Hi!

We are finishing the drawings/engineering on my new house (all icf !) and must choose contemporary styled garage doors.  I need one oversized door and a special dial door for one of the garages.  For that particular one I'm thinking of getting a bi-fold door like those used on hangars but it must have a high end contemporary style/finish + be Miami/Dade code compliant for windstorm.

For the regular doors, I'm looking at some Clopay avante doors.

Any suggestions?

Amarr Olympus series are available up to R15 if you're looking for a good insulated door. Are you doing your garage w/ ICF? If so you'll have some special considerations to take into account to design for the mounting hardware. My one experience w/ garage door installers is they have one way of installing and don't know how to comprehend the possibility of anything different. In fact, in my case, they acted as if it was insult to have to install into an ICF wall.

The whole project garage, house + pool will be built with ICF (including the roofs).

I want to get insulated doors that must also be hurricane resistant.

Thanks for the feedback.

http://www.bifold.com/ These are nice doors.

IMO, the hydraulic door would get a much better seal.

I am doing something like this too. The overhead door and hydraulic bi-fold doors would seal better. The overhead door is on the inside of the wall and big ones tend to fold in during wind-storms. Sliding and bi-fold doors are on the outside and should be stronger. The slider would be much less expensive.

I have looked at schweiss/bifold and they have some good looking products. I wonder if they have the "NOA" (or whatever you call that) for South Florida?

This particular door will be visible from one of the living areas of the house thus the need for a eye pleasing door from both the inside and outside. The same thing applies to the need for a door with no visible tracks.

Thanks to all for the feedback!

I had gotten a price from them for the door with framework, I would add insulation and finish (sheet metal). It was expensive, but quality stuff usually is. What eliminated it for me was that it has a motor on the door that protrudes to the inside. And what I want to do is have an all glass OH door on the inside of the wall for view and passive solar and a door on the outside that is well insulated to close at night and inclimate weather. So I think I will go with a slider. Is there a good way to motorize a slider?

Brad,

I saw that on the literature and it kills it on my application. I'm gonna go with 2 48"wide doors (metal) with no mechanical operator. This particular one is for a garage which wont be opened on a regular basis.

Now a motorized slider I have only seen in commercial applications (and on Star Trek ).

I think the hydraulic (single piece, not a bifold) would be the easiest automatic door to hide the mechanicals. Just needs a strip to hide the view of the cylinders.
In a hurricane, I'd latch the bottom.

For my use though, it would block the sun.