Guides
The trade's knowledge, written down plainly
What we'd tell you at the door, put where you can read it at 10pm with a torch in one hand. No prices, because honest ones come after a measure. No scare tactics, because the facts carry their own weight.
Why a snapped spring is a stand-clear job
The bang, what actually broke, why the door is suddenly so heavy, and the two things you should not do before it's repaired.
Read the guide Choosing · the considered oneSectional, roller or tilt: the three door generations
Raymond Terrace runs all three, sometimes in one street. How they differ on headroom, insulation, noise and repairs, without a catalogue in sight.
Read the guideThe words, plainly
A short glossary of the winding machine
The trade's words aren't jargon for its own sake; each one names a part that carries load. Knowing them makes any quote easier to read, ours included.
- Torsion spring
- The wound steel spring on a shaft above the door that stores the door's lifting force. It, not the opener, carries the weight. Springs are rated in open-close cycles and are the one part you never adjust yourself.
- Extension springs
- The older counterbalance style: a spring stretched along each track rather than wound on a shaft. Common on tilt doors and older installs; best practice runs a safety cable through each one.
- Cable drum
- The grooved wheel at each end of the torsion shaft that the lift cable winds onto, in even wraps, as the door rises. The drum is why a balanced door rises level.
- The wind
- The number of turns of tension a spring is set to, matched to the door's measured weight. A right wind makes a door feel light in the hand; a wrong one makes the opener strain and parts wear.
- Cycles
- One full open-and-close. Springs are wound for a set number of them, so a door's age matters less than how hard it has worked.
- Off track
- A door whose rollers have left their steel track. It jams on an angle and must not be forced; each shove bends track that was straight.
- Sectional (panel-lift)
- The modern standard: horizontal panels hinged together that rise and slide back along ceiling tracks. Takes insulation well; needs headroom.
- Roller door
- A corrugated steel curtain that rolls onto a drum above the opening. The compact choice for tight headroom, and the standard on sheds.
- Tilt door
- A one-piece panel that tips outward and up. The old grid's original door; mostly a repair market now, replaced by sectionals or rollers when it retires.
- Safety beams (photo-eyes)
- The infrared sensors near the floor that make an automatic door reverse if something breaks the beam while closing. A door that refuses to close often just has a blocked or misaligned beam.
- Manual release
- The red cord that disconnects the door from the opener so it can be moved by hand in an outage. On a door with a failed spring, using it hands you the door's full weight, which is why we say leave a dropped door where it stopped.
Send the job over
Tell us what the door is doing, or what you want built. Faults get a call-out and a price on site before any work starts. New doors and shed rollers get a free measure and quote. No dollar figure appears until someone has actually looked at your door.