The following document was designed by the Association of Garage Door Specialists, and endorsed by all major UK garage door manufacturers, as a guide for purchasers of domestic garage doors.

Visual Appearance of Garage Doors

A new garage door can be a significant investment that will transform the appearance of your home.  This information is a guide to the quality you can expect.

The Quality Check

The quality check should be carried out in natural daylight, not direct sunlight.  Stand at a distance of 3 metres from the door to view the overall appearance. 

The door is acceptable if, taking into account the facts below, none of the following are readily visible on the face of the door:

• Marks or distortion associated with the manufacturing process
• Minor indentations, marks or scuffs on the surface
• Paint or stain blemishes

The Facts

Steel Doors

Panel Distortion - The rolling or pressing of steel panels during manufacture will cause distortion in the steel and while every effort is made to keep this to a minimum, inevitably some visible distortion will remain.  The application of high gloss paints will make this slight distortion more apparent, especially under certain lighting conditions, such as car headlamps, or bright sunshine.

Paint Finish -  Primed doors - the primer coating is applied as a base coat only as such requires additional finishing with a good quality exterior paint.  Any marks or scratches on the primer coat should be rubbed down and repained as part of this finishing process. Fully finished doors - the factory application of the paint finish is an automated process and this may resuilt in minor blemishes or slight inconsistencies in the paint, particularly in the area of the panel joints.

Timber Doors

Timber - Timber is a natural product and there will be variations in pattern, colour, shading and grains.  No two doors will be the same.  Because wood naturally expands and contracts accordingly to environmental conditions, joints will open and close and some minor curvature may occur.

Finishing - It is vital that timber doors are fully finished as per the manufacturers instructions before exposure to the elements.

GRP and Composite Plastic Doors

Mould Marks  - GRP doors are individually handcrafted in a mould and are then hand finished.  Some minor marks and blemishes will inevitably remain after this process.

Translucency - When viewed from the inside, it is often possible to see variations in the translucency of the door, particularly around and between areas of relief.  Such variations do no detract from the overall strength or build quality of the door.

All Doors

Colour Match  - Pairs of doors should be ordered together to obtain the best colour match, bearing in mind the limitations of the materials used in the construction.

Size Variations -  As the size of door changes in height and/or width, the panel frequency and profile can change, therefore doors of the same style but of different sizes can be significantly different in appearance.

Clearances - All doors require operating clearances, i.e. the gap between the door panel and the frame opening, these are inbuilt during manufacture and should not be reduced by means of infill, or draught proofing.

Deflection - When in the open position, all doors will display a level of vertical deflection or 'sag' across the width of the panel.  Individual manufacturers' specifications should be consulted for exact tolerances.

This page is reproduced with the kind permission of the Association of Garage Door Specialists.  For further details on the AGDS please click onto www.agds.co.uk.

                                                 
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