El Paso sits high in the Chihuahuan Desert, wrapped around the Franklin Mountains and across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez. At roughly 3,700 feet it gets abundant sun, low humidity most of the year, a windy and dusty spring, and a summer monsoon that can bring sudden heavy rain. Winters are mild, but freezing nights are normal and an occasional snowfall is not unheard of.
Those conditions favor some garage doors over others. If you are shopping for a new garage door in El Paso, or nursing along one that has started to fail, the details below will help.
What to look for in a new door
A door that thrives here is built to handle sun, wind and grit. Features worth paying for:
- Insulated steel construction: a polyurethane or polystyrene core keeps the garage cooler and stiffens the door against wind.
- A UV-resistant factory finish in a lighter color, which fades less and absorbs less heat than dark shades.
- Quality weatherseals at the bottom and sides to keep dust and heat out.
- Tempered or insulated glass if you want windows, placed in the top section for privacy.
- Reinforcing struts on double-wide doors.
Wood looks versus desert reality
Wood carriage doors look wonderful on Southwest-style homes, but desert air dries them out and the sun cracks their finish quickly unless they are refinished often. Steel and composite doors with a wood-grain texture and stain-look finish give a similar appearance with a fraction of the upkeep, which is why they make sense for most homeowners here.
Spring winds and dust
Late winter and spring are the windy season, and strong gusts carry dust from the open desert into neighborhoods. Dust works into rollers, hinges and tracks, where it mixes with grease and speeds up wear. Doors also flex under hard gusts, loosening hardware and stressing tracks.
After a big dust event, wipe out the tracks, make sure the bottom seal is still flexible and intact, and listen for new grinding or scraping. Keep lubricant light and wipe off the excess, since a heavy coat just collects more grit.
From central neighborhoods to the edges of town
Many homes are single-story brick or stucco, and attached two-car garages are standard in neighborhoods built from the postwar decades onward. Rapid growth on the east side and the far west side has added many newer subdivisions with builder-grade doors and openers, while central neighborhoods have older homes with narrower garages and older doors. Fort Bliss also brings many military families who rent or buy for a few years at a time.
Plenty of newer subdivisions have HOAs with rules about door colors and designs, so check before ordering a replacement.
Repairs and the monsoon
The everyday repairs are the familiar ones, such as broken torsion springs, worn rollers, frayed cables and failing openers, but heat and dust speed up wear on openers and seals. Freezing winter nights can also stiffen old lubricant enough to make a tired opener struggle. Leave spring and cable work to a technician; the coiled steel holds enough force to injure someone, and correct sizing and tools matter.
Monsoon storms, usually from July into September, can drop a lot of rain fast. Driveways that slope toward the garage may send water under the door, so a good bottom seal, a threshold strip and clear drainage help prevent rust on the bottom section and brackets.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.