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Every garage door is unique. Here's some of their stories...

Garage doors and garage door openers live in their own little worlds, or at least some of us would like to think as much. When it comes to understanding them though it isn’t really so hard. Most of the time they need absolutely no thought or maintenance at all, but from time to time it can’t hurt to check up on them. That is the tricky part, when do you need to be worried, when do you need to take action, when do you need to call somebody to help you find the source of a problem and of course when can you just brush something off? To figure this all out it would help to be a garage door professional yourself of course, but we aren’t all that lucky. You might also be able to get the run down from your local garage door professional, but again we don’t all have that sort of luxury. If you don’t have all of those options then you can be thankful that you found this article. In this article we are going to go through the sights, sounds and even smells of a garage door and garage door opener. This will of course also touch on the garage door as a whole, but it will mainly focus on the garage door and garage door opener portions of the garage.


Garage Spring Cleaning

2016-03-21 12:41:42

Depending on where you are in the world or how you feel about what brings about each season you are already feeling like its spring or just starting to see spring on the horizon. The clocks have been moved and there’s just one thing to do that many may dread, spring cleaning. It’s really not the only time that you should be cleaning your house, but it gives us a reason and hopefully the motivation to go that extra mile and hopefully be more productive in our cleaning. One thing that should be included in your spring cleaning this year is your garage. The garage is one of the often dreaded portions of the house that gets glossed over time and time again, and by glossed over I mean piked up with junk and dust covered. The garage is one of your greatest rooms if you let it be and keep it cleaned and organized. That part though isn’t always so easy though, which is why there is no better time than now to clean out your garage and get it into a more respectable state. This means that you will be able to use your garage a lot more and will just end up appreciating it a lot more as well.


Starting a business on your own can be tough. Doing so today has become easier with the age of the internet. Everything seems like it could be a service or a business and the world is just waiting to pay you for following that one weird passion of yours to the bank. The thing is though, you need a starting point. That is where the garage comes in. It may not be the flashiest place to start a business, but it comes with a lot of benefits that you might not otherwise think about. In this article we are going to look at some of the reasons why you would ever want to start you business in your garage. We will look at how the garage door and garage door opener come into play in this situation as well, obviously. We will also throw out a few ideas on how to turn your garage into your perfect office or at least your perfect pre-office space. It may not be a fancy co-working space downtown, but the space where your car used to be might just be all you need to start the business that makes you rich or at least happy some day.


Garage Door Insulation TIps

2016-03-16 12:07:43

There’s a heatwave happening pretty much all over. Whether it is making your area a lovely crisp 65 when you’re used to colder this time of year or a balmy 80, winter it seems is ending a bit early this year. What better time then to think about your energy bill right? Prices on gas and natural gas continue to fall, but who knows how long that will last. If you also enjoy minimizing your carbon footprint there is no time like the present to think about lessening your energy usage by upping the role your garage door plays in keeping your home’s temperature constant. When it comes to your garage door there are really three things that can help to keep your home from using so much energy. There is the door itself, the insulation and the weather stripping or seal. The garage is a large room and in some cases may be the largest most open room i your home. This means that there is a large amount of air in the room and this can be used to create a pretty nice buffer zone actually to keep your home’s temperature relatively constant. Heat and cold both will move in and out of your home, especially through drafty areas in your home which is why minimizing them is a very good idea.


Garage Spaces Part 2

2016-03-13 20:02:04

In the last article we looked at why you would ever want to do something as odd as work from your garage. Garage’s have the stereotype of being musty, greasy and even a bit dirty. You keep your cars and forgotten boxes in them so there is really no reason to spend more than the minimum amount of time that it takes to move from your car to your door and vice versa in them. However this doesn’t have to be the case. In the last article we really focused more on why you need to move out of your home and into the garage, and not so much on the exact reasons that your garage is better in many ways than the rest of your home for a workspace. If you hadn’t already guess then that is exactly what this article is going to touch on. We’ll talk about things like having your own space, the continued use of your garage door and flexibility of having a garage as your workspace. If you aren't convinced that you need your own workspace you can look back at the previous article, if you are reading this and thinking that you will never be using your garage as a business you can go look at more directly garage door related articles however for everyone else, let’s get started.


