Flip-Up Garage Door Falling Fast to the Rolling Juggernaut

If your old, flip-up garage door is beginning to splinter into kindling with each yank of the automatic opener, if it sags like a plug mare on the way to the glue works, if it has ever whacked you in the shins, banged your car or booted the family cat, if dry rot and termites are adding decorative touches never intended, or if you are simply bored with a door that looks like it belongs on the side of a barn, then you might take Jim Cramer’s advice and make the switch to sectional.

“Sectional roll-up garage doors are more durable, more stylish than one-piece doors,” says Cramer, operations manager for Anaheim Door, one of Southern California’s largest dealers of sectional garage systems. He also predicts that “in the next 15 years almost every home built in Southern California will have a sectional garage door. The one-piece will be dead.”

Cramer is a man who has seen the future. Not surprisingly, it is a future that comes in roll-up panels of teak, cedar and Douglas fir.

Virtually unknown in Orange County just 10 years ago, roll-up garage doors are now the portal of choice for builders of upscale houses as well as for homeowners who are replacing old doors. According to Cramer, his company alone installs as many as 200 roll-ups a week in the Orange County area.

“Southern California is the home of custom,” he says. “Everyone wants their house to look a little bit different than their neighbor’s. People are now finding out just how important their garage door can be in achieving that custom look.”

Aesthetics aside, sectional doors are tough.

“They are very strong,” Cramer says. “They won’t fall apart like a one-piece door, and they can’t be pried open because they’re secured to a track channel. It’d take a sledgehammer to break one down.”

Other Orange County garage door suppliers agree that the advantages of a sectional system go beyond looks. For one thing, a roll-up door leaves a heck of a big hole in the front of a garage. This is all the better to store vans and RVs because it allows full access to the garage. On the other hand, a one-piece door cuts off about a half foot of available space when open.

Also, because sectional systems open straight up, it is no longer necessary to clear a no-man’s land of 3 to 4 feet in front of the door as protection against close encounters of the one-piece kind. This is especially handy for people with short driveways and long cars. Now the bumper of the family Volvo can practically kiss the garage door without getting smacked in return.

The benefits list goes on.

Sectional doors seal better against weather, dirt and creepy crawlers than one-piece models; they require less maintenance, usually just light oil on the hinges (Cramer’s rule of thumb: “If the door works, don’t fix it; if it makes a noise, get rid of the noise”); they open easier and more smoothly, which puts less strain on hardware and automatic openers, and they can enhance the value of a home when it comes time to resell.

Despite such praise, however, could the rise of the sectional garage door really spell the end for the traditional one-piece plywood workhorse? Is the flip-up door destined to go the way of the potbelly stove, gas lamps and the outdoor commode?

“Probably,” says Jeff Lonner, production manager of Total Access, a Fullerton-based installer of both sectional and one-piece garage doors. “I can’t remember the last time we put in a lift-up door on a remodel job.”

Lonner says that about the only requests for one-piece doors come from customers who have accidentally bashed their cars into a neighbor’s door and want the cheapest replacement possible.

“Even then they’re looking at $500 or $600 installed, where a nice sectional door would run about a thousand,” he says.

Many Orange County builders still use one-piece doors on tract homes, according to Lonner. But he believes this trend should eventually give way to roll-up models, even on less expensive homes, as public acceptance and demand for sectional chic grows.

Or, as Cramer puts it, it is all part of the “dishwasher syndrome.”

“Twenty years ago the automatic dishwasher was optional in most homes,” he explains. “Today you can’t buy a home without a dishwasher because that’s what people expect. It’s not a luxury item anymore.”

Roll-up garage doors have long been a necessity in the cold-weather states of the Midwest and East Coast. A door that swings out on hinges isn’t much use when the snow lies a foot deep on your driveway.

Years of practical application, however, may have robbed these out-of-state doors of a sense of style. It took Southern California, home of the designer doghouse and other architectural wonders, to elevate the garage door to status symbol.

