Garage doors go upscale

Harold Hoffmeier, of Custom Overhead Doors, likes to remind homeowners that his garage doors are a lot more than just a pretty face — they're rugged, long-lasting, whisper quiet, full of high-tech bells and whistles and safety features and built to withstand even the occasional North Carolina hurricane. But they are especially nice to look at too.

Garage doors can account for 30 to 40% of a home's front view. Selecting a door that complements the overall design of the home, and one that will keep looking good season after season, is an important consideration for any home.

 
For the V Foundation Charity Home, Custom Overhead Doors contributed top-of-the line dual Clopay Coachman carriage-style doors. Clopay, the world's largest manufacturer of residential garage doors, is an innovator in garage door design that both enhances that all-important curb appeal, but also cutting edge technology. The insulated steel doors installed at the V Foundation Charity Home have all the look of wood with the durability of steel. The elegant arching doors featured hammered steel Fleur de Lis hardware, transom windows and cross-hatched trim for the look of an old-fashioned country manor. Corrosion-resistant galvanized springs, polystyrene insulating thermal barrier and wood-grained composite overlay make this one of the most rugged, long-lasting, high-performing doors available. And they are constructed to the all new stringent North Carolina wind codes.

Custom Overhead Doors also installed a state-of-the-art Liftmaster automatic door opener system. With a belt-driven mechanism, this door opener is ultra-quiet and super low maintenance (no chain to oil). As a leader in garage door opener innovation, Liftmaster includes such high-tech features as a battery backup system and laser parking guide. (No more ping pong balls strung from the ceiling.) Every month, some 100,000 homes experience power outage, but at the V Foundation Charity Home the EverCharge battery backup means homeowners will never be locked in or out of the garage during a blackout.

 
This garage door opener system also features remote controls for turning on lights in the house before even leaving the car. And the unique garage door monitor allows the homeowner to check the garage door from any room in the home.

For Clopay, Liftmaster and Custom Overhead Doors, safety and security are always paramount concerns. Liftmaster's Protector System projects an invisible light beam across the garage door opening and automatically reverses the door if anything interrupts the beam while door is going down. PosiLock stops intruders by securely locking the garage door when closed. Security+ rolling code technology protects access to the garage door from roaming code grabbers.

As leaders in the Triangle area residential garage door industry, Custom Overhead Doors has installed thousands of overhead doors, and bringing this expertise to the V Foundation Charity Home was a natural fit. "Our entire company feels very strongly about helping out in the community," says Hoffmeier. "We just thought that participating in building a charity home — especially for an organization like the V Foundation — was a great way for us to contribute. What could be a better way to help than doing what we do best?"

Kelly McCall Branson is a freelance writer