Many looking for a new or upgrade to an existing garage door tech get confused on deciding which type of garage door would be the best fit.
A garage door opener is a very important component for a garage, as any type of issue with your garage door or the opener can really make your day frustrating. It’s very important to choose the right type of garage door opener.
Since there are three major types of garage door opening technology, rather than concluding which is the best, let’s explore and each type.
For those who’re wondering which garage door technology is the best in Arizona, let’s have a look at these and make the right decision:
Chain Drive: Probably the most common type of garage door openers is, the Chain Drive. As you can already conclude it from the name, this garage door works on the mechanism of push and pull of a chain making a trolley moving your door up and down. Affordable and extreme reliability are the two best things you can get from a chain drive garage opener. The drawback of this type is that it can get a bit noisy.
Belt Drive: The belt drive garage opener makes use of a belt to move your garage door up and down. When it comes to the noise factor, belt drive garage door opener is a quiet worker. These are a bit expensive, compared to the Chain Drive openers.
Screw Drive: This type of garage door opener works on the basis of a mechanism where a threaded steel rod is used for the movement of trolley that’s responsible for the opening and closing of a garage door. Due to the fact that this type consisting of minimal components, less maintenance is needed. The downside is these openers can be a little noisy.
If you want to get your garage door opener serviced or repaired, Triple B Garage doors have the right team of skilled technician crew along with optimum quality of equipment.
June is Garage Door Safety Month. Each year over 7000 people in the U.S. will suffer from minor accidents, like getting pinched, via the garage door. Around 2200 people will be injured from the door falling onto their car or themselves. We don’t want to see you fall into these statistics. Please make some time this week to check your garage door for potential hazards. Follow our advice to make sure you and your home are safe.
Keep yourself and others safe:
*The summer months mean more activity in and around your home. Make sure children know the dangers of placing fingers in or near the garage door. Teach them not to go too close to a door that is rising or closing….no games to see who can get in last. Children should not have access to remote controls or the panel inside the garage.
*Everyone who does use the garage door should know how to operate the emergency release lever. Hold a brief drill session and let everyone take turns releasing and then reattaching the lever.
*Every month or after any adjustments to the door or operator are made, the safety reversal system should be tested. The door should reverse on contact with any object that gets in the way of it’s path. There are two ways to test this function:
~ With the door fully open, place an object that can give under pressure in case the system should fail. A roll of paper towels is a smart choice. Place this object in the center of the doors descending path. Press the control push button to close the door. The door should reverse when it makes contact with the paper towels. If the door does not reverse, adjustments are required.
~ Open the door and then place a cardboard box large enough to block the path of the safety reversing sensors in the path of the garage door. Press the control push button to close the door. The door should not move more than an inch and the garage door opener lights will flash. Again, if the door fails this test, your sensors need to be adjusted.
Now is also a good time to clean the sensors with a damp cloth and remove any surrounding debris that may get in the beams line. Hopefully your garage door passes both tests successfully. If not, our skilled technicians are on call to make any repairs for you.
*Always open your garage door before starting your car. Carbon monoxide fumes can accumulate very quickly in an enclosed space. If your garage is used for other things like a workshop or exercise area you may want to consider adding an exhaust fan to help circulate the air.
*Mark your calendar to inspect your garage doors cables, springs and track as least once every three months. If you find an area that needs repair, call a professional to fix the problem. Do not try and make the repair yourself. Many people have sustained injuries from cables and springs that have flown off unexpectedly.
Keep Your Home Safe:
*Don’t be tempted to leave the garage door partially opened. This is an open invite to critters or potential thieves to enter your home. Even a brief summer shower can penetrate a small opening, soaking items that may be stored on the floor.
*Don’t leave your car remote in a visible place in your vehicle. Stow it in a safe place or consider getting a key fob remote.
*Use your phone to its advantage and consider getting the MyQ app to monitor your garage door. Get notifications if your door has been left open or to see the doors activity, also convenient if someone is locked out of the house.
*If a vacation is in your future, make sure a trusted neighbor knows you are gone and can alert you to any unusual activity around your door. Deter thieves by disabling your automatic garage door opener by cutting the power while you are away. We do not recommend installing pad locks to the track. You may forget they are there and end up opening the door upon coming home and ruining the entire system.
