Removal of plastic packaging

As part of our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and be kinder to the environment, we have been looking at a number of ways to make Garador products more environmentally friendly. One of the key areas we are looking to make changes is with the packaging of our products, by removing plastic packaging as standard on our up & over garage doors.

The packaging waste regulations are in place to ensure that businesses are responsible for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste in the UK. Whilst we cover our obligation in financial terms, we do see a need to be more responsible in our actions to proactively reduce waste. From April 2022 the UK government will introduce a new Plastic Packaging Tax for businesses which will have an impact on all of us. This should hopefully encourage the reduction in use of plastic, help to tackle plastic packaging waste and provide businesses with the right incentives to recognise the impact on the environment.

Garador will therefore start to phase out plastic wrapping as standard on all up & over garage doors for all orders processed after 1st June 2022. Plastic protection can still be requested as an optional extra as listed in our price list. Please make it clear on all orders if you wish wrapping to be provided.

Please visit our website for further details about our full range of products. 

Removal of products from our range

After careful consideration, we have decided to withdraw a small selection of products from our range with effect from 1st June 2022. This will help to streamline our manufacturing process and provide additional capacity for other high volume products.

The discontinued products include specific door models, colours and surface finishes, as detailed below:

• Chevron steel up & over, side-hinged and garage side doors are now discontinued due to limited demand.
• Georgian sectional garage doors in timber-effect finish have been discontinued.
• Sandgrain surface finishes for our Linear Medium and Linear Large sectional garage doors will no longer be available in Terra Brown (RAL 8028) or White Aluminium (RAL 9006).
• Linear Trio sectional garage door.

 To view the existing Garador product range, please visit www.garador.co.uk

We’re Exhibiting at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show in March

 

We’re delighted to announce that Garador will be exhibiting at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show at Birmingham’s NEC this March.

We will be showcasing our newly redesigned side-hinged garage door and new GaraGlide roller door, as well as a selection of other types of garage door. The new Slategrain surface finish for sectional garage doors will also be on show. Visitors will be able to find out about the latest electric operator technology for garage doors, including “smart ready” Series 4 GaraMatic operators which can be fully controlled using Android or iOS smart phones.

We are very much looking forward to displaying our fantastic range of products at this year's Homebuilding and Renovating show. With environmental aspects now high on everyone’s list, we are excited to be exhibiting our FrontGuard entrance doors which are secure and thermally insulated. Along with excellent insulation, these doors complement the designs in Garador’s garage door range, meaning homeowners can choose a matching garage door and front door design from one manufacturer.

It’s going to be great to meet customers in person and our team of experts will be on hand each day to meet with visitors, chat about all the different aspects of garage doors and entrance doors; from choosing the right door for your project all the way through to fitting requirements, sizing and product specification.

The show is taking place at Birmingham’s NEC between March 24th and 27th 2022, so come along and visit the Garador stand B147 in hall 9.

You can request free tickets for the event here: bit.ly/33TB8ou

A new year cheer for homeless charity Crisis

In the run up to Christmas, we worked with our customers to raise money for homeless charity, Crisis. We asked our network of stockists and installers, which stretches throughout the British Isles, to send through shots of their most recent Garador door installations and for each one we posted on Garador's Linkedin and Twitter pages we donated £10 to Crisis.

It was great to see such enthusiasm and such a positive response from customers and thanks to their wonderful generosity, we've managed to raise £300 for the long-established homeless charity.

The pictures sent in offered just a small glimpse of the considerable range of garage doors currently being installed across the country. It was easy to see that our up & over and sectional door models are still very popular, with a selection of photos showing their versatility in terms of designs, sizes, materials and colours. Windows in garages also featured strongly, a trend probably enhanced by people now using garages for storage, exercise and even home offices, as homeowners seek to personalise their door to suit their requirements.

With homelessness continuing to rise in the UK, Crisis perform a vital role in supporting homeless people. They provide education, employment, housing and well-being services and work side-by-side with thousands of people to help them leave behind homelessness. The team at Garador were pleased to support such a worthwhile cause.

Find out more about Crisis and the important work they do by visiting www.crisis.org.uk

New Secured by Design Sectional Garage Doors

Security is always an important consideration for our customers, when they are looking to purchase a new garage door. Your garage door provides an entry point into your garage, where high-value items like cars, motorbikes and tools are often stored. So we are thrilled to announce that we will be introducing Secured by Design (SBD) accreditation to our industry renowned sectional garage doors, as a free upgrade.

 

What qualifies for Secured by Design Status?

