Have you ever driven through a neighborhood and noticed that every single house looked exactly the same? Even the garage doors are the same color and the same style. Instead of cookie-cutter style, your house should embody your aesthetic and represent you.
The first step in creating a vision for your home’s exterior is partnering with a company with a distinct and sophisticated garage door manufacturing process. Maybe you can find a mass-produced garage door that will do the bare minimum, but you deserve to design a door that is uniquely yours and stands out from the rest.
Choosing Your Garage Door Style
The first, and arguably most crucial step of the garage door manufacturing process is deciding what style of garage door will work best for your home. There are hundreds of different styles and intricate details that can be added to your garage door.
At Artisan, we have eleven garage door series to choose from, which can all be further customized to your liking. To further help you define your style and home aesthetic, we’ve created a door style quiz for you to find a door series.
Our photo gallery also highlights the work we’ve done before as inspiration. As you sift through the photos, you can pick out specific details and attributes of doors you like that can only be created with a unique garage door manufacturer.
Each door style is engineered to meet your specific needs and customized to match your aesthetics. Once a door series is chosen, you’ll have the option to choose different styles.
- Basic Door Styles. Choose between a garage door that swings out, folds, or is a combination of both.
- Traditional Stile and Rail Doors. This door style will show the construction more through visible vertical stiles and horizontal rails. You will notice them in each door section break.
- Contemporary Doors. This style is a more flexible and customizable design option for your home. We recommend these doors with a mid-century modern home.
Measuring Your Garage Door
It’s essential to have the exact measurements of your garage door opening so your Artisan door can be a perfect fit. How you measure the space will depend on what style of door you’ve decided on. Most likely, you’ll be measuring for an overhead door. If that’s the case you’ll need to provide the following measurements to our team.
- Door Opening. The height and width of the finished, existing door opening.
- Sideroom. The clear area on either side of the door opening where the vertical track is installed.
- Headroom. The space from the door opening to the lowest overhead obstruction. This could be the ceiling or the exposed roof rafters.
- Backroom. This is where the automatic opener will be placed and covers the clear area at the ceiling or roof rafter where the horizontal door track will be hung.
You can find more information on measuring and downloadable templates to help you out here.
Go for Energy Efficiency
One of the driving factors in the garage door manufacturing process is the movement towards more eco-friendly products. Your garage door is a large opening into your home and has the ability to let out a significant amount of hot and cold air.
When your garage door is sufficiently insulated, you’ll feel the costs in your monthly utility bills. Artisan doors are insulated with a foam core, so each style has a high r-value and encompasses energy efficiency.
Build Your Artisan Garage Door
An Artisan garage door is built to last and is made with superior craftsmanship and technique. In each garage door, you’ll find hidden joinery for tight seams and a high-pressured bonded core frame, which help contribute to the door’s durability.
Below, we’ll go through the garage door assembly process for a typical Artisan door.
Milling & Parts
We’ll use your final, approved shop drawings to start rough milling for sizing and surfacing. Then, we’ll start carefully machining each garage door part so it meets our, and your, standards. You can find sample drawings on our website to help spark inspiration for your garage door.
Window Grilles
All our window grilles are handcrafted and painstakingly mitered together before heading into the pre-finishing stage. This garage door manufacturing process portion can be customized with as many, or as few windows as you’d like.
You may have some restrictions based on the door style you choose, but a notable benefit of customizing your garage door is the choices are pretty limitless.
The lites, or window panes, come in two options: simulated or true.
- Simulated. One large pane of glass and exterior grilles divide this piece into multiple windows.
- True. Each window will be a separate piece of glass with its own exterior and frame.
Incorporating windows into your garage door design can help bring in natural light and ultimately save energy for your home. They will not only look great but rarely need repairs and are easy to maintain and clean.
Pre-Finishing
Most of our garage doors receive a finish prior to final assembly. Pre-finishing allows the finish to cover all edges of the door parts and ensures that no raw, unfinished edges are exposed during normal expansion and contraction.
Assembly
During assembly, core and face frames are assembled and connected using fasteners and adhesives. The one-piece unit is cut into overhead sections through the face frames, which are then appropriately sanded and caulked.
Finishing
If you choose a factory finish, your door will proceed to the paint room for its final finish. We use waterborne systems for both our paint and stain finishes. Under each door series, you’ll find a list of available finishes known as the “factory finishes”.
However, there is an option to customize a finish for your garage door. One way to add a simple touch of added texture to the grain is to choose a wire-brushed finish rather than a traditional finish.
After finishing, window glass and grilles are installed.
Inspection & Packaging
As an ending step in making a garage door, we will perform a final inspection of your door and photograph it prior to individually wrapping each piece for safe shipping. Typically, shipping takes about two weeks.
Add Intricate Details
A driving benefit of working with a unique garage door manufacturer is the possibilities you are given. Throughout the garage door assembly process you have different aspects you can customize. At Artisan, there are further additions you can choose from to make your garage door stand out from the rest.
Decorative Hardware
One reason homeowners choose to further enhance their garage doors is to boost curb appeal. Your decorative hardware can come in a variety of styles, shapes, sizes, and components. To select the best accessories, ask yourself what the purpose of the hardware is for your home and garage.
Although your hardware may not be for functional use, you still want it to look realistic and place it where it’s supposed to be. For example, putting strap hinges or latches on the sides of your door where your door would naturally hinge.
Lighting
Just like decorative hardware, exterior lighting can be functional and boost your home’s curb appeal. The number of lights or where they are placed depends, again, on the purpose of the exterior lighting. You should also consider the sizing of your fixtures and how they will look from the street or farther away.
You may also choose to put interior lighting, like utility, wraparound, high bay, or recessed lights. Adding both interior and exterior lights can also increase the security of your home. Lights can be motion sensors so if people are walking by your home, you’ll be able to see them and be alerted more easily.
Specialty Glass
With over half of U.S. burglaries being home invasions, homeowners are becoming much more conscious of the design of their homes. Typically, people think that adding more windows to their garage door means you’re giving more opportunities for a break-in.
However, specialty glass gives you the opportunity to have windows in your design while reducing the risk of people looking into what’s being stored or kept in your garage. Frosted, glacier, and seeded windows obscure the interior of your garage and still provide a beautiful look from the outside.
Our Dealer Network
Although Artisan only has one manufacturing site, we work with over 200 dealers nationwide to bring your garage door vision to life. When we finish the garage door assembly process, we’ll work with a dealer of your choice to bring the final product to you.
If you aren’t sure who your local dealer is, we’ll also be able to assist you with finding a qualified dealer for your installation.
