A friend in Washington DC lives in an old townhouse on Capitol Hill and is very tired of finding street parking, so plans to convert his rear garden terrace that backs to an alley into a “garage” by installing a conventional 18 foot wide steel overhead door, but of course, he has no support structure. His desire is simply for “lockable” drive in parking, not an enclosed structure.
Can anyone help me design appropriate framing?
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Replies
So say this door is open and you get a nice big wet snowfall. You do get those in DC? Does the door collapse on to the cars below?
The door would never be in the horizontal position except opening and closing
I was going to recommend a gate also.But depending on the space he might not have room for a swing gate.But you can get sliding gates also. And operators for them.http://www.amazinggates.com/sliding_gates.html
Edited 9/5/2006 10:09 pm by BillHartmann
that's just plain weird.
usually swinging gates are used in this situation.
do you have a photo ?
carpenter in transition
Do they make some kind of swinging gate that can be electronically opened and shut?
"Do they make some kind of swinging gate that can be electronically opened and shut?"Yes, they do. People have them installed in driveways every day. You'll have to find someone near you. That's your best bet. Forget the garage door opening in mid-air thing with no roof above. Sure you can build something but that's nuts. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300022944275&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_ReBay_Pr4_PcY_BID_IT&refitem=300022319729&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CategoryProximity&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget#ebayphotohostingJoe Carola
http://gatecrafters.webdirectbrands.com/gopage.asp
http://www.amazinggates.com/automatic_gates.html
http://jtgateoperators.com/?gclid=CP_fmZ7zl4cCFUo7Ggod2ir-qg
there's a lot of them out there.
good luck.
keep it simple.
carpenter in transition
It doesn't take much to install a garage door. You need a decent header for the coil spring, and for the door opener to push against. And some kind of ceiling framing to hang the opener off. You could build a box of 4x4 or 4x6 posts at 4 corners, two at the face of the garage and two about 10 ft back for the opener. And then use a exterior grade glulam or similar for the door header and something lighter down the sides.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt