Replacing a garage door

A new door begins with a tape measure: the opening, the headroom above it for tracks and springs, the room at the sides and the depth of the garage. Those decide which doors fit, and the old springs, tracks and opener decide what else changes. The price comes after the measuring.

Read the label

The International Residential Code requires garage doors to be tested for wind load, and its 2021 edition added a label, where that edition or a later one is adopted. As quoted by the International Code Council, the label "shall identify the garage door manufacturer, the garage door model/series number, the positive and negative design wind pressure rating, the installation instruction drawing reference number, and the applicable test standard."

The ratings are pressures in pounds per square foot, one pushing in and one pulling out, not miles per hour. The door industry's association is plain: "The building code requires design pressure (psf) on the label" (DASMA TDS #1502). Ask what your building department requires for your address, and compare.

On the coast there is more to it. In Brazoria, Galveston and Chambers counties and in the parts of five Harris County cities that lie east of Highway 146, see windstorm inspection before anything is ordered.

Insulation numbers

Insulated doors are sold by R-value. The industry association warns that for garage doors "U-factor and R-value are not reciprocals of each other" (DASMA TDS #163): an R-value may describe only the foam in a panel, while a tested U-factor describes the whole door. ENERGY STAR does not rate garage doors; its door specification covers "a sliding or swinging entry system", and garage doors are not in it.

Homeowners associations

In the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro area, about 49% of occupied homes are in a homeowners association, by our tabulation of the Census Bureau's 2023 American Housing Survey, and about 64% are single-family homes with a garage or carport. This site does not know your association's rules. If you have one, check whether it approves door styles or colors before you order.

Sold a door on a repair visit?

Under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, a repair visit you asked for is excluded, but "things you buy beyond that repair or maintenance request are covered." A new door sold in your home for household use can come with three business days to cancel, and the seller has to tell you in writing. The rule does not cover purchases for a business, and a buyer gives the right up by signing a handwritten statement that the work is needed for a bona fide emergency.

Homes and businesses

The line on this site takes calls about doors on homes and on commercial buildings such as shops and offices.

Updated 2026-09-30.