Category Archives: Garage Doors Tips

How to Choose a New Residential Garage Door

There are quite a few things that you would need to be concerned with when choosing a new garage door. Even though it might sound as if it’s the simplest task, there are quite a few different things that you would have to take into proper consideration. This is, of course, if you want to make an informed choice and to ensure that the door is going to be fit for its purposes. You can always go ahead and pick something at blind but this is definitely going to end up with complications and additional hassle.

New Residential Garage Doors

We at AMPM Ottawa Garage Door Repair™ have taken it upon ourselves to provide our customers with a few helpful tips on how to select a garage door which is going to serve its purpose and provide them with the necessary security. Without any further ado, let’s take a quick look.

1. Set a budget
Before you go outside and look for a door, the first thing that you should do is to set a budget. A single car garage door would start from 700-800$ and a double one would start from 1600-1700$ for a uninsulated door with no windows (including the installation service). This is going to spare you a significant amount of time and effort. Determine a particular budget that you don’t want to go over of and make sure that you stick to it – this is important.

2. Check out the design
Of course, a lot of people would argue how important that is. However, the truth is that there are plenty of different design layouts and you need to ensure that the one that you pick up is going to match the exterior of your entire house. The last thing you want is for the door to look as if it’s something additional.

Garage door insulation

3. Check the insulation
The insulation of your overhead door is something which is going to determine a lot of things. Micro climate control is important and unless you want your electricity bills to skyrocket it’s important to make sure that the door has proper insulation.

4. Construction
There is a wide range of different options here which would all be based on the budget and the purpose of your garage door. If you want to ensure high-end security than a metal door of sturdy construction would be the obvious choice, with an opener connected to the door at all time to prevent manual opening. If you live in a city with a high volume of break-ins, you better take a door without any glass windows over the top panel as burglars take advantage and break the window so they can hook the manual release wire easily.

Broken garage door spring

4. Spring system
Choose ONLY doors that come with torsion spring system, which is more stable and durable comparing to extension springs that usually located over the door. Some of the biggest home hardware Canadian stores and even local garage door suppliers deal with doors who made of very low-quality materials, as they use very thin layers of aluminum sheets and smaller hinges/hardware to save metal on the production process. Be aware and call us before you choose a supplier!

Garage door opener

5. Openers, remotes, and keypads
If your bedroom is beside your garage door, consider belt driven opener. The most commandeered opener brands are Liftmaster-Chamberlain, Sears, and craftsman, any other brand will give less value for your money, and most likely less durability. If you don't have some old remote controls or keypad installed, buy a package that comes with 2 remotes and a keypad included. Some openers come with MYQ smart-phone WiFi garage door control system, as well as a laser beam that alerts when you reached the limit when parking your car in the garage.

Furthermore, you can contact the AMPM Ottawa Garage Door Repair™ in order to get professional maintenance, repair, and replacement services whenever you need them. This is just as important. We carry all parts as well provide 24-hour emergency services, 7 days a week. Our local office located at 116 Albert St, Ottawa, K1P 5G3, Ottawa, Ontario.

Garage Door Won’t Open – Things to Check Out

A garage door in open position

Please note, if your door is partially open, don’t try to pull the red manual release wire, you might have a snapped cable or broken torsion spring, or even a jammed roller. Avoid trying to fix it your self as the door panels can slam into the floor and bent. Learn more about garage door safety on this video we have made: Watch The Video

Locked out? Your Garage Door Won’t Open? Learn About The Most Common Reasons

Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of things which may cause your garage door to stop working. Being unable to close it or to open it is characteristic of a few different problems, all of which need careful addressing. A broken spring, however, is something that’s usually going to concern quite a lot of people. With this in mind, below you will find all of the things that you need to know.

Overhead garage door

As a matter of fact, garage door springs are amongst the most common reasons for which people would usually call for the services of AMPM Ottawa Garage Door Repair™. With an extensive experience in the field, we’ve fixed all sorts of issues and we’ve handled a wide range of different problems but broken springs are always something rather common. Unfortunately, it’s a problem which is going to cause your garage door to stay closed or to fail to open. If your garage door opens few inches and then it stops, rest assured that one of the most common issues would be a broken spring.

Broken garage door spring

The Garage Door Spring – An Important Component

Keep in mind that the spring of your garage door is going to support its entire weight. They are going to wound or stretch while under pressure and they are going to tighten up and loosen as you open and close your garage door. A common misconception is that the garage door opener is actually supporting the entire weight of the door. However, that’s not true – this task is handled by the garage door spring entirely.

Of course, the high pressure that the garage door spring is put under constantly is going to cause it to wear out with time. Don’t worry, though, as you are most certainly not the first person to experience such a problem. As we mentioned above – this is a rather common issue.

Things to consider

The first thing that you should do is get all of the DIY plans that you might have in your head out of there. You should not, by all means, try to handle a spring or partially opened garage door problem by yourself. Instead, make a quick call to AMPM Ottawa Garage Door Repair™ and let the professionals handle the undertaking. This is going to ensure that everything is taken care of with the highest standards in place which will guarantee proper results. Our company provide a same day service anywhere in Ottawa south, east and west including Kanata, Orleans and the downtown area.