After finding the boot looking a bit mouldy, and then a lump of the 45 year old garage door fall on the car, time to look at garage doors. Currently up and over. So another up and over, folding panel doors or roller door. I hear that with a roller door you can gain a bit of width, which might be useful on this small garage.
As a roller sits at the front of the garage you also gain roof space.
As most are electric, they’re also easy to add wireless control to. So you don’t need a fob and can open from your phone.
I went along this route some years ago, I gained a few inches either side and gained height. My roller door assemble is inside the garage but I have seen ones that mount on the outside.
Only downside is that I lost the overhang of the up and over door that acted like an umbrella if I was working just outside of the garage.
I originally used to leave the power to the door switched on 24/7 but after five years (on Boxing Day) the transformer on the control panel had a melt-down. On my door the mains is stepped down to 5v for the control panel but mains voltage works the door motor.
I have a manual crank handle for such emergencies but this is difficult to use if there is a car in the garage. If you fit an electric roller door, make sure you have access to the emergency manual crank position (and control panel). In other words only fit an externally mounted door if there is no other door (access) into the garage.
I now only leave the power on the control panel while the car is out/away from the garage or I need access via the door. After use I power off.
Richard.
I’m not that bothered about an electric door. Are all the domestic doors electric? Is it a case that manual roller doors are commerical only? Its not a daily driver, and electrics are just seems something else to go wrong. Plus although there are electrics in the garage, they are not on a switched supply, and there is no door into the garage.
Always rather disappointed that at the numerous NEC shows, there is always only one garage door supplier on display.
Absolutely nothing to do with your garage door conundrum, Saz - but have you ever considered doing anything with that awful rear registration plate of yours - ie the vast areas of yellow plastic?
I hated my similar plate, supplied by Autolink. So I masked it up and prepped it, using plastic primer - then several coats of solid body colour, followed by lacquer. I took the body colour right in to the inner edges of the two little lower brackets that the plate sits in.
Now looks like this
Sorry for the digression. As you were!
Steve
If there is no separate door to the garage. I consider the only sensible roller door to use is an external mounted roller door with the roller storage housing, runners and winding mechanism external to the garage.
Many people may find all the gubbins external to the garage to be unsuitable in a domestic situation.
I believe that there are domestic versions of external roller doors as well as small commercial external roller doors.
There is a minimum head required for a roller door but as it may well be external to the garage, a strong external mounting board could be used, again possibly making it less suitable from a residential perspective.
If the garage is only used now and again, possibly just put up with a more modern up and over door.
What’s wrong with a pair of conventional sturdy, side-hinged wooden doors? You appear to have the outside clearance - and sturdy frames to bolt them to.
Easy and cheap to install with good security if you’re canny about your bolts and locks. No remote access, but sounds like that’s not an issue. And always more attractive looking than a metal up-and-over - if you’re bothered.
Cheapest and simplest is just a replacement Up and over. They work well, are simple, easy to fix and last well. They protrude slightly into the opening. Can be sealed or insulated reasonably well so you can have heat in the garage. If your mechanism is ok you just need the right size door to bolt in. Can be automated using a standard opener, an override can be fitted if there is no rear access so you are not locked out in a power cut. Don’t leave another car too close to the opening.
Roller shutter doors are great if you can have the workings indoors. Big box plonked on the outside of a normal house is not ideal. They do allow the use of a light close to the door on the inside even when open so fewer dark spots. Heat insulation is tricky as they have so many moving parts. No clearance issues with parked vehicles outside.
Sectional doors are a halfway house between the two. They have fewer moving parts than a roller and better insulation properties. Very simple mechanism, can be automated using a standard opener. They do obstruct the ceiling of the garage so lighting is affected when they are open. Runners can be mounted inside the garage so you get the full width of the opening and a generic size will fit. Due to large panels can have windows fitted and even personal doors. No clearance issues with parked vehicles outside. not relevant here but can be made very wide
Sturdy conventional doors. A big pain the rear IMHO. Generally wooden so need painting regularly, swell up in the wet, blow around in the wind so have to be secured while driving in and out or a big dent is coming your way. You have to open and close twice as many doors when you get your car out plus you need to undo the top and bottom bolts plus the padlock/chubb lock. No automated option, protrude into the opening [need good sturdy frames]. Parking up against the doors means someone has to move the car to get into the garage which can aid security. They look nice.
I have basic powered up and over myself which is fine, previously had wooden doors which were less so. I would have a sectional door next just for the keep warm aspect. My father has a set of wooden doors in front of an internal manual shutter, it’s like he does not want to go into the garage!
Standard ‘up and over’ doors are available in two types. The cheapest has the frame fitted within the opening (as your current configuration). The alternative has the frame set behind the opening. This will increase the clear width of the opening by at least 100mm, but will reduce the effective depth of the garage. It is also a bit more expensive but the assembly is more robust. Manual/electric operation is entirely up to you.
My advice is to ask one or two local specialist fitters to come and look at your garage and spell out the options. They will know what will meet your requirements, and the associated cost, much better than anyone on this forum.
This is an interesting problem, especially when you need something that looks good, is ultra reliable so that it won’t lock you out, and yet can resist a break-in!
When I built the extension forty years ago, the ground floor was always designed as the garage, so the up and over door was planned in with drop timbers from the joists above to support the inner track ends. It is fibreglass as a single panel and uses levers and a couple of fat springs to assist. It gained a remote controlled Seip opener after a couple of years because SWMBO complained about the effort.
