Automated garage doors are very common on the continent and in the US, but in the UK they’ve taken longer to come into the mainstream. Now, however, with better technology and availability, it’s become very easy to convert your garage door to electronic opening for a reasonable cost. Even when buying a new garage door entirely, the addition of a motor does not add a huge amount to the full cost of the door, with some types coming with an automatic opening as standard.
WHY CHOOSE AN AUTOMATED GARAGE DOOR?
There are many reasons why homeowners opt for an electric motor for their garage door – it’s not just to do with modern convenience:
To automate your existing garage door, you’ll have to take a few things into account. Firstly, the condition of your door is a large deciding factor when considering whether it’s suitable for conversion. An old, dented or warped door is not going to work very well with an electric motor and should really be replaced for safety and security reasons.
Canopy garage doors (where the door itself protrudes from the entrance when the door is fully open) are difficult to convert to automated opening and only newer, well-looked-after canopy doors tend to cope well with the conversion. You need some additional equipment called a bow arm kit, which can push up the cost.
Tracked garage doors (which open like a canopy door but slide back into the garage fully, rather than protruding from the entrance) are perfect for converting to electronic opening. Doors like this are commonly installed with motors and are often converted after being in use as a manual door very successfully.
Sectional garage doors also lend themselves well to automated opening, requiring a motor just like the ones used for tracked doors and the rare canopy door which is suitable for conversion. Roller garage doors are often motorised as standard, but if they aren’t, then a different type of motor is required and it may mean you have to replace the whole door.
Every single garage door in our roller range comes with an automatic opening as standard. The motor is located in the door roll itself, which is mounted above, within or just outside the opening. This means it does not take up a lot of room on the ceiling of your garage, unlike the motor for other types of garage doors.
Our sectional garage doors are available in either a motorised or manual version, although you can change your mind and convert your door one way or the other if you feel you have made the wrong choice.
Our tracked doors come as manual as standard, but it’s easy to upgrade to automatic opening by adding a door motor from our accessories section. Canopy doors, as mentioned above, are tricky to convert and we at Evander prefer to install them as manual only. This is because we like to ensure our customers are getting great service and value for money – the inefficiencies of a converted canopy door may not help us to achieve this and therefore we always suggest a tracked garage door instead.