If you own your home long enough you will no doubt engage in various remodeling projects. Maybe you’ll add an island or granite countertop to the kitchen. Or maybe you’ll decide to bring that old upstairs bathroom into the 21st century. But what about the garage door? It’s the largest single component of the home exterior and yet the only time most homeowners think about it is when they have to call the garage door repair company. If the door is working fine it doesn’t make a lot of financial sense to replace it. But can it be remodeled? In the following guide, A Better Garage Door explores a few popular options. 
It’s something we get asked a lot when we go on garage door repair calls: “Can I remodel the garage door instead of replacing it?” You absolutely can - and there are a lot of reasons for undertaking this type of project. The biggest and best reason is that if it’s done right it will add beaucoup curb appeal to your home. Here are a few well-regarded ways of remodeling the garage door.
The easiest and certainly the most common way to give your garage door a new look is to paint it. But there’s painting it and then there’s painting it. If you have a basic white door and you simply put a new coat of white paint it will probably look better than it did, but try thinking outside the box a bit.
Why not use a two-tone or even three-tone color scheme that draws in other colors from the exterior of the house. This will break up the monotone white panel look and integrate the door better with rest of your home. If you have solid wood panel doors why not strip the paint off entirely and then apply a nice wood stain? This will transform your door from a design afterthought into a key component of your home’s exterior profile.
As experienced garage door service professionals, our team sees all types and styles of garage doors. We also witness some garage door remodels that work and others that, well, let’s say they don’t work as well.
The successful garage door remodels are the ones where homeowners do things like swapping solid panels for windows. If you need to replace a damaged panel on your door it’s the perfect time to try something different. Like glass. You can also add fancy hardware to the door. Sometimes in concert with new window panels. This will give the door a whole new upscale look.
But the remodeling component we’ve maybe fallen the hardest for are LED lights. These incredible, energy efficient lights are available in literally any color you can imagine and they can be installed on or around the door creating compelling effects. Mixing and matching any of these embellishments will make it seem like you have a brand new door.
We just talked briefly about replacing some of your solid garage door panels with windows. This is a great way to let light into the garage where it can help to warm up the interior a bit during the cold winter months. But what about something a bit more extreme?
Instead of simply swapping out a couple of old panels for glass panels why not swap out an entire row? Or every other row? Or the entire door for that matter? All glass garage doors are becoming quite the rage and for a good reason. They look great. Tempered glass is also no more vulnerable to intrusion than wood or aluminum. And if you’re concerned about privacy you can get two-way glass that’s opaque from the outside but transparent from the inside.
The most important consideration here is that the opener is able to handle the load. You don’t want to be calling for garage door opener repair a week after installing your new panels because the motor is struggling to lift all that glass. So make sure the newly remodeled door would be no heavier than the door you currently have
You can give your garage door a whole new look by just adding a few glass panels, painting the rest of the door to better match the house and then surrounding the door with some new architectural elements. You can even embed some LEDs in these new elements to really enhance the look.
What kind of architectural elements? Well, how about a mini pergola extending from the garage out over the door? If you already have a pergola in your yard, this can be an exciting way to integrate house and yard with each other. You can install supports on each side of the door that carry most of the weight and create a seamless transition from the new overhanging elements to the face of the garage.
Or how about installing a large decorative sconce over the door? When done in concert with a few other embellishments like new, decorative hardware this can make an enormous difference in the way the door is perceived.
If you have any questions about the way your garage door remodeling project may affect your door, or if you’re looking to schedule garage door services in the Denver area, call A Better Garage Door for a free estimate.