In that time it has bust a spring, undone a spring-retaining pivot-bolt (threads too short, replacement longer bolts all round now much better), needed a new bulb on the opener mech now LED and brighter, gained some manual shoot-bolts inside for extra security (I cannot find suitable electric latch/deadlocks even though the opener can power them). It has also gained rubber draft-excluder strip flaps and been insulated with Celotex (Fire risk!) but I’ve yet to find a more suitable replacement insulation light enough and nonflam. I’m going to need to re-bush the lifting arms because the middle pivots to the frame are now oval, forcing me to pull the bottom of the door closed the last few millimetres for the shoot-bolts to locate.
The garage has internal access (via fire door with security bolts) from the house, so the up and over door needs to be secure. It resisted the burglars in 2005, tool marks showing where they tried and failed, but they managed to break in through the supposedly “ultra-secure” front door by bending it! New front door hooks together and will resist the bends.
My neighbour has a similar sized up and over with weights ropes and pulleys to take the load. That is too complex and has given no end of trouble, mostly wire cables rusting and fraying and metal rollers rusting and jamming, and is on the third different make of mech of similar type in about fifteen years. However, when it works it’s much better balanced and less effort and better closing than mine and no spring-stress on pivots.
On balance I think the up and over with big hinged shutter sections might be best. The main problem with those is keeping them running true during operation - cables again.
I’ve yet to find something enough better than mine to warrant the upheaval of its replacement, they do exist, but not at a price I can afford.
Another vote for the up and over garage door. Still using the original 1962 door, strong and reliable. Doubt the new ones are as good though.
Nope, never crossed my mind, because [1] I don’t think it looks awful [2] and I was introduced to Tom Matano as an owner who doesn’t care what his car looks like, which is a fair comment. Been on the car for probably 10 out of the 15 years I’ve had this particular one, and you are the first person to pass comment on the number plate. nI won’t go into the reasons why that plate was fitted 5 years into ownership, except it was for practical reasons.
To all others who commented on garage doors, thank you.
Present 1975 door fell on to the MX5 after various brackets fell apart. Been roller painted Chelsea FC blue at one stage. Maybe I should look for a 1962 up and over door. Before I was born though.
My garage door was made by Westland Engineers of Yeovil (formed in 1944 as a subsidiary of Westland Aircraft Ltd). Westland sold the company in 1985. So I guess I’m the owner of a classic. It’s made from aluminium, so no rust to worry about. It should outlast most MX5s…!
Horrible time of year for the kind of damp saturated air that permeates cars parked outside as well as garages, sheds and outbuildings.
My MX5 along with motorbike, metal cabinets, exposed machines, etc coated with a fine layer of damp - very, very depressing. Oh to be rich enough to spend some seriously indulgent money looking after these things properly. Spend £30k to preserve a £200 rotovator:-)
What is the answer? Perhaps a double skinned garage or ideally a double skinned garage that is part of a heated house so some permeation of heat.
If we can survive another four weeks or so, the worst will be over for this year.
always considered that cars parked naked outside are worse off than cars stored in garages or cars under covers but there are a number of caveats to that.
Hard work keeping these cars fresh even as a fair weather driver with a big garage.
I’d go simple light modern up and over door, standard mount. Sadly that damp in your car will not be miraculously cured by the right choice of garage door. Heat and air movement are the requirement. Certainly enough potential for air movement at the moment but zero for heat.
Have to say i like the look of the back of the car with details like the central fog light, dual exhaust, rear spoiler, lowered, colour coded top, etc. and given the colour think the number plate works.
My door has etched ‘Type GARADOR’ on it, now the name of the company that makes them. They might be worth checking out.
Hi
Nothing to do with garage doors, but the large yellow number plate, …I most definitely prefer the smaller one, just my opinion, but each to his own.
Boz
Re insulated garage doors that nobody has mentioned and is not asked for bu the original poster. Therefore of interest possibly to someone else on the thread who is thinking of purchasing a garage door.
Insulated roller doors only have about 15mm of so of insulation and have the U value of single glazing.
I installed 150mm of insulation and walls of my garage extension and 100mm in the original garage both walls and roof.
On a very cold day under 0 C, the garage gets to working temperature within a short time with 4 kw of electic heating with one of the 2kw heaters switched off after an hour by it’s thermostat.
The roller door is always runing with condensation in those circumstances of say the garage internal temperature of 10C which is a nice working temperature, I believe that sectional garage doors can have much thicker insulation as they do not have to be stored on a roller but room is needed somewhere.
Others have advised they have put thicker insulation on up and over doors.
Again not an answer to the original poster.
The carpet is no concern to me. I’m a microbiologist, with 30 years experience, including looking at Anthrax, plague, and the worst things you can think of. Thats sorted. Mould is no match for me (exposed to live anthrax, and beat it!).The reason was a boot lid had fallen shut.
General hint to everyone if dealing with mould, the single worst thng you can do is to try and brush it off, or use a vacumn. You’re supplying energy to aerosolise it, and breath it in. Thats what killed that Scottish drum maker, who sucked up anthrax spores whioe making drums.
The reason for the new door is that the old one is falling apart. The discovery of this came about as a result of airing the car, because the boot lid had fallen shut.