A quick guide to timber effect garage doors

Timber effect garage doors come in lots of different materials, often with incredibly realistic colours and surface finishes that imitate a woodgrain texture. So its unsurprising that people often choose a GRP or steel timber effect product, over a natural timber garage door. Today we are going to look at some of the most important factors to consider when deciding between a timber and timber effect garage door.

Colour and surface finishes
So there are essentially two alternatives to a timber garage door: GRP and Steel. For the former, there are a comprehensive selection of colour finishes, which include traditional appearances that wood stains provide such as Mahogany or Light Oak, but there are also more modern colours such as Anthracite Grey available as well. You may ask, why would I want a timber effect door in Anthracite Grey, well you still get the woodgrain appearance with a texture surface finish that shows the grain of the wood as well as the appearance of joins between what would be individual pieces of wood. At present, there are 18 colour finishes to choose from for GRP.

Steel timber effect doors are supplied in two colours (Golden Oak and Rosewood) and two designs (Wentwood and Sherwood). The modern wide-profiled design is ideally suited to more modern architecture and complements existing wooden features. The foil-coated steel has a fine woodgrain texture that not only looks realistic, but has a woodgrain feel to it as well.

Perhaps the most overlooked benefit of choosing a timber garage door is its natural appearance. Garador timber doors are produced from solid red cedar (or solid red cedar and marine grade plywood for the Elizabethan range) and so each piece of wood is unique with knots and a woodgrain texture that can't easily be replicated.

Maintenance and Longevity
When it comes to the maintenance and longevity of your garage door, it's arguable that you could get some real mileage out of a real timber garage door. Doors constructed from solid red cedar have a very long service life and contain natural preservatives that help to protect the wood from temperature related stresses, which could result in cracking or warping.

But if you are going down the steel or grp route, then its worth noting that GRP doors are especially durable, as the door panel itself won't rust and they won't warp or shrink like real wood. It could be argued that both the steel and GRP door styles require less maintenance as they don't require regular staining or treatment, just the occasional wash down with some water and detegent.

Price
For those on a limited budget, then a timber-effect garage door offers a significant cost-advantage over a garage door constructed from real wood. Garador's steel timber-effect up & over garage doors involve a foil-coat being applied to the surface of the steel for a realistic appearance and durable surface that will last well. The two door models are the Sherwood and Wentwood, with the latter having a vertical wide profile design and the former having a horizontal wide profile design and both designs coming in either a Rosewood or Golden Oak finish.


Visit www.garador.co.uk to view the range of timber-effect garage doors on offer.

Garador raises £200 for Macmillan Cancer Support

Our annual Macmillan coffee morning that actually ended up being 2 days of baked goodness, raised a fantastic £200 for the charity. An incredible amount of effort went into making the event a success, from baking the goodies to helping set up the event. There were over 20 different styles of cake and savoury! Some highlights were Emma's Maltesar cake, which looked amazing, and Sarah's coffee cake, which tickled some taste buds. We'd like to say a huge thankyou to everyone involved and for supporting such a great charity.

New Duragrain sectional garage door finishes

We are delighted to introduce a brand-new collection of Duragrain surface finishes to the Garador sectional garage door range. Duragrain is available in a choice of 24 decorative colour finishes, each with a unique and stylish design imitating a variety of real woods, natural stones and metal. These offer a more expansive alternative to the paint and timber effect finishes in our standard range of sectional garage doors.

The decorative colour finishes are printed onto the surface of the door; delivering a UV-resistant colourfast appearance. A final scratch-resistant coating helps to protect the print from the effects of weathering. Duragrain is only available in a Premium (42mm) insulated garage door style, with our Deluxe specification available as a cost option. The Deluxe version is supplied with fittings, frames, tracks and connection rails painted in Grey White (RAL 9002), and tandem track rollers for a smooth door operation.

 The top fascia panel for these doors is supplied in Woodgrain Traffic White (RAL 9016) as standard, and is optionally available in an NCS colour complementing the surface finish of the Duragrain door. You can see the full range of NCS colours in the Duragrain price list.

