Thinking of Replacing Your Garage Door? Here’s Why You Should
If you have an older home – or maybe even if your home isn’t so old – your garage door may have taken quite a beating through the years. You might be wondering if it’s about time to replace that old garage door.
That can be a difficult decision. It’s kind of like having an old car: You don’t really want to go to the expense and trouble of getting a new car, but you know that at some point you’re going to have to do so.
How do you know when you’re at that point with your garage door? How do you know when the benefits of a new garage door will make the expense and trouble of replacing your old door worthwhile?
As you wrestle with that decision, consider the following benefits that can be gained by installing a new garage door:
Increased Property Value
It’s quite certain that a new garage door will improve the appearance of your home. Depending upon the shape of your old door, the improvement might be quite substantial. And that can result in a real bump in the value of your home.
The increased valuation will only pay off in dollars and cents if you decide to sell your home, of course. But it’s a nice perk that you can enjoy all of the other benefits of a new door, and get a little bump in value if you decide to sell your home.
Reduced Utility Costs
If your old door has some age on it, it’s a near-certainty that a new door will be considerably more energy efficient. That increased energy efficiency will reduce the cost of heating and cooling your home.
You won’t get rich from the savings. But over time, those savings can really add up. And all along, of course, you’ll be doing the environment a favor by reducing your energy consumption.
Lowered Maintenance Costs
Just as with hanging on to an old car, if you keep your old door you can expect to pay some maintenance expenses periodically. With any door – particularly with automated doors – there’s plenty to go wrong. And the older your door, the more that will go wrong.
Lowered Insurance Costs
This is a new-garage-door benefit that many homeowners completely overlook. Depending upon the type of door you install – and in comparison to the type of old door you currently have – you might reduce your homeowner insurance costs by a substantial amount.
If you replace an old wooden door with a new high-quality steel door, for example, your premiums could be reduced by as much as 10%.
Why is that?
It’s simply because a newer door is more likely to hold up to the rigors of Mother Nature, reducing the risk to the insurance company that you’ll be filing a claim after a bad weather event.