, depending on your choice. Its panel opening requires a lot of clearance space. If you choose an outward opening, which is more common, note that its encroachment on the road prohibits any installation at the roadside.
The swing door is constructed with 40mm thick insulated panels forming the various panels. These panels are assembled on a steel frame, and the junction between the panels and the frame is achieved through a continuous anti-lift hinge in our production. One of the panels is equipped with a lock/handle set to be opened manually from the outside. The security of the 3-point hook locking of the wicket door is supplemented by fixed locks operated from the inside for securing other potential panels.
The design with 40mm insulated panels allows as much customization as on our other garage door models. We have also developed a motorization for the 2-panel version with articulated arms, although this type of door is most often manual.
A single-leaf service door can have the advantage of being coordinated with a tilting or sectional garage door in a simultaneous replacement project. This is particularly interesting if you have a secondary access to your garage on the same wall to maintain an aesthetic consistency for your home.
Roll-up garage doors
This guide would not be complete without mentioning roll-up garage doors. In practice, they are large roller shutters with reinforced slats. They do not offer customization options like other garage doors, except for the choice of color. Easy to install, however, they require a significant lintel drop of around 30 to 40 cm depending on the heights of the openings concerned and the type of slats used.
The dimensions of a garage door
If you are in the process of building your garage, choosing doors in a standard size will be beneficial for easily finding your future garage door at the best price.
Standard dimensions
On the French market, the most common dimension is a door 240cm wide by 200cm high. It's just enough to fit a car into your garage. However, this very standard dimension will generally allow you to get the best price.
The other very standard dimension that you will easily find even in a DIY store is a width of 300cm by 200cm high.
In addition to these dimensions, you will find standard doors of 250cm wide by 200cm high.
If you need more passage height, for example to fit a utility vehicle, these 3 standard widths are also available in a standard height of 2125mm (very precisely!)
Custom dimensions
Installing a door in a standard dimension is convenient, but you don't always get to choose the dimensions of your garage, and often they will be imposed on you. If we look at the minimum dimensions, you will rarely find doors smaller than 185cm in height. Making them smaller would be feasible, but not in demand. In terms of minimum width, anything is possible. We have even already made doors 1m wide for motorcycle garages!
For the maximum height, it all depends on the model you have chosen. Since up-and-over doors are delivered pre-assembled in one piece, we limit ourselves to 240cm in height for logistical reasons. For sectional doors, as they can be packaged in kits, we go up to heights of 3m. Beyond that, we enter the realm of industrial doors, which we do not produce.
For the maximum width, we go up to 3.5m for up-and-over doors and up to 5m for sectional doors.
In addition to these rules, there is a surface area constraint, up to 11m2 for our garage doors. Don't ask us for a door of 500 x h300 cm ;)
The choice of panels
The panels will be the most visible part of your garage door, so it's important to choose them well. For the part visible from the outside, this choice will be broken down into four aspects: the thickness of the insulation, the texture, the pattern, and the color.
Before detailing this, know that the interior part of the panels will always be the same by default: white and slightly textured. If this does not suit you and you have a specific need, it is of course entirely possible to consider special interior lacquering in a custom production.
Insulation
Your garage door can be made of simple sheet metal if it is an up-and-over door. Non-insulated sectional doors existed a few years ago, but are no longer common today.
The 20 mm insulation, the thinnest we offer, is available in our range only on the Mezza up-and-over garage door. This provides minimal insulation for the doors in this range and also great rigidity compared to non-insulated single-panel doors.
The 40-millimeter thick insulation is the most common today in the garage door market, with 42 or 45mm variants from some manufacturers. This 40mm insulation is found on our Lara and Aura up-and-over door ranges, on our Secura and Isola sectional doors, on our Latera side garage door, and on our 1, 2, or 3-leaf service doors.
The 60 mm thick insulation offers a gain in thermal performance, but also provides additional mechanical resistance to these panels. This is why they are found on our Bi-Place and Sessanta sectional garage door ranges, which can be produced in widths up to 5 meters. This is achievable without adding reinforcements to the panels, which would be essential for such a wide door with standard 40mm panels.
