We were contacted last year by a customer in Warwickshire who was looking to update their garage doors.
They wanted the main door to be automated but with a wicket door to provide pedestrian access. They also needed a smaller pedestrian access door to the side.
The customer chose the Novoferm iso45 Flush design in Smooth Woodgrain Golden Oak for the main door. The door opens vertically into the garage and with no ‘kick out’ as it moves. It is double-skinned and fully insulated. Sectional doors are comprised of individual sections connected together by hinges. All sections are manufactured from hot galvanized thin steel sheet and provided with a polyester-based pre-finished coat or, in the case of Golden Oak, a durable foil finished coating.
Angular frames, guide rails as well as all fitting parts on the garage door are also galvanised so that no rust can start to form. The flexible lip seals between the sections fit softly even at low temperatures and prevent any heat losses and dust from penetrating. A rubber profile on the bottom edge of the garage door guarantees optimum protection from water and dirt, evens out slight floor unevenness and prevents damage and injuries. The floor seal is made of high-quality EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer), which is known for its high elasticity, weather resistance and long life-span.
The addition of a wicket door to your sectional door offers a practical passage width of 80cm and provides perfect heat insulation due to the double-skinned insulation used.
The customer wanted the door automated so we fitted the Novomatic 553 which comes with automatic safety features and will stop and reverse the door operation, when it senses an obstruction, making a safely automated door. We also added a Wireless Key Pad so the customer doesn’t need to use a remote control, they can just tap in their numerical code and the door will open.
Unfortunately the space for the personnel door was too small to accommodate the matching equivalent and so the customer chose the Cardale Gemini steel personnel door, again in fully finished Golden Oak. Personnel doors come with secure Euro profile night latch and deadlock and four anti-drop anchored bolt hinges.
These sectional and personnel garage doors were installed near Shipston on Stour in Warwickshire. The doors come with a ten year manufacturer warranty and the motor with a five year warranty.
One of the main reasons I married Mr Elite GD is that he loves Christmas lights almost as much as I do! This morning my Facebook ‘memories’ displayed the above picture. Taken four years ago, it shows our Christmas lights adorning our old Cardale Chelsea GRP garage door. (Our shiny new roller door was installed on my Birthday, I can’t wait to see what’s under the tree for me this year!).
Hopefully this weekend Mr EliteGD will spend a day swearing and de-tangling lights before our own little ‘Christmas lights switch on’ and our house lights up the street. Our neighbours love it! Aherm….
So for a little inspiration I thought I would Google ‘christmas garage doors’ and below is a selection of the brilliant ideas I found! I also discovered the Garage Door Décor website, based in the US, they specialise in whole door, full size murals to really get your home in the Christmas spirit. Here in the UK you can buy magnetic decorations from Amazon at a fraction of the price.
We would love to see your pictures of your Christmassy garage doors! Tweet us or post them to our Facebook page.
Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!
Last Friday 13th November we made our way to fit a garage door in Bicester, at a property opposite Bicester Fire Station.
When we arrived at the customers home we spotted a very important celebrity bear!
The Fire Station staff were raising money for BBC’s Children in Need, a charity whose vision is that every child in the UK has a safe, happy and secure childhood and the chance to reach their potential. Pudsey had joined them for the day to help with their fundraising!
Pudsey needed a little financial persuasion but he finally agreed to have his picture taken with the team!
We then got back to the job in hand and fitted this stunning Novoferm iso45 Sectional garage door.
The customer had requested a between brickwork fit and had chosen the Flush design, fully finished in Smooth White. One of the benefits of the sectional garage doors is that they are insulated, perfect if you have living space above or use the garage as a workshop. The door also comes fully automated with a Novomatic 553 motor and two remote control handsets.
To transform your home with the addition of this sleek garage door, call us on 01295 272370 and request your FREE no obligation quotation (unfortunately we cannot guarantee Pudsey will carry out the quote).
Finally, an enormous “well done” to everyone at Bicester Fire Station for raising over £3600, and thank you for helping Pudsey agree to have his photograph taken! Follow Bicester Fire on Twitter at https://twitter.com/firebicester
To find out more about the work of Children in Need or to make a donation to this worthwhile cause visit www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk
Timber is a natural product and will respond differently to different environments and different surface finishes. A good quality micro-porous finish, properly and adequately applied should last for approximately 2 to 3 years, then it’s time to treat it again.
Most of us would prefer not to have to prepare and re-stain our garage door every 2 to 3 years and now there are a range of doors available which provide you with a timber effect but are low maintenance.
