The history of garage roller doors

The first garage idea

As people were used to storing several horses in their outbuildings they thought that this concept could be applied to cars. These buildings looked very similar to modern day car parks, with some private and some publically owned. These was a very good business, however after 1910 there were too many cars to be housed this way.

The first private garage idea

The first idea for an individual garage was dreamt up in 1912. As car sales rose and became far more common place, society needed somewhere to store them and thus the garage was born. It was originally referred to as a different kind of outbuilding and cars were stored next to horses and carriages. Of course these first garages did not possess a door, let alone a garage roller door, but as people began to complain about the stink of the horses the idea of a garage developed further.
The first private garage realised
Because the smell of the horses was such a problem, people wanted a different space for their car and thus the garage, as we know it today, was born. The word garage comes from the French garer – to shelter or protect.

The first garage doors

Obviously with the garage holding such a valuable object, they needed a door. Rather than the current garage roller door, the first garage door was like a barn door. However, with the many obvious problems that this would cause, sliding doors were the developed as the nest best option.

The garage roller door

The sliding door design too had problems and on their third attempt to design a garage door they got it right and the garage roller door was born. In 1921, the overhead garage roller door was a huge success and became the norm when owning a garage.

The first garage roller doors where made out of thin panes of wood hinged together to enable to garage door to fold, but 1940 the option for flip-open resin plywood door became available. This was a lighter option than the solid wooden doors. However, in the 1970s galvanised steel became the material of choice.
The garage roller door opener was introduced in 1937 nearly 10 years after the automatic element to garage doors had been added in 1926, however due to cost or trend the garage opener was not a huge success for 30 years after its launch.