Do I need to do anything after my garage door is installed?

July 27, 2010 by Michael Dryer

It’s important, after your garage door is installed, that you totally familiarize yourself with the operation and safety guidelines. Make sure you have owner’s manuals for the garage door, and for the garage door opener, too, if you have one.

Your manual will outline the operation and maintenance requirements you’ll need to know to make your garage door last as long as possible. Also, garage door safety has been a source of great concern in the past. With new technology, it’s not as much of a problem anymore, but you do need to follow certain guidelines to avoid injuries.

Should your Garage Door be Replaced?

June 24, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Garage doors are designed to last many long years. Products
are available to help maintain the operation and beauty of
garage entries, with a bit of annual maintenance. Many
homeowners only think to replace garage doors when something
happens that makes it necessary, such as being hit with a car
or lawnmower.

Even without accidental damage, garage doors do suffer wear
and tear over time, especially from the elements. Waiting
too long to replace worn out doors and openers can create a
serious safety hazard. Doors and openers that are worn
cease to operate properly, and accidents can occur.

Energy efficiency is yet another reason to upgrade existing
garage doors. Over time, the seals that help stop air loss
around the garage doors weaken and wear out. Once these
seals become too worn, air loss begins to occur, which
creates an expensive power concern. For old doors that do
not have insulation, replacing them with new, well insulated
doors is an investment in energy conservation that can pay
for itself in energy savings over the life of the door.

Signs to look for that a garage door is at the end of its
useful life include lack of insulation and modern safety
features, air seals that are torn and worn out, and dents
and breaks in the door. Fiberglass garage doors will often
fracture upon impact. If this happens, the door’s safety is
compromised. When the door is in the full overhead open
position, part of the door could fall off due to the
fracture and cause serious damage to nearby items, and even
more serious injury to anybody standing under or near it
when the break occurs.

Likewise, garage doors with considerable dents also pose a
safety risk as misshapen doors can interfere with the smooth
operation of automatic door openers. If any part of a metal
garage door is dented outward, or inward, in such as way
that it makes contact with the ceiling or any other object
or portion of the opener mechanism, malfunctions will occur.
In this event, the door should be fully closed then detached
fromthe automatic opener until a garage door service can
install a replacement.

Safety is an important consideration with garage doors.
Because they are heavy and are usually hung from overhead,
the risk of a door, or part of a door, falling and causing
property damage or injury to people and pets should be
carefully avoided. If an existing door’s safety features
falter, it should not be used and must be replaced. Every
garage door must have safety sensors that automatically
reverse and raise the door if anything is in the doors way
going down.

While garage doors can last many years with regular
maintenance, safety concerns are the number one reason to
replace old doors. Of course aesthetic style and energy
efficiency are also important. However, if a door shows
signs of dangerous wear and tear, getting a replacement
garage door should not be put off.
Cookson Door Sales of Arizona

Garage Door Company Leaves Customer Hanging

May 13, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Patricia Spellman paid $500 down for a new garage door in January. Its now May and her old garage door is still there and can’t be opened. Spellman said, “Rain, sleet snow and hail and I can’t protect my vehicle because I have to park it outside.”

Spellman wrote Garage Door Systems of Bellevue a $500 check four months ago. Patricia said, “They cashed it within four days.” Since then she’s made up to 35 calls to the company with no new door or any indication when she might get one.

Garage Door Systems has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB has received 15 complaints the past three years, most of them from customers who put money down but didn’t receive their garage doors.

After a Six on Your Side investigation last June, Garage Door Systems did put in one garage door and issued a refund to another customer.

This spring it’s a different story for Patricia Spellman with no door or refund.

Patricia said, “I googled them after the fact and found complaints and stories they had done this is the past. So do your research.”

Her contract listed three phone numbers for Garage Door Systems. Two have been disconnected. A message left on the third number hadn’t been returned.

Clopay Ultra-grain Avante Collection

April 28, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Clopay Building Products’ contemporary glass and aluminum Avante Collection door with the new ultra-grain faux woodgrain print finish has been named one of the “Best New Exterior Products” of 2008 by Custom
Builder magazine. According to the company, ultra-grain delivers the best of both worlds: the realism
of wood with the low maintenance benefits of insulated steel. But unlike real wood, it is UV resistant and impervious to moisture, so it won’t fade, rot, split, shrink, separate, or crack. The Avante coating is manufactured utilizing a ‘dye-sublimation’ process analogous to the making of a tattoo. A base coat is applied and then a high definition wood grain pattern is baked in creating a layered wood grain pattern
as deep as the coating itself. Clopay has invested in a system that prints the grain in two directions, both
horizontally and vertically, following the stiles and rails, for a more authentic natural wood appearance.
The result is an extremely durable coating. No special maintenance is required to preserve the finish beyond standard garage door recommendations to wash and rinse the surface periodically.
Two colors are available – light cherry and dark cherry.

What’s headroom, backroom and sideroom?

April 10, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Headroom is the amount of space inside the garage between the top of the garage door and the ceiling. A more accurate way to measure headroom is measure the distance from the floor to the ceiling. Backroom is the inside length or depth of the garage, from front to back. Sideroom is the distance between the sides of the garage door and the side walls of the garage.

