Headroom clearance is the distance between the top of the garage door opening and the ceiling of your garage. Back in the day, it was common to see single lift or swing out doors that were manually opened and closed. Newer homes use a motorized method to operate the garage door. Outfitting an older home with a new garage door can be challenging because the framing and structure of the home may be cost prohibitive to change. Making matters worse, many of us enjoy our SUV’s and trucks only to park them in the driveway because they can’t fit in the garage with the new door and motor hanging from the ceiling. If your garage doubles as a shop or if you are in the market for a car lift, a garage door hanging from the ceiling is always in the way, gets covered in dust and blocks almost all available ceiling light when open.
Vertical garage doors are made in sections that are hinged together; typically called sectional garage doors. When they open, they rise on a vertical track, pass through a curved section of track, and then ride along a horizontal track where the door remains suspended overhead until it is closed.
The most popular standard radius track is a 15” radius, which requires 15” of headroom to accommodate the curve of the track and all other track components and equipment. Other standard radius options include 20” and 32” radii but the larger the radius, the larger the headroom required to accommodate the curve. There are “Low Headroom” kits available which can reduce the typical headroom from 15” to 5”; however, these kits come at an additional cost for material and labor and they do nothing to raise the lower horizontal track. Likewise, the motor remains suspended from the ceiling, creating an obstruction unless it is switched out to a wall mount motor called a Jack Shaft. Jack Shaft motors are not cheap, require springs and counterbalances to assist movement and are limited in their rating for maximum door size.
Now customers have an additional option; the Horizontal Garage Door system. Our system can be mounted in situations where there is minimal headroom. In fact, our system requires a minimum of only 4 inches. In addition, as our system moves horizontally, our customers enjoy an unobstructed ceiling space when the garage door is open, a cleaner overall look and maximum lighting from the ceiling.
Our Horizontal Garage Door system is just that; it runs horizontally along the face of the garage door opening and down either the right or left side of your garage. Now you may be thinking “Great, your garage door will work but I am losing an entire wall in my garage”. This is not the case as our system only requires 6 inches of space along the returning wall and therefore, if you choose, you can build a false wall in front of our system. A false wall not only provides for storage but also adds extra protection for your garage door when fully open.
Providing a Horizontal Garage Door system to solve a low headroom issue is by design at no additional cost. In fact, our system is designed to solve many common issues found with Overhead Sectional Garage Doors such as non-standard openings, material selection, noise and maintenance to name a few. Contact us to learn more.
