Insulated roller door for garage?

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davy_owen_88

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Hi there, I'm thinking of replacing my 'up and over' garage door with a roller door - firstly to gain a little bit more space on the walls and to utilise the full opening (something I wish I had when the bandsaw was delivered) and also to provide better insulation.

My main question relates to suppliers you folks recommend but also to check if my plan is even possible:

Most roller doors I've seen on the internet have the side guides mounted on the inside of the frame and have the rolled up part on the inside. Is it possible to have the rolled up part on the outside and have the side runners mounted to the face of the outside of the wall without any problems? This would give me about an extra 14" of floor space along the whole length of the garage and although its not much it's something if the idea is possible.

If not then I'm still going to get the roller door since the ability to have cupboards right up to the end will be well worth the upgrade, not to mention the benifits next time I have something tall delivered :D

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated,
Davy
 
Hi, I can understand the idea - I think! However, if the shutter is on the outside, how is it going to open?
If you mean have the runners mounted on the sides instead of the inside/reverse of the door wall, then there should be no problem. When I replaced ours, I fitted the runners to the faces and then fitted a vertical strip on the outside the full height and a vertical strip on the inside up to the underside of the runner track.
It gave the extra length like you, but I lost about 15cm from the opening width.

Mine are insulated and are from http://www.kingspandoor.com/uk/index.htm

HTH helps,

Colin
 
There are roll up doors here in the US, anyway, that mount on the outside of the frame with the entire mechanism mounted externally as well. I've never seen any of those sorts of doors that are insulated or at least insulated very much. You might go with an uninsulated door and then make some insulating panels that could be fitted internally. I think this would be feasible if you don't need to use that door all the time for ingress/egress. (Egress. Isn't that a long legged bird like a stork?:D)

In my shop which has a conventional insulated overhead garage door I installed pieces of 2" thick foam and covered that with a sheet of polythene as a wind barrier. I used 4 4x8 sheets of foam and screwed them directly to the metal door frame with sheetrock screws. Not real convenient when you want to open the big door but I haven't had a need to open it in almost a year. It helped to keep the shop bearable all summer, too.
 
Sailor, I think your confusing a roller door with a sectional door. While I was looking for a picture to explain what I meant, I found this:

5a_1.JPG


So they can be fitted like that, maybe its just an extra I have to request.
 
Dave R, since the whole door rolls up inside a very small box I doubt I can just stick insulation onto it. The ones I've seen are about 50mm thick - double walled with insulation in the middle. That seems like the best I can find.

Any other pointers are welcome.

Davy
 
Actually I wasn't thinking that you'd stick the insulation to a door of the sort in your picture. I was just saying that's what I did with my sectional overhead door.

For your application I would consider building some insulated panels that might be hinged to open out of the way when needed. Maybe they could be bifolds, too. I think you could make them pretty light weight since they wouldn't need to directly face the weather and they wouldn't be for security.
 
Davy, I've a roller door in the shop and, having thought about your proposal I think it may be possible. Essentially you're just moving the whole thing from the inside to the outside. Thinking abit more as I write (it's getting late), you've no mission. Won't work, well not easily nor economically. Unless you are very, very lucky you'll have to get a door made exactly the size of the opening. Then there will be problems mounting the roller. There'll be no roon either side. If you turn the whole thing around you'll have the finished side and interior handle on the outside. If you just mount the door on the outside you'll have the diamater of the roller sticking out and you'd need to box it in as there'd be a gap when the door is down and to weatherproof it.
Not sure about insulation on a roller door. Can't see it being too effective. The industrial sectional door illustrated above would be ideal but sit down when you're getting a quote.
If you need pictures, just shout.

Noel
 
Hey Noel, I wasn't thinking of taking a standard roller door and just turning it around, I know that wouldn't work, but like the picture I found from eBay shows, there are roller doors made for exterior mounting. They come with the box to enclose the rolled up door and to seal the top when the door is closed.

I was just wondering if anyone had a door like this fitted and if so who installed it/where did they buy it.

Cheers.
 
Yes, it can be done.

I had a pair of doors installed a few years ago in a previous house. They talked about doing a "reveal fit" with the boxes on the outside, but eventually fitted them on the inside.

The "insulation" in these doors is a bit of a joke. They're made from hollow extruded aluminium strips and the insulation is just a bit of foam squirted inside. Bit pointless when you have a huge cold bridge in ever strip.

You get a far bigger effect from the way they block draughts. When the door closes the slats stack up, and a flexible rubber strip seals against the floor, so they do a fairly good jobs of keeping draughts down to a minimum.

Jim
 
From the point of view of having had several industrial units with RSDs they are red hot in summer and draughty and cold in winter and they are a potential security risk from prybar or reversed Land-Rover attack unless you install ground anchor-type padlock bolts in the middle. The only way to insulate them is to have something like a thick PU strip curtain on the inside. The steel ones are better than the ally ones for security (they're stronger) but I've never seen one that has insulation on it - I don't think you'd be able to form the tiht radius they need on the toller bat when yo open them. I'd avoid anything with plastic as they are far too easy to torch. If you have a door with any openings, such as a letter box, then you leave yourself to a drag chain attack where they rip the door out (again with a nicked Land Rover or van + hook and chain). Sectional doors like those you see on fire stations are a lot better in terms of insulation and can have windows incorporated, but boy do they cost! None of that is too positive, but then my insurers aren't either!

Scrit
 
Well, I agree with scrit on his comments on warmth. Cold in winter hot in summer, and rattly and draughty in the wind. I take it it wouldn't be your only way in and out? if it is you can't really insulate it.

However, if you don't need the whole width of the opening when you do need it up, why not build a removable partition inside it with a little door to get bigger items out of?

I used to know someone who basically built a 2x2 framework covered with fibreboard. each section was about 3ft wide and there were three in total. The middle one just sat in between the other two and was held into place with two carriage bolts that just slid into lined up holes.
hey presto, he had a warm, (and in his case partially soundproofed) wall, that he could very easily remove the middle section of to get his long lengths of metal in ( he loved metal work - sad bloke :D ) .

Incidently, the reason he made it this way was because her who must be obeyed, refused to do away with the garage door because it "added value" to the house :shock: :shock:

mark
 

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