Hardwood or Softwood Garage Doors?
When choosing to get a new wooden garage door there is a lot to take into consideration. But the key aspect that you should think about and take time understanding, knowing the differences, the advantages and disadvantages etc, is the type of wood to use.There are two main types of wood that are used for garage doors, these being hardwood and softwood. Further in this blog post we explain what these types of woods are and their advantages and disadvantages to them, all to help you have an understanding of which type of wood is best for your wooden garage door.
Hardwood
Hardwood is an organic material that is considered to be the most attractive types of wood, this is due to the variations of colour within each piece. Hardwood generally contains long fibres which are densely packed, making the wood harder or denser, this makes it a useful material for surfaces or items that you do not want to be damaged easily.
Hardwood Garage Door Advantages
There are many advantages that hardwood holds making it a good fit for garage doors. The first is the strength of the wood, hardwood is an incredibly strong material and this would aid with the security of your garage. Linked with the strength of hardwood, is the high endurance, making it more likely to last longer than other wood.Hardwood on garage doors is also a very attractive and aesthetically pleasing look, this is due to the heavy and dense grains that it holds as well as the natural colour of the wood. Another key advantage of hardwood in garage doors is that hardwood has a good level of fire resistance, but it is not fire retarded.
Hardwood Garage Door Disadvantages
Along with the advantages of hardwood garage doors there are also some disadvantages. Hardwood is expensive compared to softwood, which makes the cost of a hardwood garage door greater than a softwood garage door. Hardwood garage doors are also very heavy due to the density of the wood, this could end up causing the future problem of hinges dropping and the doors not being level.
Softwood
Softwood is an organic material that comes from coniferous trees. It is usually supplied in long planks, posts or rails. This is due to the trees that it comes from grow straight with no bends allowing for long straight planks. Around 80% of all the timber comes from softwood, making soft wood around four times more common than hardwood as well as cheaper.
Softwood Garage Door Advantages
There are many advantages to softwood which makes them fit for the use in garage doors. The first of which is that soft wood is a lot cheaper opposed to hardwood, this is due to softwood being more common. Softwood is also very light, this means that you are less likely to fall into the problems of dropped hinges, due to the weight of the garage doors.Also as previously mentioned, the trees that softwood comes from grows incredibly straight producing straight and long wooden planks, this makes the wood more sustainable as there is less wastage through the production of softwood planks.
Softwood Garage Door Disadvantages
There are also a few disadvantages to softwood garage doors that you must acknowledge. Softwood garage doors need regular maintenance that must be upkept to ensure the integrity of the doors as well as to increase the longevity of the garage door itself.Softwood is not as strong as hardwood, which could make a garage less secure without the use of strong locking systems. With the wood being not as strong, it can also be easily damaged and dented which can cause a worn and unattractive look. Connected to this, the wood itself is not as attractive as hardwood, the grains are less visible and also contains more knots in the wood. But the knots can also be seen as an attractive feature to some.
Wooden Garage Door Maintenance
Wood is a breathable natural product that will go through multiple changes within the woods lifetime as a garage door. No matter the amount of maintenance done to the door it will still go through changes, the maintenance will just increase its longevity. Factors which cause the changes within the wood are things such as the changes of seasons, or even vast changes in the weather.Regular wipe downs and re-staining or repainting the garage doors should be done to uphold the treatment of the wood. This will then in turn increase the longevity of the wooden garage door while also keeping it looking its best.
Thank you for reading Crocketts Gates blog post. If you would like to find out more about wooden garage doors then contact us on 01844 342 036, alternatively, visit our contact page.