Side Hinged Doors Overview
Side hinged Garage Doors (also known as side opening or 'swing' garage doors) are a traditional style of garage door that are exactly what they say they are: garage doors hinged at the sides, nearly always opening outwards. A simple and very effective type of garage door with the potential to offer great performance in security and insulation and ease of daily use.
One of the original garage door types and now once again the most relevant for the 21st century garage and household. With most garages now being used as another room to the main house rather than for a car, you are most likely entering the garage regularly on foot. No need to open the door fully and expose everything to the outside world. You just want to walk in or out the garage. What better doors for this purpose than a pair of side hinged garage doors?
They also provide a viable option to garages with minimal headroom and sideroom which other doors may require. Garage Doors Online offer one of the largest ranges of high quality side hinged doors in the UK, with standard or purpose made sizes available in steel, composite GRP and timber. The steel doors are either single skin pressed steel, or more popular nowadays are the many options available for insulated, double skinned steel doors. Greater strength, security and longevity along with the insulation performance.
What isn't understood generally about side hinged garage doors is the advances in materials and manufacturing processes now mean for most purposes the best side hinged garage doors will be made out of steel. Whether that be single skin pressed steel or the more durable and prestigious double skinned insulated steel side hinged doors, both will have their place depending on your use of your garage.
The majority of our side hinged garage doors will arrive to you already totally preassembled for the easiest DIY installation, especially if you have included the factory fitted steel outer fixing frame to replace the need for a timber frame and offer greater levels of weather sealing and security.
Steel Side Hinged Garage Doors Offer:
• Effortless Operation
• Quiet and Smooth Operation
• Excellent Stability and Overall Integrity
• Great Security on the double skinned insulated doorsets
• Very low Maintenance and always fully finished as standard
• Easiest site Installation with factory preassembled doors
• Very long guarantees and minimal moving parts for longevity
• Insulated panels offer great sound and thermal insulation
• Choice of smaller pedestrian door option
• Traditional and Modern Designs
• High Quality durable external finish options
• Multiple Window Design and Glazing Options
• High Security Options
In short, for a single width garage opening, up to 3.5m wide, the side hinged doors offer so many garages the solution to easy, quiet daily access, with high performance in terms of the insulation, weather protection and sound deadening so many would appreciate. The simplicity of a hinged door speaks volumes against other more complex door types.
Our Range and Recommendations
If insulation is not relevant to your garage then the current best all round hinged garage doors for security, stability, weather proofing and strength are the GDO Icon doors. Reinforced pressed steel hinged doors, with many of the same features as the insulated hinged doors as standard. 3d hinges, uprated handles and greater levels of locking and security as well as being purpose made as standard with a factory fitted steel sub frame.
If your garage is integral to your home or you just want higher performance then look towards any of the double skinned steel insulated doors we offer in either 20mm, 40mm, or 51mm panel specifications with varying design options based on these.
The Carteck, GDO and Ryterna all offer very high performance, made to order insulated doors with high specification and manufactured ready for installation from the factory.
Insulated Side Hinged Steel Doorsets
Our comprehensive range of double skinned insulated steel doorsets offer the very best in terms of durability, security, quality and performance. We offer doorsets from leading manufacturers Carteck, Hormann and Ryterna with our very own range of GDO hinged doors, developed from the many years of experience we have in selling thousands of steel garage doors. All the doors are made to measure with a limited range of standard sizes for faster deliveries.
Many models can be manufactured in a straight 50/50 equal split or choose to have an asymmetric split, providing a smaller pedestrian access door to one side for convenience.
The doorset principal is simple enough, the doors are supplied with almost everything factory fitted and assembled including the outset fixing sub frame, making installation on site as easy as possible and removing any chance of fitting incorrectly (subject to understanding minor adjustments in the hinges and leveling).
Take a look at our insulated side hinged garage door range now >
Uninsulated Steel Hinged Doorsets
We have a comprehensive range of single skin, pressed steel hinged doors, once again factory fitted with the important parts, taking the effort out of installation on site.
