More “True Confessions” from the Pole Barn Guru….. I’ve not only never installed one of these and never sold one – I’ve also never seen one in real life!

I have not one, but TWO detached pole building garages at our house. One is two car, the other three. Each of them has an entry door near one of the overhead doors (in both cases immediately around a corner). You think we actually use the entry doors to get in and out? Hah – fat chance, we punch our code into the keyless entry pads!

Given this, I can see where a Walk Thru Garage Door would have lots of benefits.

Above our small garage is a home office which is our workplace. The overhead door has become the main entrance for not only my bride and I, but also for deliveries. Most of the year, we end up just leaving one of the overhead sectional doors open – not too secure!

By Code, pole buildings are required to have an alternate entrance (other than an overhead door). (Read more at: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2012/09/entry-door/ ). We have commonly disregarded either entry door as a viable entrance, usually due to their location. Each entry is off to the rear or side of the building with other obstacles in the way. We tend to take the easy way in, not fighting with stuff left on either side of the entry door.

The first beneficial feature of the WalkThru Garage Door is being able to enter into the pole building from the driveway without having to open the entire garage door. This is an ease of operation feature, much like a sliding door on most of today’s minivans. For a premium, the owner can have a second sliding door to conveniently load and unload passengers and accumulated stuff! With vehicles there is no payback from this high priced option. No better fuel efficiency or more passenger or cargo space. This is a mere convenience feature.

WalkThru Garage doors come with many subsequent advantages. A simple key to the deadbolt gives instant access to the pole building. The garage door stays down; therefore the contents of the pole building are not exposed to the neighborhood or passers by. In our case, this sure would be nice. The WalkThru component swings outward. It should never have any obstructions in front of it. The more traditional entrances into pole buildings commonly have obstructions placed in front of them, prohibiting passage. While I would like to say this never happens in my own buildings – it actually does. As an entrance to the pole building within the garage door, a tremendous amount of space is economized. Wall space and floor space where another entrance would have been is left for the use of the occupant for storage. And I vouch entirely for there never being enough wall area in a building. In the event of a power failure the building can be easily entered or exited through the WalkThru Garage Door.

An inherent feature of the WalkThru Garage Door is energy conservation, which in turn means dollars saved. The time spent to open and close a swinging door is significantly less in comparison to the time for the larger garage door to be raised and lowered. The reduced hot or cold air exchange between the building interior and the exterior, results in a reduced energy recovery expense to re-heat or re-cool the interior space. Also reduced is the energy expended by the garage door opener by not requiring it to open in all access situations. Wear and tear on the garage door opener is also reduced, extending its useful life.

The WalkThru Garage Door provides its users with a significant safety advantage. With no other point of entry to the pole building but the WalkThru in a garage door, an intruder has to put himself in full view, in the drive way, in order to attempt to gain entry. The WalkThru Garage Door opens to the exterior, so a good stiff kick or shoulder to the door only closes it more. In order to break in, one would have to pry outwards with adequate tools in full view of the neighbors. The other more traditional entry doors to pole buildings have often been a preferred point of entry for break-ins. The WalkThru Garage Door would prevent this from being the case.

The WalkThru Garage Door is an excellent product which helps owners to save time and energy dollars, while providing a safe and very attractive point of entry to their pole building. If I ever have to change out my overhead doors, I am looking to replace them with WalkThru Garage Doors.