Keep the Bugs Out and Other Useful Garage Door Blogs

One of the most important decisions you'll need to make when picking out a garage door is whether to go for a vertically opening option or a side-hinge door. The difference is easy enough to understand. While a vertically opening garage door opens from the bottom, a side-hinge door swings open to the side. 

Side-hinge garage doors do offer their own unique benefits, but most homeowners find that a traditional vertically opening door will better fit their needs. Here are just four reasons why you should learn more about this kind of automatic door. 

1. Terrain Concerns

One of the main issues with side-hinge garage doors is that they need the space right in front of your garage to be clear. Unfortunately, many homes have a driveway that slopes upwards from the garage entrance. This is often unnoticeable until you try fitting a side-hinge door and find the slope gets in the way. With a vertically opening door, this won't be an issue.

2. Reduced Outside Parking

Of course, you'll also need to ensure there's space to swing open a side-hinge door whenever you want to access the garage. That makes it harder to keep one car on the driveway. It also means that anything from kid's bikes to gardening gear might have to be moved out of the way whenever the doors must be opened or closed. As such, anyone without a particularly long driveway is likely to experience repeated inconveniences from a side-hinge door.

3. Width Limitations

You're most likely to see side-hinge garage doors fitted for single-car garages. That's because they can only be made up to a maximum width if they're to properly swing open. While they can be used for two-car garages, you might still find the entryway restricted, which will make getting both vehicles inside more troublesome than it needs to be. With a vertically opening garage door, width limitations aren't likely to be an issue.

4. Hard to Make Automatic

Most people prefer automatic garage doors over manual ones, and it isn't hard to see why. All it takes is the push of a button to have the door opened or closed, so you'll save yourself from everyday inconveniences and never have to jump out in bad weather simply to open or close your garage door. Unfortunately, side-hinge garage doors are more awkward and expensive to make automatic than vertically opening garage doors. As such, you may be stuck with a manual door unless you want your costs to soar.