Choosing an Overhead Garage Door: Sectional or Roll Up Garage Doors?

When trying to decide what type of overhead garage door to install, most people are looking at overhead roll up garage doors or overhead sectional doors but don’t realize there are several differences to consider between the two. It isn’t just the type of overhead door or the upfront costs to consider but materials, durability, maintenance, security, installation and overall lifetime cost that make these two garage doors very different and suitable for different applications.

What is an overhead roll up door and what is an overhead sectional door?

To get a good sense of these two door styles, let’s first define what each type of overhead garage door is. An overhead roll up garage door, also sometimes called a rolling steel door or coiling door, is fabricated with individual metal slat sections that are interlocked together, then coil up above the door opening around a drum so they store in a compact area. They are installed by mounting the door side guides and assembly to the wall. Sectional doors are assembled with larger sections and open up in a variety of configurations by retracting up or up and over the floor space beyond the opening of the overhead garage door. As far as installation, if there is not significant room for a sectional door to completely retract upward, then the tracks curve horizontally and the sectional door tracks must then be supported from the roof or ceiling for the door to open. In addition, when there is not ample headroom, the sectional doors must retract up and over the floor space, causing this to block overhead space when the door is open. This can result in issues if there are fire sprinklers, HVAC or lighting already installed or planned to be installed in that area. An overhead coiling door design eliminates any horizontal connection to the ceiling above it.  The use of the horizontal space above where the garage door is, can often be a deciding factor of which door type to use.

Overall Overhead Garage Door Cost

some people only look at upfront cost when choosing an overhead garage door, just that factor alone would give the sectional doors an advantage, but it would be short sighted. If the purpose of the overhead door is for a commercial or high volume area then the long term savings for the durability and low maintenance give the overhead rolling doors a distinct advantage. Ultimately, the decision comes down to the purpose or use of the overhead door. Building maintenance engineers who are charged with ensuring that all openings are in service at all times will chose a heavy duty rolling steel door over a sectional garage door.  The cost of a sectional garage door at bid time may be less, but over the lifetime the building owner will spend, on average, more to maintain the sectional door than the heavy duty rolling steel door. In a residential setting that has very minimal open and closing or where the user does not have any special needs, the sectional door is an ideal economical choice.