“In the Midwest, everybody has the same garage door,” says Cramer. “Eight panels across, four “If your kid runs his panels high, with very little variation in design or pattern. But here in Southern California there’s a tremendous emphasis on style. That’s because sectional garage doors started out here in the custom home market. From the very beginning they were a sharper, more individual product.”

How individual?

Cramer says his company offers about 20 basic panel designs, each with four to 20 different window selections.

“Depending on how we combine the panels and windows, we could install doors on a hundred houses going down a street and each one would look different,” he claims.

All of Cramer’s paint-grade doors come primered so that either the homeowner or a painter can apply the finish coats. Painting it yourself can save about $150, he says. He does not recommend, however, that a homeowner tackle the job of actually installing the door.

“If there’s a problem (in installation), if you do something wrong or damage the door, you’ll end up biting the bullet as far as repairs go,” he warns. “Besides, doing it yourself may save a couple hundred dollars, but I guarantee you’re going to spend the entire weekend on it, and you’ll need someone to help you with it. It’s not a one-man job.”

Making sure the garage door rolls smoothly is only half the battle--getting the automatic door opener set properly is another installation headache.

This is especially important, says Cramer, because some of the new, state-of-the-art openers are also multipurpose control centers which--by using the opener’s remote control--can turn on lights both inside and outside the house, check if doors are open, and even flip on the living room stereo before your car even makes it onto the driveway.

Cramer says that most two-car garages can be fitted with a sectional door for about $1,100. This includes an automatic door opener (minus the high-tech frills) and two remote controls. Prices go up from there depending on the design extras involved.

Windows, for instance, are growing in demand, especially sunburst and circular styles that tie in with the architecture of the home. Natural finish doors made of cedar, redwood, teak, Douglas fir and other rich-grained woods are also popular. Depending on the wood and windows involved, prices for a door alone can range from $700 to about $1,700, according to Cramer.

The most expensive door, however, is made of natural finish oak.

“We have one oak product that runs $6,000 to $7,000,” he says. “We don’t install too many of those. Not a lot of people are ready to spend that sort of money on a garage door.”

Many Orange County home supply stores offer sectional doors made of steel, as do most dealers. Textured to look like wood, a standard two-car garage door usually costs between $550 to $800, installation included. The more expensive doors come with a baked-on enamel and are available in up to five colors.

Unfortunately, a steel door is not as indestructible as the name implies. Like a car fender, it can ding and dent. It presents a great big juicy target for any errant tricycle or speeding baseball.

“A steel door remembers everything,” says Gerard Wooters, president of Seacoast Garage Doors in Costa Mesa. “If your kid runs his bike into a wood door and gouges it, you can fill it, sand it and paint it so you’d never know anything had happened. But in a steel door (the damage) is there and will always be there.”

Which is more than Wooters can say for many garage door installation companies.

“Fly-by-nighters are a problem in this business,” he admits. “It’s an easy-enter market and that attracts a lot of people who really don’t know what they’re doing. They can put a door in for you and three weeks later be out of business.”

Which can be tough for customers whose garage doors are ailing due to installer error. As such, about the only response they can expect when they call to complain is a disconnect message from the phone company.

Wooters suggests that potential customers pay as close attention to the reputation of the dealer installing the door as to the price and quality of the door itself. “You should find out how long they have been in business, do they have a bona fide shop and employees, do they come across as professional, do you get more than an answering machine when you call them,” he says.

Cramer agrees that customers must beware. He warns that many garage door installers lack contractor’s licenses and some lack a permanent location. “They don’t want people to know where they’re located,” he says. “Many of the ads will have no address. Others will have an address, but it’s actually a post office box.”

Cramer recommends that, if possible, potential customers visit a dealer’s location to get a look at the operation. “There’s an old saying that goes, ‘Look in the kitchen before you eat the food,’ ” he said with a laugh. “That’s a pretty good rule to remember when you’re thinking about having a garage door installed.”