I live in Sylmar California, 91342. My garage door (2 car garage) is a
common type, basically one large piece of plywood etc. I want to
replace it with roll-up style without the optional motor. I have
gotten serveral quotes from $600 to $1200 to supply and install the
new door and cart away the old one. But all of the doors seem to be
steel (plus some plastic etc). I don't want the steel because it can
eventually rust. Also it is heavier than aluminum. In anycase, what I
want is to get a good a hand-operated, roll-up garage door that is
aluminum, (or wood or suitable plastic)and have it installed. Problem
is all the installers I contact have only steel garage doors.
Preferably you could find me a couple of places that can do this in
case one is too pricey or offers good doors that look ugly etc.

I've found a few aluminum-garage-door installers in the north Los Angeles area:

http://www.bearcatco.com/garagedoors2.html
Serves "The FOOTHILLS, Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel Valley,
Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, San Marino, Glendale, Burbank,
Glendora, Temple City, San Dimas, La Verne, La Canada, La Cresenta,
Montrose and some Los Angeles areas of Southern California."

http://www.newgaragedoor.com/
Based in Burbank

http://www.bestgaragedoor.com/default.aspx
Glendale

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Clarification of Answer by hagan-ga on 14 Jan 2006 21:52 PST

Sorry!  I hit "Post Answer" before I had quite finished.  Anyway,
you're right that it's a lot harder to find aluminum than steel, but
these three installers all carry aluminum.  I hope they meet your
needs; if I can provide any further information, please don't hesitate
to ask.

Good answer with good contacts, thanks!

Steel rusts, aluminum corrodes.  It's all a matter of a good paint job
on the panels in the door in edither material.  There's nothing wrong
with a well painted steel door.  An aluminum door (only well painted,
again) is much lighter and much more expensive, for the same stability
and strength.  Aluminum is much weaker, so to keep the door from
looking very badly after a few years of normal wear and tear, it has
to be thicker, ie more metal, more expense to compete with a steel
door.  Steel can work fine, the operation is a matter of
spring-balances and how well it is made. I've spent 30 years in
construction, but I've never installed either steel or aluminum...
lots of huge wood doors, now those are heavy.  Find a well made
product, I'm sure you will be happy with either steel or aluminum.