The Garage Workspace Part 1

2016-03-11 20:00:50

When it comes to garages there are a lot of things that you can do with the space. The most common use of the space is to store things like your car, some clothes and things that you are really just putting off parting with. While cars are a great thing to keep in your garage you may have a two car garage with only one car needing to be stored or even no cars at the moment. Maybe you are a big cyclist or just enjoy taking public transit everywhere for the environmental benefit. Whatever your reasoning is for not owning a car your garage should never be a reason that keeps you beholden to a car. Garages are one of the most versatile rooms in your entire home and so can store a car for the first five years you own a home, be used for something else for the next eight and then spend another ten years storing two cars. These changes will all even be relatively easy and cheap to undergo making the garage shift to meet your home’s needs quite easily despite the large difference of what those actual needs are. One of the best ways to use your garage if it isn’t being used to store cars is for a workspace.


What Do Garage Doors Do

2016-01-03 20:54:51

Garage doors are important for a variety of a reasons, they are one of the best investments you can make while performing quite a few functions to you. The cost is low and the utility is high, it’s all stuff you’ve undoubtedly heard before, so what makes your garage door such a good investment? Why is this door really any better than your front door or even your back door? Well if those are the questions you find yourself asking then we’ve got the answers. If you haven’t got a garage door yet and are trying to think about why you should put any amount of money into it this article might help shed some light on the idea for you. If you have already got a garage door and just want to pat yourself on the back for how great of an idea it was to get a garage door then this will work to. Finally if you just want to spend a few minutes’ time to appreciate your garage door for all of the things it does to make your life a little easier then this article is for you too. Pretty much anyone with a garage door could use a good read of this article.


Garage Door Parts

2015-12-30 20:51:43

Garage door parts will come and go. It is a fact of life, or it is at least a fact of life that things eventually wear out. And it’s not your fault, in fact it’s better that it happens than garage doors just being made of one giant part or never wearing out. While it may be odd to think of a problem with something never wearing out, but if it didn’t wear out you would be stuck with outdated garage doors and garage door systems that both looked bad and out of date and also could even be a security risk. That may be a tough thing to wrap your mind around, but the easy thing to get a handle on is that your garage door’s parts and your garage door opener’s parts are both going to wear out. When this happens you might experience a bit of confusion, there are many ways to move forward and you want to know what is the best course of action. Naturally for something like this you would turn to the internet. Thankfully we have got some answers for you, now the best answer depends a lot on your exact situation and the garage door part that broke and finally your mechanical savviness, all of which will come into play when deciding what to do.


Last time we took a look at all of the things to think about when you are thinking about your noise reduction needs, in relation to your garage and of course garage doors. It is a surprisingly complex problem with a number of different possible solutions. From the natural noise reduction that wooden garage doors provide to the built in insulation used for metal garage doors like aluminum or steel ones there are a lot of different choices and it can often be dizzying. The good news is that if you take a look at that article the information is largely similar for when it comes to reducing the temperature exchange for your garage door. And that is exactly what we are going to do in this article. We will be looking at the relationship between the two effects of insulation and focusing mainly on insulating against the heat or cold moving through your garage door. One of the main reasons that many of us look at insulating our garage door is because of the amount of heat that may escape through our garage doors and the amount of cool air that may escape during the hotter months. Either way it seems that our garages just don’t do a good enough job compared to the other walls, windows and doors in our house, but that is where your garage door’s insulation comes into play. One of the main reasons for focusing on your garage’s temperature is because you have a room above your garage. If you have an occupied room above your garage they may complain about the heat or lack thereof because the garage is too hot or cold. In order to fix this you can further insult that room and its floor but you will most likely need to look at insulating your garage door more efficiently.


Garage door insulation is important for a variety of reasons. There are also a few different types of garage door insulation so keeping track of them can be a bit of a headache, but hopefully with a little more knowledge of the different types of insulation and what they can do for you it will all become clearer. With that said it’s probably pretty obvious as to what this article is going to be about, if you guess garage door insulation then you are correct. There are really three different types of garage door insulation to talk about, there is natural insulation that comes naturally from the materials used, built-in or installed insulation and aftermarket insulation. Of all three they really go in order of efficiency that way. Natural insulation is obviously the most efficient, built in is slightly less efficient and then after market insulation is usually less efficient than that. Then there is the case of the two different types of insulation, there is temperature which should seem obvious as well as sound which again is relatively self explanatory. In some ways these two things have a lot in common, but they also have some differences so it is important to take those into account when you are thinking about which one is most important to you or if they are equally so. In this article we will be focusing on noise reduction, but be on the look out for another article in the near future about temperature control.


