Protech Garage Doors sells and fits residential and commercial garage doors across Ottawa from its shop at 46 Grenfell Crescent in Nepean. The lines are Garaga, Amarr and Stanley. Which door belongs on your garage depends on when the house was built and what the garage is attached to, and in Ottawa both of those are knowable before anyone visits.
The 2021 census counts 407,265 occupied homes in the City of Ottawa by the period they were built. 179,885 of them date from before 1981, and 227,380 went up between 1981 and 2021. The second group is most of Barrhaven, Orléans and Kanata and the newer streets of Nepean and Gloucester. The garage on those houses is usually attached, sharing a wall with a family room or a mudroom, and on many of them a bedroom sits over it. It wants a double-layer or a three-layer insulated steel door, and the uninsulated door the builder hung is the reason the room above it is the cold one.
The older group is different. Alta Vista was suburbanised in the 1950s with Faircrest Heights, Applewood Acres and Elmvale Acres, and Urbandale Acres followed in the 1960s. On those lots the garage is more often a single bay or a detached building at the back, and nobody heats it. A single-layer steel door does that job for the least money. The case for spending more on a detached garage is stiffness rather than warmth: a three-layer door hangs straighter and dents less, which matters on a door that faces the street and takes the spray off the plough.
Environment Canada's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Ottawa CDA station at the Experimental Farm give January a daily average of -9.6 C and a daily low of -14.0 C, with about 15 nights a year under -20. On those nights an attached garage door is one wall of the house. Where the garage is heated or has a room above it, the answer is a polyurethane door; on a detached, unheated garage a polystyrene board is the sensible middle. The garage doors page explains why the two differ.
The bottom of the door gets a harder winter than the top. The same station records 184.5 cm of snow a year and, by arithmetic on the same normals, roughly 73 days when the afternoon climbs above zero and the night drops back under it. That is meltwater at the slab by day and ice on the seal by morning, over and over from December to March. Ask for a bottom seal held in a retainer that can be replaced on its own, because it will be.
Most single garages in the city take an 8 or 9 foot wide door at 7 or 8 feet high, and a double takes 16 feet. Garaga builds to the inch from 4 to 20 feet wide and from 6 to 12 feet high in 3-inch steps, so an odd opening on a 1950s garage is a measurement rather than a problem. Every door is measured on the opening from the Nepean shop before it is ordered; the installation page covers why headroom decides more than width.
Garaga has built doors at Saint-Georges, Quebec since 1983 and runs a second Canadian plant at Barrie, Ontario. Its Standard+ line, a polyurethane door, is made in Canada.
The Build Your Door designer is Garaga's own tool. Pick a model, a colour, the window layout and the decorative hardware, then drop the door onto a photograph of your own house and save it. A quote from a saved design is for a door you have already seen on your own front; the measure visit then only confirms it fits.
Protech fits commercial doors on service bays, warehouses and shops across the city. Give the opening size and the daily cycle count when you call.
The City of Ottawa lists "replacing doors or windows (provided they are in the same size opening)" among the projects that need no building permit. A new door in the existing opening is that case. Widening the opening is not, and a designated heritage building gets no exemption at all; for either, ask Building Code Services about that address.
(613) 845-9950 rings at any hour. Say the street, whether the garage is attached, what is above it, and the width of the opening if you have it. For a quote with no urgency, email the saved design to info@protechgarage.ca. Everything the Ottawa branch repairs, it also replaces.
Everything we do in Ottawa · Garage doors: what the job involves
The same range from every branch. What changes between them is who drives out, and on which number.
Princeton P-11 · Traditional
Overlays over a flat steel base, laid out symmetrically, with strap hinges and handles to match. Glazing sits in the top section only, and the divided lites are what stop a wide double door reading as a wall.
Eastman E-22 · Carriage House
Two-tone: a dark body under light overlays laid out as a crossbuck, with strap hinges and handles. The contrast is the whole effect, so it sits best on a house whose trim is already a different colour from its siding.
Standard+ North Hatley LP · Carriage house
A long-panel face in a woodgrain finish instead of a raised-panel grid. It reads as timber from the street and needs none of the refinishing real timber needs. It comes in two insulation levels, which is the decision to make before the colour.
Standard+ Shaker-Modern XL · Contemporary
Wide horizontal sections with the glass set to one side rather than across a full top row. The offset window is what stops a large dark door reading as a blank slab, and it suits a flat-roofed or dark-brick front.
Standard+ Vog · Contemporary
The face is flat and unbroken from jamb to jamb. It is the least forgiving door here: nothing on it hides a dent, and a track that is even slightly out of true shows along the top edge.
California · Contemporary
An aluminium frame carrying glass, clear or sandblasted or tinted. It is the one door here that lights the garage from outside. Garaga says the trade plainly on its own page: a full vision door should not be chosen for its insulation.
G-5000
The standard bay door: polyurethane injected between two steel skins, a grooved face, one and three quarter inches thick. Thinner and thicker builds exist at R-12 and R-18, and choosing between them is a question about whether the building is heated.
G-4400
An aluminium frame glazed across the whole face, for a showroom or a service bay the street should be able to see into. It is not insulated, and the glass is chosen per opening from more than twenty types, tempered or not.
Photographs are Garaga’s, the manufacturer whose doors we install. They show the models, not jobs we have completed. Colours shift on a screen, and headroom, backroom and the track decide which of these will physically fit an opening, so everything here is where a measurement starts.
Every one below has a page of its own, written the same way this one was.
Springs, cables, drums, rollers, hinges, brackets, seals and opener parts. What is on the truck, what is matched to the specific door, and what is not a DIY part.
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Headroom, backroom and track type decide which doors will physically fit an opening. What an installation involves, and why the springs are sized to the new door.
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Panel damage, rust at the bottom section, repeated failures and an uninsulated door on a heated garage. The four cases where replacing beats another repair.
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Chain, belt, screw and wall-mount openers from LiftMaster, Chamberlain and Genie. How drive type and horsepower are chosen, and when an opener is worth repairing.
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Stripped gear kits, logic boards, limits and force settings, trolleys and remotes. What is worth repairing on an opener and what is the door pretending to be the opener.
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Sizing an opener to the weight of the door, rail length for 7 and 8 foot openings, the reinforcement strut, and the safety reverse test that finishes the job.
Learn moreAnswered for Ottawa, on the number this branch answers.
Where the garage is heated or has a room above it, polyurethane. On a detached, unheated garage a polystyrene board is the sensible middle. The city sees about 15 nights a year under minus 20 on the 1991 to 2020 normals for the Experimental Farm station, and on those nights an attached garage door is one wall of the house rather than a lid on a shed.
It is a measurement, and measurements are solvable. Garaga builds to the inch from 4 to 20 feet wide and from 6 to 12 feet high in 3-inch steps, so a 1950s garage that fits nothing on a chart still gets a door. Every door is measured on the opening from the Nepean shop before it is ordered, and headroom decides more than width does.
The retainer. Ask for a bottom seal held in one that can be replaced on its own, because it will be. The Experimental Farm station records 184.5 cm of snow a year and roughly 73 days when the afternoon climbs above zero and the night drops back under it, which is meltwater at the slab by day and ice on the seal by morning from December to March.
Call (613) 845-9950 at any hour, or email info@protechgarage.ca for a new-door quote with no rush.
