This season, homeowners are sprucing up their garage doors as new design options hit the market. And with garage upgrades retaining their value, more people are willing to invest the money. So, what's best for your house?
Gayla Henderson of Prolift Garage Doors in Fort Worth, Texas, shares the newest available products, design tips, and long-term maintenance requirements for your dream garage.
"A popular, high-end door right now is a metal door with a wood overlay, so it has no maintenance," says Henderson. "It comes in a standard white or almond color, but customers can order the door in any Sherwin-Williams paint color because of our ongoing partnership with them."
Prolift's Classica door can come in two tones, creating a barn door effect for customers with modern farmhouse-style or traditional homes.
Besides paint, windows can be added to all of Prolift's garage doors.
"The windows won't heat the garage, necessarily, if you get a standard window. You can get a single pane, double pane, or insulated glass. It depends on whether you want to regulate the room's temperature."
Homeowners with HOAs should check their community guidelines for any rules regarding windows. Oftentimes, if a garage faces the street, the homeowner's association will require windows.
People interested in glass doors can also explore full-view garage doors, which are completely made from glass and available in different glass types. Customers can tint the windows and reduce glare depending on what they need from the space and what their homes look like.
Ideas for full-glass doors include turning a garage into a gym, spa room, or a space for car collectors.
"Full glass brings the outdoors in and the indoors out," says Henderson. "It's also really popular at restaurants or any social place."
You can also get a metal door painted like real wood with decorative hardware.
"Black dots, handles, hinges, and hardware can be screwed in or magnetically attached to the garage for decoration," explains Henderson. "That's more of a contemporary look."
And when customers opt for flushed door panels without any raised parts, recesses, or texture it produces a more contemporary look. "Contemporary is usually clean and just painted," she affirms. "You can choose the color you want the door painted and the kind of wood to match it to, like mahogany or walnut."
Wood finishes are popular right now because everyone wants a wood-looking door without the heaviness or the maintenance of sealing it every few months.
"Another modern thing people are doing is all black doors," says Henderson. "But you don't want to have a black door facing the evening sun. It has a great warranty, but black doors can bubble under the heat."
The last door type Henderson shares is more unusual, called a slat door. The slats are one to two inches thick, and it looks like a roll-up door, but it's not.
"It's also more modern and minimalist," says Henderson. "For someone who doesn't want any texture on anything."
People who have multipurpose garages, like a shop, or who host a lot of social events and neighborhood gatherings will gravitate towards this type of door. And customers can add a screen to the inside of the door.
"They won't have to deal with all the bugs or issues outside," says Henderson about adding a screen. "It's mounted on the inside of the garage door with a pedestrian door. It's a great way to keep pets and kids safe."
The screens are customizable to allow for total airflow in the space or total privacy.
But, no matter what you choose, make sure you stay up to date on your garage door maintenance.
"People don't necessarily know that garage doors, like everything else, need to be maintained and looked at twice a year in the spring and the fall," adds Henderson. "When temperatures change, you get stress fractures happening to the springs. Believe me, a broken spring never happens at a convenient time. Check if there are maintenance packages available for your doors upon purchase."
"Black dots, handles, hinges, and hardware can be screwed in or magnetically attached to the garage for decoration," explains Henderson. "That's more of a contemporary look."