Our Golden Oak and Rosewood steel doors are finished in a smooth woodgrain that is an excellent match to the popular UPVC and window finishes
Unique deep pressed panels give a high level of panel detail and they are built with a multi stage anti corrosion treatment which gives you a 10 year anti-corrosion warranty on the door, meaning your timber effect door should remain looking good long after a timber door starts to rot.
These doors are cost effective too with most styles and designs cheaper than their timber counterparts.
Contact us to arrange a free no obligation or site survey and receive a quotation on your new Golden Oak or Rosewood Garage Door.
Growth Awareness Day – Tuesday 15th September 2015
One of the reasons I love garage doors is the flexibility they give me in looking after my children. Running our own business can have its perils in not knowing when to switch off, but on the flip side it’s the first job I’ve had where I can run the office from an iPhone in a hospital ward, which is rather essential bearing in mind the amount of time we spend in one!
At the 20 week scan of my youngest daughter she was diagnosed with Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) which meant that, due to a rather rubbish placenta that didn’t form properly, she was failing to grow properly. The pregnancy was fraught with blood tests, scans, ‘counting the kicks’, and second opinions. She was born at 36 weeks gestation weighing 4lb 1oz and was classed as Small for Gestational Age (SGA). Apart from being small she thankfully did not have any other medical conditions to note, so after just 6 days in NICU we brought her home. I was told she would feed like a horse and quickly catch-up, as most children born with IUGR/SGA do, but unfortunately she didn’t.
Today is Growth Awareness Day, an initiative from the International Coalition of Organizations Supporting Endocrine Patients (ICOSEP) from around the world. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of growth issues and help people understand it’s not just about the shoe size or age clothing the child is wearing, it’s about the child’s health.
There are a range of growth conditions, along with IUGR/SGA. There is Russell Silver Syndrome, Growth Hormone Deficiency, Premature Sexual Maturation, Sotos Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, Bone Dysplasia, Weaver Syndrome and not to forget the many children who are undiagnosed or have incredibly rare genetic disorders.
Whilst our daughter doesn’t have any major health concerns, her gross motor skills were slow to develop, she is asthmatic, she has always had difficulty feeding, she has a very limited diet and we are about to embark on growth hormone therapy. She tends to pick up any bug doing the rounds and struggles to fight it off, often ending in a hospital admission and IV antibiotics. Genetic testing has, so far, not given us any answers. Her medical record is the size of War and Peace, I have lost count of the number of admissions she has had in the last four years and the numerous hospital appointments which go with.
We now have a wonderful paediatrician and endocrine team who understand our daughter and the challenges we face as a family. Getting the help we needed was hard work and when you are sleep deprived, worried about your child, managing work/family/life the last thing you need is a battle for appropriate healthcare. I was often made to feel like I was ‘making it up’ and lost count of the number of health professionals who told me ‘she’s just small, she will catch up’.
The work of the Child Growth Foundation in the UK (and similar organisations across the world) is essential in providing the information and support to empower parents to speak to their doctors and access the medical care their children need. The CGF has been my lifeline, I am incredibly grateful to the charity and their members for all the support we have received since I found them a year ago.
I hope this thought provoking image will help a parent or young adult who is concerned about their growth to seek medical advice. For more information visit the US Magic Foundation website.
Please help support Growth Awareness Day by sharing this blog, or posting the image above on social media.
Thanks for reading and I promise my next blog post will be back to the shiny garage doors!
#morethanheight #healthnotheight #growthawarenessday
Last year we fitted a new garage door for a landlord in Witney, Oxfordshire. A year on they made the decision to refurbish the garage block and replace all six doors.
Based on the service we provided last year, we were proud to be asked to complete the installation.
We think they look really smart and hope the tenants enjoy their smart new garage doors!
The Naseby starts at only £525 fully fitted and we can provide a discount for multiple orders. To find out more call us on 01295 272370.
Here are a pair of Novoferm Sectional doors which we installed last month in this new build garage. The customer chose the Large Rib design in laminated Golden Oak finish to perfectly complement the shiplap cladding. Now the doors are fitted the customer can finish the last of the cladding.
The inside shots show the engineering behind these automated sectional garage doors. Highest quality doors for a customer who wanted the very best.
To find out more or receive a FREE quotation, call us on 01295 272370
A few months ago we took a phone call from a customer who lives in a beautiful village in the heart of the Cotswolds. They wanted to park their new car, a modest sized hatchback, in their garage and be able to safely reverse it back out again.
