Start with the opening, not the brochure
The right door depends on the space as much as the look. A roller door needs room above the opening for its roll, a sectional door needs ceiling depth for its tracks, and a tilt door swings out in front of the garage as it opens, B&D notes.
Depth matters for a sectional door. B&D's sectional guide recommends 3374mm of backroom inside the garage for a door up to 2400mm high, based on one of its ceiling-mounted openers and rail. Steel-Line says its tilt doors suit smaller garages and spaces short on side room or headroom.
Under a raised Brisbane house the floor above can leave very little room. Steel-Line's sectional door needs 290mm of headroom as standard, but its low headroom mounts work with 200mm at the front or 150mm at the rear, and an opener adds 50mm.
Wind ratings for Brisbane homes
Steel-Line's wind-rated door brochure sets out the classes: AS 4055 sorts homes into N1 to N6 in the non-cyclonic regions A and B, and C1 to C4 in cyclonic regions C and D, with a higher number meaning stronger wind. Brisbane sits in Region B on the 2011 map, one of the two regions that brochure puts in the N classes.
NCC 2022 requires AS/NZS 4505 garage doors in regions C and D. NCC 2025 adds region B2, and Queensland applies it from 1 May 2027. Ask which rating the door you are quoted carries, and whether it suits the class on your plans.
Licence and home warranty on a new door
If the job is valued over $3,300, QBCC says the contractor needs a QBCC licence, and on a home it must take out home warranty insurance on your behalf before work starts. Replacing or fixing doors is on QBCC's list of insurable work.
Work by unlicensed contractors cannot be insured, QBCC says, so the licence protects the insurance as well as the job.
Heat and bushfire
A garage that faces the afternoon sun gets hot. B&D says an insulated sectional door helps keep the garage cooler in summer and can cut outside noise by 18dB, about twice what a standard Panelift door manages, and Steel-Line fits insulation into the back of the panels on its standard sectional doors.
If your block is in Brisbane City Council's bushfire overlay, it counts as a bushfire prone area for building, and the door may need to suit the home's Bushfire Attack Level. B&D says its Panelift with BAL-Maze has been tested to BAL-40, and that BAL-Maze is not offered on its roller doors.
New doors around Brisbane
Made in Queensland
Steel-Line says its east coast doors come from a central facility in Brisbane, and B&D lists Queensland among the states where its roller doors are made.
Near the bay
Steel-Line's warranty excludes doors within 800 metres of the sea, and Gliderol's 7 year curtain corrosion cover does not apply within 800 metres of high salt. On a bayside street, ask how the warranty treats your address before you choose.
Raised houses
Queenslanders often have the space underneath closed in, so measure the headroom and the depth to the back wall before falling for a style.
Before you sign, and at handover
- The door's wind rating, in writing, checked against the class on your plans
- The QBCC licence number, plus home warranty insurance if the job is valued over $3,300
- Whether an opener is included, and whether a power point is already on the ceiling
- The service schedule the warranty asks for
- Judge the finish from at least 2m away in normal daylight: the Australian Garage Door Association says slight colour variation is not generally a defect
What we would do
Measure before you choose. Note the opening's width and height, the headroom above it and the depth to the back wall, and send a photo of the ceiling with the job. In Brisbane's under-house and older garages those four figures rule some doors out straight away, so the quote you get is for a door that fits.