We hope you will make some time this month to ensure your garage door is safe and sound. If we can be of any assistance in repairs, please call us. Have a safe and happy summer!
We’ve all been there. You’re leaving for work and you hit the button to close your garage door. It starts to go down a few inches, then suddenly reverses. The lights flash on the opener like there’s a party you weren’t invited to. You try again—same result. What the heck?
Here’s the deal—safety is smart, flashing strobe lights and all. Your garage door is the largest moving object in your home and it can do some serious damage to you, your car, your kid, your trash can, or whatever else is underneath it when it closes. To avoid crushing deaths, infrareds became mandatory in 1992 under federal law.
Infrareds act like the bouncer at the club, watching the door and making sure it’s safe to close. They’re a pair of small boxes mounted a few inches above the floor, making constant eye contact with each other like a couple of co-dependents. If something comes between them or breaks the beam, they tell the opener that it isn’t safe to close the door. That might seem silly until you remember that your door can weigh more than two-hundred pounds. You don’t want that to come down on top of you, right?
Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on your perspective—the infrareds are a little over-cautious. They can tell the opener that it isn’t safe to close the door for a multitude of reasons. If anything, and I mean anything, obstructs the infrared beam, the door will not close. That could be something as big as a car or as small as a leaf. If you have an antique door from the 1800s, all the rattling during opening and closing can throw the infrareds out of alignment too. If you bump the infrared accidentally with a rake or a trash can, they don’t automatically reset themselves and will remain out of alignment until you step in to straighten them out.
Once you’ve checked the perimeter and you can’t find anything blocking your infrareds, it might be time to call in the professionals. However, if you’ve just gotten home from work or you need to leave, you can override the safety feature by holding down the inside wall button [not the button on your remote]. This tells the opener that you are physically standing there and that it’s safe to close the door.
I hope I’ve told you something that can help you get to work on time or allowed you to head out for the weekend. Now, go forth with your new knowledge and new bodyguards. Remember, safety is smart and hurting yourself is not.
When I hear those words, it’s a callback to a bygone era—a time when people worked in terrible conditions and safety measures were lax. I also think of contruction—oil rigs, bulldozers, combine harvesters, and steam rollers. I don’t think my day to day life involves heavy machinery or industrial equipment.
I leave for work or school or head out to run some errans just like every other day. I get in my car, push the button to open my garage door, back out, and push the button to close it. It’s at that moment, watching it rumble down and settle against the concrete, that I realize what I use every single day that I leave my home—a steel door weighing on average two-hundred pounts and driven by a 1/2 horsepower motor.
The garage door is the largest moving object in the home and the average household opens and closes it four times every single day. If you’re anything like me, you didn’t really think about that until just now either. Now, if you oversaw the use of a bulldozer or combine harvester or worked in a place that used industrial equipment to build skyscrapers, you would want every precaution to be taken to ensure no one got hurt, right? However, when was the last time you thought about your garage door?
Service is smart.
The garage door is made up of a lot of parts. Heavy springs are used to counter balance the door, hinges hold all the sections together, the track supports the door, the rollers keep the door in the track. Any of those parts can wear out and break down, just like the brakes on a bulldozer. Your garage door should be serviced at least once each year to keep everything in working order and—most of all—to keep it safe.
Here at A.B.E. Doors and Windows, we offer a discount on service in the form of a 20 Point Service Inspection all year round to keep your garage door in tip top shape. Give us a call and set something up.
Although garage doors have only one job to do, their single job is one of the most important, when it comes to garages. After all they’re the doorways of a garage. When they’re working properly, all goes well until they stop working due to any malfunction. If you’re bothering about why is my garage door not closing? There can be a few reasons that may impact the working condition of a garage door opener. Here are a few things that can impact the working of a garage door opener:
The most common reason behind your garage door not opening is, probably something could be blocking your garage door completely closing.
If the safety sensor of your garage door opener is not working properly, it can be the reason why your garage door is not closing. Make sure you get them checked by a professional.
If the sensors of your garage door are not in the perfect alignment, your garage door won’t be closing properly.
In case of broken springs, which your garage door heavily relies on for the operation, the garage door opener couldn’t close.
One more reason for your garage door not closing properly is the damaged cables.
Tracks comprise of one of the most important components of a garage door. Any damage of these tracks can simply make your garage door unable to close completely.
