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Q:What is a canopy type up and over garage door?
It is the most common up and over one piece garage door used in the UK still today. It is a garage door that has a spring mechanism at the top lifting the door panel at the side and forming a canopy when open as a third of the door sticks out.
A canopy door is most commonly used as a basic single width one piece up and over door. The canopy mechanism can only be generally used on sizes up to 8 feet (2438mm) wide and over this size you have to have a retractable mechanism instead.
It is a simple system where a torsion spring above the door panel lifts the door at either side with a pair of steel cables and when the door is fully open a third of the door is protruding outwards.
The single most useful benefit of a canopy door is that it gives you the full drive through width when open. It also has no internal tracking into the garage which appeals to many people who store items in the roof space. Retractable up and over doors always lose width when they are open as the lifting arms sit between the frame and reduce the drive through by about 5 inches (125mm)
The diagram below shows a canopy door partly open and operating inside the fixing sub frame which is required for any up and over garage door. This can be steel or timber as required and fits directly to the garage structure.
A canopy type up and over garage door can be made into a remote control automatic door using a good quality electric operator and a canopy bow arm converter to fit to the back inside face of the door. This system works best only on Garador, Hormann, Cotswold, Woodrite and some doors using a reasonable quality canopy type gear. Old Henderson canopy doors and most Cardale canopy doors will not work with a bow arm converter.
