Steel Garage Doors

Garage doors, as you may have learned from previous posts are a surprisingly large portion of your actual homes exterior appeal. Your home usually has only a few aesthetic properties on the outside and so each one of them has a great deal of effect on how people might view your home, whether they are neighbors, just visiting, or looking to buy it. This is why having a good looking and functional garage door is important to the draw of your home overall. When it comes to garage doors it is always important to marry the ideas of form and function, much like you should try to do for any design endeavors. When picking a garage door out for your home and for your purposes it is best to remember that the material you choose affects the design and functionality of your garage door. With that in mind we will be looking at one of the most common garage door materials out there, steel! The backbone of American industrialism just a few decades ago it is still a big part of construction. Steel doors com in a few varieties so there is not exactly a stock standard steel garage door but we will go through a few of the pros and cons of having a steel garage door installed or already in your home.

Steel is a very flexible material, not physically but in the many ways it can be styled. Steel garage doors can be made to mimic all of the other types of garage doors and can really pull it off quite nicely. You may not know that an entirely steel garage door is not wood until you get right up to it and are able to touch it. You can also paint steel doors with pretty much any color you would like giving you a range of options, much like would be available for most garage doors.

Another example of the flexibility of steel as a garage door material is that it comes in a variety of grades and thicknesses which allow you to choose the type of thickness that is best suited for your garage door. The differing thicknesses obviously come at different price levels, but steel is definitely on the lower end cost-wise. The thinner you go the less durable a steel garage door is and the less well insulated it will be. A thin steel garage door will be quite cheap and won't put too much stress on the garage door opener comparatively however, it will be more prone to denting which can look bad and eventually affect the usability of your garage door. The thicker steel garage doors will still be relatively reasonable, but they will be heavier and may cause a bit extra wear on a garage door opener when compared to the thinner and lighter ones.

One problem with the steel garage door is that they provide very little insulation regardless of how thick the steel is. This means that steel doors will allow for a lot of heat transfer which can end up costing you a fair amount of money if you are spending a lot of energy to keep your home cooler or warmer than the outdoors. Even thicker steel garage doors will not give you a lot of insulation and so even though steel doors are reasonably priced it is almost always best to get your steel doors insulated when they are installed. This will add cost up front but should cut down on the costs you will see down the line when comparing steel garage doors to others in terms of added energy costs.

In addition to saving money in the long run on energy there is another reason to insulate your steel garage doors. Steel garage doors without insulation also provide very little noise insulation in addition to providing very little heat insulation. This means that doing work in the garage with the garage door closed will carry further and be louder in general when equipped with a steel garage door. Insulating your steel garage door will also cut down on the noise getting into your garage and the rest of your home through your garage which can get very annoying, especially if you live in an area where your neighbors are very close or there is simply a lot of noise pollution.

In summary it should be easy to figure out if the steel garage door is right for you, it is right for a majority of garage door owners so why not you? The steel garage door can be painted or designed to look like pretty much any material and painted to be nearly any color so if you are unsure of what you might want your garage door to look like down the road the a steel garage door could be the perfect choice for you. If you are looking to have a wooden garage door but don't want to have to deal with the upkeep and perhaps replacing it in the near future then getting a steel garage door that mimics wood grain may then be for you. The cons of the steel garage door are pretty much that they can be damaged if you opt of the cheaper thinner versions but these might still be worthwhile if you feel that you won't need too much strength for your garage door. The big problems with a steel garage door come from their lack of inherent insulation. This can be a problem if you opt for one of the thinner steel garage doors, but if you opt of a thicker door and add on some garage door insulation after the fact your energy and noise problems should be relatively small even with a steel garage door. If you are thinking about investing in a new garage door and think that these pros and cons line up well with your lifestyle then talk to a garage door professional about getting you a steel garage door and what they think of that choice for your home.