Above are only a few aspects that can make a garage door not to close properly. If your garage door is not closing, it’s better to contact a professional and repair it. Triple B Garage Doors is one such professional company with right amounts of expertise and experience.
When your garage door looks worse than it actually is, it can destroy the total aesthetics of your house. A fresh batch of paint needs to be used in order to bring the garage door, and by extension, your house, to its former glory. However, there are numerous caveats and precautions that you need to take in order to ensure that the painting job goes smoothly, without any hiccups. So, this is a comprehensive list of steps which need to be taken when you are painting your garage door.
Any metal surface needs to be cleaned first Residue or any other sort of mold or bacteria can really harm the metal surface of the garage door. It can also cause serious problems to the main metal frame of the garage door. So, you would need to scrub the entirety of the metal surfaces so that there does not remain any sort of impediment. After the scrubbing, the application of soap, with sugar content is recommended.
Preparation is key When you are painting a metal door, which has been previously painted on, you must use sandpaper to remove the old paint and the flakes. Right after the de-greasing process has been completed, the metal door and its frame are exposed. After this, you need to apply a primer on the door to prepare it for a fresh batch of paint.
Priming the metal door for the paint Priming is one of the most important parts of the painting process. This is because of the fact that primers allow the paint to settle on the door properly, and leaves a fresh and proper look at the door. When you use the primer, make sure to follow the instructions which are provided by the manufacturer. The instructions should be a part of the primer container. Once the primer has dried (this process can take up to eight hours), paint the door as per your requirements.
Curb appeal is your home’s opportunity to make a first impression on potential buyers. Don’t you want it to be a good one? You probably thought to mow the lawn, wash the windows, and put away the toys on the patio, but did you consider the garage door?
If your open house isn’t gaining the attention you’re seeking, take a step back and look at your home-from the outside. The garage door is the largest moving object in your home and it’s how most people are going to come and go on a regular basis. The door you have on your home is the one that’s been there for fifty years and not all "antiques" are desirable.
You painted the inside of your home a nice neutral color because it helps boost resale value, right? However, Remodeling Magazine and the NAR (National Association of Realtors) state that replacing an outdated garage door has the highest return on investment. Garage doors add more curb appeal to your home which can increase it’s value drastically.
Beyond the aesthetic appearance of a brand new door, you are also adding a layer of insulation between the outside world and the interior of your garage. If your garage is attached to your home, this can be quite a factor in heating your home. Replacing your existing door with better insulation and a great design might seem like a costly expense, but when you compare it to improving the curb appeal of your home, it’s a no brainer.
A garage door opener can come in various forms, shapes and sizes. One of the most widely available garage door openers is chain drive garage door openers. However, in order to understand which garage door opener is the best for you, you need to understand how garage door openers work.
There are two main types of garage door openers, under which other types and subcategories come into play. These two types of garage door openers are shaft drives and trolley systems. There are others such as belt drives as well as screw drives. Here are a few things which you need to know about garage door openers.
Power Power is one of the most important aspects of garage door openers. It determines how easily garage doors are lifted and lowered. The garage doors work with a system of counterbalances, along with cables as well as springs, which determine how much force can be used for the lifting and lowering of the garage door. There is also a motor at work which is responsible for the height up to which the garage door opens.
Assembly Depending on the type of garage door opening system, there is an assembly which relies heavily upon the tension of the springs present in the system. These are all handled and powered with the help of an electric motor, which in turn is connected to your garage door opener. The garage door opener makes sure that the electric motor receives signals from it, as and when needed to open or close the door.
Maintenance You need to choose a garage door opener depending on how easily you can maintain it. The various types of garage door openers actually have different levels of maintenance and their own different set of problems. For example, a chain drive garage door opener can actually have the chain loosened, which in turn requires you to tighten the chain. If you do not tighten the chain, the garage door could come down extremely fast or it could get stuck indefinitely.
It’s that time of year again! The urge to purge takes over and we find ourselves looking over our homes to decide what needs organizing and revamping. As we sweep through each room, often times we look at the accumulated stuff and wonder…where am I going to put this now? Then the a-ha moment comes and the answer is “stick it in the garage.” While your garage is a great spot to store certain items, changes in temperature, exposure to the elements and a nosy critter can make it unsuitable for some belongings. Let’s go over some of those items and offer a better storing solution.