Garage Doors And Your Pets

2015-12-17 22:34:08

Cat ladies, dog lovers and bird … people all have a few things in common, they all love their animals and they all need a place to put them. If you are on this blog you can probably assume there is one place that may just be perfect for those animals, and it has to do with your garage door. If you guessed that far then you will probably have come to your own conclusion that your garage might just be a great place for your pets to call home for a number of different reasons. Now some of us will like our dog to sleep at the end of the bed or our bird to live in our room, but for others you want them to have a bit of their own space. The garage makes a perfect spot for this for a number of reasons that we will go through, and the great part about it is that you can actually still use your garage as a place to store your cars if you only have one or two pets that don’t need all of your garage’s space. If you don’t believe it yet just take a look at the great reasons we’ve thought of already. Of course these are all situational and you should know that keeping your pets in your garage all the time or during extreme temperatures can be very dangerous for their health, so make sure to be careful if you choose to set your pets up in the garage to make sure you do so safely.


When you get into the thought area of thinking about getting a new garage door installed or perhaps your are simply designing your new house and thinking about the garage area you might start to come to have questions about your garage door. Are garage doors really so necessary for your home? Why does my car need to be protected in a garage, wouldn't a simple overhang work just as well? And lastly, aren’t garage doors really just glorified walls? While these questions aren’t all that necessary to answer aside from the first one it is nevertheless fun to explore them. In this article we’ll look at all three for a bit to prove the necessity of a garage and garage door to any of the doubters out there while having some fun at the same time. If you are like most home owners or future home owners you will want everything in your home to be working for you to make your life just a bit easier at every turn. This of course is the draw of the garage and the garage door, and if you don’t believe that yet, just stay tuned.


Garage Door Cleaning

2015-12-07 22:11:20

Your garage door is a representation of your home and you, mostly because it is something that you will use every day and that many people can see. Your garage door is one of the first things that people lay their eyes on when they come to your home, which is great if you have quality garage door that you are proud of. However, even the best garage doors need a bit of care and attention. The constant use and weather wearing can cause your garage door to lose a bit of its luster. The great thing about garage doors though is that when this happens you don’t need to panic. There is a way to get your garage door looking as good as new with barely any hassle at all. There are a number of ways you can bring your garage door back up to snuff, so in this article we will go through the easiest ways to get your garage door back to its former beauty. If you have got a garage door that you used to be happy with but find yourself cringing at now then stay tuned for some ideas of how to bring yourself back to the old days.


Garage Door Decals

2015-12-02 21:57:51

Garage door decals have a mixed bag of opinions about them, but there is no denying the fact that they do draw attention to themselves in most cases. Garage door decals have their own pluses and minuses and in this article we are going to go through them. Your garage door is a beautiful canvas for you to use, or it is a place to simply say nothing at all. The choice is yours, but getting a garage door decal for most is the former more than the latter. Garage door decals though are not what many think, often times garage doors can look great with the rest of the home because of a tasteful garage door decal. However, the bulk of the decals out there on the market are the ones that you think of when you think of garage door decals. Your sports team logos, your funny fake vehicles, and even your holiday decals are all choices that you have for your garage door. Our homes are traditionally a source of personal expression for many, and garage doors allow a great deal of self-expression no matter how you choose to use it. Garage door decals get a lot of flak for being distasteful in many respects, but today we will just try to look at the real pros and cons of them.