We have our own extensive GDO range of doors along with the Garador steel range. Both ranges offer the doors with a steel fixing sub frame, which we strongly recommend is always used to reduce tolerances to a minimum for the best performance and durability once fitted.
NEW for 2026 - The superb GDO Icon steel range offers many of the same features as found on insulated hinged doors, but in a far lower price range in single skin steel. Purpose made as standard and always with a high specification on seals, handles and locking.
A whole range of styles and colours are on offer in standard or purpose made sizes to suit.
Many models are available with a straight 50/50 split or the asymmetric split to offer a smaller pedestrian door on one side for convenience.
These doors are ideal if your garage is perhaps detached and there is no requirement for insulation or higher levels of security.
Take a look at our single skin steel side hinged garage door range now >
Traditional Timber Hinged Doors
A wide variety of traditional, joinery made cedarwood timber side hinged garage doors which require carpenter skills for installation and a timber sub frame to suit. Durable and rot resistant cedarwood is ideal for garage doors.
We also offer a range of timber hinged door designs built into a steel chassis and sub frame taking away the need for a professional carpenter on site installation.
Some properties just scream out for timber. All the timber side hinged doors we offer are manufactured from Western Red Cedarwood and all are available with a factory finish which is recommended when ordering.
Take a look at our timber side hinged garage door range now >
Composite GRP Hinged Doors - CURRENTLY UNABAILABLE
For fully finished and traditional wooden garage door designs without the timber take a look at our range of composite GRP hinged garage doors. We offer our own limited range of GDO doors with the Garador GRP hinged door range also on offer.
Fully finished and set into a galvanised steel chassis these doors come complete and built ready for installation. Just choose your design, colour and size. All the doors come with a prefitted box section steel sub frame and we have standard and purpose made sizes.
The Benefits of Side Hinged Garage Doors
• Outward opening means no internal intrusion to the garage with tracks or springs
• Open only one side to access on foot at any time, minimal exposure.
• Simple control of locking with key to operate one or multiple locking points
• Hook locking options to hold the door panels tighter together when closed
• Made to measure up to 3500mm width
• 50/50 door panel split OR 2/3rd and 1/3rd on many models as option
• Thermal transmittance to 1.4 W/m2K U values on thermal specific models
• Up to 10 year guarantees on insulated steel models
• Can offer excellent levels of weather protection with thresholds fitted
All the side hinged doors available from us can be in standard or purpose made sizes; always take care to be fully aware of whether the sizes for ordering refer to the 'Overall Frame Width' or the 'Internal Frame Width'. It is always best to state both sizes if possible but, as most side hinged doors are fitted INBETWEEN the garage structural opening, the overall frame size is best with some tolerance taken off for installation, usually about 10mm all round.
Fixing Sub Frames
All side hinged garage doors need a fixing sub frame of some sort and now for the majority of hinged doors we sell this is a standard feature, this can be either in a box section galvanised steel or various sizes and types of timber. If it is an option we strongly recommend the factory fitted steel sub frame is ordered as it provides the best weathersealing, security and overall durability as well as making the installation far easier on site.
The sizes can vary to suit your needs on site, and the finishes also can be chosen in the majority of cases.
Most of the side hinged garage doors we supply will have the fixing sub frame factory-fitted for the very easiest of on-site installations, with no 'hanging' required for the door panels themselves. The concept of a fully assembled door is the future as you have guaranteed quality and tolerances every time and it enables the manufacturers to test their doors for performance and then present declarations of performance on the various doors.
Guaranteed quality, guaranteed performance, easy installation and adjustments on site.
Electric Operation
Most side hinged garage doors can be electrically operated and we offer various electric operators with the appropriate conversion kits required in our online shop.
A special adapter will simply push and pull the door leaves in and out using a normal boom type electric operator as the main system, but with steel rod adapters fitted to the door leaves.
We recommend emailing or calling us to sort out the best package combination for any electric operated side hinged doors.
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