New Garage Door Brand Feedback

[nluck83]

Hi all. I had someone quote me a few weeks ago on a Hormann 3200 series double garage door here on Long Island, NY. They said for the door/install it would be roughly $3,000. Seemed fair/reasonable to me.

I decided to get a second quote from another local company... The company showed up today. They were real pleasant to deal with. They sell "General Doors" garage doors. The garage door manufacturers website is https://www.general-doors.com. Under the residential line he recommended the "Advantage" https://www.general-doors.com/advantage.

I have spent an hour googling this garage door brand "Garage Door Corp" and cannot find ANY feedback on them. Its like they dont exist other than on their own website. The company pushing this brand didn't have nice things to say about Hormann doors (where I see great reviews on google for).

Does anyone have any insight into this "General Door Corp" garage door manufacturer? Anyone have any bad things to say about Hormann? I am really spooked on the fact I cannot find anything on this company lol.

 

[mack888]

General doors also goes by Banner doors. I have installed a decent amount of there doors on the commercial side and some residential. Good product. I’m in MA and our main go to company’s are Clopay, CHI, and Amarr. I can’t speak for Hormann as I have only installed there high speed roll up doors.

 

[dudley123]

Never heard of "General" and I went down the rabbit-hole on garage doors this summer.

I just had 3 Horman Thermatech doors installed. (9x8's) I was right around 7200 installed w/3 new horman Silent-Drive openers. Included removal of existing hardware/tracks/doors/openers and all new tracks. R10 insulated doors, seem to be great quality. Originally Northwest Doors and just purchased by Horman recently.

Just make sure your door guy has a realistic ETA, mine was 4-6 weeks ordered in August.. Received them last week after manufacturing errors on wood grain color. Otherwise, fantastic product and I looked at Clopay, Chi and Haas.

 

[manwithtools]

I'm waiting on Three 10 x 10 and One 8 x 8 Hormann to be installed in the next couple of weeks. They are ClimaTech 4400, R15 insulation value. When I was shopping doors they seem well made and a decent value. Having their factory less than an hour from my location saves on shipping as well.

 

[nadogail]

I have good experience with COPAY, the other names are unknown to me.
IMHO, the most important consideration is the reputation of your dealer.

 

[driftpin]

Time and motion feedback on Clopay insulated metal doors which we had installed with a local technician 8 or9 years ago. They were also installed with the Liftmaster bellcrank side-mount garage door opener, which allowed me to make a modification to lighting positioned below the OH door in its retracted location.

The Clopay insulated door (middle-level thickness of polystyrene foam) keeps the garage not too-hot in the summer, and warm in the winter, note I'm in the Miami FL area.

The specification you should ask for, if you want a windstorm-rated product, is one which meets the Miami-Dade County (FL) Product Approval standard. Yes it will cost more. I suspect that they will last longer due to the strength of the door compared to a lesser build from the same company.

Clopay® Announces Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) for Impact-Resistant Reserve® Wood Collection Garage Doors

The number of hurricane-rated Clopay garage doors approved for use in Miami-Dade County, Fla. is growing.

www.clopaydoor.com

Product Approval

The Product Control Section receives applications, processes, reviews, and issues approval or denial of building construction materials, products and systems used for the protection of the building envelope.

www.miamidade.gov

The Liftmaster bellcrank door openers have given us no issues at all. One touchpad did need replacing, and a remote-controlled separate lamp luminaire also needed replacement, but the motor bolted to the side of the opening, which is a gable end roof style, 8 inches thick concrete, w/rebar, from the poured concrete footer to the top of the garage wall, as a monolithic pour, the motor has given us zero issues. We got new track installed on PT two-by wood boards. The installer said to use an OH door track & roller lubricant a couple times a year. I do that when the time changes (spring-ahead & fall-back).

Here's how I installed LED 4 ft 'dual bulb' luminaire fixtures to allow the area below the OH doors to be well-illuminated. In the middle of the garage, between the OH doors, the 1 X 4's suspending the 4 ft LED luminaires are fastened to the OH door tracks, with no interference. I used some Simpson Strong-Ties brackets pop-riveted together, and machine-screwed to the door tracks for that. Since these pictures were taken, I installed another 4 ft. double-bulb luminaire in the middle between the OH doors. The distance O.C. for the luminaires below the doors is 34" and the distance from the door luminaires closest to the luminaire in the middle between the OH doors is 38" O.C. Plenty of light, OH door open or closed.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/florida-chapter-of-the-garage-journal-florida-garage-life.282974/page-104#post-10287441

I added storage above the OH door tracks for lightweight, bulky things like Christmas decorations and empty storage bins.