A full-view glass door makes a modern house look finished and turns a garage into a bright room, but in Irving it also has to stand up to afternoon sun and spring hail. We help you pick the frame and the glass for your house and its exposure, measure, install and set the door up properly. The estimate is free.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free either way.
Picture a regular sectional garage door, then swap the steel skin for a grid of aluminum rails holding glass or clear plastic. That's a full-view door. It travels on ordinary tracks and works with an ordinary opener, so it slots into most garages in place of the steel door that's there now.
They suit newer houses with modern lines, garages that have become gyms or studios, and covered patios where a roll-up wall of glass opens the space to the yard. Restaurants and shops use the same doors for the same reason: daylight and an open feel without giving up a wall that closes and locks.
A garage that faces west takes the full afternoon sun for months on end, and clear glass lets that heat straight in. On an attached garage, the rooms beside and above it feel it too. That's why the glass choice here starts with the sun.
Tinted panels take the edge off the glare and knock back part of the heat. Double-pane insulated units put a pocket of air between two sheets, which slows heat in summer and holds it in winter, and some makers offer coated glass that bounces more of the sun away. A garage facing north or tucked in shade can usually go with clear or frosted single-pane glass.
Finish options for the aluminum include a natural anodized silver, black, bronze and white. Dark frames with tinted glass give stone and stucco houses the crisp modern look; the lighter finishes sit more quietly against pale brick and siding.
Most of the choosing happens in the glass. Clear panes put the whole garage on view; frosted or etched panes glow with daylight but blur the shapes behind them; tinted panes tame glare; insulated units deal with heat. Tempered safety glass comes standard, and laminated panes are there for anyone who'd rather a crack stay put.
Mixing is common: a clear top row for sky, obscured glass lower down. We bring sample pieces to the measuring visit and hold them up in your driveway, because glass looks different in Texas sun than in a showroom.
Spring storms here sometimes bring hail big enough to crack glass, and that question deserves a straight answer before anyone orders a glass door. Tempered glass is several times stronger than ordinary window glass and crumbles into small, blunt bits if it does give way. Clear polycarbonate shrugs off hail better than glass, though it scuffs more easily and reads a little less like glass up close.
Nothing on a house is truly hail-proof. The saving grace of a full-view door is that one damaged pane comes out and a new one goes in, with the frame, the section and the rest of the door left alone. After a storm, that makes the repair modest rather than a new door.
In many townhome communities every garage door has to match, and a full-view door on one unit won't be allowed unless the whole row changes. Single-family neighborhoods usually have more room, though some associations still want to see the design first.
We bring the maker's spec sheet, drawings and finish samples to the estimate, which covers what most associations ask for. Bring your association's door specification if you have it, and the options are narrowed to what will pass.
Some of the glass doors we hang never see a car. A garage turned game room or gym opens onto the driveway on mild evenings, and a covered patio with a glass roll-up door can sit open in spring and fall, then close against the summer heat and the storms. The door becomes a movable wall.
For that kind of use, how the door seals matters as much as how it looks. Weatherstripping on all four sides keeps dust and wind-driven rain out when it's down, and an opener that runs quietly suits a door that goes up and down while people are sitting right beside it. Tell us what the space is for, and the recommendation follows from that.
A glass door is made to the opening, so the order matters.
Glass is dense, and a garage door made mostly of it tips the scale well past a thin builder-grade steel door of the same width. The torsion springs get sized to the new door's real weight and wound to match, so lifting it by hand feels easy and the opener only has to guide it.
That same weight can overwhelm an older opener that was barely managing the old door. We look at it before ordering, and if it ought to go, swapping it on install day saves a second trip. For a rental, the owner sees that on the estimate before approving anything.
On a sunny wall, clear glass can. Tinted panes, insulated double-pane units and coated glass each cut the heat coming through, and the right one depends on which way the garage faces.
The damaged pane is swapped on its own, with the section around it left as it is. Polycarbonate is the sturdier pick where hail worries you most.
With clear panes they can, and most of all after dark with the lights on. Frosted, etched or tinted panes keep the daylight and hide the contents.
That varies by community. Townhome rows often require every door to match. We hand over the maker's specification and drawings so the board can review the door before it's ordered.
Yes. The same full-view doors open up covered patios, restaurants and shops, anywhere a wall should open wide and still lock at night.
Sometimes. The opener is looked at against the new door's weight before ordering, and you'll be told plainly if it should be replaced.
They can. For a rental, tempered or polycarbonate panes and sturdy hardware are the practical picks, and the owner approves the estimate first.
Yes. Measuring, samples and the written estimate are free, and no door is ordered until you approve it.
We give a two-hour window rather than a day, and we call before setting off. Free throughout Dallas County. The estimate is free either way.
Would rather call? Call (972) 597-8723.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free either way.