Straight forward? Unfortunately not. It is surprising how many of us struggle to fit our cars inside our garage and possibly a contributing factor to the increasing trend of using our garages for so many reasons other than to park our car.
Our customer could only drive in if she folded the wing mirrors in, however reversing out, without wing mirrors, was causing visibility problems.
She had asked other garage door companies if they could help and they had all told her it was not possible to increase the drive through width of her garage.
In desperation she turned to the manufacturer Cardale’s website, where we are listed as the Gold Distributor in the area for their products. Cardale is a well-known name in the garage door industry and has been manufacturing doors in the UK for over 50 years.
On hearing our customer’s conundrum we arranged for Mark to visit the property and he advised that by fitting a new door as a ‘back fit’, with the frame behind the pillars as opposed to between, that we could increase the drive through width by at least 4 inches, which was enough for the customer to safely manoeuvre her car in and out of her garage, with wing mirrors in place.
On completing the work the customer was delighted with her new door and that we were able to provide a solution where other companies had not.
If you too have an issue with your garage which you would like our opinion on, do give us a call. Our on-site survey is free and without obligation. However, please be aware that garage door conundrums we can solve; Countdown Conundrums are a different matter!
Call us on 01295 272370
Our two thirds/one third side hinged doors always prove to be a popular choice with our customers and in this case, our customer’s cat is happy too!
Side hinged doors are ideal when obstructions are in the garage preventing the installation of an up & over, sectional or roller door. The two thirds/one third split allows pedestrian access without needing to open the entire door, this is particularly useful for the 62%* of us who no longer use our garage to keep our car in!
This particular customer also wanted us to install a cat flap and this design suits the job perfectly with it fitting neatly in the square.
The installation of a cat flap is not just limited to this door, it can be accommodated in a variety of designs and styles and can be installed from as little as £90.
To find out more about our side hinged range or installing a cat flap to your new door give us a call on 01295 272370.
*Figure taken from research conducted by RAC Home Insurance 2014
MAKE YOUR HOME COMPLETE WITH A GARAGE DOOR FROM ELITE
I have to admit when I was growing up I didn’t dream of garage doors. My bedroom walls were adorned with various posters from Smash Hits as opposed to a timber side hinged in base coat stain.
I always wanted to be a dancer. Not a graceful, elegant ballerina type dancer, oh no, I had visions of me doing the locomotion with Kylie and drove my mother bonkers ‘teaching’ myself the introductory dance sequence in Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation music video.
To make my parents even prouder I ditched my plans for psychology, sociology and English a-levels and decided a BTEC in Performing Arts was for me! (They were surprisingly understanding). But it soon became apparent that my dream of dancing on Top of the Pops wasn’t to be and my dancing abilities were limited to Kudos on student night (Hooch was £1 a bottle).
So I got a ‘proper job’, in an office, and stumbled from one office to another and in 2002 landed at Cardale Garage Doors in Brackley. My first job with a manufacturing company it was quite an eye opener and I really enjoyed walking through the factory, the roar of the machines, the smell, the ‘doing’. Watching the garage doors being created, it was a real live product, something you could touch and hold, tangible. Having worked in service industries I hadn’t seen that before. And I liked it.
Fast forward nine years, I had moved away, was working in the NHS, separated, with two small children when a colleague from Cardale popped up on social media. Mark still worked at Cardale, now manufacturing in Luton, we met up, we got married and Mark made the decision that after over 20 years of working for the manufacturer it was time to do something a little different.
Elite Garage Doors was born and within a few months I had left my job with the NHS and joined Mark, working together supplying, installing and repairing garage doors.
It’s surprising how excited I can now get over a sectional in golden oak. I love talking to customers about our products. The range is vast, most customers when they first approach us have no idea just how much choice is available to them. The colour range has expanded, the roller doors have become much more affordable, steel doors that look like timber, doors that bounce back when knocked and there are now solar panels to power your motor!
I’ve fallen in love with garage doors. They found me my husband and my own company, they pay the mortgage. I’m my own boss (don’t tell Mark) and I get to spend time with my children when they need me. Garage doors might not sound very exciting or sexy but they mean the world to me. As my four year old said just last week ‘garage doors, garage doors, it’s all about the garage doors’ and yes, yes it is.
As for the dancing, I save that for holidays with the kids. I do a mean Choo Choo Wa (on your marks, stretch your arms, clench your fists, thumbs up, choo choo wa choo choo wa choo choo wa wa wa…;)
Elite Garage Doors (Midlands) Ltd,
1 Chichester Walk,
Banbury,
Oxfordshire,
OX16 1YP
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