Up and over Garage Doors Online

Up and Over Garage Doors

The up and over is still the most common garage door style you will see across the UK. It is a straightforward, reliable design that has been the standard choice for decades simply because it works. Whether you need a simple steel door for everyday parking or a crafted timber door for a renovation project, an up and over mechanism is usually the most cost effective way to get a solid, secure door on your garage.

At Garage Doors Online, we supply up and over doors from the main UK and European manufacturers like Hormann and Garador, alongside our own GDO range. Because we deal directly with the factories, we can offer the full catalogue of styles. You can choose from classic vertical ribs, horizontal styles, traditional Georgian pressed panels, or custom designer finishes.

The UK's Widest Made to Measure Range: GDO Made to Measure as Standard

Garage brickwork openings rarely match off the shelf modular sizes. In the past, people had to buy a standard door and pack out the remaining gap with timber subframes or plastic infill strips. That wastes drive through clearance and leaves an untidy look around the frame.

Garage Doors Online offers the widest range of made to measure up and over doors available in the UK. Our own GDO range comes in made to measure sizes as standard at no extra cost.

• Maximise your opening: Your door leaf is built to fit your exact structural opening, giving you every possible millimetre of drive through clearance for modern wider cars.
• Clean appearance: You do not need clumsy infill cladding or timber packers because the frame fits neatly to the brickwork.
• Extensive specification: Custom factory sizes up to 2750mm wide, 32 colour finishes, and reinforced internal bracing for a rigid door panel.

Understanding the Gear: Canopy or Retractable

The most important mechanical decision you will make is the lifting gear. This controls how the door panel opens and whether you can add an electric operator later on.

1. Canopy Gear

Canopy gear uses an overhead torsion spring mounted across the top steel lintel. It is the most popular choice for standard single width garages because it is quick to fit and leaves the garage ceiling completely clear.

• How it works: As the door opens, the top rollers run up vertical tracks while the bottom part of the panel swings outward. When fully open, about one third of the door forms an external canopy.
• Best for: Manual operation where you want to keep your garage ceiling clear for roof ladders, pipe storage, or hanging lights. It also gives you maximum drive through width at wing mirror height.
• Automation note: We do not advise adding an electric motor to a canopy door. While bow arm converters exist, they put unnecessary strain on the opener. If you want electric operation, choose retractable gear from the start.

2. Retractable Gear

If you plan to install an electric opener, you will need retractable operating gear. This system uses side mounted tension springs and horizontal tracks that run back into the garage space.

• How it works: The complete door panel lifts and glides back horizontally into the garage along side tracks, with nothing left protruding past the frame.
• Best for: Remote control electric motors. The horizontal tracks give a smooth, balanced movement that allows an automated boom operator to lift the door without jerking.
• Space consideration: The lifting arms sit inside the subframe opening, which reduces your drive through width by roughly 100mm to 150mm. Keep this in mind if you have a tight opening.

Material Choices: Steel, Timber, or GRP

The material you pick affects your routine maintenance, how secure the panel is, and how well it stands up to bad weather.

Steel Doors

Steel is the obvious material for an up and over garage door. Constructed from galvanised steel sheet, it gives you a rigid, secure panel that will not twist, rot, or swell when the weather turns wet. That means your latches align cleanly throughout the winter months. Factory applied powder coat finishes protect the metal from corrosion, so you only need to wash the surface down with soapy water every now and then. It is the most practical choice for long term reliability and everyday value.

Timber (Cedar and Bespoke Hardwoods)

For a stone house, cottage, or barn conversion, nothing matches the look of real wood. Standard timber up and over doors use Western Red Cedar because it is light in weight and contains natural protective oils that fight rot. It keeps the door easy to lift on standard springs, but you will need to re-coat the timber every few years with a good microporous stain to protect the surface from rain and sunlight.

If you are working on a unique renovation or architect led project, we also supply fully bespoke timber doors in popular hardwoods including European Oak, Iroko, Idigbo, and Accoya. These give you complete design freedom to match existing timber cladding, window profiles, or historic gateway joinery. Because hardwoods vary in weight and require specialist springing and structural chassis bracing, these are priced on application. Contact our team by phone on 01926 463888 or email your elevation drawings over to discuss specifications and pricing.

GRP (Fibreglass)

GRP is the best option if your garage sits close to the coast. Salt air corrodes basic steel and weathers timber quickly, but glass reinforced polyester does not react with salt or moisture. It will not rust, rot, or buckle. Our GRP doors are cast from authentic timber moulds, so you get the visual warmth of timber grain without any staining work.

Why Choose an Up and Over Door?

Even with roller and sectional doors on the market, an up and over door has several clear, practical benefits:

• Fast access: For a manual door, it is the quickest to use. Turn the handle, lift the door, and you are inside in one movement.
• Simple mechanics: A single solid panel has fewer moving parts, rollers, and hinges than a sectional door. Routine maintenance usually means putting a drop of 3 in 1 oil on the pivot points once a year.
• Built in ventilation: Unlike sealed sectional doors, an up and over panel allows a small amount of airflow around the edges. In an unheated single skin garage, that ventilation helps dry out wet cars and stops condensation collecting on tools.

Security and Safety

Every door we supply complies with British and European safety standards (BS EN 12604). They come with multiple spring systems and anti drop devices so the door will not fall down if a cable or spring breaks.

Modern steel doors feature multi point locking with solid steel latch rods, which makes them far harder to force open than older doors fitted twenty years ago. If you store high value tools or bikes, look at our Secured by Design accredited models with reinforced lock bodies and anti snap cylinders.

*A level floor across your opening is essential if you want the best seal at the bottom of the door. Rubber floor thresholds are available if your concrete floor is slightly uneven.

Measuring and Ordering

Up and over garage doors are ordered by the internal subframe opening size (the daylight width and height inside the frame), not the dimensions of the door panel itself. Ordering sizes vary across manufacturers, and purpose made sizes have different tolerances to standard doors. Make sure you check your clearances before placing your order, or talk to our technical team if you need us to confirm your measurements.