Ideal Garage Doors

Ideal garage doors have four things in common. They're beautiful, durable, easy to maintain and well insulated. To discover how to find your ideal garage door http://www.AsktheDecorator.com host Meghan Carter visited Clopay to get the insiders tips for selecting the best type of garage door for your home.

Meghan: I will be honest. I have never really thought about garage doors even though I have walked into one pulling everyday of my life. They are just not something you think about until you need it. And when you do and you go shopping, it is so confusing because there are so many things you need you consider which is why I am here today to speak with Pat Lohse the Marketing Manager of Clopay. She is going to teach us all of the insider tips for how to pick up the right garage door. I am hitting the road, searching for answers and finding great design. It is a quest for beauty, function and of course, inspiration. The ideal garage door has forming qualities. It must be beautiful, durable, easy to maintain and well insulated. And of all this qualities beauty was the first had to address. Pat: Well, I think the first thing is to consider the home. What the home looks like and what the elements of the home that you want to compliment. Meghan: Stand far away from your home and look at its colors and architectural details. A garage door that compliments those will look best on your home. For example, if your home has many straight lines your garage door should reflect that. If your home, has arches then maybe you should select the garage door with arch windows. Once you have found the most attractive garage door for your home you want to make sure it is durable enough to stand the occasional road basketball and your environmental conditions. Talk to your garage door manufacturer about which garage door is best for your lifestyle especially if you are living in a place with high winds. What are about in places where you have high wind? Pat: That is a good question because there are—in Florida for example. We make hurricane proof good doors, doors to meet different wind codes. So the building code is in place for different parts of the country. So, your builder will know about the professional style, the dealer will know with the building codes are for that area but definitely you need to consider if you are on a high wind area, select the door that is appropriate for that area. Meghan: Yes because I have seen the pictures where if you are in a hurricane area and after hurricane comes the door gets whipped away it causes the house to become structurally unstable and fall almost. Pat: Right, if the doors are blown out, the garage—because you will loose pressure and the entire house can go at that place. So, it is really important that the door has the appropriate support, so that the door stays in tact. Meghan: Besides being durable, the ideal garage door should be low maintenance but not at all are and sometimes we choose a high maintenance door in order to get the look we want. Pat: Well you need to consider the durability and the maintenance of the product. For example, a wood door you need to maintain it. So, every year or two you need to really check to make sure that if it is stained, if the stain is deteriorating or if it is paint, if the paint is peeling, so you need to refurnish it. Now, on a steel door, they are virtually maintenance for it. I mean you need to make sure that the door is functioning fine and you just—you visually check the rollers and you visually check the door but for the most part you do not need to paint it or anything like that. Meghan: Lastly, the ideal garage door has the perfect amount of insulation. So, what is good, like how do you measure the insulation? How can you tell if it is insulated enough? Pat: Well, the insulation as measured by it is called R value and that is the resistance of pull from the inside to the outside. And there are two different types of insulation, one is polystyrene insulation. But the R value is reported on the manufacturer’s literature, so that is one way to know what the R value is on the product. But also there are some other features on products such as thermal break. And, a number of our door, Clopay doors has a thermal break, and if you look at this sample. Meghan: All right. Pat: This one is thermally broken and so you can see there is silicon filled joi