Top 5 Garage Doors

traditional garage door

Today I want to talk about my top 5 garage doors. This is a list of doors we’ve installed that I like working with and doors that when we’re all done, I think look great. 

Number 5 – Clopay Canyon Ridge

top 5 garage doorscarriage house garage door
Design 13 with Rec 13 glass on Clopay garage door

To start it off with number five I went with the Clopay Canyon Ridge. The Clopay Canyon Ridge is a great option. It’s a faux wood door that’s made from their patented vinyl composite material. It looks very much like real wood and is probably the best I’ve seen as far as a faux wood door. Available with lots of different finishes, and different styles. It’s an overlay door, which means it has the base layer and then a layer of overlays to make the design have a lot of depth. It’s not just a stamped steel pattern. It’s got a lot of depth and vibrance to it. The biggest drawback to this door is the price. It’s one of the more expensive doors for residential. It’s a faux wood door that’s almost as expensive as the full custom wood door. With that faux wood, you lose a lot of the maintenance, they recommend if it’s a high sun area some clear coat protectant on it. But other than that doesn’t mean anything where real wood doors require staining, painting, and maintenance every few years to keep it looking as good as it was the day it was put in.

Number 4 – Full View Glass Garage Door

glass garage door
Full View Glass Garage Doors

Number four, I would say is a full view glass garage door. We primarily work with Amarr so we like the Vista, but Clopay makes a really good full view door with their Avante and CHI also has a high-quality full view garage door. This is a great modern option. So if you’re looking for that modern look this is all glass panels you can get them in tinted and all different types of glass they even have like a mirrored black glass that you can get that looks really cool. If you’re looking for a genuine modern look, a full view door is really a great way to go. They are just showstoppers. You pull up to a house that’s got a full view door it definitely adds great curb appeal. 

Number 3 – Amarr Classica

black garage door
Amarr Classica, Santiago Design in Black

Number three, I went with the Amarr Classica. This is Amarr’s flagship carriage house door. The biggest thing with them is they have large glass sections on a seven-foot-tall door is a 28-inch glass section on an eight-foot-tall door, it’s a 32-inch glass section. Plus you get three 32-inch sections on an eight-foot-tall door, a more traditional carriage house look. It’s way better than just a standard stamped steel carriage house door with 21 and 18-inch sections that would cause the 8’ tall door to be 5 sections tall, which ends up starting to look a little bit busy. So that’s one reason we like it. Six different panel stampings are available, and a bunch of different window options. This is a really popular door from them and a really great-looking door. If you are going for that carriage house look with the big glass and the traditional look of a carriage house door, but with the modern functionality of your standard overhead door. 

Number 2 – CHI Planks

modern garage door
CHI Planks dark oak modern wood garage door with windows down one side

Number two is the CHI Planks, this is a ribbed door that uses their Accent Woodtones, which is actually a digitally printed finish to the garage door to make it look like real wood, especially from a little bit of a distance. You can’t even tell until you get close will you start to see that it’s a faux wood finish. These doors are super popular and it’s a great way to get a wood-look that’s much more affordable than the Canyon Ridge or a real wood door. They look good on a modern home, but also look good on a traditional home as well. It’s really cool and there are about six different wood tone colors that you can get, including some slate grays. You can do the mosaic windows in them as well, and put the glass down the side and really make it look super modern.

Number 1 – Traditional Raised Long Panel

double door
Amarr Lincoln Long Panel in White

Finally, my number one favorite garage door is probably the most basic one. It’s just your traditional raised panel, but I really like the long panel. A more recent addition to the traditional door lines, the short panel, which is the four squares across on a standard door has been around forever. A few years ago, they started doing the long panel, which has got longer panels. On a standard garage door it’s two long panels, so a little less busy. These look great on just about every house. This is the same door I have on my house,  a long panel with plain glass. Just a nice, clean, elegant look. Looks good on older homes, Modern homes. It doesn’t really make a difference. Unless your house design calls for something out there. This garage door is a go-to, it’s very well priced in the entry-level doors. You can get a long raised panel door that looks great at an affordable price. So it works as a good-looking door for budget-conscious shoppers.

So to recap my top 5 garage doors are, The Canyon Ridge, an aluminum full-view glass door, three would be white the Amarr Classica, CHI planks and finally the traditional long panel we typically go to the Amarr Lincoln 3138. You can get that door in just your standard inch three-eighths we mostly do steel back doors or you can up it to a two-inch, the Olympus line, with urethane insulation to get a really good R-value if you plan on heating the garage or have some bedrooms above it. A lot of versatility with that door and I think they look great. So those are my top five. Put in the comments below what you think I missed off this list or what you would put in your top five? I’d love to hear it.