It’s no secret that every car owner thinks about his safety. And everyone, when building a house, leaves a place for a garage. It is important to understand that not only a burglar alarm is responsible for the safety of your car in the garage, but also high-quality, reliable, and durable garage doors. Moreover, it is important to find a reliable garage door service and repair company. Be sure, such a one will solve and even prevent lots of your problems.
Types of garage doors
Today, the following types of gates are distinguished:
- Gates with the hinged type of opening.
- Sliding gates.
- Rolling gates.
- Gates with lifting type of opening.
When building a garage, special attention should be paid to the choice of gates, as STI Garage Door experts explain. Therefore, let’s look at each option.
Gates with the hinged type of opening
This type of gate is considered the most popular, as it has a low cost and a high level of reliability. The design consists of two wings that swing open outside or inside the yard. It should be noted right away that such gates are suitable for those sites that have a large space in front of the gate.
- Single layer/double layer.
- Forged.
Types of swing gates (depending on the leaf used):
- From sandwich panels.
The main advantage of this design is simplicity and reliability in operation.
Sliding gates
This type of gate is also called retractable. During construction, the canvas is attached to a cantilever beam. The mechanism works by moving on rollers along the support. The beam is installed in different ways and based on this, sliding gates are classified as follows:
- Open profile, or with a bottom beam. This design is used when building transparent and non-transparent gates.
- Telescopic type. A structure that does not require additional space as it folds in on itself.
For the construction of this type of structure, various types of canvas are used, depending on the needs of quality and budget. The most affordable options are single-layer or double-layer types of canvas. Forged sliding gates are considered the most expensive.
Sliding gates boast the following benefits:
- Sufficiently long service life and reliable characteristics.
- Attractive appearance and a large number of colors.
- They are compact and easy to use because they practically do not take up space at the opening.
Rolling gates
This design is made of small divisions, up to 10 centimeters wide. The mechanism of action of such gates is as follows. When opened, the canvas is twisted into a box, which is fixed on top. This type of gate is very easy to operate and takes up a small amount of space, therefore it is popular not only for garages but also for shops, cafes, restaurants, and warehouses. It is worth noting that roller shutters have an affordable price.
Gates with lifting type of opening
There are the following types of lifting gates:
- Sectional type of gate. It is considered the most popular type among all overhead garage doors. The canvas consists of special divisions, which are connected when lifting and rising to the ceiling. The main advantages include a long service life, no need for additional space, and an attractive appearance. The disadvantages include high cost and not resistance to hacking.
- Lifting guillotine. The main advantage of such gates is the possibility of providing high tightness and thermal insulation. The disadvantages include the need for additional space above the opening. Therefore, this design is not suitable for all garages.
- Lift-and-turn design. Such gates consist of a single canvas. The mechanism of action is moved along the guides. In the open state, this design is placed horizontally under the ceiling. In the event of a breakdown of such gates, they can be easily closed manually.
How often does the gate need to be serviced?
There are certain regulations for maintenance. For garage doors, in most cases, one technical inspection per year will be sufficient. Industrial gates, as practice shows, in most cases need a scheduled technical inspection every three months.
This is due to the intensity of use, as well as the presence of special conditions:
- high humidity (car washes);
- aggressive environment (production sites, warehouses, agriculture: cowsheds, pigsties, vegetable and grain storage facilities);
- difficult climatic conditions: high wind loads, and exposure to negative temperatures.
A cycle is a full opening and closing of the gate. With a mechanical opening, it is possible to determine the number of cycles very roughly. With the automatic opening, some electric drives can view the number of gate cycles and, based on the data, calculate the number of cycles per day. Only a specialist can view information on the number of cycles and recommend the frequency of technical inspections.
What can be the losses in case of untimely service or repair of the gate?
- The danger of safety of cargoes and goods with faulty gates.
- Reducing the service life of the gate and, as a result, the cost of buying new ones.
- Cargo flows of production are disrupted.
- Repairs are much more expensive than maintenance.
- In the case of independent intervention, warranty obligations were lost, and the time of an unskilled employee wasted, which he could devote to his direct work.
Better entrust service maintenance to STI Garage Door specialists.
Why can’t garage gate maintenance be ignored?
Often, many owners of sectional doors mistakenly believe that they can carry out independent diagnostics and troubleshooting. This is especially common with owners of industrial doors, as they have their repair teams, engineers, and other production personnel. Having entrusted the work of inspection and diagnostics to their employees, they can simply miss a minor malfunction or defect, since the gate has many nodes that include more than 30 elements.
And this does not include the elements of the electric drive. All these elements require special inspection and professional solutions if necessary to fix the problem. Unqualified service or repair leads to a violation of the rules for the operation of the gate and, as a result, the loss of warranty obligations for this product.
Wrapping It Up
Many owners do not think about the maintenance of garage doors, although sectional (they are also lifting and automatic) gates are a device that includes several moving parts and mechanisms that need systematic service, just like your car needs regular maintenance. changing oil, filters, and other consumables.
So, better remember that maintenance of garage doors should be carried out only by a specialized service using only original spare parts from world manufacturers.