Hormann have launched the Rollmatic as their answer to the roller door which we viewed at the UK launch yesterday. I have to say the door is extremely impressive and reflects Hormann’s industry leading design, innovation and German build quality. The Hormann Rollmatic has proven to be popular in Europe with steady sales growth.

They have solved the issue that all other roller doors have, which is the safety edge device which detects obstacles to prevent the risk of crushing. The safety edge device is most commonly the part that fails on roller doors. Hormann have solved this by not using a tubular motor but by using a side mounted DC motor that will detect obstacles without the need for an unreliable contact strip.

The other major benefit is the Guarantee Hormann provide. There are no ambiguous clauses unlike the other brands. The door has a Safe & Reliable 10 Year Warranty, the parts have 5 years as does the motor and 2 years for the radio equipment.

The finish on the door is beautiful and is easily the best looking roller door lathe. The wind bracing is superior to prevent annoying rattling in the wind.

We have been waiting some time for the Hormann roller door and the wait looks worthwhile.

The danger with these sub-standard operators is that they exert too much force which could cause death or serious injury by crushing. Chamberlain, one of the world’s largest electric garage door opener manufacturers has successfully taken a private court action against a German Ebay seller who was passing the ‘dodgy motors’ off as genuine CE approved items. They found that the motor was exerting 75% more force than permitted by the regulations.

My advice is to always do your homework and buy electric garage door operators from well known brands such as Chamberlain, Hormann, Novoferm, Garador, Marantec or Seip all of which are approved by the CE and some have the benefit of a 5 year manufacturer warranty.

You can discover more articles about buying an electric garage door opener on Squidoo.

We supplied and fitted a Hormann sectional door to Mr Lillywhite last summer and he popped in to see us to let us know exactly how good his door was.  Unfortunately for Mr Lillywhite he had to learn this the hard way.  His water tank is at the back of his garage and he woke up one monrning to discover there was no pressure on his water supply when he used the bathroom tap. When he went into his garage to investigate he discovered a valve had leaked on the tank and filled the garage with 4 inches of water!

He said the weather-seal on the Hormann LPU 40 sectional door he had was so good it didn’t let a drop of what we calculate to be about 2500 litres of water out of the garage.  This is great news if you are trying to keep water out of your garage but could have not been such great news if the water level had risen any further.  Luckily it was doscovered in time.

The weather-seal is not guaranteed to be water tight by Hormann nor is it designed to be, and Mr Lillywhite did have an exceptionally level floor where the bottom edge seal was, but it’s nice to know how good these sectional doors really are.

The door was completely unaffected by the amount of water sitting behind it and the garage has ‘dried out nicely’ according to Mr Lillywhite!

IF youa re looking for a new garage door that keeps the elements out, check out our rnage of Hormann Sectional Doors.

Generally the German manufacturers such as Hormann, Seip & Marantec are a safe bet as they are brands that offer reliable quality.

It’s a good idea to check how many remote handsets are included as standard as some operators will only be supplied with one, whereas others will come with two and sometimes a wall mounted internal push switch.

The most important consideration is whether the opener will be powerful enough to lift your garage door, remember your door needs to be in good working order as an electric operator won’t be able to lift it if you can’t!

Some of the cheap Far Eastern imported automatic garage door openers fall short on their safety and security. Some don’t have forced entry protection leaving properties at risk from burglary.

If you have accommodation above or adjoining your garage or you don’t want to wake others late at night an electric garage door opener with quiet operation could be important to you. Usually these will be models such as the Hormann Supramatic or Promatic that have a low maintenance polyester/ polyamide drive belt.

If you are fitting your new garage door operator yourself or even paying someone else to do it the price you pay for the operator may be cheap but the amount of installation time required could make the whole exercise expensive. Some of the cheaper operators require a lot of on site assembly and complicated programming. If you want a quick and easy installation choose an operator that has a pre-assembled, one piece boom that required very little additional assembly.

Most operators come with ‘soft start’ and ‘soft stop’ which gently opens and closes the door to maintain the life of both the garage door and the electric opener.

The Hormann Supramatic can open your garage door up to 50% faster than standard electric openers whilst still having ‘soft start’ and ‘soft stop’ to protect your door and motor.

A lot of people will contact one of the national chains of double glazing and home improvement companies that offer garage doors because it’s a name they have heard of or they have seen their advert on the TV. They may even get a cold call or a knock on their door from one of these companies that are canvassing the area.

Or you might think you’ll get a better deal if you get your local friendly builder to do the job for you? If you are good at DIY you could buy a supply only garage door online and fit the door yourself. Finally you could find your nearest garage door specialist to get the job done by an expert who will guarantee their work.

But as with any major purchase, buyer beware. It will pay you to do your homework before you hand over your cash.

As a garage door specialist we love the ‘national double glazing firms’, why? Because they quote such ridiculously high prices that when we quote our realistic prices it’s a no brainer to come to a garage door supplier like us.

If you approach one of these ‘national’ firms you will experience a carefully scripted and very well executed sales pitch that will probably take 2 – 3 hours. One of these firms refer to as their ’15 Steps’. These steps are designed to continually be ‘closing the sale’.

First they will sell you the benefits of them as a company, then demonstrate their product, (which is often exactly the same product you can get elsewhere with a different badge on it) then they quote you the price, which starts off very high, usually around £5000 for an average garage door, but if you agree to have a sign outside your house and allow them to use your house as a show home, the price is reduced. Then to seal the deal, they call their manager using a sales technique called ‘the time sensitive offer’. They call their manager who says that if you sign up there and then they will reduce the price a bit more, often to around £3000.

