Is A Hinged Garage Door The Right Choice For Your Home? Here Are Pros And Cons

If you want to replace a garage door or you're building a new garage, chances are you'll be spoiled for choice. If you're replacing, your first dilemma would be figuring out a way to discard or repurpose old or broken garage door parts in your home. The next concern will be the type of garage door to pick, since your choice of garage door has a huge impact on your home. From energy efficiency to curb appeal, the right choice can enhance your home in more ways than simply securing your vehicles. Thankfully, there are quite a few options to pick from. You can choose the tried and trusted sectional doors or the roll-up types that are beloved by commercial users. Or, you could decide to pick hinged doors. Also known as side-hinged doors, these garage doors are exactly what they sound like. They have hinges on their sides and swing outwards like regular doors when opened. Resembling wooden barn doors, this style gives your house a traditional look, unlike many of the modern garage door trends you could be considering for your home. This style of garage door is making a resurgence right now, and you may want to get on board. The question to ask is this: Is a hinged garage door the right choice for your home? 

With hinged garage doors, you're getting one of the easiest garage doors to use. It opens just like a regular door, making it super accessible. But this doesn't mean that they aren't secure, as you can kit most of them up with the latest security features to ensure your home is safe. Plus, if you're constantly moving in and out of your garage, maybe because you have an office or a workshop down there, then this door is more convenient. Rather than lifting the entire thing out of the way like sectional or rollup doors, you can simply open one side while the other remains closed. 

Speaking of garage workspaces, if you need a silent door to avoid distractions while you're working or you come home when your family is asleep, hinge doors are for you. When properly maintained and oiled, the hinges are very quiet. There's no noisy garage door opener, and this is also the reason why these doors are ideal for garages with low ceilings. They are also available in many materials. You can get them in wood to instantly boost your home's curb appeal with that traditional look, or simply stick to galvanized steel for durability. These doors have fewer moving parts than other types, so they need less maintenance and are less likely to suffer from faults. They're also one of the more affordable garage doors to install, costing less than sectional and roller doors. 

Hinged garage doors are great, but they also have some shortcomings that you should consider before getting one. First is the space requirement. These doors swing outward and, as such, require some clearance in front of the doors to open. That can be a problem if your driveway is short or opens up directly into a pedestrian walkway. It can also be problematic in a snowy climate where snow would typically build up outside your garage, forcing you to clear it before opening. Hinged garage doors are usually manually operated, and if you want automation, you have to get a side hinge converter. However, automatic hinged garage door openers are expensive to install. 

Sure, these doors are great for garages that house tall vehicles due to the absence of a ceiling-mounted door opener, but they won't be a great choice for wider cars. This is because the doors have a maximum standard width of nine feet, so if you own a truck or SUV and want something wider, you may have to go for another garage door type. Finally, your terrain matters a lot with these doors. If your lot is on a hill, it would be problematic to install side-hinged doors because of the sloping terrain. In this case, you can look for hinged garage doors that swing inward, but those are quite hard to find.