Garage door opening to carriage doors
I’ve been asked to convert an existing garage door opening into a pair of carriage doors. The opening is only about 6′ high and 7′ wide. It’s a single garage currently being used as a workshop for a florist. She needs to AC the place occasionally in the summer and doesn’t want all the air rushing out everytime the overhead is opened.
Anyway… I’m looking at making a pretty big pair of doors. They don’t have to be gorgeous, just functional. But since they’re so big, I’m worried about them sagging and/or racking as time goes on. Despite the AC, they don’t need to be insulated or even really weather tight. They just need to open and close and not sag or fall apart.
I’d appreciate some help with some design ideas. Will these be too large to get away with edge butted 1X with a picture frame and diagonals? Any hardware suggestions?
Any thoughts and ideas are appreciated.
Replies
I would probably start with solid sheets of Advantech, cut to fit, and then glue 1x along the edges and hardware mounting points to make them look nice.
That would take care of the sagging problems and I believe that stuff is stable enough that they wouldn't warp.
First find some big-ash hinges. Make sure the door jambs are braced so they won't sag. Think of ways to make the doors fairly light.
I'm with you there... those were my main concerns. I'm thinking heavy gate type hardware for the hinges. And to keep the doors light I'm thinking just using the 1X with a picture frame of 1x to hold it together... with "X" diagonals for anti-racking.View Image
Rather than 1x there must be some sort of foam-core plywood that would do the job.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
I'm not familiar with such an animal.... any links?View Image
I know I've seen such stuff once or twice, but wouldn't know where to get it.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Think about using a cable with a turnbuckle for strength and future ajustment"Shawdow boxing the appoclipse and wandering the land"
Wier/Barlow
I've made roll-up carriage-style garage doors, with the panels each maybe 8 or 9 feet wide, by 20 to 26 inches tall. Sectionalized thus and hinged, they roll up with standard garage door hardware.
Each panel is done as a stress-skin assembly, with a frame made of ripped-in-half 5/4 x 6 pine, and then skinned with 3/8" no-groove T111 exterior roughsawn plywood on the exterior, and 1/4" luan ply on the inside.
Cutting and fabrication is quick and easy. Pocket screws join the square-cut frame parts, and glue and staples fix the ply to the frame. The frame may have inner cross-members where wanted, for better attaching the array of 1x roughsawn cedar trim boards that decorate the weather side so as to look "carriage-ey."
Face designs are always done with the 4x8 modular plywood size in mind.
I use 5/4 cores so that the voids can be filled with cut pieces of 1" Thermax isocyanurate foam board. If no insulation is needed, use the cheaper 1x stock for your core frame parts.
With the frames skinned tight, the panels are light and rigid as heck. The glue is doing the work; the staples are just there for the clamping effect. I use Titebond II yellow glue.
Everything I have done has been doors laid up as horizontal panels, but there is no reason the frame-and-skins technique won't work for hinged or rolling panels. Just do interior blocks where you need to attach functional hardware.
It may work for you, and if you try it, post some pics of your finished door, no matter how not-pretty.
A couple pics of finished doors are attached. The one with the glass is 7' wide by 6'6" high, and in three sections.
View Image
"A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."
Gene Davis 1920-1985
Edited 4/18/2009 8:46 pm ET by Gene_Davis