It’s the number one reason people put off calling us.
They are worried about the numbers. There is a genuine fear that if they get the measurement wrong by 10mm, a van will turn up with a door that doesn’t fit, and they’ll be left with the bill.
Let’s nip that in the bud right now.
For a quote, we don’t need it to be millimeter perfect. We just need to know if we are dealing with a standard single or something bespoke.
The Width: Forget the Timber
The biggest mistake is measuring the old wooden frame that’s already there. We aren’t interested in that—we’re ripping it out.
We need the “brick-to-brick” opening.
If you live in one of the older builds in Moordown or Charminster, you know the brickwork is rarely bang on straight. The top is often a different width to the bottom. Just run the tape across the opening and give us the tightest measurement.
If it’s roughly 7ft, just tell us it’s 7ft. That gives us enough for a budget.
The Height: Slab to Header
We just need the height from the concrete floor up to the underside of the lintel.
The only thing to watch for here is the floor level. A lot of local driveways have a steep slope for drainage. If the floor is all over the place, mention it, but for a price estimate, the standard opening height is all we need.
The Headroom: The “Gotcha”
This is where the problems usually hide.
A sectional or roller door has to go somewhere when it opens. It rolls up behind the lintel.
We see so many garages where a builder has put a waste pipe, a fuse box, or a shelving unit right where the door barrel needs to sit. If you have a concrete beam or a low ceiling, we need to know.
It doesn’t mean you can’t have a door, it just means we might need to quote you for an Infinity Zero or a side-mounted motor instead of the standard kit.
The Safety Net
Here is why you can put the panic away: We don’t manufacture off your numbers.
We are the professionals. We don’t expect you to take the risk on the sizes.
If you like the price and give us the nod, we send our own surveyor out. We check the levels, we check the fixings, and we take the final manufacturing sizes ourselves.
Once we have measured it, we own it. If the door turns up and it’s the wrong size, that is our problem to fix, not yours.
So don’t overthink the tape measure. Get the rough sizes, give us a bell on 01202 533126, and let us handle the technical stuff.
