LRV: What Does Light Reflective Value Mean for Your Garage Door?
When picking out a new garage door for your home, you may focus on the style of the door, its color, and its material. But when you think about what color you would like to paint your garage door, there’s more to consider than just what hue you think will best complement the window trim. You must also consider the color’s LRV.
What is LRV? What does LRV mean for your garage door? Learn about LRV here:
What is LRV?
LRV stands for Light Reflective Value. It is the measure of a color’s visual light reflection. For example, black has an LRV of 0% and white of 100%. In other words, LRV represents the percentage of light that a color reflects.
What does LRV mean for your garage door?
How is LRV relevant when shopping for a garage door? The color you choose to paint your garage door (and its resulting LRV) will ultimately affect your garage door’s lifespan.
Because of their low LRV, garage doors with dark colors will absorb a high amount of UV rays, causing heat to build up. This built-up heat will then cause the wood of your garage door to expand. Consequently, this expansion will distort the shape of your garage door and of its connected components and inhibit their functioning.
Considering a color’s LRV is, thus, an important part of the decision-making process when selecting your garage door. Darker colors, while you may decide they are your desired choice aesthetically, usually lead to a shorter lifespan for your garage door.
When shopping for a garage door at Fagan Door, it is particularly important to pay attention to LRV when looking at our Harbour Series garage doors. Our Harbour Series garage doors are made from a vinyl composite that affords a reliable strength and durability; they will not rot, crack, or split like traditional wooden garage doors, nor will they rust like a steel door. They are especially resilient in the face of salt corrosion.
However, while the Harbour Series garage doors’ vinyl composite is strong in the face of natural wear and tear, it is a material slightly more susceptible to excessive heat exposure than is traditional wood. For this reason, it is particularly important to pay attention to LRV when shopping for these vinyl composite doors.
How to select a color for your garage door:
When selecting the color for you garage door, consider the design of your home: is your garage door exposed to an excessive amount of direct sunlight throughout the day? If so, in order to best maintain the integrity of your garage door and to lengthen its lifespan, it is not a good idea to select a very dark color. Instead, look for colors with an LRV of at least 60%; dark colors have an LRV of 55% or lower.