If you are thinking of buying a garage door then there are a few things you need to take into account before committing to buy.  The main issue is the room needed to install.

Different styles of garage doors have their advantages  and disadvantages. Without making the correct choice from the outset you may find that you do not have the space within your garage that you previously expected.

If you are looking for a slatted garage door then one of the three options I have listed below will suit your garage door needs.

Roller Garage Doors

Here is your typical roller garage door and by far the most popular choice – why? Well this door is a standard.  Hundreds are manufactured and sold every day by a whole number of different companies. When there is a lot of demand for garage doors the price goes down. This means that this is the most affordable option if you are considering a roller garage door.

Do not be fooled though – these can still set you back thousands of pounds depending on the quality of material used.

The issue with this type of door is the space required to fit it.  You need to ensure that you have adequate headroom to house the box the garage door rolls into – the grey section you can see in the picture.  This generally will sit up above the opening of the door, assuming you have space. If you do not then it will start taking up the space of the actual opening – this can mean, if you have a small garage and large car – you may be in trouble.

These garage door boxes generally come in two sizes. One is 300mm and one is 250mm – the 250mm can only be used up to a 2m height including the box – so anything bigger has to go in the 300mm box.

One other consideration to take into account with the roller garage doors are the guide channels. This is what the slats actually slide into.  They generally mount on  the inside return wall of your garage but if you do not have an internal return wall, or do not have one big enough then you stand to lose at least some of the width of the opening or your garage.  Generally the guide channels are either 90mm or 105mm per guide so check you have this space.

Horizontal Sliding Garage Doors

This garage door system is a less commonly found  garage door but can solve a lot of the problems that the standard roller garage door presents. Rather than the slats fitted horizontally they are positioned vertically. This allows the door to slide round to the side rather than up and down as the traditional roller garage door. This still gives a very pleasing look to the door and you do not have the issue of losing any headroom – great for those with smaller garage openings or limited headroom.

This type of garage door runs in small tracks and slides round one on the internal walls of your garage. Of course here you need to watch out for the internal depth of your garage as you need about 1 and a 1/2 times the depth of your garage compared to the opening size you want to achieve. Bear in mind these walls need to relatively clear -ie no internal doors etc

Not many companies that I have come across use these types of garage doors though I know some of the larger named companies do. Be prepared for a larger price tag though-  less common garage door, less commonly manufactured = more expensive.

Vertically Sliding Garage Doors

The final choice in our group of slatted garage doors is the vertically sliding door – as the name suggests it still goes up and down as per a roller door but rather than rolling it is pulled up on slides. This means that you save more headroom than the roller door due to the garage door not requiring a box to roll in. As per the previous garage door mentioned, you need to take the depth of the garage into consideration. The depth of your garage will need to be 1 and a 1/2 times as deep as the opening height of your door.

These doors give the same attractive look as the roller garage doors but they run slightly quieter and of course you save losing the head room. This is probably now one of the more rarer garage door types I have seen but again, the bigger garage door manufacturers do supply them although still an expensive choice.