Is a roller door right for your garage?
A roller door keeps the ceiling free, which suits a garage with a low roof, a carport or a shed where you want storage up high. What it does need is depth over the opening, because the curtain rolls into a drum there.
B&D's rolling door guide recommends 430mm to 470mm of headroom for its Series 1 Roll-A-Doors and 515mm to 620mm for its larger Series 2 and Series 3 doors. Its Series 1 doors are made up to 3150mm wide, including the curtain overlap, and up to 3000mm high depending on the model.
How long one lasts
B&D says its Roll-A-Doors are tested for 20,000 to 30,000 up and down cycles, and that at five opens and closes a day a door will last over 15 years. Its Roll-A-Door springs are rated to 30,000 cycles. A busy family garage uses those cycles faster than a shed opened at weekends.
Motors and phone control
Many roller doors can take a motor later. Steel-Line says its roller door opener has F-linX Wi-Fi, so you can open the door and check whether it is shut from a phone, and suits single or double doors up to 16 square metres. B&D pairs its Smart Phone Control Kit with its Power Drive opener.
B&D says a change to the standard made safety beams compulsory with the sale of any smart opener device from 1 December 2020. In the ACT, plugging a motor into a power point is not wiring work, but a new power point must be fitted by a licensed electrician.
Roller doors around Canberra
Hail
The 20 January 2020 storm dropped hail four to six centimetres across. Ask whether a dented curtain can be replaced on its own before you pay for a whole new door.
Bushfire-prone blocks
Canberra lost about 488 houses in the 2003 firestorm. B&D says its BAL-Maze seal system is not available on roller doors, so on a block with a Bushfire Attack Level, let the BAL assessment and your building surveyor set what the door needs.
Wider openings
ACT Planning's exemption from building approval for door alterations stops at a widest horizontal opening of 2m. Widening a shed or garage opening for a bigger roller door is worth checking with a certifier.
What we would do
If you are replacing a roller door on an older carport or shed, ask the door specialist to look at the posts and lintel the guides fix to. A new door is only as solid as the frame it hangs from, and that is easier to sort out before the door goes in.