Garage Doors with Vaulted Ceilings

[TurboEuro88]

Working on finishing up the design for a new garage me and my dad are planning on building (hopefully), but running into an issue with the garage doors.

Per the design i've included below, we're including a loft in the garage, but to avoid having to add a bunch of extra construction we're not going to raise the roof any higher than the 12' it already is. Additionally, based on the design, the need for a loft, the geography of the land this would be built on, and the orientation it has to sit, the peak of the roof must run front to back.

Ive researched the topic and it seems most people either have flat ceilings or have vaulted ceilings that run across the garage space, allowing them to have the doors run up the incline of the roof... however I can't seem to find any info on the peak running the other way.

Ive seen photos of installs similarly done that had longer brackets for the door supports, but with the roof pitch expected to be somewhere around 12/8 to 12/10, I would think that would be a LOT of extra bracketing. Another solution could be to build a flat roof above where the doors would be (hey extra storage) but I am not sold on the idea either.

Open to other ideas/solutions if you know them... Pictures of said solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Rendering of the garage in question for reference (haven't added the roof to the design yet)
click here for higher res of the rendering

 

[Majordisorder]

Turbo, your plan doesn't actually show how your roof will be framed. If it is scissor trusses the inside slope usually isn't as great as the exterior so one way is to use high lift door hardware based on the lowest part of the slope and bracket down on the high side. Depending on the size and weight of the doors, they might need brackets midway on the horizontal tracks.

 

[AndyL]

As long as it's an uphill run - we can go highlift to get close to the ceiling, then incorporate pitch under the roof trusses to keep it close.

But yeah, I've done 20' hangs in the past as needed, only cost is extra material and a ladder/hoist to get that high...

 

[TurboEuro88]

Turbo, your plan doesn't actually show how your roof will be framed. If it is scissor trusses the inside slope usually isn't as great as the exterior so one way is to use high lift door hardware based on the lowest part of the slope and bracket down on the high side. Depending on the size and weight of the doors, they might need brackets midway on the horizontal tracks.

Sorry for not including it in the design. I didn't believe the style of roof support to be that important given the question. Had we gone into the design with the intent for a traditional flat ceiling, this wouldnt be a problem - obviously that won't work for our design right now.

My concern was mostly with the length of the supports for the track and door opener itself as, at its peak, our ceilings will be somewhere around 20 feet high (about 8 feet above the top of the walls). Obviously a lift of some kind will be needed for installation, which is fine... I just wanted to be sure its even possible to hang a garage door as such.

Thanks all for the input so far!

 

[Whirnot]

Just use a high lift door that goes up the wall before turning just under the ceiling.

 

[jlckmj]

Is this what you are talking about? 10ft. sidewalls, about 13 ft in the center.

 

[dirttracker18]

Mine is vaulted with the vault running front to back. Nothing special just a little longer barces for hte door tracks. Just don't lift a tall vehicle on the hoist with the door open

I'll try to remember to snap a pic when I get home for you

 

[TurboEuro88]

@jlckmj... yes, sort of. if you look at the design i attached to my original post, we will have 12' cielings and two doors as opposed to your 10' walls and single wide door. but the idea is the same.

@dirttracker18... The idea is to have the garage door tracks go up the wall until they reach the beginning of the ceiling, then go out over the space. That should get them up high enough that any car on a lift should clear the door when open.

My concern is that the braces for the inside would be rather long and possibly weak due to length.

I'll try to draft up a revised drawing tonight for clarity.

 

[mellamoesrico]

The installer will probably add extra diagonal braces to help stiffen up the long vertical drop legs, and keep the track from wobbling around. In addition to the single long vertical leg dropped from the ceiling to hold up the back of the track, there will also probably be a diagonal out and forward, plus another diagonal out and rearward. Imagine an inverted (upside down) pyramid frame with the base on the ceiling and the point at the back of the track.

 

[AndyL]

Decent installer will probably have 3 types of punch at his disposal... Yeah the 1" 18ga standard residential... Then the 1 1/4" 12ga commercial stuff (for longer hangs in the 10' range). Then some good old 2" HSS Angle iron for LONG hangs (probably longer than what you need, pretty much comes out for the 20' range drops)

 

[ripper70]

Ive got mine running up a 3/12 pitch with no opener, just a few more twists in the springs and it fly's up the rake with hardly any pressure. In your case i would do a roll up style door. That's gonna bother the heck out of you having all that hardware hanging down all over the place.

Check out my build thread: http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=225559