Garage Door Basics

Posted Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Garage_Door_Basics_Cressy_Door_Blog

At Cressy Door and Fireplace, we want our customers to be informed. That’s why we created our blog, “Ask Cressy.” You may pose any question by simply filling out the “Ask Cressy” form on our blog. One of our garage door, commercial door or fireplace experts will respond promptly.

Today, we want to provide you with an overview of everything you need to know before making a garage door purchase. It’s kind of like Garage Door 101. Let’s get started.

Glossary of Garage Door Terms

Delta E

A measurement used to represent color variances. The smallest distance between colors is 1.0 Delta E. Wayne Dalton has recently released the TruChoice® Color System. This is the first garage door customization system to offer color matching within 1.0 Delta E of a provided paint sample.

Frequency Spectrum Range

In order to prevent criminals from recording garage door opener security codes, a garage door opener must operate between 300 and 400 MHz.

Galvanizing

The process of coating steel garage doors to prevent rusting.

Garage Door Cycle

A garage door cycle begins when the garage door is fully closed continues through the garage door opening fully and ends when the garage door is closed again.

Garage Door Overlays

Overlays are trims that add style to garage doors. They are often used on Carriage House garage doors and come in wood grain, wood grain embossed steel, and smooth finishes.

Headroom

Headroom is the vertical clear space needed above a door opening and below the lowest ceiling obstruction. It is important to pay attention to the headroom needed for your garage doors. This measurement is key to ensure proper installation of the door and its hardware.

Insulation

The material placed inside of your garage doors that can reduce heat or cold transmission. It is typically made of foamed-in-place polyurethane and rigid panel polystyrene.

Lift Handle

A lift handle is installed on the inside of your garage door so that in the case of an electric door opener failure, you can still open the door.

Photo Eyes

Photo electronic sensors are safety devices on a garage door system. They will reverse the garage door closing if an object or person is in the way of the door.

R-Value

The R-Value on a garage door measures the effectiveness of a garage door’s insulation. The higher the R-Value, the greater the garage doors thermal efficiency.

Rolling Steel Door

Metal slatted doors that roll up to store in a coil above the opening. These doors are often found in commercial and industrial spaces.

Sectional Door

These doors are made of six to eight panels that slide up and overhead when the door opens. These doors are most common in residential applications, but may also be used in commercial situations.

Tamper Resistant Bottom Bracket

These brackets help reduce the risk of possible injury from garage doors under tension.

Tension Bridge

A tension bridge is necessary to support garage doors that are extra wide and for doors that may stay open for more than 8 hours at a time.

Torsion Springs

A spring that works by torsion or twisting. Torsion springs are an important feature to any garage door and are rated by how many cycles they are supposed to complete safely in a lifetime.

The team at Cressy Door and Fireplace is always happy to answer any question pertaining to sales, installation, maintenance and service of your garage doors. Give us a call or fill out a form, and one of our team members will respond promptly.