Garage Tip #13

Academy Overhead Door offers an affordable kit to maintain your garage, to purchase one talk to our service techs or call 719-481-2649

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents can trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have the experience and skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and installation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

Garage Tip #12

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents can trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have the experience and skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and installation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

How To Choose A Garage Door: To Insulate or Not?

In the quest to keep energy bills low, many homeowners consider insulating their attached-garage doors to create a better barrier against the great outdoors. While insulating the door can be beneficial, it can also be expensive without much return on investment. A few lifestyle questions are worth asking first.

Is your garage used for living or storage space? This is probably the most important question. Most garages are in use as storage and there’s little point in stabilizing the temperature. Even with an insulated door, the garage will only stay noticeably warmer than the outdoors if it already has a source of heat. If your garage is one of the more unusual types in use as work or living space instead of storage, insulating the door should drastically reduce how hard your heater has to work.

How good is the insulation between your garage and house? If you already have good insulation in the adjoining walls, you already have a decent barrier between you and the weather. If you don’t have good insulation, however, insulating the garage door may be a good way to cut down on energy leakage. In this scenario, you may want to consider adding good weatherstripping and seal to the door as well, since even a small draft can significantly change the temperature inside.

Are you planning to insulate an existing door or purchase a manufacturer-insulated one? If you own an

Amarr door, DIY insulation kits are available for purchase. It’s possible to use spray foam or polystyrene boards from your local home-improvement store, but these solutions are not very effective since the insulation tends to break down quickly with use. If your garage is used more for living space than storage space, purchasing a manufacturer-insulated door is probably the best way to go.


If you feel you have a good candidate for garage door insulation, check out this related post: The I-Factor: Choosing An Insulated Garage Door

About the Author: Lauren Turner is a former construction contractor turned wife and mother of two (so far). Her daily collection of duties and pleasures range from diaper duty to researching experimental concrete surfaces and everything in between. She is delighted to discover there is a place for her blogging skills and hopes her own garage benefits from all she learns.

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents cant trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have experience and the skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and instillation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

Garage Tip #3

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents can't trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have experience and the skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and installation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

DIY Garage Tip #1

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents can't trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have experience and the skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and installation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

How to Choose a Beautiful Garage Door: Incorporate Style

The right garage door can really pull together the overall style of your home and give it harmonious character. It’s often a subtle choice between doors that add to your curb-appeal or don’t, so here’s some quick starter tips for finding the perfect fit.

Assess Your Home

Before choosing a style, it’s helpful to survey your home and make a short list of it’s overall characteristics. Do you have a Tudor with board-and-batten-look siding? A brick 70’s ranch? A gingerbread-decked Victorian? A stucco villa? A boxy 60’s contemporary? A tidy Colonial?

(Check out this link to help determine your house’s style: http://www.housepride.ca/housestyle/questionnaire.jsp)

Pay particular attention to windows and doors. Do you have square or arched openings? Are there any defining architectural details like muntin bars or leaded-glass decorative panes? Echoing the basic look of your windows and doors can really help your decision.

Basic Garage Door Types

Your neighborhood is probably full of traditional raised panel doors. They are typically made of steel or aluminum and can be insulated for better energy efficiency. This style of garage door blends well with many homes, though probably best with Colonial and Ranch styles. Possible customizations include windows in the top or second panel and a variety of colors.

Carriage house doors have become increasingly popular for many types of homes, though they work best in multiple garage door openings or with homes suggesting Mediterranean, Cottage, Victorian or Tudor styles. Carriage house doors can be made of wood or steel and have either a stained wood or painted finish. Possible customizations are almost limitless, including a wide variety of windows and trim options.

Contemporary doors are the rarest type and work best with custom homes built in an avant-garde or very clean-lined “modern” style. They are often made of glass and aluminum. There are not many customizations available for these types of doors since they tend to be a customization by their very nature.

Whatever you choose, we’ll be happy to give you a written estimate for the next step in acquiring your new door!

About the Author: Lauren Turner is a former construction contractor turned wife and mother of two (so far). Her daily collection of duties and pleasures range from diaper duty to researching experimental concrete surfaces and everything in between. She is delighted to discover there is a place for her blogging skills and hopes her own garage benefits from all she learns.