View the Duragrain brochure or Duragrain price list for further details, or visit www.garador.co.uk 

Tension lifting gear now as standard on sectional garage doors up to 4000mm wide (excluding Silkgrain)

Tension lifting gear has previously only been available as standard on Garador sectional garage doors up to 3048mm wide, but is now available as standard on doors up to 4000mm wide and 2625mm high (on smaller widths up to 3250mm), providing more flexibility when fitting larger doors in garages with less headroom. This includes both Classic and Premium insulated garage doors, but excludes the Silkgrain surface finish. A sectional garage door with tension lifting gear that is 4000mm wide and is automated with a GaraMatic operator still only requires a minimum of 115mm headroom, whilst the same setup with torsion lifting gear requires a minimum of 210mm headroom.

Please note, the existing stock of torsion lifting gear sectional doors will be supplied until current stocks are exhausted. If you require tension lifting gear sectional doors specifically, please state on your order. If you require further information, please contact the sales team here in Yeovil.

Garador Supports Coast to Coast Cycle Challenge

We continued to support the Coast to Coast Charity cycle challenge again for 2019, providing bicycle transport from the start and end of the event. Garador first supported the event back in 2014. We provided our garage door lorries to help transport participants bicycles from the end to the start of the cycle ride.

This year the route remained the same, with cyclists riding from Watchet Harbour in North Somerset all the way down to West Bay in South Somerset, a distance of 54 miles. The cycle event helps to raise lots of vital funds for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, a really worthwhile charity which helps to save lives everyday.

Find out more about the event by visiting www.dsairambulance.org.uk/about-the-event

New Autodor garage door and operator

We are pleased to introduce the Garador Autodor, a new sectional garage door supplied complete with a GaraMatic 9. This new door retains all the usual features you have come to expect from a Garador sectional garage door, but at a lower price point.


Garador Autodor will be available in two door designs and a choice of 9 colour finishes:
•    Linear Medium (6 Woodgrain colours and 3 Decocolors).
•    Linear Large (6 Planar colours and 3 Decocolors).

There are 3 surface finishes in total (Woodgrain, Planar and Decocolor) with the Planar surface finish only available in special matt deluxe colours. The interior face of the door has a silver coloured galvanisation with a clear protective lacquer. The GaraMatic 9 operator is the same unit as you would normally purchase in the main Garador pricelist and comes with 2 hand transmitters.

View the Autodor brochure and Autodor Price List online or contact your nearest Garador stockist and installer to find out more.

Garador Support's Local School with High-Visibility Vests

We've just donated 450 high visibility vests to the pupils at a local Yeovil based primary school, Holy Trinity Church School. The vests will come in handy for pupils out on school trips to various destinations, including their most recent one to central London, helping to keep them safe in busy environments outside the school. Garador's Managing Director, Neil Discombe, was delighted to support such as worthwhile local cause, which have a real benefit to the local community.

New GRP Garage Door Range!

We’ve just updated our GRP range to include a selection of new Up & Over and Side Hinged garage doors. There are now 8 Up & Over garage doors and 4 Side Hinged garage doors in GRP. These doors come in a choice of 19 colour finishes and some are available with matching chassis colour too.

Please refer to the April 2019 price list for the full range of prices and sizes available. Visit www.garador.co.uk for further information

IMPORTANT RECALL NOTICE: Garador G3 Cables (Part no. 1155) - Canopy Doors (Pre 1999)

Due to a product fault, we are requesting that any customers that have purchased Garador’s G3 cables (part no. 1155 – Canopy Doors Pre 1999) directly from Garador between 11th January 2019 and  11th March 2019, should contact our technical department on 01935 443722. Some cables in this production batch are faulty and may need to be recalled.

Any Garador G3 cables purchase before January 11th 2019 have been manufactured correctly and are okay to use.

New Anthracite Metallic (Noir 2100 Sable) for GaraRoll Roller Doors

Our roller garage doors are a great choice for garages with limited room inside or that require access to the ceiling space inside the garage. We have now added Anthracite Metallic (Noir 2100 Sable) to the colour range for GaraRoll roller garage doors, providing even more choice. This new colour has a dark grey appearance with subtle pearlescent flecks blended into the paint, which creates an impression of quality and excellence in contemporary design.

There are now 13 colour finishes and 2 timber effect finishes in the GaraRoll roller door range. Visit www.garador.co.uk to view the full range of roller garage doors and to find your nearest stockist/ installer.