What Doors are Available Insulated?
The Garage Door Centre has always specialised in insulated garage doors, entrance doors and side doors. The term 'insulated' is often very loosely used in the door industry to describe a product, and it is important to measure expectations properly. To get proper levels of useful insulation in any door does require some careful thought as to the installation position, as well as peripheral items to ensure the very best seal within the structural opening. A double skinned panel section may not result in a suitable level of insulation once installed if the installation is not correct.
With Northern Europe becoming progressively more 'Eco Friendly', the internal garage space and surrounding area is no exception, especially of course when it is an integral garage with either a room above, to the side, or behind it. A lot of heat can be lost from the house with a single skinned steel garage door, with no sealing to the sides and bottom during the winter. Apart from this we find ever-increasing numbers of householders using their garage for anything but a vehicle: offices, gymnasiums, games rooms, workshops and just general storage of many higher value items all included.
There are many different types of mechanisms providing garage doors with medium to high levels of insulation. The five main types are set out below, with the addition of our hugely successful entrance door range either in aluminium or steel, both offering very high levels of security and insulation with some incredible designs and finishes. Sectional Garage Doors Vertically rising insulated steel panels, where the panels operate behind a heavily weather-sealed framework, provide one of the highest levels of insulation for any of the garage doors currently in the UK. Hormann also now offer a 'Thermoframe' kit, further enhancing the insulation at the sides and top of the door when closed. The door panels will be generally made from either 20mm or 40-45mm thick double skinned steel sections with a foam central core. Due to their design, sectionals are also very strong and secure, another desirable feature for any door! Hormann, Garador and Carteck offer the best in insulated domestic sectional doors.
Vertically rising roller doors have some of the same properties as the sectional door, with the built-in weather seals in the tracks, however the insulation levels cannot ever be as high. This is because each slat is pivoted to the next slat, and as there are many slats the installed U-value is always going to be compromised in a roller door. There are some semi-commercial insulated roller doors that do offer higher levels of insulation and security too - take a look at the Hormann SB.
Two types of round the corner generally exist, side sectional doors and round the corner doors produced from the same sort of slats as the insulated roller door. For insulated side sectional doors, the Hormann HST is the best option, especially with the new floor rail and bottom seal to further improve insulation.
A little gem of a garage door system is the Carteck insulated side hinged door range, offering 42mm double skinned steel panels with a double rebated leaf and frame with built in seals. This type of traditional door system is particularly appealing to most as it also tackles the pedestrian entrance requirements with ease, also offering the option on some models of a 1/3rd and 2/3rd split, rather than a 50/50 split. Side hinged doors don't generally spring to mind as an ideal insulated door option, but properly specified with a suitable threshold seal system they can be the perfect answer for many garages.
The Securlap is a totally unique vertically rising garage door but without any internal tracking at all. The door splits across the middle and one panel will rise to sit neatly underneath the other. The door panels are constructed from double skinned timber or steel panels at 75mm thick with a honeycomb core filling. Rubber seals are fitted all around the door, frame and between the two panels, offering high levels of insulation combined with the double skinned panels.
We specialise in the superb Hormann Thermopro steel and the TOP Prestige aluminium entrance doors. Both of these ranges offer some of the highest levels of insulation of any entrance door available in the UK. With door panel thickness ranging from 46mm to 100mm these doors not only provide excellent heat and sound insulation, but are also amongst the most secure.
