Sectional Garage Doors in Welwyn Garden City

Whether you own one of the original properties in Welwyn Garden City or one of the more recent homes built on newer developments, you will benefit from a quality garage door from ACE Garage Doors.

It’s a sad fact that today theft of or from cars is rising to a worrying level. Because we spend a good deal of our time in cars commuting to and from work, we tend to invest more money in gadgets and gizmos that make our commute less tedious. Unfortunately, many of these gadgets remain in the vehicle when not in use, making the car a prime target for would be thieves.

Although Welwyn Garden City is on the whole a safe place to live and work, like anywhere, there are certain individuals who either supplement their income or even make a living out of thefts from motor vehicles, so it only makes good sense to keep your vehicle and its contents as safe as you can.

Not all properties in the Welwyn Garden City area are fortunate enough to have a garage, so we would advise that all valuables are removed from the vehicle when not in use, or at the very least, placed in the boot out of sight.

Even an empty carrier bag is enough of a temptation for the potential thief to smash the window thinking there may be something of value inside what is in fact an empty bag. But by far, the best way to prevent theft from your car is to secure the vehicle in a garage if one is available.

Therefore it makes sense to ensure that the garage door is also secure and robust enough to keep the garage contents safe.

Combining beauty and security in a garage door

The more security concious amonst us would often fit sturdy locks to their garage doors. The lengths some go too to secure their cars and contents is evident particularly in blocks of garages where you will commonly see multiple chunky padlocks with high security ratings and sturdy metal bars spanning the width of the garage door as extra security.

These may make the garage more secure, but they look awful and may take an eternity to remove before and after each use.

We recently fitted a roller shutter garage door to a property in Welwyn Garden City and the old up and over canopy garage door had its normal handle lock, four padlocks in each corner of the door, two fixed into the concrete at the bottom, two at the top and a metal bar fitted across the centre of the door. The owner joked that by the time they had removed all the security measures from the door, they had forgotten what they wanted to get the car out for in the first place. They we absolutely delighted with the roller shutter garage door we fitted as they are very robust and secure and with the press of a button, the door effortlessly glided up or down.

All of our garage door styles are secure and look great, so loads of extra security measures that spoil the look of the garage door are not as important as they were on the old doors that were originally fitted.

Style and security in a garage door

ACE Garage Doors are delighted to bring their Welwyn Garden City customers a wide range of stunning looking garage doors that are sturdy, secure and user friendly.

We want our customers to enhance the look of their Welwyn Garden City property, and feeling the need to make their garage door look like Fort Knox does nothing for the aesthetics of the property overall. It can also have a negative impact on potential buyers should they want to sell their home. Who would want to move to an area where multiple security devices were fitted to the garage door? Going to these lengths in Welwyn Garden City is also disproportionate as the crime level is actually very low, unfortunately, the fear of crime is higher than the chances of actually being a victim of it.

When is a garage door not a garage door?

Quite a few years ago a good few homeowners decided to convert their garages into a separate room in their house. Many properties tended to keep their cars on the driveway most of the time anyway and the garage quickly became the storage room for all things that were rarely used, in short a dumping ground.

In Welwyn Garden City, many properties is the Panshanger area did just that. The garage became a kitchen extension, made for a wider living area or was converted into a study or extra guest bedroom.

As more and more people realised the potential for a relatively cheap extension to their homes, the garages in one area declined sharply, this trend was rather short lived.

When the rules changed on how the local authorities determined the rateable value of the property, which was by the number of rooms the house had, the people who had converted their garages were suddenly paying a band higher for their house.

Because they had spent a fair amount of money converting the garage and were now enjoying the extra space, they were not keen to convert it back to a garage, thus reducing the charge on the house. However, a few home owners had the idea that if they had a garage door fitted back to the front of what was the old garage, the local authority would be fooled into thinking the property still had the original number of rooms. To this day, a few of the properties in this part of Welwyn Garden City still have a garage door that isn’t really a ‘garage’ door.

Different styles of garage doors in Welwyn Garden City

The range of different garage door styles in Welwyn Garden City is quite wide. The town has a good mix of properties with garages and some areas that have garage blocks, but all areas would benefit from the quality garage door styles ACE Garage Doors have to offer.

Roller shutter garage doors

Roller shutter garage doors used to be the style used to secure commercial premises, so not surprisingly they are very popular with the security minded home owner.

Roller shutter garage doors are the ideal solution when the customer wants a modern looking, attractive, functional and very secure garage door. Roller shutter garage doors are also a great choice for the customer with limited ceiling space in their garage. The roller shutter garage door is typically made with two to three inch steel slat sections that roll around a drum above the garage door opening.

Roller shutter garage doors are built to put up with very heavy usage and high performance units can be built without springs or completely enclosed to prevent rust, corrosion, and freezing up during even the most bitterly cold winter. Because the roller shutter garage door has extra security by design and are heavy duty doors, the initial cost can be slightly higher than a sectional garage door. However, if good looks and security are what you want, that little extra investment is well worth it.

