Home »
Limited Headroom Solutions
Limited Headroom Solutions
Are you looking for the best garage door solution for a garage with limited headroom?
This issue is reasonably common on flat roof garages, or very large garages where the lintel size and general construction has taken up a lot of potential internal space to provide sufficient strength in the roof.
Final Drive Through Dimensions
What MUST be remembered is that many garage doors might work with what appears to be little headroom requirement, but the real dimension you need to work with is your ‘drive through height’ when the door is fully opened. For example, a retractable up and over garage door only needs about 60mm of ‘headroom’ above the door height to operate. However, when the door is opened you will potentially lose between 100 and 200mm, with the door panel hanging down in the opening, below the head frame.
It is important to pay attention to your final height when the door is opened. This will allow you to avoid having a garage which will not accommodate your vehicle, and perhaps even hitting your head when entering your garage!
A 7 foot retractable garage door height will NOT give you a 7 foot drive through!!
Ideal Doors
So, what are the best doors to minimise a loss in drive through height and also be accommodated with little headroom?
Side Hinged Garage Doors
Side hinged or ‘swing’ garage doors require very little headroom. They swing outwards during use and do not impact on the final drive through dimensions. The only headroom required is for the sub fixing frame head section. This is generally between about 50 and 75mm depending on the make, model and material of the doors.
Modern, double-skin, steel hinged doors are becoming very popular because of their insulating properties, security and ease of use with practical, maintenance free operation too.
Round the Corner and Sliding Garage Doors
Sliding garage doors which can also turn around corners internally require very little headroom as there is only a steel top track section that needs to be accommodated for.
Once fully opened, there is no infringement on the opening height, and in most cases only 70 - 100mm of headroom is required above the door panels for the track sections.
Sectional Doors
A sectional door using certain mechanism and spring arrangements for lifting can not only be accommodated in 100mm of head space, but can also fully open without any hang down on the bottom panel. However, there are only a limited number of sectional door models that can currently achieve this, and it always relies on the use of an electric operator to achieve the full height every time.
Compact Roller Garage Doors
There are smaller curtain roll sizes available with a range of roller shutter doors up to around 3m wide. Using smaller slats, they can roll into a 250mm size box containing the curtain when opened.
Along with a small hang down on the bottom slat, this means there is an overall headroom requirement nearer to 300mm before you have your clear drive through height.
Now available is the fantastic ‘Qompact’ roller door which only requires 205mm of headroom, but is available up to 5m wide!!
This is a roller shutter door designed originally for being a hurricane proof shutter. Achived by using a patented system of extruded aluminium slats smaller at the top than the bottom, the roll size is as small as possible when rolled up.
When rolled out however, this is a very strong and secure roller door, with an impressive low headroom requirements of 205mm.
Another popular method when there is no headroom at all is to install the roller garage door to the outside face of the garage which also provides the very best length in the garage too.
With a small roll and a chamfered edge hood cover there is no real need to worry about the aesthetics of this option. It also gives the chance to use a wider range of door types and specifications, although you must be aware you will effectively see the ‘back’ of the door curtain, the concave side.
Counterbalanced Up and Over Doors
When you fit a one piece up and over behind an opening, and have the option for the door panel to not swing outwards, then it is possible to fit these doors behind arches and other shapes and maintain the full height when open.
The non-swing out mechanism of a Silvelox means it is possible to design the door to clear the opening fully when open. Note that this is assuming there is sufficient room inside behind the opening.
Contact the Experts
Whilst a lack of headroom is a common issue in a garage for optimising the garage opening, there is just as many issues with the width too; many garage doors reduce the width of the drive through clearance when the door is open.
For further details on headroom solutions, dimensions and prices on the very widest and best garage doors available call us now on (01933) 229135.
