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A technician, seen from behind, wiping down a dark grey sectional garage door with a cloth at dusk on a weatherboard home, a wall light on beside the door.

Garage door types

Pick the job, tell us the door you have or the one you want, and a local door specialist who does that work gets in touch.

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More on this

Roller doorsHow they work, the room they need above the opening, and keeping one running.Sectional and panel lift garage doorsHow panel lift doors run, how wide they go, and looking after one.Tilt garage doorsOld tilt doors: keeping one going, adding a motor, or replacing it.Insulated garage doorsWhat insulated doors do, the weight they add and which doors come insulated.Cedar and timber garage doorsWhat a cedar or wooden door means for weight, the opener and upkeep.Custom and designer garage doorsWindows, colours and made-to-measure doors, and what to ask about glass.Sliding and bifold garage doorsDoors that open to the side, and the other answers to a low garage ceiling.Single and double garage doorsThe sizes makers publish, how to measure, and what a wider door changes.
Four small gabled garages in a row under a bush covered bank, with grey, red, pale blue and rusty roller doors and corrugated iron roofs, fronting a wet street.
A row of old single garages with roller doors in Sumner, Christchurch.

The main types of garage doors

Dominator sorts its home garage doors into four main kinds. A sectional door, or panel lift door, is a set of hinged panels that runs up the opening and back along the ceiling. A roller door is a ribbed steel curtain that winds onto a drum above the opening.

The Flex-A-Door runs a roller curtain on a curved track, for garages with little headroom. A tilt door is one piece that swings out and up. Other doors, including sliding and bifold doors, timber doors and custom doors, are worth raising early with the door specialist.

Roller, sectional or Flex-A-Door, side by side

Roller doorSectional doorFlex-A-Door
Where it goes when openRolled onto a drum above the openingBack along the ceilingAlong a curved track to near the ceiling
Room above the opening400mm for Dominator's Series AAsk: it varies with the door and opener80mm, or 130mm with an opener
Published width1250mm to 3200mm for Dominator's Series AUp to 6.5 metres, B&D NZ saysMade to fit the opening

Steel garage doors

Steel is the starting point for most of these. Dominator says all its garage doors are built from New Zealand steel, and names COLORSTEEL as its preferred pre-painted steel. Its Series A roller door comes in Zincalume or pre-painted steel. B&D NZ says sectional doors are most often steel too.

Near the coast, read the warranty before you pick a finish, because Dominator's door warranty leaves out damage from being close to the seafront.

Black, white and other colours

Dominator says powder coated options take its colour choice into the hundreds, so black, white and most shades in between are worth asking about for the door you choose. Ask to see the colour on a real sample rather than a screen.

Picking a type for your garage

Start with the space and work back to the look. Measure the headroom, the walls on each side and the depth of the garage, then compare them with the sizes of single and double doors. If the garage is a room you use, read about insulated garage doors before choosing a finish.

Questions people ask

How is a roller door different from a sectional door?

Where the door finishes up. A roller curtain winds onto a drum over the opening and leaves the ceiling free, while sectional panels end up lying along the ceiling on their tracks.

What are most garage doors made of?

Steel. B&D NZ says sectional doors are most often steel, though timber and other materials are possible, and Dominator builds all of its doors from New Zealand steel.

Helpful next

New garage doors and installationChoosing a type, measuring up, and what to sort before the door goes in.Replacing an old garage doorSwapping an old tilt or roller door, measuring up, and the motor question.Garage door openers and motorsAdding a motor to a door, swapping an old one, or getting one going again.Insulated garage doorsWhat insulated doors do, the weight they add and which doors come insulated.

Where this information comes from

Rules change, so check with your council or the regulator if something matters to your job. How we write and check these pages.