Sectional Overhead Garage Doors

         

Sectional garage doors are fast becoming one of the most popular and practical choices for a safe, very secure and easy to use versatile garage door system.
They are called sectional garage doors because they open and close in seperated individual panel sections, operating vertically without any swing out from the structural opening and tracking mechanism at all. Because of this operation almost any shape of garage opening can be installed to, i.e. arched, angled corners, etc.


Unusual shaped openings do not cause a problem with a sectional garage door


                                              WHAT IS A SECTIONAL GARAGE DOOR?




The majority of steel sectional garage doors  can be divided into two categories:

    Single skin steel panels - non insulated
    Double skin foam filled steel panels - insulated

Some of the larger manufacturers also produce very high quality timber sectional doors in various quality sourced softwoods and hardwoods such as Hemlock, European Oak, Iroko, Mahogany or Cedarwood. These are made to standard or bespoke designs up to 5000mm wide. If your requirement is for a heavy hardwood timber such as Oak a sectional door would be perfect as up and over and side hinged doors are only made up to 8 feet wide (2438mm) in European Oak.

Applications
Sectional garage doors will make full use of the space in front of or behind your garage opening as they all open vertically. This mechanism is ideal for shorter driveways, garages next to pathways and internal space problems with higher 4 x 4 and taller vehicles.
 

Up and over garage doors with retractable operating gear will always reduce your drive through width as the lifting arms sit between the framework when the door is open.	A sectional garage door will give you the full drive through width when open as there are no side lifting arms involved. The drive through height will also be higher than an up and over door.

Inside view of a typical manually operated sectional garage door.

 Video of door closing

Guide tracks will typically run horixontally at a higher level than the garage door opening height unlike one piece up and over garage door tracks.

Very well sealed all around the top, sides and bottom (if the floor is level).

Operation
The mechanical design of any sectional garage door is quite different to that of a one piece up and over garage door. The spring system will provide better and smoother assistance during operation and will be particularly useful on larger sized doors. All sectional garage doors can be either manual or remote control operated and in either case are very smooth and quiet because of excellent construction and design elements. The panels of any sectional door are required by law to have anti entrapment design at various points to prevent potential injury.

Finger entrapment is impossible due to design of door panel sections.

Easy to operate manually with excellent spring assisted mechanism and smooth, quiet movement.

No need to step away from the sectional garage door when operating due to the vertical lifting operation design.

Manual operation is much easier than up and over garage doors, especially on larger sizes as the springs assist throughout the entire movement of the door.

 

 



Materials
As mentioned above the majority of sectional garage doors are manufactured from galvanised steel with almost any colour powdercoat finish or tough new laminate woodgrain finishes available. There are 3 main materials for the sectional door panel construction.

Galvanised Steel
Timber - hardwood or softwood
GRP (fibreglass) see Vienna feature

The steel door panel sections of most manufacturers are woodgrain embossed on the front surface as standard to give a very practical and aesthetically pleasing appearance. Smooth finished panels are now readily available in steel and give a very simple contemporary look to compliment modern architecture. These sectional doors are known as 'silkgrain' doors and can be viewed in our product catalogue.

Timber sectional door panels are available in traditional boarded designs or cassetted panels as standard but with modern machinery and the use of composite timber panels almost any design can be routed into the door sections for an individual sectional door to be produced just for you. Timber sectional doors

An overview of the complete Hormann range is available as a PDF file

Sizing Information
The sectional garage door is extremely versatile in sizes for 2 reasons - Firstly the entire door itself not swinging through the opening means that when the door is installed to the inside of the opening the exact size of the door is not as important as an up and over door with the steel fixing frame designed to be either partially viewed or totally concealed. Secondly the strength in the panel, particularly the double skinned panel means that large widths are not a problem, as well as heights up to 3000mm. The largest available domestic sectional garage door width is currently 7500mm. Purpose made sizes do not cause a problem at all in steel, timber or GRP, but there are a vast range of standard sizes readily available.
As the sectional door does not go through the structural opening you can install standard sized doors behind openings that are slightly smaller - as long as the door design is not intruded upon, usually only on panelled door designs.

Installation positions
Sectional garage doors were originally designed to be installed behind the structural opening due to the original front mounted torsion spring mechanism and the large guides. The benefits of drivethrough width and height were also maximised by this installation position. The majority of sectional doors we install today are still like this but it is now possible to install any of the doors inbetween the structural opening with adapted installation kits and other spring mechanism variations. Sufficient headroom for the curve of the tracks and depth for the length of the tracks is usually the only issue to consider if constructing the garage from new.

Why insulated?
2 simple reasons for specifying an insulated sectional garage door - strength for security and outstanding thermal insulation properties.
All insulated sectional garage doors supplied by The Garage Door Centre are CFC free, foam filled, double skinned galvanised steel panel construction NOT single skin panels with polystyrene stuck to the inside face. The construction of the panels, whether 20mm or 42mm in thickness gives incredible strength and reduces damage from knocks and bumps.
Properly installed an insulated sectional door will give an incredibly good U value rating and reduce any heating costs on adjacent rooms such as utility rooms, etc. during the winter.

The additional cost for a 40 - 45mm double skinned insulated sectional door as opposed to an uninsulated single skin version is normally around 15 - 20% extra on the garage door price only. 20mm double skinned doors are available with many manufacturers as well but be aware the panel designs may be different. All other components are generally common to either garage door panel type such as weatherseals, locking, paint finish, etc.

