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LL Garage Doors has been in the business for 60-odd years and we owe it in part to our great and honest service when it comes to making sure we help people find the right door at the right price. This includes helping people make smart choices with their money when it comes to expanding the life of their garage doors. In some of our previous blogs we discussed how to choose the right door for your home or business’s needs, and this time we’re going to discuss how to make your dollar go as far as it can. The easiest thing you can do to extend your dollar is to get preventative maintenance done annually on your current garage door. Why wait until it’s breaking down to give it a little love? Extending the life of your current garage door with our preventative maintenance care means you’re only paying for small parts here or there and saving yourself from the hassle of buying a whole new door to begin with! Another thing you can do is go ahead and opt for the stronger springs when getting your garage door installed or maintained. This is particularly useful if you know the door is going to be doing a lot of movement day to day. Stronger springs cost a bit more, but will ensure the door is able to perform better for longer, saving you money on springs and repairs. Lastly, if you’re getting a new garage door installed, you should consider changing out your opener at the same time, even if it’s still working ok. These things give out too, and you’ll save money on labor and another service call to get it replaced eventually by just having it done while the technician is already there. In summary, it’s better to pay up a little bit more on quality parts - particularly the heavy use springs and opener - and to get signed up for an annual maintenance plan. Small investments like these keeps your garage door performing better and for longer, which will save you money in the long run.

For many of us, we use our garage doors every day without much thought. We appreciate how they just open and close without much hassle, honestly. Have you ever stopped to wonder, though, how exactly that door manages to glide effortlessly up and down at the push of a button? Well, wonder no longer - this blog post intends to shed a bit of light on how a garage door works. Your average garage door consists of multiple horizontal panels that are hinged together so that it can bend as it is pulled up by the opener. When activated, the garage door opener lifts the hinged door, guided along tracks on the outside and the top center, via a system of pulleys and belts. The motor unit, mounted at the center of it all on the ceiling, is the brains of the operation and receives input from the radio transmitter buttons to determine when to open and close the door. Tension springs and support bars are strategically placed to ensure that the lifting and lowering of the doors goes as smooth as possible - minimizing any bouncing, banging, or jostling that could wear down your garage door system prematurely. On every garage door there is also a safety sensor installed on both sides of the doorway near the ground to make sure that there’s nothing in the way before the garage door closes. This basic design has been used for decades, and it works well to provide a low-profile and affordable solution for many homes and businesses. Most improvements to garage doors over the years have been predominantly made in aesthetics, insulation values, and noise management. Hopefully this post provides a bit more insight into the function of a garage door. In the following weeks, keep an eye out for our next entry, which covers how you can make sure to get the best bang for your buck when buying a new door.

Winter gets pretty cold here in New York City, but if you’re living here, you probably knew that already. Maintaining a comfortable temperature during those colder months in your garage, in addition to your home, has benefits. Even if you’re just using your garage to park your car, a comfortable temperature can extend the lifetime of your car and its functionality. Garage doors are a prime source of heat loss, and it’s important to make sure that the insulation value on any door you’re considering is going to work for you, not against you. Getting a better garage door with proper insulation can save you a lot of money on energy bills. Insulation values are measured in R-Value. The higher the R-value, the better it is at insulating, and it usually means a higher price point as well. A higher price on the garage door now can save you on your energy bills in the long run, though, so it’s certainly worth considering. In regards to garage door insulation, there’s usually two types: polystyrene and foamed-in-place polyurethane. Polystyrene is more affordable, but polyurethane is better and doubles the R-value. Your choice of windows (or no windows) can also affect your new garage doors’ insulation. While going without windows certainly lends itself to better insulation and privacy, the appeal of a window feature is also very attractive. These days, windows can be installed in just about any door, and the insulation technology is there, but it does come at a heavier cost. When choosing windows, make sure that they compliment your home’s regular windows so as not to look out of place. This wraps up our series for What To Look For In A Garage Door. While there’s certainly a lot more to it, hopefully you feel like you have a better idea of what to look for and what questions to ask when getting your in-person quote. If you’re ready to make that step, give us a call at (718) 721-2518 and we can help make it easy for you.