Four Reasons to Use a Side-Hinge Garage Door for Your Garage Workshop

Want to use your garage as a workshop instead of simply a place to store your car? If so, you'll want to give more thought to the type of door you use. While the majority of homeowners will find a vertically-opening door advantageous, those looking for a garage workshop should really consider a side-hinge door instead.

Here are just four reasons why. 

1. Added Security

If you're going to be using your garage as a workshop, it's likely that the area is going to contain more than a few high-end tools and other pricey items. These can look pretty attractive to a potential thief. Unfortunately, vertically-opening garage doors can generally only be fully-closed or fully-open. If you want to let in some natural light or fresh air, you'll be forced to work with the entire garage exposed, which isn't great for security. With a side-hinge garage door, you can open one door a little without leaving the garage completely open.

2. Convenient Access

If you only use your garage for storing your car, you're not going to be opening and closing the door very often, but that's not the case if the garage is going to be used as a workshop. Whenever it's being put to that purpose, you'll probably be in and out throughout the day, and you don't really want to be putting up with the noise and hassle of opening and closing a vertically-opening garage door. A side-hinge door is a lot easier since one section can be opened just like a regular door and without any mechanical noise being produced.

3. Superior Space

A workshop requires plenty of space. You'll need room for working tables and possibly for larger pieces of machinery, as well as plenty of wall space and ceiling space for taking smaller items and tools. With a vertically-opening door, you won't be able to utilize ceiling-space, and part of each side wall will be taken up by the runners needed to take the door itself. Side-hinge doors take up no ceiling space or wall space.

4. Reduced Energy Bills

Working in your garage can mean seeing your energy bills climb considerably. This is because they are generally quite poorly insulated. It's not a problem if the only thing going in there is your car, but it can very costly to keep the area comfortably cool during the summer and warm during the winter if you're going to be spending extended periods inside.

A side-hinge door is better in this regard since they can generally be made a lot thicker. This is partly because only certain sections will need to be opened and partly due to the fact that insulation doesn't need to be stripped away to avoid placing too much strain on the runners and lifting mechanism of a vertically-opening door.