Sliding garage doors

Sliding garage doors have numerous names and descriptions from "slide around the corner" doors to "slide away" doors. However, what they all have in common is that they slide horizontally on both floor and head mounted tracks and disappear to one side of the garage door opening when the garage is open.

Sliding doors usually come to rest at, and are stored against, one of a garage's internal side walls. In most domestic garages this sees the door finishing at 90 degrees to its start position (i.e. having travelled around a corner).

A sliding garage door can best be viewed as a sectional door, but one that retracts horizontally around one of the garage's internal walls rather than vertically above the opening.

Suitable applications

A sliding garage door offers a good solution for large and wide garage door openings because the weight of the door bears down vertically on the floor mounted track. This makes the door stable in an open, partially open, or closed position. It also means that complex counter balancing mechanisms are not usually required for this style of door.

A further advantage of a horizontally sliding door is the ability to partially open the door for "human only" access. This is not possible (without having to stoop) with a roller, sectional, or up-and-over garage door.

In effect this enables the door to offer a functionality that could otherwise only be achieved with either a side hinged 2/3 to 1/3 door, or a retractable door featuring a secondary integral "pedestrian only" hinged access door.

It is possible to have a double sliding door set where the door splits into two sections with each section sliding (retracting) around an opposite side of the door opening. It is also possible to continue the sliding door tracks beyond the garage's side wall to the back wall, or any available alcove, in order to store the door in a more practical location.

Sliding garage door limitations

The main limitations of a sliding garage door relate to space restrictions.

All components of a sliding door (i.e. the door, its framing and tracks) are fitted within the garage walls and this means that they reduce the usable floor area and wall area of the garage enclosure.

A sliding door requires a wall length, compounded by the projection of the retracted door, when the door is in an open position. This means that the width of the garage will be reduced by the necessity to run the door down one of the side walls and this makes sliding doors unsuitable for most single or small double garages.

For this reason a sliding garage door is a good potential solution for large garages and storage buildings, but a less practical one for smaller "space restricted" garages and store areas where width limitations may exist.

Automation and security

Sliding garage doors make ideal remote control automated doors. Their sliding mechanism is smooth and requires a comparatively limited force to open and close them.

This style of door offers high levels of security, a benefit of the fixed track support that the door requires at the head and foot. This is one of the reasons why sliding garage doors are popular solutions for warehouses and industrial units.

For information on sliding and sectional doors for commercial applications, click this Industrial sliding doors link.