It's very satisfying for a business to hear from a client who mentions sincerely that he or she was equally satisfied with the service rendered as well as the product itself.

It's also been a highlight for Brian Tavares of Lemoyne, PA who says one of the best things about his new Schweiss hydraulic garage door is hearing favorable comments from people who see it.

"I like the reaction from people,"" said Tavares. "When they drive by, see it open or come to look at it, they love the look and want to know how it functions. People really get a kick out of the fact that you went the extra mile to do something different in a residential community."

This and more was the case for Tavares as he went through the steps of ordering a new one-piece custom-made 17' 675" x 8' 263" hydraulic door for his new garage. This note emailed back to Schweiss Doors says it all:

“Thank you and everyone at Schweiss for the door I finally have installed and working. The build quality is top notch and the installation instructions were very easy to follow. The driver who delivered the door was very accommodating and a super nice guy. Everyone who walks by the garage asks about the door. It makes the building stand out, especially when it is fully open. There were a lot of ups and downs on this project and Schweiss was excellent to deal with through the entire process. I wish everyone I dealt with on this project was as easy to deal with as Schweiss was,” said Tavares.

Large 4'x4' 1/4" thick polycarbonate tinted gray Lexan window panels really add to the look of the door. Not only that, they are functional and lighter weight than glass; letting you look in or out at for a great view, but they also bring a wealth of available daylight into the garage.

As far as the "ups and downs" he mentioned above, those dealt with the construction of the building itself, not the door. After ordering the door he had to fire the builder and start over again, which resulted in a three-month delay. Schweiss dealt with the delay accordingly.

"Even though the door was ready to ship, Schweiss was great about it and said they would check back again next month. They were very accommodating, not pushy or anything and just told me to let them know when I was ready. When the driver called and arrived promptly with the door at 2 p.m., like he said he would, he helped me unload everything. It was great," said Tavares.

Tavares said he bought a 1926 Craftsman house in Lemoyne that had an old decrepit carriage house on it that was being used as a garage.

Tavares recalls being first introduced to Schweiss doors in the "Must See Photos" section of the Schweiss web page. The hydraulic doors, he said "Were the ticket" in order to have the extra overhead space in the garage.

"I hired a local architect, Chris Dawson, from Harrisburg to design a new garage. He had the idea, originally to use a bifold door. He showed me somebody's garage that had three or four bifold doors from Schweiss on it. I started researching the bifold doors and then hydraulic doors on the Internet; Schweiss kept coming up time and time again.

"I ended up going with the hydraulic doors because they have less mechanical stuff to make it function. I liked the big canopy. We tore down the carriage house and started from scratch and built a 24' x 24' garage. Its primary usages will be as a woodworking and metal shop for me. I'm an electrical engineer by trade," explained Tavares.

"My original design was going to be a 18' wide, aluminum glass rollup door. My only criteria was that I wanted a single wide opening without two small doors and a column in the middle. I got a few quotes from other companies; Schweiss was the fastest in replying and they had the best price and all the data, which was very important. Once I saw the spec sheet as far as the loads placed on the building . . . if I wouldn't have had that I might have bought a door from a different place. Because of the Schweiss spec sheet we had a professional engineer design a heavy-duty tube steel frame that bolts to the floor, the wall and the ceiling because there's a lot of load on the building. The first time I opened the door there wasn't a single creak in the building, nothing! It was fantastic. The steel overall wasn't that expensive for the frame," said Tavares

Architect Chris Dawson came up with the entire garage design including upper windows on the garage itself that extend to the 15' roof height. This was planned not only for an aesthetically pleasing look, but also so Tavares would have enough room in the future for a lift. The windows also let in additional light year-round.

"The Schweiss hydraulic power unit stands out from other companies. The backup options from Schweiss are very nice - I got the battery backup. I mounted the power unit at the back of the garage right next to the stairs so it would be out of the way," said Tavares. "The hydraulic door from another company was double the price from the one Schweiss makes and their power unit looked like it came from a car lift. The competitors power units were not nearly as robust as the Schweiss unit."

"The door is fantastic, there is nothing wrong with any part of it. It was very easy to install," said Tavares. "I like the fact that it is overbuilt. I'm sure the steel probably could have been thinner and the power unit probably could have been a little bit less powerful, but what you get for the price, if I had more projects I would put them on everything. As a comparison, for what I paid for the door, an 18' x 8' rollup aluminum glass door was more money than the hydraulic door. The big thing is, because I had so much extra space, that space would be gone with all the crap hanging there. Why would I buy a rollup door?"