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We cover a wide variety of all types of front and personnel doors, garage doors, gates, and barriers.
Contact us today for a free no obligation site survey to see if we can transform your property.
FREE
SITE SURVEY | INSTALLATION | 10 YEAR WARRANTY
On all Automation for Sectional and Roller Shutter Doors
Get in touch today for your free SITE survey.
Complete the form and a member of our team will be in touch to help you with the next steps.
Get In Touch today.
Complete the form and a member of our team will be in touch to help you with the next steps.
get your free survey today.
Complete the form and a member of our team will be in touch to help you with the next steps.
FAQs.
Servicing your garage door is very important as most manufacturer’s warranty will insist on yearly service. We offer a service plan and Ad-Hoc Services to suit every requirement.
In most cases the answer is yes. We would still need to asses the suitability of your door as dependant on age and functionality we may advise that it is not a safe option.
If your garage door was manufactured in the last 2 years and is an up and over, sectional or side hinged mechanism then you can almost guarantee it can be made into a remote control operated door. If the door is older then we need to be careful what the manufacturer and model is as there are some doors that simply wont operate properly with an electric opener. If you have a regular up and over door and it has the retractable operating gear with tracks running horizontally into the garage then you can buy any number of simple boom type electric operators. These can then be installed with little drama.
If the door is one of the canopy types then you can still achieve electric operation but will require what is known as a bow arm converter which is a metal device that fits to the back of the garage door panel and helps to simulate the twisting action required with a canopy door to operate properly, all the way up and down.
For any sectional type garage door the addition of an electric operator is very simple, by adding a boom type operator above the door you will be able to operate this door type with ease. Of course as with any of the doors types additional headroom is required to accommodate the electric operator boom and also the motor head section at the back end. Generally to have a modern European manufactured electric operator you will need about 50 mm above the highest point of the top section of the door panel when half opened.
Please never assume that adding an electrical operator to your manually operated door that is already difficult to open or close will be the answer. For an electric operator to work correctly and safely the garage door must be balanced as near to perfect as possible in order for the safety mechanisms to work properly. If the door is very heavy it is certainly possible to get an electric motor to hoist the door up by overriding the safety cut out but of course the safety will be non existent and the motor will be under undue stress and not last very long at all. An electric operator is not a substitute for a badly fitted garage door.
There are really only a few standard ordering sizes for garage doors and these are purely historic in their origins from not that long ago when there were only a few sizes offered in the UK.
The older standard sizes used to be 7′ x 6’6′ and 7′ x 7′ for one piece up and over doors and for double sizes it was nearly always a 14′ x 7′ order size. These were the biggest sellers years ago and still order in imperial references. These references are to the nearest size of a metric equivalent and this is how it has always been with up and over and more recently sectional garage doors so if every millimetre counts it is worth checking the actual metric sizes with the fixing sub frame included so a mistake is not made. Nowadays if you fit a 7′ wide (2134 mm) up and over garage door you will find many cars simply won’t fit through the opening, especially if retractable operating gear is used. Most people should attempt to get at least 7′ wide and 7″ high or larger and the most common standard double door is getting to be 16′ (4877 mm) x 7″ These sizes refer to the ordering sizes and these are nearly always the measurements between the sub frame which has to be accounted for, so always be aware of this.
With the popularity now of roller and sectional garage doors the sizes have increased and many of these doors are installed to the inside face of the garage opening and as they rise vertically it is possible to be a bit out on the sizes and it shouldn’t matter too much. For example, if you have a garage opening width of say 7’5″ wide and 7’2″ high a standard off the shelf 7’6′ x 7’0″ sectional garage door will fit nicely onto the inside face without any further work required. This assumes of course there is sufficient internal clearance to take the operating mechanism.
There are many garage doors that do not need much headroom but you can also think a bit laterally about it too.
When you have limited headroom inside your garage or even maybe a sloping down roof which gets lower towards the back then of course you have to think about the garage door carefully. Premium garage door manufacturers these days will produce a purpose made range for their door models so the width and height need not be a problem to maximise the dimensions. Choose your preferred door type and then work backwards to see what you may end up with in your drive through height and width which is probably the most important dimensions if you intend to use the garage for a vehicle.
