Guides · Choosing
Sectional, roller or tilt: the three door generations
Drive one loop of our patch and you'll pass all three: tilt doors on the old grid's fibro places, rollers on townhouses and every shed on both rivers, sectionals on anything built this century. Each is a different answer to the same question: how do you move a wall out of the way without fighting its weight?
Tilt: the old grid's original
The one-piece tilt door is the door most of Raymond Terrace's older houses were built with: a single rigid panel that tips outward and up on pivoting arms, counterbalanced by springs at the sides. It's simple, with the fewest moving parts of the three, which is why so many are still going decades on.
Its habits are equally old-fashioned. The panel swings out as it opens, so it needs clear driveway in front, a thing to know before parking nose-in. New tilt installs are rare now; the tilt market is mostly a repair market, and when one retires it's usually replaced by a sectional or roller measured into the same opening.
Roller: the curtain on a drum
A roller door is a corrugated steel curtain that winds onto a drum above the opening, the same idea as the windlass this business is named for. It needs the least headroom of the three, roughly the depth of the rolled curtain, which is why it's the standard answer for tight townhouse garages, older single garages, and every machinery shed from Millers Forest to Seaham.
The trade-offs: a standard single-skin curtain offers little insulation, it can rattle in wind if it's not maintained, and damage to a curtain usually means dealing with the curtain as a unit rather than patching one panel.
Sectional: the modern standard
The sectional (panel-lift) door is what the new estates run almost without exception: horizontal panels hinged together, rising vertically and sliding back along ceiling tracks, counterbalanced by a torsion spring on a shaft. It seals well, takes insulation well (worth real money on a west-facing double door that bakes the garage every summer afternoon), runs quietly on a belt-drive opener, and repairs panel by panel.
Its appetite is headroom: allow roughly 300 to 400 millimetres above the opening for standard tracks, more than a roller wants. Product ranges vary, which is one of several reasons the honest answer to "will it fit?" is a tape measure, not a web page.
Side by side, honestly
| What matters | Sectional | Roller | Tilt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headroom needed | Most: roughly 300–400 mm above the opening | Least: the rolled curtain's depth | Moderate, plus swing room |
| Driveway clearance | None; moves up and back | None | Panel swings outward as it opens |
| Insulation | Best of the three; insulated panels available | Low unless a double-skin curtain | Moderate; seal quality varies |
| Noise | Quietest, especially belt-drive | Can rattle without maintenance | Moderate |
| Moving parts | Most: hinges, rollers, panels | Fewer | Fewest |
| Repairs | Panel by panel | Curtain usually treated as a unit | Parts still available; a repair-era door |
| Around here | The estates: Medowie, Kings Hill, newer town streets | Townhouses, tight garages, every shed on both rivers | The old grid's originals |
Figures like headroom are honest typicals, not specifications; product ranges differ, and the measure confirms what your opening actually allows.
How to actually choose
- Start with the opening. Headroom, side room and what's above the lintel rule doors in and out before taste gets a vote.
- Then the work you'll ask of it. A west-facing family door earns insulation; a shed curtain earns heavier-duty gear; a rarely-used single can stay simple.
- Then the look. Colour matching to the house is offered against real steel swatches on site; weathered roof colour and new door colour are never identical, so we show rather than promise.
- Repair-vs-replace is a real question. A snapped spring on a sound five-year-old sectional is a repair. A failing spring on a fifty-year-old tilt with a tired panel is usually a replacement conversation, and we'll tell you which one you're in before anything is quoted.
The next honest step is a measure, which is free and commits you to nothing: the opening gets measured, the options that genuinely fit get explained, and the quote arrives in writing afterwards.