How can I prepare my garage door for a storm/strong wind?
If you live in a High Wind area of the United States which is the entire gulf of Mexico
coastline and from southern tip of Florida all the way up the eastern seaboard to northern Maine,
then the max wind load will be 150 mph wind mostly because of hurricanes. There are other
smaller areas of the states that can produce high winds like Santa Anna California etc..
There are building codes for high winds they all vary so you will have to check with your local county’s
building codes to determine what kind of wind load your garage door will require. If you do not
have a high wind load garage door it is a bit more difficult to reinforce it. The best way is to
install a garage door that is specifically designed to withstand high winds from a manufacture.
There are a few small steps you can take to help reinforce a garage door for a storm. If you
have a non insulated garage door they do not usually stand up to high winds very well because
they are hollow and not as strong as a three layer steel back garage door. Most of the time high
when load garage doors are reinforced with heavy duty struts.
Also high wind load garage doors
have a heavier duty hardware system in other words the rollers are more reinforced the hinges
will be made of thicker steel and also the track will be a bit heavier duty than normal. The only
real thing that I can think of to make a normal garage door more resistant to High winds would
be to add to struts to each garage door panel and make sure when the door is closed that it is
tightly sealed to the garage door frame if it flops back and forth then there’s really going to be a
problem if you get really High winds.
You will probably have to hire a garage door company to do
this for you since you will probably not be able to find garage door struts in any retail hardware
store.
Also there is one more thing that you can buy in some retail hardware stores is doorstop
this is the vinyl seal that is installed on your garage door to seal it from The elements. Vinyl
doorstop is usually found more commonly on steel garage doors then on wood panel garage
doors wood panel garage doors will most of the time have natural wood as a doorstop but does
not sealed very well from the elements because the door may not function properly because
when I would move across vinyl or rubber it tends to cause more friction then a painted steel
door sliding across the vinyl it makes a perfect seal kind of like the seal on your refrigerator door
I have seen vinyl weather stripping or seal on wood panel garage doors so people do do it but
every time I have tried it’s been a call back. On a wood door you would have to place the vinyl
doorstop further away from the door then you would on a steel garage door.
On a steel garage door as long as the vinyl doorstop is pushing against the garage door when it is fully closed then
this helps keep it from flopping back and forth inside the garage door opening in High winds. The
vertical supports built into a garage door panel are called styles D’s metal supports give the
outer skin of the garage door panels rigidity and the struts give support horizontally and
Highwind load garage doors will have reinforce styles. Some garage door manufacturers are
now creating and selling coastal garage doors they are solid and made of vinyl a really hard
vinyl with a good degree of insulation and are especially made for regions of the United States
that are subject to extreme weather conditions. They usually equal custom carriage house doors
in price so you will have to check your budget.
