The Best Garage Door Manufacturers
A garage can be used for much more than just storage or a parking space. Here are some of the best garage door manufacturers that you may want to consider.
7 Useful Benefits of a Detached Garage
Today’s garages are most often attached to houses. In the early days of cars, vehicles were parked out in the open or in separate carriage houses. Attached garages became popular in the late 1940s and have become more prevalent ever since. About 80% of homes had attached garages by the 2000s. However, many homeowners are starting to realize that detached garages have advantages. With many people converting attached garages into living space, building new houses, or rebuilding their old garages, they may realize a few useful benefits, such as: 1. More Design Options A detached garage tends to fit in well with older homes. It also provides an alternative to the garage dominating your house’s façade, especially if you have a smaller home. Design choices include setting the garage at an angle to the house, hiding it in the backyard, and setting it back from the house. You can even add living space above a detached garage. 2. A Chance to Get Fresh Air Walking to and from your home to the garage gives you a chance to take a walk. If the weather is pleasant, then you can enjoy a fresh breeze or admire a landscaped path. Building a detached garage gives you the opportunity to focus on landscaping, which can earn you points for green environmental building practices. 3. Easier to Customize You can design a detached garage in any way you like. It can provide additional living space on your property, or you can add guest rooms, a workshop, office, or area to entertain guests. A detached garage is a convenient alternative to using limited front or backyard space. 4. Your House Is Safer People often use the garage to store paint, weed and insect killers, and other chemical-based products. But these can sometimes emit dangerous fumes. The risk is even higher if you store them incorrectly. Detached garages protect you from vehicle emissions as well, reducing the risk of hazards such as carbon monoxide exposure. 5. Limited Access to Your Home Attached garages are potential break-in points. An intruder can access your home through a garage window or through an unlocked door between your garage and house. With a detached garage, access to your home is limited to regular doors and windows. Forgetting to lock your garage door won’t put your home security at risk. 6. Privacy If your garage is more than somewhere to store cars and tools, a detached unit can offer a private area for DIY construction projects, hanging out, or playing musical instruments. It enables you to have extra privacy, as family members can’t walk from another room into the garage space. 7. Less Noise Isolating the garage from the rest of your house prevents noise from cars, power tools, and instruments from reaching other rooms. It’s quieter in the detached garage as well. You can, therefore, use it as a getaway from activities at home and be free of noises and distractions while enjoying your solitude. Should Your Garage Be Attached or Detached? Overall, neither an attached or detached garage is better or worse. The answer to the question depends on what works better for you. To decide, consider what aspects most benefit you. No matter which option you choose, you’re goin/ang to need a reliable, safe, and efficient garage door, which Precision Garage Doors of Las Vegas can help with. Call 702-553-4621 or chat with us online to learn more about how we can help.
A Guide to Garage Door Sizes
Garage doors are some of the most prominent features of home exteriors. Up and down your street, you’ll see houses with garage doors, which are not all one and the same. The door must fit the garage opening precisely. Therefore, many size options exist. From 1896, when Henry Ford built the first “horseless carriage”, through the 20th century, the concept of the garage expanded as homes increased in size. Today, homeowners may have two, three, or more vehicles. Standard Sizes For most vehicles, a garage door from 8 to 20 feet wide will suffice. Single-car garages typically have a door that’s 9 feet wide and 7 feet high. Custom heights of 8 feet or more are available for trucks, snowplows, or tractors. The most common standard sizes include: Single Car Garage Doors: Usually have the 8 x 7-foot dimensions, which is enough for a standard, full-size car. Custom sizing is often available from manufactures for homeowners with SUVs, vans, or trucks. Double Car Garage Doors: If you have a larger vehicle, or more than one car, a two-car garage door is typically 16 feet wide; heights can range from 7 to 10 feet to accommodate lifted vehicles or roof racks. Triple Car Garage Doors: Homeowners with three vehicles or more may choose to install a double door and an extra single door, three single doors, or a custom-designed triple-sized door that can accommodate cars, all-terrain vehicles, or boats. Custom-designed, oversized garage doors can be made even larger. They may be found in facilities housing recreational vehicles or be a part of larger commercial structures. These custom garage doors can be as large as 32 x 24 feet. There are even residential applications for custom garage doors, such as houses that must accommodate motorhomes, which are about 10-feet high on average. Garage Door Thickness The thickness of a garage door affects both economics and quality. For example, a 1/8-inch-thick steel garage door is more affordable to install, although its panels are stamped out of thin metal and the unit provides almost no insulation. An insulated garage door is thicker to accommodate ¼ to ½ inch foam insulation layers; some foam insulating materials are 1 to 1½ inches thick. Skimping on garage door thickness can lead to higher energy costs, as garage door size can have an impact on immediate and future efficiency and expenses. What Do I Need to Know When Replacing My Garage Door? Whenever you add or replace a garage door, you need to measure the width and height of the opening. You must account for the size of the door and the clearance above it to account for door tracks and other features. There must be room for all garage door system components to fit. A professional installer can determine exact sizing to help you select a garage door suited for your home. Can a Garage Door Size Be Changed? If you’re not keen on building a completely new garage, you may choose to reduce the size of the opening, which is easier than increasing the garage door’s size. However, it’s more common for homeowners to consider increasing the size of their door to accommodate larger vehicles. This can create issues with headroom, which can be resolved only by increasing roof height. It also does not ensure you’ll have more usable space in the garage. For help sizing your garage door, or to obtain a free estimate, contact Precision Door Service of Las Vegas at 877-301-7474 or request an appointment online.
