Garage Door Upgrade in Calgary

Garage doors are an unavoidable piece of the puzzle when it comes to home renovations. Planning for a garage door upgrade could make all the difference to your house, from aesthetics to overall improved functionality. Here are a few ideas that will come in handy to help you out if you want to upgrade the garage door.

If you’re looking for the best option to upgrade your garage door in Calgary, the least cost-effective solution is also the most recommended one. It is replacing your existing old door with a brand new garage door.

Depending on your current financial situation, it can be the best solution if you are selling your home and want to enhance the curb appeal and bring more potential buyers to the table. Interestingly enough, sometimes investing $3000 – $4000 in a new garage door can bring more buyers that will end up bidding 10-15 thousand more on the property.

How to Upgrade an Existing Garage Door

If replacing your garage door completely isn’t within your budget, you can do other things to boost its curb appeal and performance. As Calgary’s best-rated garage door company, we came up with a few suggestions for a DIY garage door upgrade.

Repaint Your Garage Door.

This is the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade your garage door in Calgary in terms of aesthetics. You could go for fresher layers of the same color of paint, choose subtle changes, or do a complete makeover. Repainting the garage door is ideal if you already love the way doors work and want to get rid of things like chipped, faded, and cracked paint. When painting the garage door, preparation is most important; spend time getting rid of all imperfections on the existing paint, and make sure you fix the garage door rust first if there is any. Do not paint over the rust without removing it first.

Add Windows.

Adding windows to an existing garage door might elevate its looks and allow more light to come into your garage. However, this garage door upgrade is best for seasoned DIYers who feel comfortable taking on this project. Hiring a garage door company for something like this can be challenging and expensive. You need to consider the structure of your garage door panel, its thickness, and the material it’s made of. Don’t forget that cutting out pieces of the section can impact the structural stiffness of the panel, so make sure you add a steel reinforcement strut to the top portion of the panel to keep it from collapsing.

Add a garage door opener.

While most of our customers in the Calgary area enjoy opening their garage door with a press of a button, there are still many homes with manually operated garage doors. Some older homes were built with low headroom inside the garage, which made it very challenging to install a standard overhead opener with a trolley. However, thanks to companies like Liftmaster and Chamberlain, we now have access to side-mounted jackshaft openers, which sometimes help solve the low headroom problem.

Add insulation to a non-insulated garage door.

Some builders in the Calgary area still use non-insulated garage doors, which are not ideal for our local climate. There is a solution, however, which doesn’t require a complete garage door replacement.

There are garage door insulated kits you can purchase online, which will allow you to boost the thermal efficiency of your existing garage door. But please, don’t just blindly add weight to your garage door and leave it like that; this approach is asking for trouble. You see, when you add weight to your garage door, the springs need be be adjusted at the minimum, but in most cases, they need to be replaced to accommodate the extra weight and keep your door balanced.

Add Stick on Garage Door Panels.

Another option to upgrade your garage door in Calgary is to purchase a kit with stick-on panels. Those are usually decorative panels with small magnets to keep them in place. There are various brands that make them, and a quick online search will offer you a decent number of options. Please test the door’s balance once you add them, and make sure your garage door doesn’t feel heavy. Othervice, hire a local garage door company to get your springs adjusted or replaced to accommodate the extra weight.

Picking the right crew for the job

If you’re a seasoned DIY homeowner, you can upgrade your garage door by yourself and save some money by doing that. But if you don’t feel comfortable about upgrading your garage door on your own, look for a reputable garage door company in your area, and ask for consultation, it will be well worth it.