What Are the 5 Types of Garage Door Lifts and Why Should You Care?

Love to mix different prestigious textures and details like stone, wood, and window shutters and then add some curves to these square lines with arches over a bay window, entry doors and the garage door? We do too! Love the timeless appeal of the Traditional Style? Let us introduce you to the Prestige XL Design garage door, here shown in single size, Chocolate Walnut color, with Pinhead windows.

The wheels are in motion. Finally. Your dream is coming true. Finally. In the next months, you’re going to start building your house, which includes an attached garage, or your very own man-cave (also called a detached garage). Congratulations! We’re so happy for you!

Every home deserves its own garage. Every family even more so. Hobbies that fill you with positive energy or big dreams that give you wings – many big stories have had small, in-garage beginnings.

With the pandemic, garages have almost become escape rooms. They have been transformed and adapted to fulfill new tasks like a home office, home gym, teenager’s special place, and more. So, building a garage is NOT a foolish expense, it’s an investment in your home’s resale value, of course, but even more in your sanity and home peace.

Of course, you’re much more excited at the idea of choosing a garage door that enhances your home’s curb appeal. But here is important information you should know about the 5 types of garage door lifts before you start shopping.

High Lift Hardware, the One Way to Go When You Want Windows Right Above Your Garage Door

This elegant, contemporary house has 2 single, black Vog garage doors with windows right above them to harmoniously match its entry door’s design. This is often the case with the Modern Style. The more and bigger the windows are, the merrier!

A high lift garage door extends your garage door’s tracks so that the door hugs the wall and goes up higher before the horizontal curve. It makes better use of the vertical space in your garage and gives you at least 12″-15″ more headroom in your garage by moving the garage door tracks closer to the ceiling.

Check out how this garage door high lift hardware seems add its industrial touch to this design playing with different noble textures. Whether you’re using an outstanding California all-glass garage door in your hip cottage to open up the space between your home and your swimming pool, or when you have a mezzanine or high ceilings, high lift hardware is your go to.

High Lift is the garage door hardware you need when:

• Your garage door will become a glamourous part of an interior space of your house with high ceilings, like the picture above.
• Your garage design includes windows over the garage door opening.
• You want to have optimal storage space above your garage door to get as much stuff off the floor as possible. The more wall space you have in your garage, the more overhead storage you can use.
• You want to put a car lift in your garage, so you need as much clearance as possible.
• You’re thinking ahead. Maybe, one day, you’ll transform your garage into a home gym, a teenager’s haven, or your very own small business. This way, the garage door won’t be right above your head and you’ll have a maximized space to work with.

In this technical drawing, you can see that part of your high lift garage door will be a straight track and part will be angled slightly away from the wall.

What does High Lift Garage Door Hardware look like?

A high lift garage door changes how your garage door travels along the tracks. If you think about it, you’re making the door travel up farther before it travels back. So, this puts a different kind of stress on the components. It also means a few parts need to be a bit different too.

1. The garage door tracks:

Each installation is going to be different, depending on your garage. Let’s say you have a 10-foot ceiling garage, and your garage door is 8 feet high. It means that your garage door tracks are going to have to be 2 feet longer than with Standard Garage Door hardware.

2. The garage door torsion spring:

People often think that the garage door opener is the one doing the work. It’s not. In fact, the torsion spring is doing the heavy lifting. To be able to do so, it’s under extreme pressure has to be balanced properly so your garage door opens smoothly and, importantly, operates safely.

3. The garage door opener:

You did all you could NOT to have your garage door tracks just above your head. You don’t want to ruin it all by having the traditional center garage door opener rail get in the way! Anyway, with a garage door design like the one in this picture, you couldn’t install the rail in the window above this modern, black double garage door (Flush Design).

So, you need a wall-mounted garage door opener.

We recommend the LiftMaster 8500W. It is quieter than a normal chain-drive system, has an automatic locking mechanism for extra security and has enough horsepower for high-lift and vertical door applications. Plus, using the MyQ app, you can operate it from anywhere in the world with your smartphone.

Inclined Garage Door Tracks, Your Must-Have When Your Garage Has a Cathedral Ceiling

You know how little kids draw a house? What the roof looks like in this drawing? Well, every time your garage door is on the other side of the garage’s roof, you need Inclined Garage Door Tracks.

A picture is worth a 1,000 words! When your garage door must follow the slope of the roof, it requires Inclined Tracks, like for this timeless beauty, also called the Eastman E-12 Design, here shown with Claystone color for the door and Ice White color real overlays.

Technically, what are the differences between Inclined Track Hardware and High Lift Hardware?

• Inclined Tracks follow the incline of your roof, keeping the door flat against the ceiling, while High Lift brings the garage door to the ceiling before the pitch, still leaving a gap at the start of your roof’s incline.
• Your torsion spring will have to be as well balanced and as strong as the one for a High Lift Garage Door since it puts a different amount of stress on the components too.
• Since the garage has a high, steeply inclined roof, you will also need a wall mounted LiftMaster 8500 garage door opener.

These charming yet elegant Carriage House single garage doors are from the Townships Collection, in the Eastman E-11 design, with Moka Brown colored doors, and Desert Sand colored overlays, with 4 vertical-lite Panoramic windows.

Inclined Tracks are the garage door hardware you need when:

• Your garage has a cathedral ceiling.
• Your garage has a vaulted ceiling.
• Your garage door is on the same side as your garage roof’s slope.

