As products generally evolve in response to future homes and building standards, how are trends in garage door design being affected? While building regulations primarily focus on energy efficiency principles for heated spaces, such as living areas, garages often fall outside this scope due to their unheated nature. Nevertheless, there’s a growing acknowledgment among developers regarding the thermal properties of garage doors, particularly in the context of attached garages where they can offer some protection to external walls or where the garage itself is being used as a living space.
Does this therefore prompt questions about the future of traditional somewhat draughty up and over garage doors continuing as the mainstay on housing development sites?
Well, there are some market pointers that support this:
- Homeowner pressures for distinctive aesthetics and bespoke garage door designs, coupled with a growing green consciousness is being embraced by leading manufactures and have been for a number of years.
- Eastern Garage Doors’ own experience on East Anglian housing developments supports this notion especially on sites that promote design quality and responsibly built homes.
- Market reports show that growing emphasis on security, energy efficiency, and personalisation is driving growth and boosting the demand for innovative door solutions.
However, all is not lost for the humble up and over. Albeit a drafty choice, its budget-friendly persona will prevail on building sites everywhere for some time to come against the slow and steady rise of the more expensive ‘custom’ automated doors.
In the meantime, here are three examples of innovative garage door solutions:
The Up and Over: A New Dimension
Operating in the UK, Silvelox, an Italian manufacturer, presents a revolutionary self-lifting counterweight design, eliminating the necessity for tracks and offering enhanced design flexibility. Their premium up-and-over door boasts a multilayer panel with a honeycomb structure for thermal and acoustic insulation.
Sectional Doors: Enhanced Energy Efficiency
Novoferm has introduced the Evolution Premium series of garage doors, featuring customisable finishes and a panel design that incorporates thermal separation between the outer and inner shells. This innovation enhances heat insulation, achieving a low resistance value of 0.46 W/m²K.
Meanwhile, Hörmann UK also offers sectional garage doors boasting low U-values below 1.0 W/m²K. These doors integrate a metal-foam-core with a thermal break system.
Roller Doors: How energy-efficient are they?
When prioritising insulation, sectional garage doors and other types of door such as side hinged, outperform roller garage doors. Some however are equipped with double-skinned foam-filled profiles and do offer some draught exclusion. Though the primary purpose of this is to reduce potential noise as the curtain opens and shuts.
In summary, Eastern Garage Doors predicts a growing preference for sustainability among homeowners to be reflected in an increase in the installation of bespoke, individually styled garage doors. This shift reflects slow-changing habits and priorities in residential building projects, where factors such as security, energy efficiency, and personalisation will boost the demand for innovative designs. Technological advancements will also play their part. For home designers, architects, and housing developers, adapting to the evolving landscape will require original thinking to match changing homeowner behaviours.