It is the first question we get on the phone and, honestly, the hardest to answer in two words. Not because we are hiding anything, but because a garage door is not an off-the-shelf product: it is manufactured to the dimensions of your opening.

What we can do is explain what the price is made of. After reading this, you will be able to compare two quotes without looking only at the number at the bottom.

Why nobody publishes a fixed price

A 2.4 × 2.1 m opening and a 3.5 × 2.4 m one look similar on paper. In reality the second needs thicker springs, reinforced tracks and, above a certain weight, a different opener. The price gap between them is not proportional to the difference in area — it grows faster.

On top of that, many garages in Targu Jiu and around the county are 30 to 40 years old. The lintel sits low, the opening is not quite square, and sometimes there is no power run to it at all. All solvable, all visible in the quote.

What a proper quote should contain

When you receive a quote, look explicitly for these lines:

The door — dimensions, panel thickness, colour, finish
Tracks and springs — the mounting type (standard, low-headroom, front-mounted spring)
The opener — motor force in newtons and the number of remotes
Safety accessories — photocells are not optional
Labour — including removing the old door, where applicable
Travel — or a clear statement that it is included
Warranty — stated separately for the product and for the installation

What moves the price most

The size of the opening

This is the dominant factor. Up to 3.5 m wide you stay within standard components. Beyond that you move into another class of springs and opener, and the price step is steeper than you would expect.

Panel thickness and insulation

A 40 mm panel with polyurethane foam costs somewhere around 15–20% more than a standard one. Worth it if the garage is attached to the house, if your boiler is in there, or if you use it as a workshop in winter. On a detached garage used purely to shelter a car, the difference does not pay for itself.

Colour

White and anthracite (RAL 7016) are the standard choices and add nothing. A woodgrain finish adds a little. A special RAL colour adds noticeably and, more importantly, adds about two weeks to the lead time.

The opener

An 800 N opener covers the large majority of home garages. For big doors or heavy use — a business opening the door 30 times a day — you step up a class. The price difference is real, but an undersized opener on a heavily used door fails within two years, so the saving is only apparent.

What is charged separately, and why

A few things regularly appear as extra lines, and rightly so:

The power run. If there is no earthed socket within 1.5 m of where the opener sits, one has to be run. It is not in the door price because it depends entirely on your house.

Removing and disposing of the old door. An old up-and-over door in heavy sheet steel means labour and a trip to the tip.

An additional steel sub-frame. On warehouses, or openings without a solid lintel, you need a frame to fix the tracks to.

Masonry work. If the opening is out of square or needs narrowing, that is a job in its own right.

How to ask for a quote and get a real number

Call with the following ready and you will get an estimate far closer to the final figure:

The width and height of the opening, measured with a tape, not eyeballed
The height from the top of the opening to the ceiling (the headroom)
What is fitted there now — nothing, an up-and-over door, a timber door
Whether there is an earthed socket nearby
Your town

With those five we can give you a range in minutes. Without them, any figure quoted over the phone is guesswork that will change at the survey — and nobody gains from that.

Three mistakes we see often

The door is chosen on price, not on the opening. A cheap door forced into an unsuitable opening shows itself within two years: it rubs in the tracks, the springs give out, the opener strains.

Photocells get skipped. They are a small fraction of a job worth thousands, and they are the only thing that stops the door if someone walks underneath it.

Quotes with different contents get compared. The cheapest quote is usually the one that excludes installation, or travel, or the remotes. It looks good on paper; you end up in the same place, with more surprises along the way.

If you want an estimate for your garage, write to us or call with the dimensions to hand. The survey is free in Targu Jiu and within a 40 km radius, and the quote comes in writing with every line above broken out.

What an installed sectional garage door costs