New Door Installation

Signs You Need This Service

• Old door is rusted, dented, or beyond reasonable repair
• Garage is freezing because the current door has no insulation or the seals have failed
• Wood door is splitting, cracking, or needs constant refinishing
• Building a new home or adding a detached garage or shop
• Resale prep where the door is the biggest single visual element on most houses
• Door is loud, slow, and feels every year of its age

Common Questions

What kind of insulation do I actually need?

For an unheated detached garage, basic insulation (R-6 or lower) is fine, and a non-insulated steel door works if you're just keeping rain and rodents out. For an attached garage sharing a wall with the house, Garaga's official guideline is at least R-10, with R-12 or higher if you're tired of paying to heat the back hall every winter. For a heated garage, finished shop, or home gym, R-16 is the practical residential target (R-18 exists but is the ceiling, not the norm). One honest detail most installers don't volunteer: the gain from R-16 over R-12 is smaller than the spec sheet implies, since R-value is the reciprocal of heat flow and the curve flattens fast. The bigger uplift usually comes from the bottom seal, the joints between sections, and the side weatherstripping, which can hold back more cold air than a few extra R-points on the panel itself.

Is polystyrene or polyurethane insulation better?

Polyurethane, for any door above about R-9. Polystyrene is foam board cut to fit between the steel skins, so gaps at the edges and middle joints reduce the door's real-world R-value below the rated number. Polyurethane is sprayed in liquid, expands, and bonds to both steel skins, which roughly doubles the R-value at the same thickness and stiffens the panel against twisting (Garaga's own framing). Every insulated door we install above R-12 is polyurethane; the polystyrene options we stock are aimed at the unheated-detached segment where the higher R-bands don't really apply.

How long from quote to install?

Stocked styles from Garaga, Steel-Craft, and Clopay are typically two to three weeks. Custom colours, sizes, or special orders run six to eight weeks. We give you a realistic date before you commit so you can plan around it.

Steel, wood, or aluminum: what's the right choice for Winnipeg?

Steel for most people. Insulated steel handles our temperature swings well, doesn't warp or rot, doesn't need repainting, and modern wood-look steel doors (steel skins with embossed grain over a polyurethane core) read as real wood from the curb without the maintenance penalty. Real wood looks beautiful new but needs regular refinishing to survive Manitoba winters; plan for a maintenance schedule if you go that route. Aluminum and glass panels are striking on modern homes but insulate poorly for this climate, so they fit unheated detached garages and showroom-style applications rather than attached or heated builds.

Do I need a new opener too?

Not always. If your current opener is in good shape, has the right horsepower for the new door's weight, and is on reasonably current technology, we reuse it. Insulated doors are heavier than what most older openers were sized for, though, so if it's at end of life or undersized we'll quote a replacement separately. The decision stays yours.

What about the old door?

Removal and disposal are included unless you'd rather keep it. We leave the garage cleaner than we found it.

Where we provide new door installation

Same-day service across Winnipeg, plus the surrounding communities we cover within about an hour of our south Winnipeg base.