The color
All colors are possible on a garage door! We can adapt to your tastes. Naturally, some colors are standard and others will be custom-made.
For standard colors, we have two for our 20mm insulated panels: white and anthracite gray RAL 7016.
For the 40mm insulated panels, we offer 7 standard colors: white, 3 shades of gray including the highly requested anthracite gray, and 3 faux wood finishes (golden oak, dark oak, and winchester). To this list, we add two new colors: Black 9005 and Black 2100, highly requested to coordinate with aluminum joinery. However, be careful not to expose these dark colors to the sun to preserve the door and the panel finish.
For the 60mm panels, the range includes 2 standard colors: white and anthracite gray RAL 7016. The latter is ideal for renovations or chalet constructions, for example, blending in with the real wood of a cladding.
If you wish for another color, it is certainly possible. We can lacquer panels in any RAL to produce your door in any color, offering you a unique finish, in harmony with an original construction, joinery of a particular color, or simply the desire to have a garage door unlike any other.
The texture and the pattern
Before discussing the color of your garage door, you will need to choose the aesthetic of the panels, their relief.
These can be smooth or textured, with the most common texture being woodgrain, which mimics a wood-grained effect. The smooth effect, often called Polygrain, has been more trendy in recent years. However, be careful, it is also more fragile, and a scratch will be more visible than on a woodgrain panel, which can mask its own (minor) flaws.
Regarding the pattern, the panel can be completely flat, without grooves or other decorations. Combined with a polygrain texture, this is the most popular panel in recent years, offering an almost entirely uniform door, except for the fact that we see the junctions of the different panels.
The other common pattern will be a central groove on the panel, about 1 cm deep, identical to the groove of the inter-panel junction. A garage door made this way gives the illusion of being made from panels 25 cm in height.
A thin and off-center groove is also possible, in a very contemporary theme. Our catalog stops there. You will no longer see cassette doors, those large rectangles with 3 or 4 per panel width, in it. Imported from the United States and very popular in the 1990s-2000s, these are less in demand today.
Configure your garage door and get a free quote
Create a garage door to your liking with our interactive configurator.
You can choose from all our ranges of up-and-over and sectional doors.
In just a few clicks, select the dimensions, color, designs, and windows you want for your Spadone garage door installation project.
The motorization of a garage door
What was once the exception is now the norm: motorizing your garage door is no longer a luxury and will bring you comfort and security daily. A motorized door 2m high opens or closes in just 15 seconds! The majority of our garage door ranges include motorization as standard. You can add all kinds of accessories to this motorization to adapt it to specific needs.
We offer only one type of motor: the push-pull motor. This motor includes a rail, which is fixed to the ceiling above your tilting or sectional door in the center (or on the wall for a side door). At the end of this rail is the motor head containing all the electronics and the motor itself. A chain in the rail is set in motion by the motor and moves a trolley along the rail, which pulls the door up and pushes it down.
The motor is not intended to support the total weight of the door, which is assisted in its movement by the springs. The actual weight to be pulled varies depending on the dimensions of your door. This is why you will find different motor powers: 600 to 1200 Newtons in our range.
A 600 Newton motor can lift 60kg at full power. This is more than the weight of a 3m x 2m sectional panel without the help of the springs. But it will only weigh 10 to 15kg once the spring compensation is active. Your motor thus does not work at full power, which can extend its lifespan.
The motorization accessories
The motors for garage doors provide a simplified and safe use of your garage door. However, for even more comfort and security, there are various accessories you can add to your installation.
1. Remote Controls
The remote controls allow you to open and close your garage door from a distance. By default, our garage door motors can accommodate up to 20 different remote controls. This way, you can give them to the whole family or your colleagues to facilitate access to your garage.
2. Wireless Keypad
If you don't have a remote control with you, a wireless keypad is a practical alternative for easy and secure access to your garage. You can program a personal and unique code for personalized access to your garage.
3. WiFi Receiver
This device allows you to control your garage door remotely via your smartphone. It can be particularly convenient if you're on the move or if you want to check if your door is properly closed. Compatibility with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Homekit also allows for easy integration with other connected devices in the home.