Manual or Remote Control?
The sectional garage door is one of the few garage door types where manual or electric operation gives equal levels of security, mainly due to the geometry and design of the door mechanism itself. The 4 main manufacturers - Hormann, Cardale, Garador and Novoferm all have different spring lifting operation methods but the one common factor is ease of use, especially compared to a one piece up and over garage door.
A remote control operator is normally highly recommended if the main use for the garage is for a vehicle or the garage door is larger than 3 metres wide and used frequently. Of course always remember it is incomparable to open a garage door at the simple push of a button rather than unlocking a handle and lifting a manual door, especially in the dark or rain!

Security
Sectional garage doors are definitely one of the most secure types of garage door available due to the excellent panel construction and the fact that the door is held into steel guides by at least 5 rollers each side of the door giving great resistance to forced entry ettempts. Combined with a good quality electric operator the door can be nearly impossible to force entry without very special tools (and a lot of noise!).

Pedestrian Door Option
A masterpiece of engineering, the optional pedestrian (or wicket) door is a superb solution for the household using their garage regularly but not necessarily for a vehicle. Regular access to the freezer, tools, bikes, etc. is easy with the large centrally positioned door, which can be used without opening the entire garage door.


Excellent high security is standard with an optional overhead door closer to ensure the door always stays closed. The bottom threshold is only 10mm high making access with bikes, scooters, wheelbarrows and the like very easy indeed.

The sectional door with wicket inset door is only available in the 42mm double skinned insulated option due to panel strength required overall. Several beautiful new finishes are now available including the Mahogany, Rosewood, Dark Oak, Night Oak and Golden Oak vinyl coated woodgrain finish.

Manufacturers for this type of sectional garage door include Hormann, Carteck and Novoferm.

For an overview on the Hormann range of sectional garage doors click here

Sectional Garage Doors Overview

Sizes
Manufacturers order reference sizes for sectional garage doors always refer to the exact structural opening sizes when the door is being installed to the inside face, however the size of the garage opening can vary considerably as sectional garage doors do not swing through the opening and can therefore be installed behind narrower or wider openings as long as the internal pier return size is sufficient.
Sectional garage doors can be installed between structural openings but there is no exact formula for frame size allowance as the headroom required varies considerably depending on the gear type ordered. Generally the overall width of most sectional garage doors including the tracks and framework is 200mm wider than the ordering size - allowing for some tolerance.

Panels
The panel construction of steel sectional garage doors is usually either single skin galvanised steel or double skin with an insulated core. The thickness of double skinned door panels will vary from 20 to 45 mm giving greater insulation properties the thicker the door panel. A range of timber and GRP sectional garage doors are also available and the GRP (fibreglass) doors are available as single or double skinned insulated panels, timber offers its own natural insulating properties the insulated door panels also offer greater strength and resistance to damage from impact.
Timber sectional doors have the greatest flexibility of design and Hormann doors offer a routed door panel option where the pattern can be specifically chosen and cut into either composite Nordic Pine or Hemlock timber surface. Vertical lines can be achieved using this method.

Gear Operation
Sectional garage doors have a varied choice of either torsion or tension spring mechanisms. The spring position can be either side mounted tension, front mounted torsion, rear mounted torsion or horizontal inside track mounted tension.
     
Each different option requires a slightly different headroom requirement and the important structural fixing points vary for installing the springs and tracks. Proper installation of these springs can be paramount to correct, trouble free, safe operation. All European manufacturers now provide zinc plated or galvanised springs as standard with only inferior spring operating mechanisms coming from American manufacturers.

Handles/Locking
All manufacturers of sectional garage doors offer the handle as an option as most are remote control operated. The handles and locking methods offered vary considerably from single point rotary latch to cable operated double latch. Black handles again are the normal standard with euro profile cylinder locking. Many coloured or metallic finishes are offered by most manufacturers.

Frames
Sectional garage doors do not have a sub frame like an up and over door as it does require a structural surface to install directly to or, if inbetween fitted, a special installation kit. The frame is not box section like the up and over and is not a head and legs that lock together. The frame section is really only to carry the operating gear and spring mechanism and relies on a good, straight, sound surface to install onto.
When the door is installed inbetween the opening you will always require a cover strip of some kind as the legs are predrilled for behind fitting as well as being only available in limited colours. This can be timber, Upvc or special designed cover strips available from Hormann.

Weatherseals
All sectional garage doors come with a good level of high quality rubber weatherstrips already built into the bottom door panel, the sides of the frame legs and the top panel fascia or door panel. Properly installed with a level floor the sectional door can provide a very high level of sealing against wind, rain, dust and vermin.

Automation
All sectional garage doors can be automated easily as they are very well balanced all the way through their operation at all sizes and can be automated using almost any good make of garage door operator.
The best levels of security will be obtained by using an operator with a built in anti force mechanism built into the towing arm area. The Hormann Promatic and Supramatic operators have a patented latch device and Marantec operators have an electronic mechanism to ‘reset’ any forced movement.
Combined with a good operator the sectional garage door will be one of the most secure doors available for your garage with all the benefits of insulation and panel strength included.

For brochures and further technical details call free on (0800) 525442 or Email

Hormann sectional doors

Carteck sectional doors

Wessex GRP sectional doors

Novoferm sectional doors