The choice in favor of sectional doors
The manufacturer who will not praise his product is bad. But each of us, making a choice, is based on experience and knowledge. What criteria do we rely on when choosing garage doors:
- long service life;
- endurance;
- safety;
- resistance to hacking;
- ability to retain heat;
- convenience and aesthetic appeal.
Durability of sectional doors
Having installed the gate once, I do not want to return to their repair and even more so replacement. The first defect that can appear on the gate is rust. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand not only what material the gates are made of, but also what kind of protective coating they have. In order for it to protect the gate well from corrosion, 3 layers should be applied to the surface: 1. zinc, 2. primer, 3. decorative coating.
If you are offered a gate with a polyester paint coating, then consider: it is less resistant to abrasion due to the smoothness of the surface and poorly resists precipitation. Polyurethane coating with polyamide particles is more resistant to mechanical damage, precipitation, temperature changes, exposure to household detergents, burnout from the sun.
The hardware accounts for the main workload, so it is absolutely impossible to save on its quality, galvanized steel is not the best material for it.
Rollers with rolling bearings provide smooth, silent running of the gate and increased resistance to wear. The closed-type bearing has a special cover that protects the balls and grease inside the bearing from moisture and dust. Such rollers do not require replacement of lubricant, and this saves on service. Without protection from dirt and dust, the roller is erased, the structure is wedged, and due to excessive loads, the electric drive may burn out.
Panel strength
Each gate panel consists of steel sheets with sealing foam inside. If you save on adhesive varnish, which binds steel sheets and foam, then in the sun the panel may swell from overheating. The buyer does not have the opportunity to check its availability.
One of the vulnerable parts of the sectional doors is the hinges. Due to the unreliable design, they do not always cope with loads, which can lead to distortions and sagging of the canvas. Therefore, “bent sheet” loops are used, which withstand a high tensile load. They support the geometry of the gate, maintain the rigidity of the connection, provide additional structural strength.
Moreover, all sections of the gate have a closed loop. This eliminates the possible delamination of sandwich panels due to the sudden lowering of the gate and temperature changes. The rigidity and strength of the panels are given by 4 layers of metal in the places where the hinges are installed. The steel sheets are connected in a “lock” and the screws pass through 4 layers of metal. This makes the fastening of hinges and roller brackets as strong as possible.
Complete security
The gates must be safe. Otherwise, it’s a bad gate and they don’t belong in your garage. A system of protection against falling of the canvas in case of cable breakage and a system of protection against pinching fingers according to the strictest standards are often used. A built-in gate sensor is also installed on the gate. Pay attention: this may not be the basic configuration!
High resistance to hacking
Reliability today is measured not by monumentality, as it was in the Middle Ages and, as a tribute to the past, still remains in some garages, but by the time required for opening. The longer and louder the uninvited guests have to work, the better the gate. There is an opinion that sectional doors are not as reliable as, for example, swing gates and that they can be opened almost with a can opener. Well, try to do it! To overcome such an obstacle, you will have to work with serious tools, spending a lot of time.
Sectional doors, as an option, can be supplemented with an RC2 burglar protection system, which prevents penetration into the garage, and a system of protection against tampering.
Tightness and energy efficiency
Imagine a leaky gate in a heated garage. What do you think: how thick is the ice formed around the perimeter of the gate and will you be able to open them at all? Therefore, adjustable brackets help to fine-tune the structure during operation – to shift the position of the rollers so that there are no gaps between the canvas and the opening when the structure shrinks or when temperature and humidity changes.
The gate panels with a thickness of 40-45 mm provide thermal insulation equal to the thermal insulation of a brick wall with a thickness of 55-60 cm. This is one of the best indicators on the sectional door market! The tightness of the opening and protection from drafts is provided by an elastic frost-resistant seal made of EPDM material around the perimeter of the gate (including the lower part) and between the panels.
In the expensive series, frost-resistant EPDM seals with two elastic petals are installed along the perimeter of the gate, which additionally seals the structures, and the air chamber between the petals provides thermal insulation.
User-friendliness and design
A car is freedom of movement. But if your car is in the garage, then you are familiar with the “open/ close the gate” ritual, which you cannot do without every time you leave. If you are tired of it, you can equip the gate with automation and control them without leaving the car.
Some gates are convenient to open manually. A special spring mechanism compensates for the weight of the canvas, so that structures of any size can be easily opened and closed. A rack-and-pinion drive with a belt drive ensures silent operation. In expensive rulers, double rollers are responsible for the smoothness of the course and the silent movement of the canvas.
Another possibility of such gates is designer handles with colored overlays and a nameplate, possibly in a single color. The dimensions are selected individually with a height and width step of only 5 mm!