Paint
Changes in temperature can lead to discoloration as well as clumping and possible separation. Plus, the moisture of a cement floor can encourage cans to rust. A better solution would be to transfer a portion of paint-for touch up purposes- into a tight sealed container with the color mix noted in case a full can is needed in the future. Store in a closet that maintains an even temp all year round.
Canned Food
Again, varying temps in your garage can lead to a shorter shelf life and alter the taste of some foods. In Winter, you risk the chance that a frozen can could explode. Reexamine your pantry for areas where storage could be gained. Employ new shelving or an over the door rack that can accommodate cans.
Paper Goods/Fabric
Storage of these items may encourage a family of mice to make your garage their home. Moths and other bugs love to nibble on certain types of fabrics. If you must keep these items in the garage, make sure they are placed in quality, air-tight containers. Keep them off the ground on a higher shelf if possible.
Propane Tank
No one wants to run out of propane during a back-yard barbecue. Keeping a spare in the garage is hazardous. Tanks need to be kept in a well-ventilated area free from fumes or materials that could ignite it. Best to keep this item stored outside away from any structure.
A Refrigerator
It may be tempting to purchase a spare to keep drinks and stock up on frozen items but the unit will actually work harder trying to maintain an even temperature in the summer and winter months, thus increasing your electric bill. There are insulation and heating coil kits available, but do some math first to see what these will cost you over time. The price to store that great sale on frozen food may not be worth it.
Photos/Important Documents
That photo album you inherited from your grandparents, when exposed to fluctuating temperatures could grow mold over time and pages can get stuck together. The same applies to any document that may be difficult to replace. Set aside some time to scan important documents to your computer or invest in a fireproof box. Many stores offer photo-scanning services that compile all your cherished memories into one DVD.
As you continue to freshen up your homes this year, take care where you store items in and around the house as well. If reorganizing your garageis in the future, refer back to our blog to learn all the best tips and tricks to reclaim that space for your car again!
The world of outdoor design doesn’t move quite as fast as interior design. However, it’s still best to be on the edge of the trends if you’re making new changes to your home, in order to keep them relevant to the marketplace and raise the resale value of your home.
Here are a few design trends that we predict for the year 2018:
Texture: A few different elements are combining to feature texture as a way to add visual interest over other things (like bright color.) This means that houses are more likely to feature stonework, brick, shiplap, or stucco as opposed to generic acrylic siding. Texture is contrasted in different exterior surfaces to create layers and dimension.
Neutral Color: It may seem easy to state neutrals as a trend in home exteriors. After all, aren’t neutrals always “in”? That’s why you picked something bland! But 2018 is going to see a lot more thoughtful and specific gradients in the way neutrals are treated. Anticipate high contrast in how neutrals are handled on a home’s exterior, with subtle gradients of grey used in the majority of cases. These neutral colors help to accentuate the texture use in revived home materials.
Featured Extras: There are a lot of things that go into the design of your home’s exterior that you might not think about while you’re first considering the color of your house’s walls and trim. For example, soft and hardscaping garden elements that surround the house, fencing, garages, and even the front door. Instead of downplaying these elements and simply planning them to match with the home’s featured design, we’ll see a lot of these extra home elements being showcased. For example, there will be a lot more featured garages, statement landscaping pieces, and elaborate designs on fences.
Strong Accent Colors: A favorite from 2017 that will continue is a strong accent color in the design. This might mean a spanish orange door, an accent wall in the garden, or a bold color for the shutters.
Natural Elements: Another factor that supports the influx of texture is the re-incorporation of natural elements. Rather than using sleek plastic acrylics, people are craving raw natural wood and stone. Even red brick is seeing a dramatic comeback.
Eclectic, Mixed Styles: More and more people are deciding to throw out the rulebook for their chosen style. That means that you’ll see divergent philosophies like Mid-Century Modern and Cottage Style coming together. For example, you might find a rustic bench placed in a geometric yard. People are gathering together their favorite parts of different eras and creating new fusions.
There are also some trends that we’ll continue to see progress from last year, namely an emphasis on durability, ease of maintenance, and eco-friendly materials and techniques.
A Plus Garage Doors offers a variety of materials, styles, and colors so that you can adopt the best of the new trends whether you’re putting in a new garage door or updating an old one. Browse our gallery of new garage doors here.
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