Cutting Garage Doors to Size?

[VietGnome]

My garage door openings are finished.

Everywhere I read claims doors should be the exact size as finished opening, but really be a touch bigger.

Depending on the door opening my doors are 2-3" wider than the opening.

From my understanding there shouldn't be any issues besides issues with everything fitting in the framing?

I'm considering going ahead as planned, and only if tracks/brackets don't fit then I'll cut the doors to size.

The end metal bracket pops clean off and the cut looks simple. If i need to do this, what blade should I use to cleanly cut through aluminum/insulation? And should I cut it how much bigger than the opening?

 

[racecougar]

You could use a sheetmetal blade in a circular saw, but from your photo, I'm not seeing a reason to cut the door.

 

[CraigStu]

I don't see why your doors will be a problem...as long as that black piece is adequate to mount the tracks to. Usually that is a 2x6, what is yours. This is the inside of mine showing the 2x6 that the tracks are screwed to.


You can see that the door is maybe 1-1.5" wider than the door opening. The only other issue is the outside surface and the seal. Is there enough width of the flat area so the seal can seal against the flat and not get into the usual groove for the fake raised panel look of most doors. See the red arrow mark on this pic I borowed from the web.

 

[VietGnome]

I don't see why your doors will be a problem...as long as that black piece is adequate to mount the tracks to. Usually that is a 2x6, what is yours. This is the inside of mine showing the 2x6 that the tracks are screwed to.


You can see that the door is maybe 1-1.5" wider than the door opening. The only other issue is the outside surface and the seal. Is there enough width of the flat area so the seal can seal against the flat and not get into the usual groove for the fake raised panel look of most doors. See the red arrow mark on this pic I borowed from the web.

Thanks for both replies!

It is a 2x6.

Ill have to verify but there should be more than enough clearance between weather stripping and the detent you're talking about!

 

[manwithtools]

You don't need or want to cut your doors. Go take a look at other garage doors, it's very common to have a discrepancy between the finished opening and the door width. The doors operate on the inside face of the framing, not between the jambs.

 

[TurnipTruck]

Garage door width should equal the ROUGH opening. Yours looks fine.

I cut down some bent door panels for two different mower sheds over the years and there was no structure to take a screw for the hinges. I had to eventually pop rivet the heck out of them to quit falling off.

 

[JuncleJohn]

A little over lap provides a better seal. Your door and opening look fine to me.

John

 

[wssix99]

This is not even remotely a problem. Don't trust the stuff you read on the internet. The garage door instructions will prove this to you. All the specs, dimensions and tolerances are in there.

 

[goldtang]

The attached is the manual from my sectional door, picture is on page 10
hope it helps

https://admin.bnd.com.au/media/uugh5tlh/165001_13_paneliftpft_pfi_installation_manual.pdf

 

[firebirdparts]

It'll work fine. Just install the door so that it almost kisses the building. It'll work perfectly forever.

 

[VietGnome]

The attached is the manual from my sectional door, picture is on page 10
hope it helps

https://admin.bnd.com.au/media/uugh5tlh/165001_13_paneliftpft_pfi_installation_manual.pdf

I tried to install a door today. My instructions were quite ****, and i took my time. Same 50mm measurement but it depicted it to the inside of the track, so i had a hiccup installing the doors.. need to shift it all inward tomorrow and resquare it.

 

[mm08822]

I installed mine into an existing opening. All I did was replace the rotted 2x lumber (used as trim) with new lumber. There was ~1" of door past each side of opening on the inside of garage.

This sketch looks exactly how mine fit......it mentions width of opening = door width - 2". The height of my opening may be 1" less than door height.

Once it was all adjusted, I nailed on weatherstripping trim that had a flexible vinyl seal strip.

 

[JohnX14]

As everyone said, the overhead doors run inside the framing and should be the size of the RO, or even a little larger wouldn't hurt.

 

[goldtang]

I tried to install a door today. My instructions were quite ****, and i took my time. Same 50mm measurement but it depicted it to the inside of the track, so i had a hiccup installing the doors.. need to shift it all inward tomorrow and resquare it.

that ****, so close good luck tomorrow

 

[firebirdparts]

You'll get it!

 

[firebirdparts]

As everyone said, the overhead doors run inside the framing and should be the size of the RO, or even a little larger wouldn't hurt.

This is misleading, I think. If the door is 8 feet wider than the RO, it would still work perfectly. That is the nature of how garage doors are shaped.

 

[In The Doghouse]

First, the door should be a little wider than the opening. That's by design, not a concern.

The few steps to install:

1. Stack the door panels up against the door opening. Use nails on each side, bent over a little, to hold the panels in place.
2. Install all the hinges and roller brackets onto the door panels.
3. Insert all the rollers into the hinges & brackets, all the way in.
4. Place each track onto the rollers and fasten tracks onto the wall allowing a little wiggle room in the width.
5. Move to the overhead tracks installing, being careful you keep the same width spacing.

 

[CraigStu]

Way, way back in the day we had a split lever house. The basement was unfinished but the builders had installed a standard 6ft sliding door. I wanted to use it as an auto shop so I started looking at removing the slider. Found out that w/ it and it's frame/tracks gone I had an opening 6" wider than the car. Cool. Now what to do. I went to HD and found that standard 7' tall and (I think) 7' wide garage doors were pretty cheap and any other size was much more $. So I bought one. Installed a 7' door to seal a 6' opening. Since the door was not on the max weather side of the house the seal, even on the fake raised panel sections was good enough.