Sectional garage doors

Sectional garage doors are also a very popular choice of garage door today. They are particularly good if you have a short driveway, as they do not protrude past the garage door opening like an up and over canopy garage door would.

Sectional garage doors are made up of panel sections that are connected with hinges. As the door opens and closes, wheels at the edge of each panel roll inside a vertical track on each side of the door opening.

The hinges between each panel section bend over a curved portion of the running track. This allows the door to sit parallel to the garage ceiling when completely open or in line with the walls when completely shut.

A pair of high tension springs above the door opening are attached to cables that operate the door and hold it from sliding down when the garage door is partially open.

Sectional garage doors are often manufactured from steel, but can be made from composite materials too such as fibre glass. They are very low maintenance, and can be customised to incorporate nice looking window inserts, matching handles and hardware and with different textures, and colours, what is not to like about them? They also come in insulated and non insulated models, so are the perfect choice for external or internal garages.

Up and over canopy garage doors

Up and over canopy garage doors do not have different sections, they are made of one solid piece of metal, although they are made from reinforced composite materials too. They have a pivoting hinge mechanism, so they can tilt up into the garage roof space. The canopy style garage door comes to rest parallel to the garage ceiling and extends past the front of the garage when the door is fully open. This style of garage door is probably the most common style in the United Kingdom.

Side sliding garage doors

Side sliding garage doors are a great choice if you have little or no head room in your garage and can even cope with a slight slope within the garage floor space. The side sliding garage doors operates by bending to one side of the garage and coming to rest parallel to the wall.

Side sliding garage doors run along lower trolleys that are flexible, which is why they are able to accomodate sloping floors and ceilings. Side sliding garage doors do not require balancing springs and have a built in retractable motor for automated operation without the need for a ceiling mounted operator.

Side hinged garage doors

The side hinged garage door is just like a minature version of a barn door and are often fitted to garages that are separate from the main property. With such a traditional design, the side hinged garage door will suit many of the older properties in Welwyn Garden City, but will also compliment many of the newer built homes in the town.

Side hinged garage doors swing open and closed from a hinged frame on either side of the garage opening. Side hinged garage doors are frequently made from very high quality timber, so are particularly suited to the more executive style of properties in Welwyn Garden City. In the Panshanger area of the town there are many Tudor style homes that have timber beam fascias and a luxurious timber side hinged garage door really does look amazing.

The added appeal of side hinged garage doors is that they can be stained and varnished to enhance the beauty of the existing property and can come in pre hung steel frames or fit into existing openings. They can also be automated with special conversion arms. Whatever style or colour you choose, a side hinged garage door will look fabulous when expertly fitted by ACE Garage Doors.

Automation is the key

An automated garage door used to be something that only the uber ritch had, whereas now anyone can enjoy the ease of an automated mechanism.

Being able to open and shut your garage door at the press of a button makes life so effortless. ACE Garage Doors will fit many garage doors that are automated as standard, but we also retro fit motor mechanisms to other garage doors that were previously manual opening doors. This is a welcome service for many older customers who have discovered that opening and closing their garage door has become more difficult because of reduced strength caused by arthritis.

Another great reason to have an automated garage door is when the skies have opened and you don’t want to get soaked while you unlock your garage door. Our motors often have remote control units that can be wall mounted in the home that suppliment the key fob remotes. Press the button and watch the door glide up while you wait in the dry, what could be better?

Servicing and repairs in Welwyn Garden City

ACE Garage Doors only supply and fit the highest quality garage doors, but we would be misleading our customers if we said the doors and mechanisms lasted a lifetime. The simple fact is that everything wears out eventually and anything with a mechanism is likely to encounter the odd issue from time to time.

This is why ACE Garage Doors operate a 24/7 call out service and a 12 month parts and labour guarantee on our products and fitting.

Our fast and efficient repair service can have your garage door back in action in the minimum amount of time. Just call ACE Garage Doors anytime and we will come out to you as soon as we possibly can.

With automatic roller shutter garage doors the main source of failure is the actual motor. ACE Garage Doors have years of experience in replacing roller garage door motors plus we carry a wide range of replacement roller garage door motors on our vehicles, so the chances are that you won’t have to wait for parts to be ordered.

Some common faults with garage doors

Although faults on our doors and mechanisms are rare, we know that every now and then our customers will experience an issue. We can be with them in a very short space of time to rectify the issue and below is a short list of some of the most common issues that garage doors can have.

• The garage door can become jammed in position.
• The garage door cannot be opened or closed completely.
• The roller shutter garage door motor may have failed to operate.
• The remote control for the automatic garage door has stopped working.
• The automatic garage door reverses and reopens when closing.
• The wiring on an automatic garage door is broken.
• The garage door rollers have become degraded or have broken.
• The garage door has come off its tracks.
• The garage door track is broken, blocked or misaligned preventing free movement.
• The garage door springs are broken or detached.
• The garage door tension springs or cables are broken or detached.

We can rectify all of the above issues very quickly, which is why so many of our customers have been with us for so long.

So if you live in the Welwyn Garden City area and want the very best garage doors available on the market today, call ACE Garage Doors for a free no obligation quote.