Usually garage door is ordered at the same time as the windows and doors, i.e. when you want to close the shell. The building has already been erected. The company that sells garage doors must measure the opening before the order is approved and sent for processing.
Sometimes hard times happen. It may turn out that the opening is too small or too big for the planned door. No problem, if there is such a difference, you can choose another dimension of the garage door. The way out of this situation can also be to install a door of a different type than you previously intended to buy because the size charts for certain types of doors differ. Garage door dimensions: read our guide.
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Garage door opening dimensions
In finished designs, the size of the gate often matches the size of the garage and the entire house. Therefore, most often a small garage has a door 180-190 cm wide, and a large garage – 230-270 cm. For example, a 300 cm wide garage has been proposed for a garage where a car and a motorcycle should stand. Unfortunately, it happens that these dimensions do not correspond to the tables of the garage door manufacturer.
Standard dimensions of garage doors
Garage doors 180 to 600 cm wide (double) and 200 to 350 cm high are available on the market. The most affordable and most commonly purchased doors are 200-260 cm high, 200-250 cm wide (single) and 400-500 cm (double). The height of 212, 5 or 225 cm will allow you a comfortable ride in the garage with a tall off-road car, and 237, 5 cm – with a car on the roof. However, if we run a company and use vans, you may need to enter a slightly higher height, reaching almost 300 cm. Manufacturers have their own size charts (given in millimeters). The table lists the heights that differ by 10 cm (lowest door), 12.5 cm (middle – most popular) and 15 cm (highest).
Door width and height: measuring holes
The two most important dimensions to check when ordering a garage door are, of course, the width and height of the opening. The next two are equally important the height of the wall above the opening and the width of the columns on the sides of the opening. The door is attached to them. Therefore, these fragments must be strong and stable. If the hole is too wide, narrowing it by adding concrete or a brick half foundation is out of the question. You can drill a hole sometimes, but it costs money and brings dirt and clutter to the construction site. However, for example, when the walls are built of ceramic blocks, we cannot do that, because the crushed fragments will not bear.
When to install a garage door
The door should be installed in an already finished garage. The walls and ceiling of the garage should be plastered and painted. Only glyphs can be unfinished. If you plan to use doors that open automatically, the electrical installation must be brought to the right place before plastering the garage.
The door that opens has a drive located under the ceiling, ie the installation must be installed there. It must be remembered that its distance from the opening depends on the height of the door, the type of guide and the length of the drive. Additional door control devices are increasingly being used, eg code keypad, power key, photocells. They also require adequate electricity and you need to know where they will be located.
The dimensions of the garage door swing
They can be mounted in front of a hole or in a hole. They are usually placed not too deep in the hole so that they align with the walls next to it. Such gates are often built of wood. They are quite massive, so they require a solid construction. The frame can be 4-5 cm wide. If you install inside a hole, you will lose a few inches on each side at the entrance light. Swing gates can be opened with a moving wing-shaped drive.
The cylinders can be mounted on the wings from the inside. But if the door is opened only at a 90 ° angle, the light of the gate can be significantly reduced. It is better to mount the door on an opening with a broken arm drive. Actuators can be mounted on the wall next to it, but this requires at least a few inches of free space on either side of the door with a double wing.
Dimensions of hinged garage doors
Above and above the door are mounted in the opening or behind it, ie inside the garage. They are usually light, they are just sheets of trapezoidal sheet metal on a load-bearing structure. They have a threshold height of about 3 cm, so before installing the door should be done screed in the garage. In addition to the rubber band with rubber, you can also order upcoming doors. They open with spring springs located in vertical guides attached to the walls on the sides. The door rises and hides under the ceiling in horizontal rails.
To install it inside the garage, you need a wall of 10-12 cm above the opening and on the sides. To secure it in the hole, it will be necessary to set aside 4-6 cm of wall height to place the guides. New tilting doors with the operator, which can be installed in the opening to the ceiling. When installing, you must remember that the frame, guides with opening mechanism and sill will take up a lot of space.
Dimensions of sectional garage doors
They can be installed in a hole or behind it. Many manufacturers install springs with less tension in smaller doors (up to 300 cm wide and up to 250 or 262.5 cm high), and torsion springs for large and heavy gates. There are also manufacturers who use only the latter type. In the case of extension springs, the wall above the opening must be at least 17 cm.
Torsion springs can be mounted in several positions, depending on the amount of space under the ceiling. Normal guidance with springs placed horizontally on the front of the door above the opening can be achieved when there is a free space with a height of 21 cm. Alternatively, you can prepare a low track with a torsion spring mechanism mounted on the ceiling at the end of the rails, parallel to the hole. Then the minimum height of the wall above the opening is 13 cm. If you have less space, but a height of at least 8 cm, use a drive with low rails.
Dimensions of side sectional doors
Sectional doors are also made in a side version, i.e. as an opening to the side. This is a more expensive solution, but convenient, because such a door can act as a door. Guides are placed on the wall above the opening and on the side of the door and in the garage floor. To place the guide, you need a space about 10 cm high, but the fragment of the wall on which the drive will be should be at least 20 cm wide. It is better that before installing the side door the floor in the garage is not finished, because then you can still make a sill tucked into the floor.
Dimensions of roller shutter doors
They are usually mounted inside the garage, i.e. behind the opening. The door can also be placed in the opening, but this would have to be very high, as a significant part of the passing light would be occupied by the cassette. This type of door attached in front of the opening is sometimes the last resort if you can’t use any other. The door leaf is wrapped in a cassette with a roller inside or on an unshielded roller.
The size of the cassette depends on the height of the door – the larger the door, the more blinds must fit in the drum. To assemble the cassette with standard height blinds, you need a wall 30 cm high above the opening and pillars about 20 cm wide on the side where the drive will be located. Side roller shutter doors require similar installation conditions as this one section.
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