Replacing your old garage door system can completely change the appearance of your garage and bring undeniable advantages to your home. According to the experts at Garaga, the largest garage door manufacturer in Canada, there is 10 valuable reasons to replacing your old garage door:

1. Increase the value of your home. Replacing an old garage door with a new stylish maintenance free door will do wonders for the value of your home. Many Real Estate agents will confirm that it is easier to sell your home when the garage looks good.

2. Improve the appearance of your home. Some garage doors come in as many as 15 colors in a baked-on paint finish, many different styles and a wide variety of windows, all of which can give your home a new look.

3. Lower your heating and cooling bills with an R-16 garage door. A properly insulated garage door can pay for itself over time by reducing your energy costs by keeping the heat out in the summer and the cold out in winters. This savings will occur when you have living quarters above the garage or when the garage is being used as a work shop.

4. Reduce your maintenance time. Many metals doors are low maintenance when you choose a pre-finished color. They require only mild soap and water for cleaning. So say goodbye to painting and scraping and hello to more leisure time.

5. Protect items stored in your garage from the elements. Many people use their garage for storage. To protect those items from the damage caused by extreme heat and cold, choose an insulated door with a thermo barrier that prevents heat or cold from travelling from the outside surface to the inside surface. You can also combine this with a PVC weather-strip with screw cover and double fin rubber weather-strip.

6. Increase the use of your garage. With the use of an insulated garage door between R-12 and R-18, you will find the garage a more pleasant place to work in. Your garage can be used as a workshop, art studio, playroom or a heated storage room.

7. Increase the security of items stored in your garage. It is much easier to kick in or drill through a wooden or metal non-insulated door which is at least 1 3/4 " thick and has a metal skin front and back. This can be enough to deter a thief from trying to break through a metal insulated door.

8. Prevent easy access to your home. The garage door is the largest access to your home. Many new garage door openers come with the rolling code technology, which makes it far more difficult to gain access when the opener uses one of 100 billion new codes each time the door is opened.

9. Reduce the risk of injury. Photo eyes, which are now mandatory, sense when something is in the way or passing through the opening when the door is coming down. This has two benefits, when the light beam is broken, the garage door will reverse back up when coming down to prevent an injury and/or turn on a light so you will see where you are going when it is dark.

10. North American made. If you like to support North American manufacturers, ask your supplier if they are offering you a North American made product.

Buying a garage door is a long-term investment. A new garage door increases the value of your home, the uses of the garage and reduces the risk of injury.

*Garaga is a Canadian garage doors manufacturer for the residential, commercial and industrial markets. More information on the latest line of garage doors is available at www.garaga.com *