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents cant trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have experience and the skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and instillation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

The Coin of Social Capital Is Community

Who We Are: Part IV

Community

Everyone likes using the word “community”. There isn’t a political race that goes by without someone – probably everyone - trotting out a well-worn catchphrase involving “community” designed to make you think they’ve got your back and you can trust them to get your mail next time you’re out of town.

But what does “community” really mean? Why is it valuable? As Keith Hopper puts it in his blog, “Defining Community”, these can be difficult questions to really answer. “Dictionary definitions, for all their permutations seem to miss a good deal of implied meaning in the word community.”

Americans have a unique perspective on communities. Our founding fathers worked hard to create a country where we take care of each other instead of giving total control of our society to the elite (“a government by the people for the people…”). This serious responsibility for our fellows creates something special from what would otherwise be a disinterested bunch of people living in close proximity. It creates communities. Strong communities in turn provide an asset called “social capital”.

When we look out for each other we create strong bonds of trust and reassurance. We know if we're in a bind, our neighbors will be there for us just as we were there for them. A healthy community takes on a life of it's own, providing freedom and security for it's members. That is social capital. You can’t spend it like dollars and cents, but ultimately it provides even better than a whole pile of loot in the bank.

The driver of social capital is community involvement, a fancy way of saying “giving your neighbors a hand when they need it”. At Academy Overhead Door, social capital is precious treasure. We love people and we love lending a hand wherever we can. It can be as simple as giving you a new garage opener with batteries already installed or as big a project as repairing the Palmer Lake Firehouse door free of charge.

We’re your neighbors and we want to be there for you just as others have been there for us. That is
community.

About the Author: Lauren Turner is a former construction contractor turned wife and mother of two (so far). Her daily collection of duties and pleasures range from diaper duty to researching experimental concrete surfaces and everything in between. She is delighted to discover there is a place for her blogging skills and hopes her own garage benefits from all she learns.

About Academy Overhead Door: We specialize in complete residential overhead door repair that Colorado Springs residents cant trust. We also offer opener repair on all major brands and models. Our trained technicians have experience and the skill to install/repair your complete overhead garage doors. Academy Overhead Door: providing fast overhead door repair and instillation today!
Call 719-481-2549
For more info visit our website: academyoverheaddoor.com

DIY: Waterproof Your Garage Floor

With winter already here it’s important that you keep your garage safe from water damage. Cars, soggy boots, and even recently used sleds can contribute to damage. But, have no fear, here’s an easy DIY to maintain your garage floors in this wet season.

What you will need:

• Broom and dustpan
• Scrub brush and cleaning product
• Waterproof epoxy or waterproof paint

1. The first thing you’ll need to do is clear everything off the floor of your garage. Then inspect your garage for any damaged areas (cracks, holes, or seam). You’ll need to repair these before you waterproof anything.
2. Clean your garage floor. Sweep and scrub the entire thing. You don’t want any dirt caught under the waterproofing. If you have oil stains we have another blog post with an easy way to remove them yourself here: http://academyoverheaddoor.blogspot.com/2014/10/diy-removing-grease-stains-in-your.html
3. Use a waterproof epoxy or paint on your floor. Make sure to follow the given instructions on the pain or waterproof epoxy. Allow floors to dry.

A Traditional Look. A Trendy Garage Door.

Traditional and Trendy with Academy Overhead Door.

Wood doors are out of stock but not out of style! There’s something about the traditional look of a wood garage door on the home. It’s irreplaceable. Unfortunately as Garage Doors improve, wood material has decreased in efficiency when compared to steel. A steel door’s durability and life-long-lasting feature has made quite the influence on the Garage Door Industry. Frankly, Wood isn’t used anymore.

Academy Overhead Door’s Amarr brand Garage Doors have stopped using wood altogether. The good news is, we haven’t lost that classic and traditional ‘Wood’ look either. Amarr builds it’s doors in many styles and colors that look like wood! Unless you physically pound the door with your knuckles, you can’t tell it’s steel.

Steel is efficient, yes. But that’s no excuse to keep if from being classy.

Be sure to visit our website: http://www.academyoverheaddoor.com/