I intend to replace my "up and over" single garage door. I am considering
replacing it with a twin walled aluminium insulated roller shutter door
(such as the Seceuroglide) because:

* It will provide good weatherproofing in an exposed position
* Automatic operation is a convenience when the garage is my only off road
parking
* The lack of a frame means a larger opening provides easier access
* The open door will not be an obstruction to the open car tailgate

Appearance is a relatively minor consideration.

I do however have concerns about how rugged such a door will be, given the
comparatively lightweight construction. My garage faces a service road,
and kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls hitting
hard against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited control over
such activities.

Does anyone have any comments - as this must be a fairly common situation.
I am not too concerned about minor paint damage or scuffing, but rather the
door becoming damaged such that it will not function correctly.

Andrew

After serious thinking Andrew wrote :
I intend to replace my "up and over" single garage door. I am considering
replacing it with a twin walled aluminium insulated roller shutter door (such
as the Seceuroglide) because:

I did that.


* It will provide good weatherproofing in an exposed position

You loose the protection of the canopy, if it is of that type.
You gain much better draft proofing and insulation. They also tend to
drip inside from the roll, when opened up wet.

* Automatic operation is a convenience when the garage is my only off road
parking
* The lack of a frame means a larger opening provides easier access

Obviously you still have the guides either side of the door, but you
fit these within the opening, or to the back of the opening. With he
first you loose some width, the second you loose some length.

* The open door will not be an obstruction to the open car tailgate

Appearance is a relatively minor consideration.

I do however have concerns about how rugged such a door will be, given the
comparatively lightweight construction. My garage faces a service road, and
kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls hitting hard
against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited control over such
activities.

They are supposed to be more secure than an up and over - there are
locked into the guide rails all the way down. I would also not expect
mine to be anymore susceptible to damage than the steel one it
replaced.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

I do however have concerns about how rugged such a door will be, given
the
comparatively lightweight construction. My garage faces a service road,
and kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls
hitting hard against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited
control over such activities.

They are supposed to be more secure than an up and over - there are locked
into the guide rails all the way down. I would also not expect mine to be
anymore susceptible to damage than the steel one it replaced.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

My lad (learner driver) backed into an almost new one belonging to a
neighbour on the shared access. Only very gently, but it was enough to jam a
few slats in the guide. Had it been mine, I would have at least tried to
spring them out and put up with the cosmetic damage. But not wishing to
upset the neighbour, I let the kid foot the £400 bill (and he had to lend
the guy his car while the installers fixed it since the car was trapped
inside).

From this experience, particularly if I wanted a secure one, I think I would
go for steel, not alloy.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
newshound wrote:


My lad (learner driver) backed into an almost new one belonging to a
neighbour on the shared access. Only very gently, but it was enough
to jam a few slats in the guide. Had it been mine, I would have at
least tried to spring them out and put up with the cosmetic damage.
But not wishing to upset the neighbour, I let the kid foot the £400
bill (and he had to lend the guy his car while the installers fixed
it since the car was trapped inside).

From this experience, particularly if I wanted a secure one, I think
I would go for steel, not alloy.

I agree. I was planning to use a roll-up door on my new garage until I
examined one in detail in a showroom. I was appalled by the flimsy
construction - particularly the way in which folded over bits of aluminium
hook together to form 'hinges'.

I ended up with a sectional door - which is a different thing altogether,
and built like a brick ****-house!

I would recommend the OP to do the same, provided it is acceptable for the
door to slide under the ceiling as it opens.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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In message , Andrew
writes
I intend to replace my "up and over" single garage door. I am considering
replacing it with a twin walled aluminium insulated roller shutter door
(such as the Seceuroglide) because:

* It will provide good weatherproofing in an exposed position
* Automatic operation is a convenience when the garage is my only off road
parking
* The lack of a frame means a larger opening provides easier access
* The open door will not be an obstruction to the open car tailgate

Appearance is a relatively minor consideration.

I do however have concerns about how rugged such a door will be, given the
comparatively lightweight construction. My garage faces a service road,
and kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls hitting
hard against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited control over
such activities.

Does anyone have any comments - as this must be a fairly common situation.
I am not too concerned about minor paint damage or scuffing, but rather the
door becoming damaged such that it will not function correctly.

