Garage Doors

[Lfcevans]

Hi New Member. Have been looking for a site like this for a while

At the moment I`m just using my single garage as a very small workshop...I call it a workshop, my wife thinks its a storage area that would be better converted to another bedroom or TV room but thats another story

I have an up and over garage door on my garage and want to replace this with 2 side hung doors that will be a snug fit. I have done some small projects before but nothing of this scale, this will be my first big....ish project. I want to do this to make my garage a weather free environment because the gaps around the UaO door are quite big which make it very cold in winter and also let a lot of moisture in, but also because when the door is open, I can't get to anything on the top shelves in that area , or the stuff hanging from racking off the ceiling, it also blocks the lighting off.

What I,m after is some advice on materials to use to make the doors.

I would like to use mortice and tenon joints for the 4 corners of each door and will re-use the tongue and groove centre panels of the up and over door (they are diagonally cut and meet in the middle) to keep the overall look pretty much the same. The span of the UaO door is 7ft in old money, so each new door will need to be 3 1/2 ft
Are the doors best to be made from 4x2`s with 1x4 braces or can I use smaller material.? I would like it to be sturdy, but not to sturdy that it would look at home in the entrance to a castle, but solid enough to keep out what the coldest wettest windiest of Britains weather can throw at it.

Like these doors

My plan is the make the frames of the doors, and stain them. Then when the time is right (dry weekend) to take the old door out and trim the centre panels to fit the new doors then fit the doors to the frame.

Ive had a look at some wood at my local store but find it difficult to find any that isn't bowed or twisted. This looks like a major problem to me if I want the doors to fit snugly

Thanks for any help

 

[Benchwayze]

Western Red Cedar, Oak, or Pressure treated soft wood. These are my usual preferences.

I would choose Cedar first, if I replaced my up and over door. Medium priced, and weather resistant. My garage faces due south, so I'd probably give them some preservative every couple of years, to stop them drying right out.

When I moved in here 45 years ago, I claimed the garage as my shop. It's tiny of course, but there's never been any argument!

Best of luck.

John

 

[Myfordman]

Don't even think about buying your timber from a DIY store or shed. Instead go to a proper timber yard.
Ideally buy rough sawn and prepare it yourself if you have the machinery otherwise get it prepared for you as a batch so all the dimensions of similar sections will at least be the same. Use quality redwood or maybe consider douglas fir. Pay attention to the detail of your design so that designed in chamfers etc ensure that water is shed away from the joints. Saturate the doors with a good penetrating preservative making sure it will be compatible with your desired finish. e.g. Original type creosote (which you can still buy - search for bird brand) is excellent to preserve it but you cannot apply hardly any paint type on top. My workshop has best part of 50 litres of creosote applied 11 years ago and there is no rot whatsoever.
Pressure treated timber is a possibility but you need to re-treat any cut surfaces and it usually arrives wringing wet.
Cedar is quite soft but has good rot resistance.
HTH

 

[Steve Maskery]

I've recently made my doors, the relevant section of the thread begins here:
post1067733.html#p1067733

It might give you some ideas.

BTW you do NOT want a bottom rail on the outside. The boards should go right down to the bottom to shed water. There is a bottom rail, but it is thinner than the top. Follow the thread and you will see what I mean.

It's quite a challenging project, not because of its complexity but just the sheer size, if you are working alone, but I am very pleased indeed with the end result of mine.

Good luck.
S

 

[Lfcevans]

Thank you all for your great advice

Steve...They look really good those doors in the link...way above my level I think, but I will pinch the styrofoam idea for the thermal capabilities

Myfordman...I know what you are saying about DIY store wood, but I went to a wood yard a few years ago for some wood to make a workbench. They had large perfectly straight pieces and ripped everything to size for me. When I got it home most of it was all twisted and warped just as bad as the DIY store products. It must do that after being cut I thought.

I was going to go with standard pine due to the fact it was cheap, light and was going to be treated with a mahogany wood preservative (sikkens is my usual choice) to match the old UaO door. When I make anything for outside, I always treat every cut surface to stop water penetration, but have only ever used screws to hold the joints together. Not sure on how the glue will bond on a joint with wood preservative.

My thoughts were to use pine as I said, with some sort of joint either mortice and tenon or lap joint with glued dowels to hold firm with possibly some screws aswel. I was thinking that the width of the wood would make it strong enough not to sag not the thickness. I don't mind treating it every year or 2 as long as it does the job and I don't have to keep lifting them up to open them due to sagging.

 

[RobinBHM]

I would suggest starting by getting the hinges first. (reversible cup hinges would look good). Make sure your garage door frame has a wide enough face for the hinge plates.

For the doors, I would make both the top and bottom rail nice and wide, maybe 200mm so that you can space out the hinges to look good, often they end up right at the top and bottom of the doors because the rails are too narrow.

When Ive done these sort of doors, I tend to make a mortice and tenon door with large top and bottom rails and then 2 mid rails as well. I then clad the door stiles with some vertical boards and clad in between with the horizontal or diagonal t and g. Doing it that way means that the door stiles and rails are all protected from the weather and the cladding is easier to construct.

If you dont need to open more than 90 degrees, then fit door drips which will throw rainwater away from the bottom of the door (unless you have a drive that angles towards the garage like me).

For large garage doors or barn doors, the 'skeleton' part of the door can be made short in the height, by say 30mm, and then extend the cladding boards down to the height you want. That way the bottom rail is well off the floor and it is easier in the future to alter if the door starts to drop.

Although not ideal, these type of doors can be made with studwork type softwood, say 5 x 2 stiles, 8 x 2 top/bottom rail 6 x 2 mid rails. What you save on this timber perhaps put towards using cedar for the cladding.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm watching with interest as this is something I need to do at some stage. If the garage is an integral part of the bungalow and is on the front, would it need P. P.? (or building regs. come to that?).

 

[Lfcevans]

Update:-
I should have updated as I went along but have been to busy to be honest.

OK...where to start....I bought the wood from a local wood merchant who cut it all to size for me and planed it smooth. I went for 4x2`s for Rails and top and bottom stiles which when planed were 3 and a half by 1 and 3 quarters....approx. and a 5" by 3/4" for the centre stile. I think that 1 stile in the middle is plenty strong enough

For the 4 corners of the door I did mortice and tenon joints, and was going to do the same for the centre stile but after completing one joint on one side, I decided to use my newly acquired pocket hole jig. this with glue is really strong so went went with it.

Because I was only doing an hour here and an hour there, and then thinking about it while doing other stuff...like my day job, I kept changing the design slightly, then going back to the original. I eventually stuck with the design I have got now which I am happy with.

The doors are now basically complete and the plan now is to clad it with the tongue and groove from the UaO door and then add trim to the edges with some 2x1 which is rebated with a 10mm rebate.

I will upload some pics when i get the chance.

The only issue I have got is attaching the hinges. The screws for the hinges will be right on the joint of the front trim and door...I hope it will be strong enough