Garage doors are one of the most overworked, and overlooked parts of your home.
Let’s say you only use your garage door twice a day—once when leaving for work and once when coming home—that’s still 730 times a year! It’s actually estimated that this big lug of a door is working hard upwards of 1,000 times per year.
Something used so much should hold a lofty position in your home. It should be smoothly working, secure, and convenient—not a hassle. This may mean making garage door repairs, it may mean a new door altogether.
Either way, your current garage door is probably not pulling its weight. Here are some ways how:
Unless you live in a place with a perfect, unchanging climate, you’re probably concerned over your energy bill.
Garage doors stand guard over a huge hole in the insulation of a home. If they don’t hold their own keeping in your heat and air-conditioning, you’re losing money right out that shoddy weather stripping or thin door.
Energy efficiency in the world of garage doors is now the rule, not the exception. There are many options for making that thin, drafty door you’ve been holding a grudge against a thing of the past.
This is the problem that goes unseen for years—until one day it happens and you kick yourself for not taking precautions sooner. Even in neighborhoods like Broomfield and Brighton, home invasions do happen. Your garage door is one of the easiest points of entry for criminals because the details are so often overlooked.
There’s simply no reason to let a flimsy door, shoddy lock, or hackable automatic opener stand.
It probably drives your spouse crazy when you pull in the driveway, the kids are asleep, and then, out of nowhere: a deafening screech, rattle and clang. It may have even gotten to the point where you’ve blocked it out. If that’s the case, apologies are in order for pointing out that your garage door is noisy.
Many old garage doors use clanging parts that are poorly insulated, if insulated at all, to prevent noise. What’s more, if it wasn’t noisy before, it’s probably gotten louder and louder the more the door ages and wears.
Maybe you’re in desperate need of garage door repair. Maybe the door is warped from age. Maybe the track is rusty. There are any number of factors that can make your door loud—and any number of modern solutions that can turn that racket down to a whisper.
In this day and age, with all the options—material, texture, color, style—there is no alibi. If your door is ugly, it’s letting you down.
The average garage door is about 14 x 7 feet. That’s a huge amount of the front of your home taken up by this one item. If your door is old, worn down, and sad looking, that reflects on the overall image of your home.
Forget it if you’re trying to sell your home. Any real estate agent will advise you vigorously on the importance of curb appeal. If your garage door is hideous, chances are potential buyers will drive right on by.
It’s not that our lives have become technology dependent. It’s simply that there are much better things to do than struggle over a non-compliant garage door. This is a huge part of your home, and you should make it work for you as much as possible.
Technology in garage doors is accommodating on so many levels, as much or as little as you need. Modern automatic openers are not only convenient, but also come with mandatory safety features, like object sensing and automatic reverse. This is a must, especially for those with small children.
Reinforced doors of durable material combined with openers that employ intruder-proof technology and automatic dead bolts, can have you resting easy at night. And for real worry-worts, your smartphone can be your best ally. Smartphones can now not only open and close your garage door, but monitor it for unusual activity. Have you ever spent all day at work wondering if you shut and locked the garage door? These are problems of the past.
No need to sugar coat it. If your garage door is letting you down, it’s time to move on. Luckily, all of these problems have practical, affordable solutions, available to ease your mind so your garage door can become what it should be: a source of peace, protection, convenience, and pride. Don’t waste your time fretting, fill that garage door space with a worthy ally.