Sectional, roller or tip-up
Sectional doors are the default for a reason: they lift straight up and run back along the ceiling, so nothing swings out into the driveway and you can park right up against the door. They need headroom above the opening — typically around 300mm for a standard track system, less with a low-headroom kit.
Roller doors coil into a barrel above the opening and need almost no backroom, which makes them the answer for garages with beams, storage racks or a low ceiling running back. Tip-up doors are the single-panel type that swings out and up; they are cheap and simple, but they claim the space in front of the door and they are the type most often replaced during a renovation.
Where headroom is genuinely tight, the honest answer is sometimes a roller door rather than a low-headroom sectional kit, and we will say so at the measuring stage rather than after the door arrives.
Single, double and two singles
A double opening can take one wide door or two single doors, and the choice is not purely aesthetic. One double door is a single mechanism to maintain and a cleaner opening to drive through. Two singles mean one door can stay working while the other is repaired, and each door is lighter, which is gentler on springs and motors.
Where there is a central pillar you have no choice. Where there is not, the width of the opening and the weight of the finished door usually decide it — beyond about 5 metres, a single door starts asking a lot of its springs and its top section.
Materials and what they suit
Steel is the workhorse: strong, well priced, available in a wide range of finishes, and the standard on most new installations. Its weak point is corrosion at the bottom edge where water sits, which is why the bottom seal and the floor level matter more than people expect.
Aluminium is lighter and does not rust, which makes it a sensible choice on exposed openings and on very wide doubles where weight is a concern. Timber gives the appearance people usually want on a period property, at the cost of real weight, seasonal movement and a maintenance commitment. Glass fibre sits in between — light, stable, and the most forgiving in a coastal or high-moisture position.