The average one piece up and over garage door doesn’t need much headroom at all, maybe 2-3 inches at the most (50-75 mm) nut if a remote control electric operator is required then the real problem as it is with many tracked doors is the length of the electric operator boom. Most electric motors for tracked garage doors will be at least 3 metres long as a minimum and of course are the highest point above the door so if you do have any internal lintels or other obstructions you do need to make sure you get your measurements correct.
Many people want roller garage doors, manual or electric operated, and if you look at most roller doors the average headroom required is stated as about 300 mm, and what is important here is not to get obsessed with this dimension. There are roller garage doors with less headroom requirements, but be aware this is always a bit of a compromise as the smaller roll is achieved by using thinner door slats, less strength, security and insulation. For the industry standard os about 300 mm bear in mind if you don’t have this headroom all that it will mean is the total height available will leave you a drive through height of this measurement less the 300 mm and a bit more for the bottom slat hang down. So, in effect, you can have a roller door whatever the headroom is available and all you have to be aware of is the final drive through height when open, and maybe a fascia or full hood cover to cloak off the roll that may show beneath the lintel. All not a problem though unless your height is a critical required measurement. For sectional garage doors the same principal applies and although you can get low headroom options for most models which simply gives a tighter curve to the tracking, it will mean some headroom is lost when open fully as the physics of it kicks in.
This completely depends on the type of door and operator in question. A motor drive will make little difference if the break in involves breaking through the for panel itself. Electric or manually operated it doesn’t matter if you can smash through the actual door!
A correctly specified electric garage door operator fitted to a good strong garage door panel with good strength can be a very secure system as long as the motor drive unit and attachment to the door is strong and the operator has been tested and approved with the door in question. Many garage doors like the roller shutter doors have the motor built into the overall package rather than an add on later and this means if they have been designed well with mechanical additions to assist in holding the roller door curtain down they too will be very resistant to a burglary attempt.
Some entry level roller garage doors have the down side of being able to be lifted up very easily when not designed with proper mechanics in the curtain to barrel connection or with no mechanics holding the curtain down on the floor. Adding a remote control operator to an existing door such as an up and over one piece door or a sectional type door means the motor drive has to attach somewhere onto the door and this can be a weak spot .
We can match most of our garage doors to an existing RAL Colour.
Our average delivery on Doors can vary. Roller Doors are available in 1-2 weeks, Up and Over doors 3-4 weeks and Side Hinged doors 4-6 weeks. Some more specialist doors take a little longer. This said we do keep stock of popular sizes and colours.
The majority of our doors carry a fully comprehensive 10 Year manufacturers guarantee. Our roller doors offer a 5-year guarantee on automation and panels/slats. We guarantee our installations for a minimum of 5 years.
We can repair most makes of garage door. If you can identify the manufacturer and the style in the first instance this may help us diagnose problem and find out availability on parts. Please call or email us in the first instance to see if we can help.
We always take your old door out and away unless you tell us otherwise.
We stock most common spare parts and any that we don’t we can normally source for next day delivery.
Yes, if you ever have a problem with the operation of your door we are here to help. Give us a call – if we can’t help over the phone, we will get to you as soon as we can.
This is a common problem and a lot can depend on exactly how much additional space you require. We have several options included changing the style of door to more structural solutions. We can give you a solid answer when we attend your garage for a survey.
Like many products the costs of our doors vary greatly depending on size colour and style. However, if you have approximate door sizes, style and colour we can give you a price guide over the phone or email.
Visit Our Bristol Showroom.
ABA Garage Doors, Unit B3, Backfield Farm Business Park Bristol BS37 9XD
Open 10:00 am-3:00 pm Mon-Fri By appointment
Saturday & Sunday
We can assist in choosing the best options for your property.
We have a wide variety of 14 doors on display:
- Automated
- Roller
- Timber
- Up and over
- Sectional
- GRP
- Side-hinged