This is all designed to stop you shopping around for the simple reason that if you do your homework, you can get the very same or a similar door for around £1800. Unfortunately the victims of these orchestrated sales pitches are often old aged pensioners who are easily influenced by the ‘nice young man’ who came to see them. This can cost them a large chunk of their life savings or pension.

If you’re not a DIY enthusiast or you don’t know a builder that could do it for you, a garage door specialist could be your best option. Again beware, there are some cowboys out there, who generally don’t have a showroom and might operate from the back of their van. They might be the cheapest quote but where will they be if something goes wrong? We get a lot of calls from disgruntled customers who’s original installer is refusing to come back for some simple warranty work.

My advice is to shop around, get at least 3 quotes but also make sure the supplier you choose is well established and has a showroom address where you can go and see working displays or a virtual showroom online so you can see the full range of the garage doors you are interested in.

Because of their handy vertical lift action when they open, it means that the doors have an effective weather seal on all four sides of the door as well as in between each sectional door panel. This seal helps keep the valuable heat in and also keeps drafts, leaves, garden debris and water out of your garage. Imagine, no more piles of leaves blown in under your garage door or puddles of water sitting just inside the entrance to your garage.

Can you tell that these are my favourite garage door yet? Seriously I would struggle to find a negative to these doors, they are getting more and more popular simply because they represent real value when compared to an up-and-over garage door.

Another bonus of the insulated core to these sectional door panels is that they are acoustically insulated too. So if you have a bunch of teenage rock star wannabees practicing in your garage, a Hormann Sectional Door could avoid a feud with the neighbours or save your own sanity! Maybe you have a workshop in your garage and you are always using your power tools? Now you can keep warm and keep the noise down.

Acoustic insulation doesn’t just keep the noise in though, if you live near a busy road and your garage is integral to your home traffic noise could be kept to a minimum.

Add an electric garage door opener for maximum security and convenience and your new Hormann sectional door could be the ultimate garage door.

All too often a builder will build a garage without a clear idea of the type of garage door that will eventually be installed. They then send their client to us to choose their door and they get really excited about a lovely insulated and weather sealed sectional garage door but are left disappointed as their builder has installed a steel beam right where the sectional door tracks need to go.

What’s more frustrating is when a customer ends up paying an unnecessary made to measure premium on their new door because their builder has built the garage opening to a non standard size.

Taking the time to plan for the type of garage door you need will save possible bad feeling towards your builder later down the line and will also stop you wasting your precious budget on made to measure garage doors or having to alter the size of your garage door opening after it has been built.

My advice is to always consult a dealer before starting any new garage building project so you can save money and get the exact garage door you want. You might even be able to build your garage to suit a discount garage door that the dealer has in stock.

It’s always a shame when someone gets ripped off, especially when they have been put at risk by the con men. We have supplied a replacement door to a customer this week who originally thought they were getting a bargain when they approached a ‘man in a white van’ who was installing a garage door for their neighbour. The man in the van measured up and then arranged to come back 2 weeks later with a roller door to fit his garage.

When they turned up to fit the new roller door, the customer assumed that as it was a good job as it was working ok and seemed to do the job. What he didn’t realise until they were long gone, is that the bandit installers had fitted the door on the outside of the garage instead of inside it maming it easy to break into. They had mis-measured the door and it was too wide to install properly inside his garage.

As a result of being fitted back to front and on the outside of the garage, the roller door had completely stopped working. The poor home owner came to us looking for a replacement, it was only when we saw the pictures of his garage that we realised what the rogue installers had done.

Our customer has now installed a new Hormann Sectional Door which offers superior security and insulation to the door they had. It’s cost him around £2000 that he didn’t want to spend, but he’s now got a safe and secure sectional door that he loves because it fits nicely inside his garage. The moral of the story, get your new garage door from a reputable supplier.

Check out our sectional doors and discover how you can secure your garage with a weather sealed and insulated garage door.

The first reason to replace your garage door is that it can instantly add value to your property and according to the 2006 Stratmark study by as much as 4%.

A replacement garage door will reduce your risk of personal injury, so many people neglect to maintain their doors and then go shopping for a new one when it’s hanging by a thread and can no longer be opened safely.  Don’t let it get to that stage, when you can’t even get into your garage.  Imagine if your door drops on you or your car!!

Reduce your energy costs and help protect the environment with an insulated and weather-sealed garage door such as roller door or better still sectional door.

Because of their superior design, newer garage doors take far less time to maintain, so you can spend more time doing the things love rather than struggling up a ladder to grease the springs and clean the door tracks.

Improve the security of your garage with a high security sectional or roller garage door.  These doors are far superior to one piece up and over or side hinged doors.  There are over 5000 thefts a day from garages, sheds and outbuildings in the UK according to the British Crime Survey, so making sure your garage offers the best possible protection to your belongings, car and home is a good idea.

And another thing, a sectional or roller door will protect items stored in your garage from weather conditions such as extreme heat or cold and also help keep water from coming into your garage.

To find out more visit garage door superstore

These Garage Doors offer up to 42mm of CFC Free PU Foam insualtion with U Values of up to 1.80 W/m2K.  They are also weather -sealed so they reduce heat loss from those annoying drafts that a traditional up and over door just cannot prevent. And another thing they are the most secure of all the garage door designs.

To buy sectional or roller garage doors online visit Garage Door Superstore