Lift Or Separate: Are Tilting Or Sectional Garage Doors Right For Your Business?
Commercial-grade garage doors are essential pieces of equipment for many businesses and industries, ranging from warehousing and storage to large-scale technical and fabrication industries. However, you have a number of choices to make when purchasing and installing garage doors for your business, and one of the most important is choosing how your doors will open.
Two of the most common garage door opening mechanisms are tilting doors and sectional doors. Both of these types of garage doors are robust, reliable and suited for use in a wide variety of industries and environments. However, these opening mechanism also have their own individual perks, pros and cons, so make sure the door type you choose is right for the needs of your business before you blow the budget.
What are the advantages of choosing tilting garage doors?
- Low price: Tilting garage doors consist of a single, solid door which is lifted and tilted into a horizontal position when opened. The simplicity of this mechanism minimises costs and material use, so tilting garage doors are among the cheapest you will find.
- Low maintenance: This simplicity also means that moving parts are few and easily accessible, allowing periodic garage door maintenance to be carried out easily. Other than safety checks for stress and metal fatigue, tilting doors need little more than occasional maintenance to stay in top condition.
- Low weight: Using a single, continuous metal or plastic sheet for the door also minimises the weight of the door, and smaller lifting doors can be opened by hand if fitted with torsion springs. Larger tilting doors will still require automatic openers, but the reduced weight means that a less powerful (and therefore less expensive) door motor is required.
What about the disadvantages?
- Difficult repairs: Commercial-grade tilting garage doors are designed to be very robust, and can handle the odd bump and scrape. However, a heavily damage tilting garage door can become stuck in its tracks, and the simple, single-sheet door means that a damaged or buckled door must be replaced in full rather than repaired or patched.
- Overhead space concerns: Tilting garage doors also need enough space to rest above the opening when left open, and a larger tilting garage door can take up large amounts of valuable storage and wall space when left open. They also prevent vehicles such as forklifts from being left near the door.
What are the advantages of choosing sectional garage doors?
- Space saving: The door panel of a sectional garage door is actually made of several interlinked panels, which can fold together for easy stowing when opened. This minimises the amount of space the open door occupies, and allows vehicles to be parked near closed doors during non-business hours without preventing the door from opening.
- Easy repairs: The segmented construction of sectional garage doors also means that damage to any individual section of the door can be replaced without having to replace the whole door. This can save considerable time and money in high-intensity industries where occasional door collisions can be expected.
- Less chance of sticking: This segmented construction also means that the door can more easily follow tracks while it opens and closes, minimising the chances of the door getting stuck in a half-open position.
And what about the disadvantages?
- Increased price: Sectional garage doors cost considerably more than tilting doors due to their more complex construction. They can also be slightly more difficult to install, and the increase in weight can make them more expensive to run over long periods.
- Increased noise: Sectional garage doors also tend be quite noisy, especially doors with all-metal construction, which can be a safety concern in delicate industries and may cause problems if your business starts work in the early hours.
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