Bifold-Hangar Doors for Garage

I've been looking at the bi-fold doors that are used on airplane hangars, such as those here: www.bifold.com or here www.wilsondoors.com for a new garage. I like the idea of having the overhang when open because the garage will face south and the overhand would provide a bit of shade when open. Looks like clearing in front of the door is a bit of an issue, but not too big a deal (certainly compared to the one piece doors that are here: www.hydroswing.com). I am a bit concerned about the amount of room that they seem to take on the inside of the garage space, with those trusses, etc. on the inside of the doors. The garage will be 25 feet deep and I don't want to take too much usable space away from the depth if I can avoid it.

Has anyone used these types of doors? Advantages/disadvantages for use in a residential garage setting (new build)? Any price indications (they seem to be custom made for the application, so they cannot possibly be inexpensive).

Thanks

Alberto

I am not familier with the bifold type doors you mention, but I have a shop that has the means to fit a supercub inside.
The door system has two 12'wide x 10' tall doors with a center piece that be raised up when the doors are open. This gives approx 26' of open space. It takes up as much room as the normal overhead doors do.
This also allows for me to only have to open one door when moving a vehicle instead of the whole span in cold weather.
The pictures shows the previous owners plane. I do not own a plane but I have the option now.

AKdiesel,

can you give us a few more shots. I would really like to see how that center post lift works

AKdiesel,

can you give us a few more shots. I would really like to see how that center post lift works

Those bifold doors are expensive, and they are really slow to open and close. Plus, there are latches on each side that you have to undo by hand, and then you have to relatch them once the door is lowered. If you're doing it just to get the extra shade when they're open, it's probably a better idea to incorporate some sort of overhang in the building design.

The new version of the bifold doors have an auto-latch mechanism so you don't have hand latch them anymore. That also allows for the door to be activated remotely.

While some bifold doors may have some sort of powered end latching, I'm sure its some sort of high priced option. I have used Wilson doors before (RR of doors) and have neighbors with older Aerolift doors, and have seen Schweiss and Hi-fold. Best to get the lift system that uses 2 inch wide straps rather than cables. The start out slow and go faster and faster as it rises up. Straps are a huge improvement over the cables.

http://www.wilsondoors.com/

http://www.hi-fold.com/

http://www.bifold.com/

Aerolift Door, Inc. ~ 800-747-1168

http://www.midlandbifold.com/

The doors on my Hangar are "vertical bifolds", Horton Stack Doors.

http://www.hortonstolcraft.com/stackdoor.htm

Also, how about a one piece lift door that is homemade from plans, you buy the hardware kit and plans. Pretty neat actually, I have a neighbor who has one.

http://ultimatedoor.homestead.com/ultimate.html

I have watched the hydroswing doors operate and they don't generally come up evenly, doing alot of twisting and flexing. These doors impart LOTS of unusual stresses on the building.

The advantage to the lift door is the large opening, but you need an even taller building to take advantage of the opening. I like my Horton doors as I can open just one panel or the whole thing. Most of the lift doors are easily insulated and close tightly. You really need a building deeper than 25 ft, that is marginal in any case. As someone noted, the doors are expensive, several years ago, a 50 ft wide Wilson aluminum framed door, for a 14 ft high opening was $5000+, and you only got about 12 ft open height. I paid the same amount for my stack doors and got 53 ft clear width open and a full 14 ft height, and the doors were skinned in translucent fiberglass. The other doors are a bare frame, you provide the insulation and skin, and it cannot be too heavy, nothing like wood siding.

http://charles-dusty.tripod.com/

http://charles-dusty.tripod.com/hangar.html

http://charles-dusty.tripod.com/hangar2.html

Charles

uparms said:

AKdiesel,

can you give us a few more shots. I would really like to see how that center post lift works

Click to expand...

These are the only pictures I have now.
I don't think this was a manufactures kit. It looks like it was fabricated locally out of alluminum and wood.
The previous owner installed the hinge in the wrong location, so he cut the hinge and manualy removed it when needed.
It is light enough to simply lift and remove once both doors are fully open.

The bi-fold doors can be trussed on the outside if interior room is a real concern.
The depth of the truss will be a function of the width of the door.
A 16 foot wide door should not take much.
Check out what they use on a regular roll up door.
What I like about them is they do not block the lighting when open at night.
And the snow doesn’t block them from opening.
The track systems have always been a bit of a mystery to me though.
Does anyone have PICs of how the rollers fit at the sides of the opening?