The importance of a garage door when building or renovating your home cannot be overlooked. It can potentially take anything up to 40% of the frontage of your home and hence has a huge impact on the appearance and appeal of the entire home. While some homeowners rush for established brands in a bid to get doors that fit their tastes and style, the best approach is to define your own set of preferences and use them as the radar to finding the door that perfectly matches and complements the ambiance of your home. 

The following factors can help inform your decision on the kind of garage door to install. 

Safety Features

The first and foremost decision to install a garage door is to help enhance safety to what is locked inside. With this in mind, the garage door you choose should be safe enough to protect the contents of the garage and also prevent injuries to the users. Among the safety features to look for are steel door stops and locking bar end covers well designed to protect the fingers against injury. Plastic door stops may not be strong enough and at times may break, posing a greater safety concern. 

Ease of Operation

As a homeowner, you deserve a garage door that's smooth, quiet and easy to operate. For a greaseless operation which will ensure your home is peaceful and quiet, look for garage doors with nylon braided running strips for effortless up and down rolling of your door. In addition, look for guide stops, preferably rubber coated to reduce or even eliminate metal on metal contact. The weight off the garage door also needs to be counterbalanced with springs to further enhance the ease of opening and closing. 

The Garage Door Material

Garage doors are available in steel, wood, fiberglass, vinyl and aluminum, thereby giving you a wide range of options to choose from. If you are after visual appeal, wood is an excellent choice. Steel on the other hand gives you an enhanced level of security in addition to the fact that it is among the least expensive materials. If you live in moderate climates, fiberglass may serve you for long without cracking. Aluminum is a great option for homeowners living in areas with lots of moisture because it neither rusts nor corrodes.  

In addition to the above, the style of garage door you choose, whether sectional, tilt-up or roll a doors, should match the overall design of your home.