Tip-Up and Up-and-Over Garage Doors in Germiston

• One-piece steel or timber panel
• Counterbalance spring mechanism
• Motorisable with the right operator

A tip-up garage door swings out and up in one panel, running back into the roof space on a simple frame. It is the door on a great many older Germiston houses, particularly through Primrose, Lambton, Delville, Dinwiddie, Wychwood and Sunnyridge, and it is still a sensible product where the geometry suits it.

Tip-up garage doors we supply in Germiston

• Steel tip-up doors in the traditional ribbed and panelled profiles.
• Aluminium tip-up doors where a lighter panel is wanted.
• Timber tip-up doors where the house calls for it.
• Single and double widths, on new or existing frames.

Why the tip-up door suits the older housing here

Germiston has some of the oldest residential stock on the East Rand, and much of it was built with a single narrow garage and a tip-up door. It is simple, inexpensive, and it asks almost nothing of the building except a square frame and fixings that hold. On the right house a well-made tip-up door on a sound frame runs for decades.

Where a tip-up door does not work

It needs clear space in front of the opening, because the panel swings out before it lifts. If a car parks close to the door, or the driveway falls away from the garage, a sectional or roll-up door is the better answer, and we will say so rather than fit a door that fouls a vehicle every morning.

Frames on houses that have settled

A tip-up door depends entirely on its frame being square and its pivots level. On housing this old the frame has often moved, and replacing the panel alone will not fix a door that binds. We check the frame for square before quoting, because a new panel on a twisted frame is money wasted.

Balance and safe operation

A tip-up door is held by tension on each side, and the balance is the whole safety story. An out-of-balance tip-up door is heavy to lift and can come down hard. We replace the tension components in matched pairs and set the balance so the door stays where you leave it.

Corrosion at the bottom edge

The bottom edge of a tip-up panel is where these doors die. Where the rest of the panel is sound we can often repair or replace the bottom section, and we specify a better coating on the replacement so the same failure takes longer to come back.

Motorising a tip-up garage door

Tip-up doors can be automated with a rail-mounted operator and the correct arm, but only once the balance is right. Automating a heavy tip-up door is how operators get destroyed. We check the door by hand before quoting the motor.

What a tip-up garage door costs in Germiston

Usually the least expensive garage door for a given opening. Priced on width, panel material, finish, whether the frame is being replaced, and whether it is automated.