Choosing a New Garage Door in the Yakima Valley: Carriage House, Raised Panel or Full View Glass

A garage door takes up a big share of what you see from the street. It also moves several times a day, keeps heat in or out of the space behind it, and guards the biggest opening in the house. Picking one is not just a style call. Here's how to think about the three main residential looks, what insulation does, and what to pay attention to when you walk into a showroom.

Carriage house doors

A carriage house door is built to resemble the swing-open barn and carriage doors of the past, but it opens up and over like any modern sectional door. You get the look of tongue-and-groove planks, strap-style hardware and an applied X-brace, without the hinges and the hassle. It suits craftsman homes, board-and-batten exteriors and stone fronts. You can order carriage house doors with or without windows, and the window tops can follow a straight line or an arch.

Materials vary. Some carriage house doors are real wood, such as cedar, which looks wonderful when it's freshly finished and asks for upkeep afterward. Others are steel or composite with a wood-grain finish that holds up with less maintenance.

Raised panel doors

The raised panel door is the traditional garage door, with rectangular sections pressed into each panel. It works on almost any home because it doesn't compete with the rest of the exterior. It's also the style most often chosen for steel doors, which are strong and available in a long list of colors. If the look you want is clean and quiet, with a color that matches the trim, this is the place to start. Windows can be added across the top panel to let light into the garage.

Full view glass doors

A full view door uses wide glass panels set in aluminum frames. SCI Door describes its glass roll-up doors as built with strong aluminum framing and tempered glass panels, and they can be fitted with insulated glass panels that help regulate temperatures inside. This style reads as modern, and it floods a garage with daylight. People choose it for workshops, hobby garages, and homes where the garage is part of the living space. The trade-off is privacy: you can see in unless the glass is frosted or tinted, so think about what's stored in there.

Insulation matters more than most people expect

Yakima Valley summers are hot and winters are cold, and a thin, uninsulated door passes that weather straight to the garage. Steel doors with polyurethane insulation are a strong choice: SCI Door describes them as offering strength, efficiency and quieter operation. The foam bonds the steel layers together, which stiffens the panel and helps cut down rattling.

Ask about the insulation rating of any door you're considering and compare it to what you have now. One recent customer wrote that the new door's insulation rating was much higher than the old one, which made working in the garage in winter much nicer. If your garage is detached and unheated, the benefit is smaller. If it's attached, or you use it as a shop, it's worth paying attention to.

What to look at in a showroom

Photos online only go so far. At SCI Door's showroom you can see a wall of full-height door sections in wood-grain, black, white and tan finishes, some with window inserts, plus loose raised-panel samples you can pick up and compare. Standing in front of real sections shows things a catalog can't: how the color reads in daylight, how deep the panel profile is, how the windows sit, and how heavy the section feels in your hand.

• Look at the color in natural light, not just under showroom lights, and compare it with your siding and trim.
• Pick up a section and feel how rigid it is. A solid section flexes less and usually runs quieter.
• Decide about windows: none, a row across the top, or full view glass, and think about privacy and light together.
• Ask what the opener needs to be, since a heavier insulated door can call for a different opener than your old lightweight one.

SCI Door also points customers to Amarr's online Door Builder, which lets you try styles, colors and window layouts on a picture of a door before you come in. It's a handy way to narrow things down at home.

Measuring, ordering and installing

Doors are made to fit the opening, so someone has to measure the width, the height, the headroom above the door and the clearance beside the tracks. Because each door is custom-made, expect to wait. One customer review describes about six weeks from measurement to installation. Ask what timing to plan around when you order.

On install day, SCI Door removes and hauls away the old door, sets the tracks plumb and level, installs the torsion springs, cables and rollers, and balances the system so the opener isn't overworked. The company says most installs wrap up the same day, assuming standard framing and opener compatibility. If your old door has only a damaged panel or two, ask about that too, since in many cases individual panels can be replaced without installing a whole new door system.

Your next step

Come see the sections in person at 1118 N 6th Ave, Yakima, or call (509) 575-7955 to talk it over. SCI Door gives free estimates on new doors and replacements, and the crew serves homeowners in Yakima, Selah, Moxee, Wapato, Union Gap, Toppenish and across the valley. The showroom is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM and Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.