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How Overhead Commercial Garage Doors & Residential Garage Doors Differ

02/15/2021

On the surface, overhead commercial garage doors and residential overhead garage doors serve the same function — open and close to allow people and vehicles to pass through. But how do these doors differ, exactly? Why is it that you can’t use your ordinary residential overhead garage door for, say, a loading dock door? And most importantly, what do you need to understand about overhead commercial garage door installation to be able to choose the perfect new garage door for your business?

Commercial Overhead Garage Doors aren’t for the Home

The most obvious differences in these types of garage doors is where they are used — one for commercial businesses, the other for family homes. But that’s no small difference. The unique needs of a commercial business can significantly affect different considerations when it comes to size, design, construction, and function. 

Your home’s garage door protects a couple cars, and maybe some tools and stored items. Or, if you’ve converted your garage into a living space, you may have even modified your garage door to act as more of a wall of windows. 

But businesses have completely different needs than people. Whether you’re a trendy restaurant who wants a glass overhead garage door for an indoor-outdoor feel without compromising its security, or a business with a loading dock and a warehouse full of inventory, your needs are different than a homeowner.

A Look at the Differences Between Overhead Garage Doors

First it’s important to consider how these types of overhead garage doors differ from each other. The biggest difference is size. Depending on the needs of your commercial business, you may need a fairly sizable overhead garage door — especially if you need to admit large semi-trucks. 

Commercial garage doors are not only larger but more fortified; they need to protect your business from theft and also take a lot of abuse from constant use and occasional missteps. A commercial garage door sees more use than its residential counterpart and needs to offer greater protection.

Another difference you’ll see is that steel doors, rollup doors, and high-speed fabric overhead doors are all common in commercial settings, but not so much in residential settings. As well, these heavy-duty garage doors need heavy-duty automatic openers.

Cost of a Garage Door: Residential vs Commercial

For residential garage doors, appearance is key. An attractive new garage door can brighten a home’s appearance and even boost its property value. In fact, if you install a new garage door, you’ll recoup 98% of your expenses in improved resale value, according to real estate experts. New garage door installation is practically money in the bank, dollar for dollar.

On the outset, overhead commercial garage doors cost considerably more than residential garage doors. But keep in mind these doors are highly-durable — they can take a beating and they last a long time. This is great because they also tend to be heavily used. How many shipments do you get in a day? How large do the doors need to be to handle the cargo you need? These are sizable doors but they are built to last. You won’t need to install a new commercial garage door nearly as soon as a residential garage door.

The moral of the story regarding cost is, regardless of the initial investment, both residential and commercial overhead garage doors pay for themselves in equity, convenience, security and durability – no question.

Commercial Overhead Garage Doors Function Differently

Commercial garage doors also open and close differently. Most commercial and industrial businesses choose rollup overhead garage doors for their great security abilities and minimal overhead space obstruction. This type of overhead garage door rolls up into the ceiling and requires minimal storage space when open. 

This can significantly save you on space as you’ll need to devote less area to the garage door itself. And because they’re made of thin, overlapping and interlocking metal slats, they’re extremely hard to break into. Even minor collisions with a truck that backed up a bit too soon won’t crumple the door. The same cannot be said for residential garage doors.

Residential overhead garage doors are most often panels or tilt up. This is simply because the size is more manageable and the aesthetic is more preferred. Why put a crazy-reinforced steel-slat rollup door on your one car garage? In that case, you’re probably not going to make that 98% ROI on the new door install – you went a little overboard.

Residential & Commercial Garage Door Sizes Vary by Use

Since overhead commercial garage doors are designed to admit much larger vehicles and equipment than residential garage doors, they come in much bigger sizes. That’s why many people building custom garages for RV’s, boats or semi-trucks will install an overhead commercial garage door even though it’s a private home. The size options allow for so much more.

Of course, the space you need to install an overhead commercial garage door may not be standard. If this is the case, you may need to consider custom sizing. This can be more expensive, but you should be able to find options that can accommodate nearly any size. They even make overhead garage doors for airplane hangars capable of admitting an entire jet!

Commercial Overhead Garage Doors Require Heavy-Duty Materials

The type of material you choose for an overhead commercial garage door will be vastly different from what you’d want for your own home:

For residential garage doors, wood, vinyl, and steel are popular options for garage door materials. For overhead commercial garage doors, wood is rarely even considered. Glass and aluminum are popular for commercial businesses like restaurants, breweries, and coffee shops that have customer-facing needs. 

For warehouses, steel is more popular because of its durability and fortification. The interlocking steel slats of commercial rollup overhead garage doors provided unmatched security and durability. Plus, all the moving garage door parts are contained, so they’re protected from the elements and human error during use. And when you’ve got huge amounts of money inside your garage or warehouse, like an airplane or any kind of inventory, security is key.

Never Forget Complimentary Smart Tech for Overhead Garage Doors of Any Kind

There’s a lot more to say about commercial overhead doors; there are specialized options for any kind of business. And it’s the same with residential garage doors – we haven’t even mentioned carriage house doors in this article. But whatever garage door you’re having installed – a giant loading dock door or single-car automatic tilt up door – the garage door’s opener system should have smart security tech, a battery backup, and the ability to integrate with your home or business’ security system. A well-chosen garage door install coupled with the right smart garage door opener tech is the best way to make that overhead door a strong point in your security, not weak one.

Garage Door Repair DIY: Tread Lightly

Think you’re a DIY guy who can do garage door repair? Maybe. It’s totally possible if you are fairly handy with tools and somewhat know what you’re doing — at least when it comes to simple garage door repairs. Keep in mind, however, that it’s never as easy as it looks in the YouTube video. And if you don’t know what you are doing, you can cause serious damage to the door, not to mention hurt yourself. Garage doors are highly complex mechanical objects weighing hundreds of pounds. Tread lightly. It’s also worth considering that no garage door repair is simple. If something can go wrong, it usually will. This can be extremely frustrating. If you find you need some help, we’re always here. We offer 24/7 emergency garage door repair to the greater Sacramento area.

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