Front or Rear Low Headroom Hardware for Those Situations Where Your Space is Limited

The Front & Rear Low Headroom Lifts are the garage door hardware for your needs when:

• Your garage ceiling is unusually low.
• You’re replacing very old swing doors on an old, detached garage or shed. Indeed, back in the 60s, these one-piece garage doors required only 2 inches of headroom.
• To learn more about Low Headroom Lifts and Openers, read this FAQ.

The California full-view garage door of this She-shed had less than the 10 inches needed to install Standard Lift hardware. As well, the homeowner wanted the garage tracks to be as invisible as possible since this was her retreat from it all and she wanted the space to be pretty, cozy, and elegant.

Technically, when do you have to choose Front or Rear Low Headroom Garage Door Hardware?

• If the headroom over your garage door is from around 7 inches up to 10 inches, you must have FRONT Low Headroom Hardware Lift.
• If the headroom over your garage door is around 5 inches to 7 inches, you must have REAR Low Headroom Lift.
• How are the Front and Rear Low Headroom Hardware Lifts different from Standard Lift hardware? Since your garage door has less headroom space to go from the vertical position to the horizontal position, the double tracks and rollers move the top section of the door only, allowing the garage door opener to easily move the top section far enough so the lower sections will follow on the lower track smoothly.
• Contrary to popular belief, even though you don’t have a lot of space over your garage door, you HAVE TO install a ceiling-mounted garage door opener, as a wall mounted door opener or a person wouldn’t be able to open the garage door fully. Indeed, if you still make this choice, keep in mind around 8 inches of your garage door will always stay at the top of your garage door opening hole. We suggest the new LiftMaster 87504-267 garage door opener, the Next Gen of the well-known LiftMaster 8550.
• These types of lift are not your first choice, but your last resort when no other options will fit in the space you have.

Standard Garage Door Hardware, the Most Common Type of Lift

This is an interesting case! The garage door on the left needs inclined tracks while the one on the right side will be fine with a Standard Garage Door Lift By the way, did you know Architects and Designers are rediscovering garage doors with an arch? If you enjoy the long-lasting chicness of Traditional Style, these single garage doors in the Classic MIX Design will make your eyes smile.

Technically, when can you choose a Standard Garage Door Lift?

• If the headroom over your garage door is 10 inches or more.
• You can either choose between extension springs, installed over the 2 horizontal tracks, or torsion springs. Specialists recommend torsion springs
• Want to install an electric, ceiling-mounted door opener, like the new LiftMaster 87504-267, the Next Gen of the well-known LiftMaster 8550?

Food for Thought Before Building Your Garage and Choosing Your Garage Door

For a successful yesteryear swing door effect, the North Hatley SP garage door design is perfect! Here shown in Ice White to match the windows and entry door color, with Richmond Arch window Inserts and decorative hardware

Insulated or Not Insulated, that is the Question!

Sometimes, when we’re building something from scratch or doing a big home improvement project, we might be tempted to cut corners and costs. Choosing a non-insulated garage door might seem reasonable.

Here are facts you should know about:

According to House Beautiful, heating and cooling your house is the "biggie" when it comes to energy consumption, accounting for as much as half of your home's total energy usage. As such, one of the most significant things you can do to "green up" your home is to stop the unnecessary loss of heated or cooled air that results from inadequate insulation and poorly sealed doors, garage doors, and windows.

Even though your garage isn't a heated space, you can still protect it from the weather as if it is. The effort pays off by making it less expensive to keep the parts of your home you DO heat nice and warm.

According to Green Builder Media, a spray foam, such as polyurethane, offers one of the highest R-value per inch. It also packs a lot of insulating power into the smallest spaces and seals air leaks. Choosing GARAGA Standard+, which ranks R-16 for its R-value, is a smart decision since it will have a positive impact on your power bills for more than 25 years AND you will feel more comfortable in your garage and in your house.

Add Some Serious Curb Appeal to Your Property

Since a quality garage door will last more than 25 years and has the best resale value of all home improvement projects, you should consider buying a garage door:

• That has windows: You never have too much natural light!
• That is NOT in a bland design and White in color
• The cost of 1 double garage door = The cost of 2 single garage doors. Read more on this here. And choose whatever looks best

Don’t you love how the brick and the wood textures create something unique and chic. We almost forget it’s a detached garage! The Shaker-Flat XL garage door design, with Stockton window inserts. The rich Chocolate Walnut color adds a deep layer much needed to enhance all these light colors.

No Matter Your Garage or Home Building Project, Work with Pros and Sleep Tight.

Whether you are finally transforming your carport into a garage, or building your detached garage or your attached garage, GARAGA dealers are there to help you out every step of the way. They pride themselves by offering the most customizable garage doors and garage door hardware, so they have a solution to all your building specific challenges. It might be a ventilation pipe that you cannot remove in your garage door’s way or a small vintage shed that you want to modernize with a brand-new sectional garage door. Visit them with your plan, and they’ll find a way.

The average homeowner buys 1 or 2 garage doors in a lifetime. You should not bear this burden on your own! Overhead doors and garage door openers are all they do. They’ll be more than happy to guide you from choosing the right specs for your project to the right style for your home within your budget.

Here how to find and contact the GARAGA dealer in your area.

Find the door of your dreams already? Ask us for a quotation by email.

You’d like to shop online a bit first?

You can browse our residential photo gallery. Do you like interactive design apps? If so, grab your smartphone and try our Design Centre. You’ll have fun building your dream door.