I can't add much as our doors have not been *tested* as you fear.

When I was researching door types I found quite a choice having remote
operation. These were wide steel hinged panel tracked ones with a centre
chain operation. AFAIR you lose some opening height because the lowest
panel stays engaged in the vertical part of the track. Alt. my neighbour
has a double width glass fibre one which fully opens. I don't know how
the motor/door mechanism works.

Note to others from a previous experience.... do not try adapting a
conventional spring balanced door by adding superficial feather edge
boarding. The spring can't be adjusted to compensate for the extra
weight:-(

regards

--
Tim Lamb

Andrew wrote:

My garage faces a service road,
and kids games of football or cricket inevitably end up with balls hitting
hard against garage doors. The reality is that I have limited control over
such activities.

I had the same problem.

The original steel garage door had taken decades of abuse from
activities such as you mention, including catapulting stones against
it that took off the galvanising. In the end it looked dreadful, but
not that much worse than some others in the area.

My immediate neighbour replaced his garage door with a glass-fibre one
from Wickes, and I got him to do the same for me. They looked really
smart next to each other.

On our first holiday following installation, the vandals had several
'goes' at the new garage door. In reality they slightly deformed a
couple of panels, and slightly buckled the frame at the bottom,
presumable from hefty kick, sufficient to crack the glass fibre on the
inside only.

However, none of this shows, and they seem to have lost interest in
it, as no more attempts at vandalising it seem to have taken place
since that time.

HTH

In message , Huge
writes
On 2008-04-30, Tim Lamb wrote:

Note to others from a previous experience.... do not try adapting a
conventional spring balanced door by adding superficial feather edge
boarding. The spring can't be adjusted to compensate for the extra
weight:-(

I have, and it can! )

Hmm... I ran out of adjustment long before the door was anywhere near
balanced. Cheapo door perhaps. The other issue is the extra loading on
the wires and conical pulleys.

regards


--
Tim Lamb

"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...

I agree. I was planning to use a roll-up door on my new garage until I
examined one in detail in a showroom. I was appalled by the flimsy
construction - particularly the way in which folded over bits of aluminium
hook together to form 'hinges'.

I ended up with a sectional door - which is a different thing altogether,
and built like a brick ****-house!

I would recommend the OP to do the same, provided it is acceptable for the
door to slide under the ceiling as it opens.
--
Cheers,
Roger

Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread. It seems I was right to
question whether an alloy door would stand up to abuse.

Roger - are you able to let me know the make of your sectional door - this
sounds the sort of thing which I need?

This afternoon I went into a shop who "supply and fit" garage doors. The
chap I spoke to was strongly in favour of alloy roller shutter doors,
suggesting sectional door have similar construction (just larger panels), so
will suffer from the same issues. Furthermore he said they were troublesome
because they could "derail" on their tracks, particularly if they suffer any
damage. I am not convinced by his arguments, although I am sure this may be
true if they are not properly installed with adequate support. This may
well be the case with some of the rushed "professional" jobs I have seen
done around here.

The chap also told me how straightforward it is to replace damaged slats.
However in my case I want a door to withstand function (if not cosmetic)
damage!

Sectional doors seems to come as single skin steel, double skin with 20 mm
insulation and double skin with 40 mm insulation. The insulation as such is
not important to me - but would the latter be a stronger door?

Cheers,

Andrew

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Andrew wrote:


Roger - are you able to let me know the make of your sectional door -
this sounds the sort of thing which I need?


My door was made by Hormann in Germany (UK division at
http://www.hormann.co.uk/uk/en/)

The sections are very strong (and heavy!) and hinged together with proper
heavy-duty hinges - not with bits of bent aluminium hooked together. [My
door is made of steel, not aluminium, anyway.]


Sectional doors seems to come as single skin steel, double skin with
20 mm insulation and double skin with 40 mm insulation. The
insulation as such is not important to me - but would the latter be a
stronger door?
I went for double skinned with 40mm because I wanted good insulation when
using the garage as a workshop. I have no means of directly comparing the 3
types for strength - but double skinned with rigid foam bonded between the
skins has surely got to be stronger than single skinned. There may not be
all that much difference between 20mm and 40mm for strength.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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