There are plenty of different types of garage doors you can choose between. One of the most traditional is a pair of hinged garage doors. Although the aesthetic of this type suits very grand houses, it is not the sort of thing you will often see in a typical Australian suburb where up-and-over doors are much more popular. What are the main benefits of having these single-panel garage doors fitted?

1. Save Driveway Space

One of the best things about an up-and-over garage door is that it will only need to come out in front of your garage by a few centimetres every time it is raised or lowered. Only the bottom edge of the door will extend outwards at all, and this will only be an issue at shin height or below. After that, the whole of the door will start to retract inside the garage itself. In other words, you can park a car within a short distance of your garage if you have this type of door fitted. With hinged ones in place, this is no longer possible unless you move the car outside every time you want to gain access to your garage.

2. Easy to Operate

Another key aspect of up-and-over garage doors is that they move up and down with one swift action. Even a motorised garage door that retracts sideways takes longer to open and close fully. With an up-and-over type, it takes only a second or two. What's more, there is only one action you need to make, not two as with hinged doors. In short, this means being able to access your car and hit the road quicker every time you set out for the day.

3. Robust Yet Lightweight

It is common for materials like aluminium to be used for up-and-over garage doors these days. Although aluminium doors are already light, the springs that help them into position overhead mean that they are virtually featherweight. That's a good thing if you find lifting hard or have injured yourself somehow. However, this lightweight quality does not mean that the door is not robust. Durable materials and fixings mean that they are just as secure as other types of door and prevent unwarranted access once you lock the garage.

4. More Room Inside

Finally, because an up-and-over garage door sits overhead when it is open, there is more room for storage inside. Sideways-opening garage doors need some room to be allocated for the panels of the door to fold up onto themselves. The only space an up-and-over door uses is overhead, which is usually redundant space anyway.