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#288572 8-Jul-2021 22:06
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I'm renovating our internal access double garage. The walls have been regibbed and insulated and we're getting garage carpet put in. To my wife, it's just a laundry renovation and upgrade of the garage - I'm not calling it a mancave just yet but she may be suspicious when the home gym, pool table, dart board and spacies machine appears.

 

 

 

Anyway, the garage has an old tilt door which needs to be replaced with a modern insulated sectional door. I've had two quotes - one from Dominator at $3800 and another from a local garage door company (Dam Doors in Hamilton) for $2800.

 

 

 

Both doors are factory built insulated so they look good from the inside and not a door with installation glued on the back. The Dominator door uses graphite infused EPS (20% better than traditional EPS) whereas the local operator uses a double skinned PUR installed door (50% better than EPS). Sounds like marketing speak a little. 

 

 

 

The service from Dominator was awesome - you get a text message with a link to GPS tracking so you know how far away they are. Measurements are entered on a ipad and you get emailed a quote from their office not long after. Top notch.

 

 

 

I'm a bit stuck - do I go for the well known brand, with great service or save myself $1000 and go with the lessor known outfit?

 

 

 

Any thoughts / advice, things to consider would be appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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SirHumphreyAppleby
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  #2741624 9-Jul-2021 08:02
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Personally, I'd support the local small[er] business unless there was a compelling reason not to.

 

Just because a brand is well know doesn't mean they're good, particularly if they're operated by regional franchises. We had work done by a well known 'brand' recently (not garage door work). The local business made a huge mess of it, and the company still backed their agent despite serious deficiencies in their work. Only interested in profit, not quality.




  #2741630 9-Jul-2021 08:15
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are you comparing apples with apples though?

 

Both colour steel? same opener? same extras? does it come with after sales support ie re tightening the spring after a year?


  #2741738 9-Jul-2021 10:19
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This may be a bit OT, with regards to recommendations/options on who to go for, but this is drawing from our own personal experience with our Garage door about 2 years ago.

 

We've been living in this house since Nov 2016, loved the house and the general neighborhood.  House was built circa 1998-2000, so about 20 years old.  Sometime in 2019, while closing my garage door (it is a sectional garage door, for a double garage), the door closed and opened straight back up - something was jammed and the door opener detected it.  Upon closer examination, I've discovered one of the "plastic" hinges holding 2 of the sectional door panels have broken off. Of all times this happened on a Saturday night!  I managed to disengage the garage door opener and slowly and manually close the garage door, ensuring all the sections fitted together, and called out a local garage door service / repair person to come out the next day.  Amongst the repair and servicing work done was getting all the plastic hinges on the corners replaced with metal ones.  

 

So, a lesson learnt (which may be helpful here) is that if you are getting sectional garage doors (especially), you may want to check and confirm the hinges are not made of "plastic" so that they won't break off.  

 

In any case, the local garage door service guy/shop was pretty good - seemed to know their stuff and did a good job fixing my door.  Didn't have any issues with the door after that- touch wood!

 

Just my 2cents worth of thoughts...   




Fred99
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  #2741757 9-Jul-2021 10:36
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wlgspotter:

 

Upon closer examination, I've discovered one of the "plastic" hinges holding 2 of the sectional door panels have broken off.

 

 

I've never seen plastic hinges as an OEM part on a sectional door.  But I've seen many DIY repairs using things that don't work - or at least not for long.

 

 


  #2741768 9-Jul-2021 10:49
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Fred99:

 

wlgspotter:

 

Upon closer examination, I've discovered one of the "plastic" hinges holding 2 of the sectional door panels have broken off.

 

 

I've never seen plastic hinges as an OEM part on a sectional door.  But I've seen many DIY repairs using things that don't work - or at least not for long.

 

 

 

 

Hmm.. interesting.  All the hinges are plastic - as mentioned I've replaced the corner (large) hinges with metal, and kept the plastic ones for the middle parts of the door - there are about 5-6 sets of hinges in total.  This is our2nd house with plastic hinges from memory - our previous place also had plastic hinges from memory.  When we replaced the door on the other house (the garage door was damaged) it came wit metal hinges.  Both house would have been built circa 1998-2000.


Fred99
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  #2741804 9-Jul-2021 11:41
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wlgspotter:

 

Hmm.. interesting.  All the hinges are plastic - as mentioned I've replaced the corner (large) hinges with metal, and kept the plastic ones for the middle parts of the door - there are about 5-6 sets of hinges in total.  This is our2nd house with plastic hinges from memory - our previous place also had plastic hinges from memory.  When we replaced the door on the other house (the garage door was damaged) it came wit metal hinges.  Both house would have been built circa 1998-2000.

 

 

Maybe someone in your area importing cheap doors and/or hardware from China or whatever?


  #2741826 9-Jul-2021 12:39
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Fred99:

 

wlgspotter:

 

Hmm.. interesting.  All the hinges are plastic - as mentioned I've replaced the corner (large) hinges with metal, and kept the plastic ones for the middle parts of the door - there are about 5-6 sets of hinges in total.  This is our2nd house with plastic hinges from memory - our previous place also had plastic hinges from memory.  When we replaced the door on the other house (the garage door was damaged) it came wit metal hinges.  Both house would have been built circa 1998-2000.

 

 

Maybe someone in your area importing cheap doors and/or hardware from China or whatever?

 

 

Possible, however, the 2 houses are new built (although I wasn't either of the original owner, so previous owners could have changed them).  Also those 2 are in completely different places - one in Wellington and the other one (i.e. where we are currently located) is in Auckland...  Should also add that a few of my neighbours' sectional doors have the same type of hinges, so perhaps it was used en-masse by the developer when those houses were built?  I thought they were perhaps standard for house built in those era.

 

One point to note - they may not be "plastic", strictly speaking.  TBH I don't know what the actual materials are, they look like plastic to me (black in colour), it goes get brittle over time and can be broken off (like mine), hence I put the word "plastic" in quotes.  In any case they are not metal...


Bung
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  #2741842 9-Jul-2021 13:42
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One ad for plastic hinges as part of a noise reduction kit.

"Installing these Hinges & Rollers & “PROPERLY” Lubricating the door

will reduce the noise of the operating door by 75%, It really is incredible.

The hinges are fiberglass reinforced nylon, rated for doors up to 400 pounds"

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