Your Garage Door's Security

2015-11-26 11:30:10

A large part of home security is making sure that your home is not only secure, but making sure that you as a home owner feel that your home is secure. Oftentimes one of the toughest parts of a break in are the psychological consequences of no longer feeling safe in your own home or feeling that your things are safe in your own home. For this reason home security is not only important for financial reasons but also for your own personal well being. Seeing as your home’s largest and most used entry way is the garage door it is important to know what you can do to be and feel safer in regard to your garage door’s security. This should also help you to understand some of the ways to improve your home’s security around your whole house, but for the most part the focus of this article will be just a few tips on how to secure your garage door from intruders and the odd overly nosy neighbor if you must. The biggest tips that can be given have already been covered, but to summarize they are to get to know your neighbors and to keep your garage door closed whenever it doesn’t have to be open. Aside from those there are a number of other things you can do to keep your garage door from being the sore point in your home’s security.


Recycling Garage Doors

2015-11-07 17:33:45

Garage doors and all of their accessories, the garage door remote, garage door springs, chains, and what not all were made to last. That means that when you end up wanting to renovate your garage and get and entirely new garage door and garage door opener you will be left with some garbage when it’s all over. Whether it’s an entire dented garage door panel or just some old garage door springs, brackets and bolts there are going to be things that you need gone and that others could possibly find useful. Oftentimes when we get work done on our homes we are given the choice of having all of our waste left for us to figure out or having it all taken away to go to the dump somewhere. With all of the scrap metal and vinyl that might come with your garage door though you might have better ideas for you trash. A large portion of the metal used in your garage door systems is recycled so if you want to do the earth friendly thing then you might want to return the favor by recycling some of your own materials. The merits of recycling things like the wood from pencils or paper products is still under a microscope as to exactly how effective the process is, but for things like the metal used in your garage door the verdict is in, and it is certainly good for the environment. If your garage door is aluminum it is most likely of higher quality and also much easier to get a large quantity of it as opposed to something like aluminum cans, which is where most of our aluminum comes from and goes to. For these reasons recycling your garage door and some of the other parts is a great way to feel good about yourself and do something good for the environment. Depending on where you might live you may even be able to get some money back for the large quantity of metal you bring to recycle. Recycling metal in many cases is as simple as melting the metal down and pouring it into new casts. This makes things like garage doors perfect candidates for recycling because they are so easy to reuse and energy efficient. The other big metal that is going to be in your garage door set up is steel. Steel garage doors, brackets, springs and tracks can all be melted down as scrap and turned into more of the same. The steel found in garage doors is often stainless in order to stand up to the elements, and of very high quality and so is in high demand compared to other scrap metals. If your garage door is something like fiberglass or wood you will have less success recycling it as fiberglass is not widely recycled and it can be tough to find a place to give it to. On the other hand you can certainly find an earth conscious way to get rid of a wooden garage door, but you most likely won’t see too much money from it, if any. The trouble with recycling something so big for most people is knowing where to hand it in and knowing how to get it there. This all comes down to where you live really. You can ask your local contractor or garage door professional for their expertise, but your best bet is to usually look on your towns website or simply google it. If you are in luck there could be a town run pick up coming up which means you’d just have to leave your garage door and what not out by the street and they will do the rest for you. This means that you probably won’t get money for the scraps, but you will also be doing barely any work to recycle your goods. Other times you may need to bring the scraps to a local recycling center which means you will need a vehicle big enough to fit at least part of a garage door. This is where the amount of effort you are willing to put in comes into play. If you are willing to bring your scrapped garage door and garage door parts to your local recycling center then you may as well try and find a place that will give you some money back for you hard work. While it’s not going to pay for your new garage door the extra money may make the money you spent on your garage door a little more affordable. In the end there are a number of ways to make sure that your old garage door gets taken care of properly. The important thing to do is to make sure that you do your research before sending your garage door professional away and make sure that you can handle bringing the scrap to wherever it needs to go and that you won’t have to pay for the metal to get recycled. Your garage door professional may have some advice for you or may even offer to simply scrap the door themselves which will save you the hassle but could also lose you a small amount of money. When it comes to recycling your garage door materials it really comes down to what is available to you and what you are willing to do. It is best to know what you are getting into so talk to your garage door professional or those who have recently had their garage doors replaced to find out more about the local landscape. Remember to at the very least make sure that your garage door is getting taken away responsibly so that you can rest easy knowing your garage door won’t be disintegrating slowly in a landfill nearby. Garage doors and garage parts are made out of easily recyclable metals so finding a local depot or dump shouldn’t be too hard if you aren’t feeling up to getting the scrap value for your garage door.




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