Clopay Premium Series

March 9, 2010 by Michael Dryer

NEW! Canyon Ridge™ Collection
The Canyon Ridge Collection has been created for homeowners who desire a rustic, Old World appeal of wood without the extra maintenance. Doors in this collection consist of high definition composite polymer molded from real wood species to achieve the intricate texture and grain patterns of natural wood. Cladding and overlays are adhered to either 1-3/8″ polystyrene or 2″ polyurethane steel flush sections. These doors are available in Clear Cypress, Pecky Cypress and Mahogany in Medium and Dark Finishes or primed white for those homeowners who wish to custom stain their door. Widths are available up to 20′ wide and 8′ high. An Ultra-Grain™ base Canyon Ridge door with Clear Cypress or Mahogany Overlays will be available late spring, 2010. Two doors were featured at the show: Design 21 with SQ24 top section, Mahogany Cladding, and Clear Cypress overlays in a Dark finish. Design 22 with REC13 window section, seeded glass, Medium Oak Ultra-Grain Base, Clear Cypress overlays in a medium finish.

Reserve™ Collection, Limited Edition Series and Semi-Custom Doors
The Reserve Collection, Limited Edition Series and Semi-Custom were both featured with our new factory stain finish option. With Clopay’s factory stain finish option, your door arrives beautifully stained using the highest quality methods and materials and ready to install. Available in seven stain colors on all stain grade wood species, doors are finished with one layer of Sikkens Cetol® 1 stain basecoat and two layers of Cetol® 23 Plus resin top coat, resulting in an elegant satin finish. A Semi-Custom, Model RC3C with arched rain glass in Dark Oak 009 Stain was featured. Four mini Limited Edition doors, Designs 1, 2, 5 and 8 in Cedar were featured in a variety of factory finished stains.

Avante™ Collection
The Avante Collection doors are not only being used for garages but for interior wall and patio doors as well. We showed two doors from the Avante Collection. A unique deep red (RAL3011) with frosted tempered glass and a Dark Cherry Ultra-Grain Avante door with frosted bronze glass to highlight the doors’contemporary design flexibility.

Ultra-Grain™ Gallery® Collection
A Gallery Model GD1SP in Ultra-Grain Dark Oak with long Trenton leaded windows was featured. Ultra-Grain doors truly have the look of wood, with the benefits of a durable prefinished surface.

Coachman® Collection The Coachman Collection is considered the best door in its class. The Model CD12 with Arch1 wrought iron window in Sandtone was featured. The wrought iron windows will be available within the Coachman Collection late spring, 2010. Clopay’s new Textured Fiberglass door systems in Oak and Mahogany series is reminiscent of a
handcrafted wood door with distinctive panel embossments that are beautiful, yet durable, eliminating the problems of a natural wood door.

For More Information Please contact: Michael@cooksonaz.com

Who Is Cookson Door Sales?

January 23, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Cookson Door Sales of Arizona

January 23, 2010 by Michael Dryer

AVANTE COLLECTION

January 23, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Avante

Modern Aluminum and Glass Garage Doors. The perfect choice to modernize any home, the Avante not only transforms garages; it can also be used as an interior loft partition or a versatile patio door to seamlessly merge indoor and outdoor living spaces. At the press of a button, the doors are automatically raised, allowing traffic to flow during gatherings. Closed, they create an attractive wall of windows, adding a panoramic view to any living space. Many window options are available to control the degree of light transmission and privacy. Insulated glass is also available for increased energy efficiency. • 2-1/8” thick rust-proof aluminum frame • Thirteen window options for varying degrees of light transmission/privacy or solid aluminum panels for total privacy/protection • Seven standard frame colors including Ultra-grain woodgrain prints.

Clopay® Voted No. 1 in Professional Door Dealer’s “Best of Business” Poll

January 14, 2010 by Michael Dryer

Clopay Building Products, the nation’s largest manufacturer of residential garage doors and a leading supplier of commercial sectional garage doors, has been voted No.1 in Professional Door Dealer (PDD) magazine’s “Best of Business” dealers’ choice poll in the following categories:

▪ Most Innovative Products
▪ Best Residential Garage Doors
▪ Best Customer Service
▪ Best “Green” Products

Clopay also ranked in the top tier for Best Web Site, Best Custom Doors, and Best Commercial Garage Doors.
Professional Door Dealer is a trusted and independent source of information for the garage door and access control industry. Industry professionals were invited to vote via an online poll hosted by PDD. The poll was open for five months, and voters chose from more than 20 categories, picking their top three company choices in each.
The winners of the poll received recognition in the December issue of PDD, and will receive an award from the magazine at the 2010 IDA Expo in Las Vegas.

“‘People committed to customers and the industry’ is the cornerstone of the Clopay mission,” says John Palazzolo, vice president of sales and marketing for Clopay Building Products. “It is rewarding to have members of the industry recognize the hard work and dedication of our team and confirms that we are accomplishing our goal to provide the best garage door products and service in the building products sector.”

“Manufacturers and distributors work very hard to establish positive relationships with their customers,” added Lauren Vasquez, Editor for PDD. “This poll shows that their hard work is noticed and appreciated by dealers, who were able to voice their opinion by voting for the Best Customer Service, Best Residential Operators and Best Commercial Doors, to name just a few of our categories.”

“PDD is thrilled to recognize all of our winners,” said Mike Saxby, Group Publisher for PDD. “Nearly 3,000 votes were received from industry professionals, and we were delighted at the overwhelming response from our readers.”

With four manufacturing facilities and 49 distribution centers across the U.S. and Canada, Clopay Building Products is North America’s leading manufacturer of residential garage doors and a leader in the commercial and industrial garage door market. Bringing more than 40 years of leadership to the garage door industry, Clopay Building Products maintains a strong family of brands including Clopay®, Holmes Garage Door Company® and Ideal Door®. Since 1996, Clopay is the only garage door manufacturer to hold the Good Housekeeping Seal.