Frequently Asked Questions on Garage Doors

Yes, they certainly can be, as long as the door is from a reputable manufacturer, who has spent time developing the door and giving serious thought to the way the door will hold firm when fully closed. You wouldn’t buy a ‘door’ of any kind if the truth was that it had no locking or security to speak of, would you? The fact is many cheap roller doors don’t have any form of locking and the curtain you see from outside is just hanging there.

The good news is they can be secure and there are many reasons why they are secure.

• Most roller garage doors are fitted behind a structural opening so the guides either side are not even seen or cannot be accessed, this reduces the chance of forced attack attempts. Of course various models have different size guides and quality too.
• No handles, or at least in the case of electric roller doors anyway. The lack of a handle means a lack of focal point for an attack from a would be intruder. The only way to operate the door is usually by a key, a remote control, or an internal push button control panel.
• The strength in the actual slats used for the door curtain. As you might expect there are different qualities and strengths in the slats used for roller doors. The popular 77mm double skinned slats might all look the same, but they are definitely not and the same for the 55mm slats. They originate from various countries into the UK, with a couple of slat manufacturers actually in the UK, but certainly the quality varies a lot, along with the price and quality of paint finish too. Strong slat equals harder to cut or break..
• Anti lift mechanisms. Various manufacturers use different forms of mechanical systems to hold the curtain down when closed from inside. Some don't bother and just sell on price. The systems can be very secure when executed properly and provide superb resistance to a forced break in attempt. Certified security is what to look out for if security is your main concern and you aim to provide the best security for your garage and contents.
• Rolling code technology in the remote control systems. Slightly over the top maybe but some people have perhaps been the victims of code grabbing in the past. Someone hiding nearby to read and copy your outgoing signal from your transmitter to then use later simply isn't possible with rolling code systems.

GarageDoorsOnline will tell you exactly what to expect with the various roller doors we offer online but they are all manufactured by established and reputable manufacturers, we can guarantee that part. They are fully compliant in all ways for the UK market and we do have higher security model options for anyone concerned about security.

It is difficult to give an average lifespan but it is fair to say there are some very large differences for the expectations of roller door lifespans specifically in the UK. Unlike many other countries it seems, we have taken the roller garage door to extremes in terms of popularity, mainly because it is a product which will fit almost any garage opening in some way or other. The result however and downside, is there are so many smaller companies now manufacturing roller doors with no quality checks, testing or development, simply buying the basic components to assemble and sell online as quickly as possible.

A roller door is kind of flawed in some ways, because the actual door curtain rolls around and over itself, so low quality paint finishes soon deteriorate from constant rubbing over each other. Being a product made from multiple smaller components, when the components are low quality you will find a very cheap roller door built from individual slats can very easily literally come apart within a year or 2 of installation. We hear about it all the time… The main driving mechanism, the electric motor, is actually nearly always built inside the barrel for the roller door curtain, so isn't even seen to evaluate. A cheap motor will soon burn out, especially on a larger size door.

A good quality roller garage door should last between 12 and 20 years if looked after well, maybe longer. The size, number of operations per day and exposure to harsh wind or prevailing weather will all affect the longevity. Nearly all the very popular insulated, double skinned, aluminium roller doors we see in the UK are dry running systems, so the side guides and other parts should not be lubricated, so the installation and quality is the key factor for longevity and smooth running over time.

A roller garage door is one of those products which if it isn't made well or fitted properly very quickly disintegrates as most of the components rely on each other for operation.

Buy cheap with a roller door and buy twice, or even three times in some cases.

The simplest answer to this is that they don’t lock, well not in the usual definition of locking, apart from maybe the manual operated doors, which have a locking rod/bar system and a key and locking barrel with the central handle.

However, many electric roller doors are locked in various ways by different mechanisms which hold the roller curtain down firmly when closed. Unfortunately there are many roller doors sold in the UK which do not have any form of mechanism to lock and are not secure in any way, easily lifted from the floor, especially on single door sizes, which are not heavy.

