Custom garage door track

[King Nothing]

I have a very small garage with an 8 foot ceiling. There is very little headroom and having the garage door overhead is a real pain. There is an attic space above. I was wondering how difficult it would be to have the garage door go up into the attic instead of curving overhead in the garage? I could easily cut a hole in the floor for the door to pass through. Would it be as easy as running track vertically up through the floor?

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[RWorth]

door doesn't care where it travels, it'll follow the track where ever you put it. Just add a straight section and mount the horizontals above the ceiling.

you'll have to change the top wheel brackets if they are no longer on the curve when shut.

 

[kylefitz]

Do your ceiling joists run parallel or purpendicular to your door opening? If they are perpendicular to the opening that will make your plan significantly more difficult. I do like the idea though with a jack shaft opener.

 

[wssix99]

I could easily cut a hole in the floor for the door to pass through. Would it be as easy as running track vertically up through the floor?

Cutting that hole would cause your ceiling and/or roof to collapse, so the tracks and (likely) new garage door) would be the easy part. The challenging part would be the heavy construction and engineering to get more clear vertical space.

 

[upndown]

why would a standard door be a real pain? Not like you're gonna get a lift in there. Not worth the time and expense to do what you want. JMHO

 

[nh_yota]

Why is it a pain? My the garage ceiling at my parents' house is only 7.5' so their garage door hugs the ceiling. I'm 6' tall and it never bothers me.

 

[Voi]

I have a very small garage with an 8 foot ceiling. There is very little headroom and having the garage door overhead is a real pain. There is an attic space above. I was wondering how difficult it would be to have the garage door go up into the attic instead of curving overhead in the garage? I could easily cut a hole in the floor for the door to pass through. Would it be as easy as running track vertically up through the floor?

There have been many threads about modifying trusses, raising rafter/collar ties in order to get garage doors to follow the roof line and gain head room.

The threads can be very tough to find and the upshot is that each situation is different depending on location, how the roof was framed, etc.

So pictures of how your roof is framed and your location will help.

Might just be easier to jack up the entire garage and make entire thing taller. My wife and I talked about doing something similar but decided it wasn't worth it if we were stuck with a 8.5' ceiling. Said if we were going to spend the money we'd jack up everything and start over.

 

[King Nothing]

Cutting that hole would cause your ceiling and/or roof to collapse, so the tracks and (likely) new garage door) would be the easy part. The challenging part would be the heavy construction and engineering to get more clear vertical space.

The joists for the attic upstairs run parallel to the door. There is nothing above the door but the plywood floor of the upstairs, which is nothing but a small attic for storage. I would not have to cut or modify anything structural to do what I want to do

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[King Nothing]

why would a standard door be a real pain? Not like you're gonna get a lift in there. Not worth the time and expense to do what you want. JMHO

When the garage door opens it takes up a lot of real estate. I would like to be able to put lights there, but there isn't room. Also, there is so little headroom that according to the door manufacturer I won't be able to use the torsion spring that comes with the door, I'll have to use extension springs

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[wssix99]

The joists for the attic upstairs run parallel to the door. There is nothing above the door but the plywood floor of the upstairs, which is nothing but a small attic for storage. I would not have to cut or modify anything structural to do what I want to do

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If you have rafters instead of trusses, then you can pull it off. You'd probably need to box out an area/cavity around the door so you can keep the attic insulated around that pocket where the door would open up in to.

Depending on how your floor/ceiling is engineered, you may be able to prop the track up off the ceiling instead of hang it from the rafters, which will make it easier.

You'll also need a high lift track and a torsion spring system. Even if you have one today, you'll need all new track and a new spring (due to the additional opening height) - so you may find it easier to just get a whole new door. (Depending on what you have today.)

The other thing you'll need to worry about is the distance the door moves away from the wall. As the high lift door opens, it pushes back and away from the wall. So, that will require some additional space between your joists. You'll also need to do some geometry to make sure you have enough radius for the track to turn over your joists and for the flat panels to also clear that. (Your radius may need to be a foot or more above the joists.)

 

[LXCam]

The only other concern I didn't see would be if your garage is fire rated. How old is it?

 

[upndown]

When the garage door opens it takes up a lot of real estate. I would like to be able to put lights there, but there isn't room. Also, there is so little headroom that according to the door manufacturer I won't be able to use the torsion spring that comes with the door, I'll have to use extension springs

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I've installed many doors and conventional openers in 11-12" of headroom using torsion springs. I understand your concern about lighting, but there's got to be viable options at a fraction of the cost.

 

[GTO]

Why is it a pain? My the garage ceiling at my parents' house is only 7.5' so their garage door hugs the ceiling. I'm 6' tall and it never bothers me.

Why would it bother you,it's not your Garage....

 

[GTO]

High lift rails are your friend.

 

[wssix99]

The only other concern I didn't see would be if your garage is fire rated. How old is it?

Great point! Building an enclosure/box around the door cavity in the attic space would allow one to install drywall on top of the joists and all around the cavity to maintain the fire rating.

 

[wolfhawk73]

I have a very small garage with an 8 foot ceiling. There is very little headroom and having the garage door overhead is a real pain. There is an attic space above. I was wondering how difficult it would be to have the garage door go up into the attic instead of curving overhead in the garage? I could easily cut a hole in the floor for the door to pass through. Would it be as easy as running track vertically up through the floor?

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I wouldn't worry so much about it if I were you. My garage ceiling is around 8 feet high, and I was able to build shallow lumber rack above it that will hold the equivalent of 18 2x4's.

How much space is between your ceiling and the door? Maybe you could just close the gap to make it more comfortable below. I think that voiding the fire rating would be a huge mistake, and any amount of labor involved to maintain that rating it would be more of a pain than it's worth.

Though I applaud you for thinking the way you do. If you do it please post pics. I'd love to see that setup.

 

[Zeke]

It's easy to get the door to within 4" of the ceiling with the right track and opener setup. That won't help your lighting desire but there are ways to do that as well. That's another topic and it is covered elsewhere here on the forums.

Modifying your building and keeping the fire rating would be a huge project.

 

[King Nothing]

House/garage was built 60 plus years ago. Balloon frame construction. No drywall. Don't know anything about fire rating. Can someone please give me a short explanation?


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[pmiranda]

The deal with fire rating is that if you have living space above the garage, or the attic space in the garage connects to attic space or the wall of living space, you must have a barrier to keep a garage fire from spreading to living space for an hour (or two... depends on alot of stuff but if you can do one it's not much more effort to do more).
So... if the only thing keeping a fire from spreading from your garage to your house is the garage ceiling, any space you connect to the garage by cutting the ceiling needs to be separated from the house.

 

[Falcon67]

My ceiling is 8', the door clears the ceiling by 4 1/2" on the supplied standard Clopay tracks. The Lithonia 8' fixtures with bulbs installed are 4" tall. Tight but clears just fine. Good idea though - would have framed for it had I thought about it LOL.

Lights and track seen here:

 

[CJ7VFR]

I have a very small garage with an 8 foot ceiling. There is very little headroom and having the garage door overhead is a real pain. There is an attic space above. I was wondering how difficult it would be to have the garage door go up into the attic instead of curving overhead in the garage? I could easily cut a hole in the floor for the door to pass through. Would it be as easy as running track vertically up through the floor?

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What type of door opener and helper spring set up do you have currently on your garage door?

Jim

 

[King Nothing]

What type of door opener and helper spring set up do you have currently on your garage door?

Jim

The existing door is an old, broken fiberglass door. It has extension springs on it. The old door is broken beyond repair and I'm looking to replace it with a new insulated metal door


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