These days, more and more homeowners are moving towards contemporary architectural styles when it comes to their residences. This is not something new either; the trend has been here for over a decade, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Where garage doors are concerned, contemporary home designs often call for all-glass options, which though aesthetically appealing, leave many homeowners with doubts in regards to the safety they can deliver. Needless to say, garage door panel repair is not the only concern here.

The Types of Glass

First off, most garage door windows are of the “standard” type, which is another way of saying that they are of the same material used in the rest of the home’s windows and front door. A fully glazed garage door, though, needs something harder than that. Make sure you settle for nothing less than tempered glass in this regard. If breakage occurs, tempered glass would shatter into numerous pieces, so that the danger of cutting yourself is lessened considerably. Standard glass would break into long shards that bring risk of injury.

You could get a double-pane (thermal) window, but that would only be tempered on one side – the inner one. So if you hit the door with, say, a stepladder, the glass on the inner side of the door would break into tiny pieces, while that on the outside would stay unbroken.

Alternative Window Materials

If you think the glass is not your thing, then you could go with polycarbonate. This has corrugation all over it, and a thickness of just over half an inch. Polycarbonate windows can easily withstand heavy impacts, but do not let light pass the same way as regular windows. You could pick from many color options, including amber and white.

What Else to Check

  • The construction of the door needs to be checked. The best option you can pick is extruded aluminum, just under 2 inches thick. The extrusions framing the door should be no less than 6 inches wide. If your door carries double-pane glass, you would also need to note down its total weight.
  • The proper hardware would need to be used based on the weight of the garage door, just the same as during garage door spring repair.
  • If your living space has a cathedral-style ceiling, you could set up the rail system to follow in that path so it stays concealed. The garage door could even be motorized, even if the ceiling has a slope, but that would require setting up automatic reversal systems.