The best roller garage doors for security are manufactured by SWS with their Seceuroglide range, all of which now have a form of mechanical locking in every model offered. The Seceuroglide Excel is the electric roller door developed, tested and certified with LPS1175 SR1 rating and is the result of many years of development in identifying the key weak points for attack and providing extra strength and unique locking methods.. SWS are known for their security window shutters and grilles so their background is security and this was key in the development of electric roller garage doors over the last 30 years.

A really cheap electric roller garage door will inevitably have no locking at all and the curtain is simply lowered and lifted by a rotating barrel, with variable connections to the top curtain slat, usually lightweight steel straps. When closed down these types of doors can be lifted quietly and easily from the bottom… Be aware!

In reality there are differences between how you measure and order a roller garage door depending on the brand, type of door and where you are going to install it - Inbetween or Behind your opening.

Most roller garage doors are installed BEHIND the structural opening and therefore you focus on the daylight dimensions for the opening and then the sideroom and headroom available.
You will need sideroom for the guides either side and headroom for the roll itself and/or the hood cover, although there is no problem with the roll or hood hanging down when you don’t have enough headroom, and the same for the guides.

If you are installing completely INBETWEEN the structural opening then your dimensions become the overall width and height for the roller door, guides and endplates, but with some tolerance taken off for installation. Usually 10mm all round off the smallest dimensions measured.

Insulated Aluminium Roller Doors
MOST roller doors of this type are ordered by the OVERALL WIDTH including the guides and then the ordering height is the GUIDE HEIGHT not including the endplates and roll dimensions.
There are some exceptions to this so please check the model carefully in our ‘measure’ tabs to see what the brand and model instruction is for ordering.
Guide width will vary slightly from one brand to another and the roll and endolate size may also vary but for most standard heights this dimension is 300mm.

Single Skin Steel Roller Doors
These are different and can only be fitted BEHIND a structural opening, whether that is brickwork or a timber frame in the opening.
The ordering width is still the guide width BUT there are fixing lugs to consider outside of these guides. The guide height, or height you want the door to stop at is the ordering height and then there is the curtain roll size to consider on to of this.

We recommend you think about this a lot more these days as so many customers are not putting a vehicle into their garage (over 65% according to the RAC in a recent report!)

Button Control
If you have an integral garage or your garage is away from your house and you have to walk to it every time, then why not consider either a wall mounted push button inside the side access door or a key switch control outside, next to the door?
Many people would benefit from carrying a key, maybe in a bunch of keys for other purposes and operating their garage door using this key. If you enter the garage from your house or by a side door, then a simple wall mounted push button control also makes sense.
If this is set as ‘hold to run’ then you won’t require the safety beams or safety edge detection systems required for remote control doors, saving money and extra electronic components too.
We offer these types of roller doors in our shop for simple ordering ad the simplest installation too.

Remote Control Operation
If you access your garage sitting inside your car then this option makes perfect sense of course. The roller door industry has got into the habit of simply offering a 2 remote handset package for electric garage doors of all kinds and this is fine for many people of course. You can add extra remote handsets and also get multiple channel transmitters if you have more than one garage door. You also have an internal wall switch in the control panel in most cases.
Remote control with handsets makes sense but you still have to have your handset to operate and the button or key control makes more sense for many people. Either way the doors will usually be the same, just the controls are different.

Smart APP Control
The future? For sure, for many people having a roller garage door even with smart ready technology would be sensible. Control your garage door from anywhere in the world, but also add accessories to enhance security and control too. Maybe give a parcel delivery driver access or a one time passcode to a key pad and so on. The options are extensive with a smart control integration and not expensive either.

Manual Operation
Good old lift up and pull down manual operation is still relevant to many people for various reasons.  A spring assistance and a locking system integrated. We offer a few of these manual operated doors and the only limitation is size with most doors only available up to around 3m wide (10 feet) simply because of weight and balancing the door.