Choosing a Garage Door Style for a Brick Veneer Home

Drive down almost any street in Melbourne’s east and you’ll pass brick veneer house after brick veneer house. Many have a garage under the main roofline or standing beside the house as its own brick box. Plenty of them still wear a garage door that went in years ago and was chosen for the price, not for how it looked.

When it’s time to replace that door, the question we hear most is a simple one: what will actually look right? This post is about door style rather than colour. It covers the type of door and its finish, and how each might sit against face brick. Colour is easier to choose once the style is settled.

Start with what the brickwork is already doing

Face brick is a busy surface. There’s the texture of each brick, the mortar lines, and often a fair bit of variation in tone from one brick to the next. A garage door is a large, flat area sitting right beside all that. So the first decision is whether the door adds more pattern to the front of the house, or gives the eye somewhere quiet to rest.

Look at the mortar joints. On most brick veneer homes the strongest lines run side to side, course after course. A door with horizontal lines tends to agree with them, and sectional doors are made of multiple horizontal panels, so those lines come built in. Vertical cladding is the opposite. On the right house it gives a deliberate contrast, but on a long, low brick frontage it can look as though it came from a different building.

Then look at the proportions. A wide, low home often suits a door that keeps things calm and horizontal. Where the garage sits forward of the house, the door does more of the work, so the finish deserves more thought. Cross the road, take a photo of the whole frontage, and look at it on your phone.

How the main door types sit against brick

A roller door rolls into a compact drum above the opening, which makes it a good fit for homes with limited driveway space. The look is plain, and on a modest brick garage that can be exactly right. Some of the roller doors in our gallery have a canopy over the head of the door, which is worth asking about.

A sectional door, also called a panel lift door, is made up of multiple horizontal panels that open vertically and slide along tracks into the ceiling space. They’re available in various styles, colours and finishes, so this is where you have the most choice. Our sectional installations include textured finishes, plain styles such as Flatline and Slimline, and designs with windows, which can break up a wide double door. You’ll find examples on our sectional door installation page.

A tilt door opens as a single solid panel that lifts outward and upward on pivoting arms. The tilt doors we supply are custom made to fit your opening, and the examples on our tilt door installations page include a ply covering with timber mouldings, timber look finishes and vertical cladding. If your brick veneer home has timber elsewhere, such as a timber front door or exposed eaves, a timber look tilt door may pick that up nicely. Tilt doors suit garages with limited headroom, and because the panel lifts outward it’s worth checking the area in front of the garage with us before you settle on one.

The opening in the brickwork sets some limits

On a brick veneer house the garage opening is framed by brickwork. Changing its width or height is building work rather than a door job, so most people choose a door to suit the opening they already have. If you’re thinking about altering the opening, speak to your builder first.

The space around the opening matters as well. Each door type uses space differently, so headroom, ceiling space and the area in front of the garage can all matter. Shelving, ceiling storage and light fittings may also affect which type suits your garage, so mention them when you ask for a quote.

We offer a free measure and quote, and we assess your opening before recommending a door, so you don’t need every measurement worked out beforehand. If the existing door is coming out, it can be removed as part of the job. If you’d like the new door automated, the right opener depends on the door and your garage. Check your exact model and manual, or ask us once we’ve seen the door.

A few ways to test a style before you commit

It’s hard to picture a door against your own bricks. A few simple things help:

• Take a straight-on photo of the house from across the street and sketch the different door types over the garage opening.
• Browse our gallery, which you can filter by door type, brand, colour or style, and note the ones you keep coming back to.
• Next time you’re walking around Blackburn, Vermont or Glen Waverley, notice which doors look settled on brick homes and which look like an afterthought.
• Look at the front door, window frames and eaves together, and decide whether the garage door should match them or simply stay quiet.

Brick veneer homes are forgiving. Most door types can sit comfortably against them when the lines and finish are chosen with the house in mind. The aim is a door that looks like it belongs, not one that looks bolted on.

If you’re weighing up a new garage door for your brick veneer home, get in touch and we’ll talk through the door types and styles that suit your opening and your house.