Choosing a garage door for your Louisville, KY home is about far more than just considering aesthetics, costs, and materials. With a vast range of options to choose from, you want a door that blends seamlessly into your house while offering superior functionality. To achieve this, you’ll have to account for factors like minimum clearances, the length of your driveway, and your driveway slope, among other things. Read on to discover several important design tips for ensuring driveway and garage door synergy.
What Synergy Is and Why It’s Necessary for Garage Door Installation
Synergy is the ability of two or more things to coordinate or work seamlessly together. When achieved, the benefits of synergy are greater than they’d be from either thing on its own. When it comes to garage doors and driveways, synergy can promote ease of parking, better protection for building foundations, improved drainage for runoff, and increased door lifespans. Making synergy a focal point of garage door selection can also prevent many of the problems that homeowners face when choosing their doors based on looks or cost alone.
Choose the Right Garage Door Style
Some of the most eye-catching garage doors aren’t practical for all residences. For instance, many homeowners love the classic, luxurious look of real wood carriage doors that swing outward. However, few properties have the space to accommodate them.
Others want doors that work well with the concrete or asphalt that’s just beneath their primary garage doors. But these may prove less effective on secondary or side garages that are flanked by flagstones, gravel, or other nontraditional paving elements. If you choose a roll-down garage door that abuts any surface that significantly expands and contracts at different temperatures, you may run into problems opening or closing your door later on. Important but lesser-known details like these are why it’s best to always shop for a new door with the help of a seasoned, local installer.
Outward Opening Doors and Traffic Obstruction
Do you have a relatively short driveway? If so, choosing a swinging, outward-opening door probably isn’t a good idea. Both garage doors and entry gates must meet minimum clearances as stated in Kentucky’s building code. This way, when their garage doors are opened or opening, homeowners aren’t idling in the middle of streets and obstructing traffic. In general, outward-swinging doors work best for large properties with lengthy driveways and plenty of room to park while they open and close. You should have at least 30 feet of clearance behind your automobile when parked in your driveway with your garage door open.
Exceedingly Heavy Garage Doors and Blacktop Damage
Unlike concrete, asphalt or blacktop has a crumbly, gravel-like consistency that makes it less resistant to significant weight and pressure. Concrete is far more durable than asphalt and can hold up to heavy power-washing techniques and large, laden vehicles. It’s the perfect surface for a heavy, highly insulated steel garage door.
If you’ve chosen asphalt for your driveway paving due to its lower cost, you might be advised to select an aluminum garage door, a wood or faux wood door, or any other door design that applies minimal weight and pressure to this surface. This is especially true if your asphalt driveway is more than a decade old and well-blemished.
It’s also important to consider the requirements for garage door maintenance in this respect. If your garage door requires power washing, it should be supported by concrete rather than asphalt. This way, both can receive this essential maintenance without sustaining permanent aesthetic or structural damage.
Optimize Your Driveway Slope and Ensure a Smooth Transition
Sometimes garage doors require the installation of concrete aprons. For instance, if you want a new steel door and have an asphalt driveway, you can always install a concrete overlay to overcome weight-related limitations.
Modifying the section of your driveway that’s just before the transition to garage flooring is a common way to ensure the success of these installations. Garage door aprons ensure smooth, seamless transitions when pulling in by filling in dips, divots, and other structural damages and optimizing the slope. They also prevent tire impressions and other indentations in weight-bearing areas.
If your garage sits at the top of a slope rather than on level ground, an apron will ensure that sinking doesn’t create small pits that allow water to pool around your house’s foundation and garage entry. You can work with your garage door installer, paving contractor, and landscape designer to ensure that this area has adequate drainage as well.
Repaving Your Driveway Before Door Installation
Repaving your driveway before having a new garage door installed is a good idea if 25% or more of this surface has noticeable structural defects. If your garage door replacement is part of a larger home improvement project, general construction traffic could reveal new weak spots in this surface.
Repaving before garage door installation promotes synergy by allowing for the refinement of driveway slopes, giving homeowners the chance to select more durable paving materials. It also ensures that both installations have a new and unblemished look. This is far preferable to installing an eye-catching garage door when your driveway is cracked, discolored, or riddled with potholes. Repaving before installation also ensures that sealcoating overspray and other treatments don’t diminish the look of new doors.
Account for Future Installations in the Area
While you might have enough room for outward-swinging doors or another space-consuming design, it’s important to think about future installations as well. This remains true whether you intend to commission these installations yourself or expect them from future buyers. For instance, many consumers are opting to install EV charging stations at home. When garage interiors lack adequate space for this equipment, they’re installing them right near their driveways.
Consider the amount of space that an EV charging station will take up, and then account for this in your garage door’s clearances. You should also note that your vehicle must still be out and away from the flow of traffic when your garage door is open and when your vehicle is connected to your charging equipment. Be sure to account for the additional room that all necessary charging cords will require, too.
For automatic garage doors, there may be important electrical considerations as well. Both your door opener and your EV charging station must have their own separate circuits. In many houses, this requires slight electrical system modifications.
Choose Garage Door Colors and Materials That Complement Your Driveway
When it comes to garage door colors, people are often advised to match their homes’ trim. However, it’s also important to consider how well your door coordinates with the color and texture of your driveway. Blacktop provides a dark base, and while you might want to brighten things up with a lighter door, you could get a better look by opting for a darker hue to match the darker base. With blacktop, options like black, brown, navy blue, and burgundy create a natural flow of color rather than creating sharp, distinct lines between the house and its entrance.
You can use 3D digital rendering tools to see how well real wood, faux wood, steel, and other materials pair with driveway surfaces. While certain door designs might blend well with your home, they may create an unpleasant contrast with the driveway itself.
We’ve been proudly serving Louisville since 1973. We offer an expansive selection of overhead garage doors and cutting-edge garage door openers. We also provide garage door installation, maintenance, and repair services as well as 24/7 emergency garage door repairs. To find out more or request a quote, get in touch with Lewis Door Service today.
