Check A Pro Joe here on the Check A Pro Radio Show talking about home improvement here on the program as we always do and my good friend Jeff Gabelsberg from Jolly Goat garage doors is joining me here on the program hey jeff how you doing I'm doing great Joe glad to be back how are you doing i am living the dream thank you so much for joining me today on the program you know questions come in all the time and you're my garage door guy here on the program question from a listener
is, when should I replace my garage door? I know it's kind of open-ended. I would say certainly after you drive the car through it, and I'm kind of joking about that, but that does happen. I know you've had to replace doors that have been driven through. Can you answer that question? When should someone replace their door? Absolutely. And yes, you're right. If somebody drives through the door, it's probably going to be about time to do it. We replace doors fairly often, every day.
Sometimes it's it's time to replace it sometimes it's not sometimes we do a repair instead but most of the time when it comes time for a garage door replacement there's a couple of factors we look at one is it going to cost more to repair an existing garage door than it is to replace it so if we've got a door that hasn't been worked on in a while hasn't been properly maintained over the years and there's a lot of stuff going on with it it's going to need
many parts and the cost is going to get up there then we always want to give an option to go and replace it and we're going to recommend replacing it and going with a new door instead of dumping money into something old. That's one thing, a situation we come across. Another one, a lot of times is the manufacturers with garage doors actually change up their systems every now and then, and there are machines that actually make the garage doors.
So whenever that happens, and it happens about every five to 10 years with specific manufacturers. And so what we'll run into sometimes is a garage door that might need to, let's say somebody runs into it, but it just needs a section replacement, something very simple that we can do very easily, but that manufacturer is not available anymore and that model isn't available, then we're going to have to recommend a new garage door at that point.
Also, it is an open-ended question, but always look at it like this also. It might just be time for somebody that wants a new look for their home.
They want to change the front of the home and the facade, and it might be time at that point to go and look at just doing a new option, even if the existing garage door is in good working condition, but it may not appeal to the homeowner and not exactly what they want, then that's when we could also come in and recommend doing a new garage door at that point. A new garage door is so nice. The facade of many homes is.
Is a lot of garage door. So if you have a two car garage door, one door or two singles, or maybe one double and a single, and it's facing the street, which some do, that's a lot of the facade of the home. And it's really important to have something aesthetically pleasing. I'll tell you a story about my garage door. I bought a home that was about 20 years old and the garage doors were original. And they were what we call builder or great, I guess, um, you know, very lightweight.
There was actually some tears in them and, um, a garage door company came out and they, they kind of screwed it back together, kind of duct taped it, not with duct tape, but you know, they put it back together and it, it did okay. And when it was finally time to put them down, put them to sleep, I decided to upgrade to double pane windows and insulated. And these things are nice. They're heavier doors, but they're so solid and run so smoothly.
Absolutely. Yeah. They can make a huge difference. And we'll always recommend situations like that because we know that the end product is going to be so satisfying to a customer like yourself whenever you do the upgrades to get the insulated doors of that better product. And it's always a nice end game for sure. So it's not just getting the garage door to function right. It really is an upgrade. It's kind of like in your kitchen.
Is it time for new countertops? You can actually still get Formica countertops, I think. And you can put those in. They're functionally good. Or you can leave your countertops and get them resurfaced. Or you can get new countertops, whatever the latest and greatest is. Usually something pretty heavy and stout and beautiful. And sometimes that's just what we want. Think about every time you drive onto your driveway, into your garage. Don't you want to feel good? I do.
Absolutely. Yeah. Something about driving up to your home and just seeing an amazing look on the front of it. And a lot of that is the garage door. You're right. 60 to 80% of the front of the home. Most of them are the garage doors are facing the street. Yes. And given the average square footage of homes these days, the majority of it is garage space. And so you get a lot of that look and people driving by. And when you're pulling
into the driveway and hitting that button, you want to feel good about it, right? Right. You want to feel good. You want your neighbors to also, you know, feel good about your home. I think you've got a responsibility to your neighbor because the neighbors across the street, when they look out their front window, they should see something good looking, right?
I love that point. You're absolutely correct. And it's just not right if you've got ugly doors and you can upgrade them with Jolly Goat and not only have a good looking door, but have one that functions really well. Jeff Gablesberg, as always, thank you so much for joining me today here on the radio program. Thanks, Joe.