4. Photoelectric Safety Sensors
These accessories are essential for ensuring the safety of garage door users. The sensors detect the presence of an obstacle, like a person or an animal, and automatically stop the door before it touches them. This can prevent serious accidents and ensure the safe use of the garage door.
5. Universal Receiver
If you own multiple motorized devices, such as a gate or another garage door, you can opt for a universal receiver to control them all with a single remote control. If you choose a Spadone garage door with a ONE motor, add a ONE universal receiver to the motor of another brand on your gate to control it with the same remote control as your garage door. This simplifies the management of different devices and avoids having to juggle multiple remote controls.
6. Emergency Release
In the event of a power or motor failure, it is essential to be able to unlock the garage door to access the interior. The emergency release is an accessory that allows you to open the door with an emergency key, even in the absence of an electrical power source.
7. Backup Battery
In the event of a temporary power outage, the backup battery will take over to allow normal use of the garage door. This can be very convenient if you need to leave quickly and cannot wait for the power outage to end to open or close your garage door.
Add a pedestrian gate to a garage door
Adding a pedestrian gate to your garage door can allow you to enter your garage without having to open the entire garage door. This can be very practical if, for example, your garage door is not motorized, but it's important to be aware that adding a gate to a garage door can quickly increase the cost. This is why it is not always worthwhile to add this option to a motorized door, which typically opens in about 15 seconds.
We will therefore review the situations where a gate can be very useful, but also cases where you might do without this option for your garage door.
The wicket door in a sectional garage door
You can integrate a service wicket door into a sectional garage door. We offer this feature on our 40mm thick insulated doors, namely the Secura and Isola ranges.
The frame of the wicket door is made of anodized aluminum on the Secura doors and will be powder-coated in the color of your door panels to become almost invisible on the Isola range.
On our sectional doors, the wicket door is always centrally positioned with an outward opening. It is always equipped with a 5-point lock for optimal security. Thus, each of the 4 panels of the door that the wicket door crosses is equipped with at least one locking point. Additionally, there is an electric wicket door safety feature to prevent your motor from activating if the wicket door is not properly closed. Note: we do not offer manual sectional garage doors with a wicket door. In our ranges, adding a wicket door prevents the removal of the motor during an order.
On a sectional door, adding a keypad to allow the door to be opened from the outside with a 4 to 8-digit code can also represent an alternative to the pedestrian wicket door. In this case, there is no longer a need for a remote control to operate the motor or a key to open the wicket door; your access can be granted by entering this secret code and waiting the 15 seconds for the door to open.
The wicket door in an up-and-over garage door
It is also possible to add a service wicket door to your up-and-over garage door.
Our Mezza up-and-over doors and Lara doors can be manufactured with a wicket door on the left or right, equipped with a 1-point lock. This provides a wicket door at a very affordable price.
The Aura doors are equipped as standard with a wicket door with a 3-point hook lock. The Aura door with 60mm insulation is the only 60mm insulated door in our range with an integrated wicket door. The Aura door is also equipped as standard, like the sectional doors with a wicket door, with electric wicket door security to prevent your motor from activating if the wicket door is not properly closed.
The wicket door in a side garage door
A side garage door can also be equipped with a pedestrian door with key access. Since our Latera side door is always motorized, we have the option to replace the addition of a pedestrian door with the implementation of a partial opening mode on our ONE motors. Once activated, this mode will allow you to open your side door either fully or partially by 1 meter to allow the passage of a pedestrian, a bicycle, or a trash bin, without fully opening your garage.
Configure your garage door and get a free quote
Create a garage door to your liking with our interactive configurator.
You can choose from all our ranges of up-and-over and sectional doors.
In just a few clicks, select the dimensions, color, designs, and windows you want for your Spadone garage door installation project.
Customize your garage door
Porthole/window in a garage door
To ensure your garage doesn't remain a completely dark room once the door is closed, you can add portholes to let light into your interior. You can still use the courtesy lights of the motor or your mobile phone for orientation, but a bit of permanent light can be useful during the day. These portholes can also serve as decoration to enhance the aesthetics of a door.
