This Clopay door is from the Avante Collection and can be used as a garage door or even as an alternative patio door.
The mere mention of garage doors used to send shivers down the spines of architects, builders, and homeowners, conjuring visions of raised-panel monolithic eyesores. It always seemed garage doors were a one-style-fits-all item, whether your house was new construction or historic renovation, country estate, waterfront retreat, or big city townhouse. And it increasingly seemed houses were being built with bigger and bigger garages taking up more and more of their profiles.
These days, however, our thinking about a garage’s most important visual component is changing, and manufacturers now offer a smorgasbord of doors dressed to the nines. Today’s garage doors sport a level of style and refinement usually reserved for grand entrances and fine cabinetry.Most garage facades are mostly door. This produces skewed proportions and problems with profile-or used to. Now, the garage door has become something you might actually want to look at-a focal point. Doors make statements, and garage doors are no exception. Garage doors cover a home’s biggest opening and this opening often faces the street, so if we’re talking about curb appeal, few single elements of a home can have a more sizable impact.
Some studies by market researchers and garage door manufacturers even go so far as to suggest that a high-quality garage door could significantly enhance a home’s value. “A garage door is a predominant element, so it’s worthwhile to invest in a quality door that will match and enhance the style of your house,” says Paul Davey of Bethesda’s Studio Z Design Concepts.
Functionally, garage doors remain essentially unchanged (open sesame, close sesame), and while advancements in the materials have made garage doors stronger, lighter, more energy efficient, wind resistant, and easier to use-let’s face it, most consumers are concerned with how a garage door looks when we face it.
Designer Doors offers this wicket or "door-within-a-door," which rolls overhead like a modern garage door.
The most popular style of garage door these days is a carriage door (inspired by swing out doors on carriage houses). Although these doors offer the look of older swing-out doors-complete with a range of glass and rustic, oversized hardware options-most of them open like conventional (overhead) doors. Of course, if you’re a purist you can still get the genuine article, but most people prefer the convenience of the overhead models.
For a look that disguises the garage, FrenchPorte garage doors are designed to look like French doors. “Garage doors do not have to be unattractive. FrenchPorte has developed a durable, dependable garage door with beautiful curbside appeal,” says Jennifer Maher, founder and inventor of FrenchPorte Garage Doors. “And they are made with polycarbonate plastic (bullet proof) not glass because it gives the door structural integrity,” continues Maher.
These garage doors operate just like traditional overhead doors and use the same guides or tracks as conventional garage doors. “We’ve tried to keep things simple, elegant and most importantly affordable. Our goal was to create safe, sturdy and easy to maintain garage doors with incredible curbside appeal.”
There are also plenty of manufacturers offering more traditional designs, and most have thorough websites that break their various options into categories. This is helpful in getting a handle on the choices. Apropos to our region, for example, Access Custom Garage Doors’ East Coast and Beyond category features 12 different doors in four styles, Nantucket, Tudor, Cape Cod, and Craftsman. Some manufacturers, such as Wayne Dalton, offer doors categorized more poetically, after famous horse races and tracks (Preakness, Churchill, Saratoga, Belmont). Another popular manufacturer, Clopay, offers three classic collections (Reserve, Coachman, Gallery) as well as the more contemporary Avante collection. Amarr has a beautiful collection of wood doors inspired by various doors on North Carolina’s famous Biltmore Estate; they’ve also teamed with window and door giant JELD-WEN on a series of wood composite doors available in numerous Carriage House and Estate styles.
Most architects and builders suggest using your home’s architectural style as the starting point for choosing a door. “From a practical viewpoint, homeowners enter their home daily via the garage so the selection of the garage doors needs to be as well thought out as the front door,” says Jay Brown, architect at Levin/Brown & Associates, Inc.“You can do one of two things with the garage, you can make a statement or you can make it obscure. If you are making a statement, the creation of a parking court with estate style doors on the garage is an option,” continues Brown.
As far as materials are concerned, the main categories to choose from are wood, steel, or various composite materials. The most important considerations when deciding on a garage door are looks and maintenance. Since the advent of garage door openers, not many of us lay our hands on the garage door anymore, so weight and thickness are secondary concerns. “Homeowners should consider the material when purchasing a garage door. Wood has some issues with resiliency. Composite has become more popular because it can hold up to weather conditions better and can also be aesthetically pleasing,” says John Monfore, national sales and marketing manager for JELD-WEN Windows & Doors.
All-wood doors are widely available, and many manufacturers clad steel or composite doors with various wood or faux-wood skins in many styles, resulting in the look of a solid wood door with the durability and lower maintenance of a steel door. “While steel doors are the most used, composite and wood are among the most popular garage doors right now because they come in aesthetically pleasing designs and tend to match the entryways of today’s homes,” says Monfore.
“In general, I think energy efficiency is important to the consumer. Some garage doors do not have insulation but it is important because it helps keep the house from getting too hot or too cold during the extreme highs and lows of seasonal temperatures,” continues Monfore.
While most homeowners will be able to find stock doors that fit their tastes, toying with options will help set your choice apart from your neighbors’. Clopay’s website will let you dabble in the possibilities with its design-your-own-door feature. Most manufacturers allow clients to choose from a wide range of accessory options such as glass, hardware, and custom colors. And for those who prefer the blank slate or consider their garage door worthy of art-object status, many companies, such as Designer Doors, offer custom design options which allow clients to submit drawings for a door to be built from scratch.
Given the range of options, the price range for garage door is pretty wide, anywhere from hundreds on the low end to several thousands on the high end. As with all things in the built environment, the greater the level of customization the greater the price tag, but the investment is worthwhile. After all, the American Dream has long made room for multiple cars; it’s about time design has made its way to the doors they hide behind.
Kevin Varrone is a regular writer for ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
Access Custom Garage Doors: accessgaragedoor.com or 800-994-3643
Amarr Garage Doors: amarr.com or 800-503-DOOR
Clopay: clopaydoor.com or 800-225-6729
Designer Doors: designerdoors.com or 800-241-0525
FrenchPorte: frenchporte.com or 301-230-7125
Levin/Brown & Associates, Inc.: levinbrown.com or 410-581-0104
Jeld-Wen: jeld-wen.com/garagedoors or 800-JELD-WEN
Studio Z Design Concepts, LLC: studiozdc.com or 301-951-4391
Wayne Dalton: wayne-dalton.com or 888-827-DOOR