Most Common Winter Garage Door Problems
Nothing sours someone’s mood more than having to weather frigid temps in the A.M. hours before a long workday. When winter rears its frosty face, having a garage can be a lifesaver and make your mornings tolerable. But what if you go to leave for work or the store, and your garage door doesn’t want to open? When temperatures start to plummet, your garage turns into an icebox. The cold weather can do a number on garage doors and make them temperamental, or even worse, render them inoperable. Before you panic and call a garage door technician to fix an unknown issue, you may want to troubleshoot some common problems that happen to garage doors in the winter. Most Common Garage Door Problems in the Winter Even if your garage door seems to be in perfect working order, it may still malfunction during the winter months. Here are some common garage door problems that can occur when the temperature drops. Run through these possibilities before calling a professional garage door technician. Garage Door Is Frozen Shut & Will Not Open – This is more common than most people realize. If you are attempting to open your garage door and it simply won’t budge, it may not be the opener or the remote. Your garage door could be frozen shut. Check to see if the weatherstripping at the bottom of your garage door is frosted over. If it looks as if it is, don’t try to pry it open without melting the ice first. You can easily accomplish this by using a hairdryer to melt the ice. An even easier fix is to pour hot water across the length of where the garage door meets the pavement. The weatherstripping should separate from the ground almost instantaneously. The only side effect of the latter method is that now you have even more water on the ground that can eventually freeze. Here are some tips to prevent your garage door from freezing shut in the long-term. How do you prevent the weatherstripping on your garage door from freezing in the wintertime? Lubricant: Apply a silicone lubricant to the weatherstripping. This will act as a lubricant and prevent frost and ice from latching on to the weatherstripping. Table Salt: You don’t even have to leave the house for this easy fix. Pour a generous amount of salt along the length of where the driveway meets your garage door. Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so it will discourage ice from forming. Install a garage heater: This is more of a luxury than anything, but will remedy your garage door glitches during the winter by keeping your entire garage toastier. Garage Door Track Seems Jammed – If you have already eliminated the possibility that the weatherstripping is frozen, then the next thing to troubleshoot is the garage door track. The garage door track is lubricated with grease. Normally, this would allow your garage door to go up and down with ease. But when the temperature drops below a certain degree, that grease can thicken and make it nearly impossible for the garage door to open. A simple way to check to see if the grease has thickened is to rub it with your finger to see if it’s still slippery. If it isn’t slick to the touch, you will need to remove it with some solvent and replace the existing grease with a cold-resistant garage door grease. The Garage Door Components Contract – When the temperature drops outdoors, hardware, wood, and other materials naturally contract. This is especially so with garage doors and it leads to multiple garage door problems. Your garage door has many moving parts that all need to be aligned to work properly. When one or more parts contract due to colder temperatures, it throws everything off. Whatever you do, do NOT try to pry the garage door open by force. Instead, bring a space heater into the garage and warm the garage slowly. This will make the parts expand a slight bit and they will fall back into their original alignment. Condensation or Frost Is Covering Safety Sensors – Winter weather can fog up your safety sensors and make it hard for the infrared beams that trigger the sensors to connect. The garage door just thinks there is an obstruction and will refuse to open. This is a really easy problem to fix. Simply take a clean, dry cloth and wipe the frost or condensation off of the sensors and you should be good to go. If you have gone down this list of easy fixes and your garage door still isn’t budging, then you may have a more complicated problem on your hands and it’s time to call a professional. Whatever you do, don’t try to force your garage door open, as you may do further damage to the door and parts. Help is but a phone call away. If you want to upgrade your current garage door opener, repair broken garage door springs, or repair your existing garage door, you can always count on Precision Garage Door Las Vegas. Our highly trained technicians can be there in under 2 hours, with a fully stocked truck, ready and able to fix the most difficult of garage door problems. Call today: 866.265.4824