Our portholes are divided into 2 ranges. The first are PVC portholes. Their frame is made of plastic, which makes them as affordable as possible, so as not to increase your project's budget. Round, square, or rectangular, the glass is either clear plexiglass, frosted plexiglass, or laminated glass depending on the models. As for color, they are available in white, anthracite gray, or brown, ideal to match a door with faux wood panels.
The first type of glass, clear plexiglass, will allow you to see outside but also to be seen inside. It lets through a maximum amount of light! The second glass, frosted plexiglass, also lets a lot of light through, but its frosted appearance prevents anything from being distinguished on either side. The last, laminated glass, combines a layer of frosted plexiglass and 2 sheets of laminated glass. Again, a lot of light passes through while blurring the view, but this time you benefit from enhanced break-in security offered by laminated glass.
Our second range of portholes is made of Alunox. These portholes, with a neat appearance and varied shapes, are composed of an outer frame in Alunox with flush glazing in slightly smoked 8mm PMMA and inner glazing in frosted plexiglass mounted on a plastic frame. This offers less light than a plexiglass porthole as described earlier and also blocks the view from prying eyes. These portholes can be mounted on our insulated garage doors of 40mm or 60mm from the Pro range. These portholes are available in 5 small formats (2 rounds, 1 rectangle, one square, and one diamond) and in 2 large formats (panoramic and bracket). The latter are available exclusively on our Aura up-and-over door range (40 or 60mm insulation). They then span several panels of the door to cover a large part of the door's height.
Of course, regardless of the models, it is possible to install multiple portholes on a single garage door, whether on a single panel at the top or distributed vertically. Only your imagination (and good taste) are the limits :)
Integrate a cat flap into your garage door
If the garage door is often the main entryway for humans into a house, it can also be for our feline friends. If you want to give your favorite pet the ability to come and go autonomously, integrating a cat flap into the garage door can be a simpler solution than other openings in the house.
We offer a cat flap model available in 3 colors (White, Anthracite Gray, and Brown) with several settings (entry and exit, exit only, entry only, or closed). It is, of course, possible to install a cat flap in a garage door yourself, especially if your cat is equipped with a collar with a chip linked to a specific flap model. This will be similar to installing a porthole.
If you host swallows in your garage or barn (which is not always compatible with the aforementioned cats...), we have developed, in partnership with the LPO, a porthole with an opening to let swallows in. The opening is adjustable and can be closed as desired, and the whole is surrounded by a large Alunox decor, just like the cat flap. This decor is also available with an Alunox porthole, without an opening for birds, if you simply want to display a beautiful bird on your garage door.
Add decorations to your door
The final way to customize your garage door, once you have chosen the range, panels, and any portholes, is to add decorations to your door. These decorations will help break up the sometimes too uniform appearance of the panels and add a unique touch to your creation.
We offer a wide range of decorations, most often in alunox, which can be paired with or without the addition of alunox portholes. If you want a decoration in a particular color, it is also possible to achieve this with powder-coated steel in the color of your choice to obtain a unique combination.
As with our portholes, among our decorations, you will find small decorations each fixed on a single panel or large ones spanning several panels. The latter are reserved for our Aura line of up-and-over garage doors, while the others can be added to all our up-and-over or sectional doors in the Pro range.
Repairing your garage door
Make sure to gather information about the availability of spare parts for your garage door. Providing spare parts for a garage door is a legal requirement, but the availability and price of spare parts can vary significantly from one manufacturer to another. Ensuring the conditions of availability for spare parts will provide peace of mind regarding the repair possibilities of your garage door 5, 10, 15, or 20 years after its installation. For our part, with Spadone garage doors, we commit to guaranteeing your garage door for 10 years, and we promise to supply you with spare parts at the best price for at least 10 years, and often much longer than that!
Configure your garage door and get a free quote
Create a garage door to your liking with our interactive configurator.
You can choose from all our ranges of up-and-over and sectional doors.
In just a few clicks, select the dimensions, color, designs, and windows you want for your Spadone garage door installation project.