If you’re frequently using your house’s garage, there might have been times when its door isn’t working as good anymore. You might have found yourself trying to squeeze in or crawl under just to get inside your garage as its door got jammed in the middle of opening it. Or you might have accidentally locked yourself in your garage after its door got stuck, thus forcing you to pry the door open with a crowbar. So, you might decide to replace your old garage door with a hydraulic one. But you would want to know the pros and cons of hydraulic garage doors first.
What Are Some of the Pros of Having a Hydraulic Garage Door?
Once you’ve started replacing your old sliding, bi-fold or roll up doors with a hydraulic one, here are some of the benefits that you can get out of it:
A hydraulic garage door provides driveway shade.
Hot summer days can take a toll on your driveway as the color of the concrete can attract the sunlight.
- As a hydraulic garage door opens overhead, it can act as your garage’s foyer and give you ample shade in case you have to work outside.
- You have to make sure though that there’s enough vertical clearance for your vehicle to go in and out of your garage when you’re lifting the hydraulic door open.
Hydraulic garage door allows for easy installing of insulation.
If your old garage door is a roll-up one, you can’t install any insulation on it given its flexible nature which can leave your garage either too stuffy in the summer or too cold in the winter.
- On the other hand, a hydraulic garage door lets you add insulation so that you’re comfortable whenever you have to work inside your garage.
- Compared to sliding or bi-fold garage doors where you need to cut your insulation into at least two pieces or more, you can install an entire piece of insulation throughout the whole hydraulic garage door itself.
A hydraulic garage door has very few moving parts.
Your old garage door might be of the bi-fold type, but the frequent folding in half that happens every time you open or close it can cause the hinges between its top and bottom portions to eventually jam over time.
- Having a hydraulic door for your garage lets you open and close only one whole door instead of worrying about a folding one whose hinges might get stuck when you least expect it.
- You can also remove your entire hydraulic garage door easily in case you need to replace it with a new one compared to a bi-fold one whose only either top or bottom portion might need to be replaced due to damage.
What Are Some of the Cons of Having a Hydraulic Garage Door?
Despite the above-mentioned benefits that you can get out of ditching your old garage door and installing a brand-new hydraulic one, there are also certain disadvantages to it as well which are as follows:
You can’t park your vehicle or let anyone get too close to your hydraulic garage door.
As a hydraulic garage door swings outward whenever you open it, you wouldn’t want anything getting in the way of its swinging path.
- You would have to position either yourself or your vehicle a few feet away from your hydraulic garage door if you’re outside of your garage and would like to open it via remote control.
- Any other obstructions between your hydraulic garage door and your driveway would also have to be cleared first so that the former can swing fully without causing damage to your vehicle or injury to any passersby.
Water and snow can accumulate on your hydraulic garage door when left fully open.
If you’ve fully opened your hydraulic garage door during a rainy or snowy day, all the water and snow can easily build up on top of it and damage it easily.
- You would, therefore, want to provide a slight downward slope whenever you’re opening your hydraulic garage door instead of raising it all the way up to exactly 90 degrees.
- However, you also have to check regularly if you can still fully open your hydraulic garage door which you might need to do once summer strikes again instead of it being forever stuck at an awkward angle.
A malfunctioning door can get frustrating for someone like you who uses your garage often. If your garage door is starting to give up on doing its job, you might have thought of replacing it with a hydraulic one. However, as with all other types of garage doors like sliding, roll-up, and bi-fold, hydraulic ones have their own pros and cons as mentioned above. Thus, you should weigh your decision carefully before either having a hydraulic garage door installed or doing the entire installation yourself as you’ll be using it for a long time.
============================================================
Author Bio:
George is a specialist when it comes to amarr doors online. Working in the industry for over 20+ years he takes pride in helping his clients fulfill their needs when it comes to garage construction. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family.
============================================================
