Rolling or Sectional: Commercial Overhead Doors for Vermont Businesses

A warehouse bay door and a storefront door are both commercial overhead doors, but they do not have much else in common. One needs to survive constant cycling and heavy equipment nearby; the other needs to look good and let in some light. Vermont businesses across trades end up choosing between two basic door types, sectional and rolling, and then a material to go with it.

Sectional doors: the standard commercial choice

A sectional door is built from horizontal panel sections hinged together, which travel up and back along a track into the ceiling of the building. It is the door most people picture on a service bay or a storefront. Limoge & Sons offers sectional commercial doors including C.H.I. Doors models 3216, 3240, 3285, and 3295, Raynor's SteelForm, AlumaView, and StyleForm lines, and the Richards-Wilcox Thermatite T175.

Rolling doors: coiled overhead

A rolling door works differently: instead of traveling back along the ceiling in sections, the whole door coils up into a compact drum mounted above the opening. That makes rolling doors a good fit where ceiling space is limited or where a building does not have room for a sectional door's horizontal track run. Limoge & Sons offers Raynor rolling doors, including the DuraCoil, DuraShutter, and DuraGrille lines. Ask the shop how the three differ for your opening.

Steel, aluminum, and glass: matching the door to the building

Both sectional and rolling doors at Limoge & Sons are available in steel or aluminum, and that choice generally comes down to what the building needs. A warehouse or service bay usually calls for steel, for durability and strength. A storefront, or a business that wants more natural light and a more open look toward the street, can look at aluminum doors, including full-view glass options, of the kind seen on some of the commercial buildings Limoge & Sons has worked on around Vermont.

If the building is heated

For a heated warehouse, a shop where employees work near the opening for a full shift, or any building where a door cycling constantly through a Vermont winter adds up over a heating season, an insulated door is worth considering. An insulated door is generally heavier, which is part of why the opener choice matters just as much as the door itself.

How often the door cycles matters

A door that opens and closes a handful of times a day has different wear demands than one cycling every few minutes at a busy loading dock. Cycle count is worth mentioning during a free estimate, since it affects which hardware, track configuration, and operator setup makes sense for a particular building rather than assuming every commercial bay needs the same setup.

Keeping a commercial door running

Beyond sales and installation, Limoge & Sons offers routine maintenance and repair, including spring replacement and opener repair, across both residential and commercial doors. A commercial door that cycles many times a day generally benefits from being checked on a regular basis rather than only after something breaks, since a stuck bay door or a jammed storefront entrance can shut down a business for the day.

Opening a heavy commercial door safely

Commercial doors are considerably heavier than a residential door, and lifting one by hand is not something anyone on staff should be doing regularly. Limoge & Sons installs LiftMaster trolley operators and jackshaft operators specifically to prevent injury from the heavy lifting involved in operating a commercial door, on both steel and aluminum doors.

• Sectional: the standard commercial choice, good across a wide range of bay sizes.
• Rolling: coils overhead, useful where ceiling space is tight or a grille look is wanted.
• Steel: durability and strength for warehouses and service bays.
• Aluminum and full-view glass: a more open, storefront-friendly look.
• LiftMaster trolley and jackshaft operators to handle the heavy lifting safely.

Getting a bay or storefront looked at

A warehouse bay or a storefront entrance, Limoge & Sons Garage Doors offers free estimates on commercial doors and openers across Addison, Franklin, Lamoille, Chittenden, and Washington Counties. Call (802) 878-4338.