To qualify for Secured by Design status, the Garador sectional garage door must meet each of the following conditions:

• 42mm insulated premium sectional garage door (Classic uninsulated models are not eligible).
• Fitted behind the opening.
• No windows in any of the door sections.
• Electrically operated with a GaraMatic operator.
• Only official Garador parts and products must be used, and they must be installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Once the door is installed, all that needs to be done is for the fitter to fill in a simple form which includes the installer, customer and door details. Garador will then send out an official Secured by Design accreditation pack with registration label and badge.

 

Anti-lift kit built into operator boom

The GaraMatic operator, which forms an important part of the Secured by Design accreditation, is engineered with an anti-lift kit to prevent forced entry. This utilises a mechanical lock built into the operator boom, and because it is mechanical the door cannot be forced open even during a power cut. Another noteworthy security feature of the GaraMatic operators is the bi-directional radio system that uses the same 128-bit encryption employed by banks for online banking security. This technology makes the system even more secure and ensures a more reliable signal and extended range. 

Secured by Design

Home security remains a concern for homeowners, specifiers and housing developers alike, and there continues to be a strong demand for high-security products which offer an even greater level of protection.

Secured by Design is renowned throughout the building industry, providing a recognised standard for high-security products that reduce crime. The Secured by Design badge is a clear indication that the product has a much higher level of security and has undergone rigorous testing to withstand an attack from a burglar.

Garador already offers a selection of steel up & over garage doors with Secured by Design accreditation, as part of its Guardian range. The addition of SBD sectional garage doors will extend the company’s SBD product offering, giving customers the possibility of ordering a garage door that’s thermally insulated and electrically automated with a GaraMatic operator. Attributes that are not currently available in the Guardian Range.

When picking out a door design and colour, customers can choose from the full range of fully insulated Georgian and Linear designs, as well as all the standard RAL colours.

Visit www.garador.co.uk to find out more about Garador's new SBD sectional doors.

Contemporary architecture and garage door design

Garador’s wide profiled and more minimalist garage doors are the perfect accompaniment to contemporary architecture.  Buildings with contemporary architectural design are often characterised by their individuality, with designs that are radically different to what has come before and built using a multitude of different building materials and methods of construction. Yet they remain eye-catchingly “modern” to the uninitiated.

Thus Garador’s more modern minimalist door designs, work well with this philosophy and their simplicity means they don’t look out of place on a completely unique design of building. The steel up & over designs of the Windsor and Ascot are compliant with both vertical and horizontal linear surroundings and work well with more free-form aspects too. The clean lines and smooth plain surfaces of the door mean they accommodate contemporary architectural design. The surface of the door panel is flat, being held together by spot welds, eliminating the need for rivets or other methods of construction that would detract from the door’s plain appearance.

But styles of garage door with a minimalist feel are not just limited to up & over models, there are sectional garage doors that naturally appeal to contemporary architectural design as well. Given the way they are engineered, they are inherently secure and well-insulated delivering a high-quality solution that is difficult to match elsewhere. The Linear Large model in particular utilises wide open panels with a very subtle linear indentation that runs horizontally along the door marking the join between door sections. The Duragrain decors of the Linear Large model, where a decorative print is applied directly to the surface of the door, also provides further options and directions to go in.

Mid-century modern design often seen in residential properties from the 1950s and 1960s, have helped lay the foundations for the inspiration of some of the interior and exterior design trends we see today, with sharp lines, minimal decoration, wide-open spaces and floor to ceiling windows. Buildings from the mid-20th century all the way through to the present day, exhibit traits of mid-century modern design. Today’s contemporary architectural design with its open floor plans, free form shapes, large windows and integration into the surrounding landscape are leading the way in cutting edge home design; and these are just some common characteristics of this contemporary approach to architecture in residential properties.

The popularity of television shows like mad men or even consumer electronics products from major brands such as Apple, have oriented colour tastes towards blacks, greys, whites and generally neutral tones. The effects of popular culture can be seen in the products we buy, the clothes we wear and of course the houses we live in. An increasingly neutral colour palette, has been adopted by homeowners and architects, and so Garador have seen a notable growth in the popularity of certain colours for its garage doors like Anthracite Grey, Slate Grey and Traffic White.

As minimalist design trends flourish in the homes and garages currently on the drawing boards of architects, it’s worth noting that it’s not just the one-off unique building styles that the Windsor, Ascot and Linear Large garage door tends  to attract, but rather it lends itself to the uniformity and repetition of new build housing developments also.

Find out more about our full range of garage doors by visiting www.garador.co.uk

We're raising money for Crisis UK in the run up to Christmas

In the run-up to Christmas, we're going to be donating £10 to Crisis for every photo of a recent Garador door installation we post on our Linkedin and Twitter pages. Crisis is a fantastic charity that does excellent work supporting people experiencing homelessness.

Send in your photos of recent Garador installations to photos@garador.co.uk