Great forum, first post. I'm looking to add a 3rd bay to my current 2 car attached garage. I was a volunteer firefighter for 25 yrs ("retired" in 2011) and I'm looking to get a vintage fire truck. I'm looking at trucks from the mid 1970s to mid 1980s. Door height is my issue. I want to match the look of the two car and house and the wife I'm sure will not be happy with anything that looks commercial or out of place.
My main garage has standard 7' doors with about 1.5' above the doors before the soffit. So an 8' high door would work and probably look OK, but that's not likely enough height. Based on the trucks I'm looking at, I need 8'6" minimum, 9' would probably be better. So I could go 8'6" which would run the door right to the soffit. The looks of that might be an issue though.
So I've been thinking about some options. One is some type of carriage door arrangement with what looks to be a garage door to 7' and then put siding on the top 1.5'. When you close the doors, from the street it would look like a 7' door with 1.5' of siding above it like the main garage. Not sure about the cost on something like this.
A somewhat similar idea would be a standard 8'6" overhead door. In front of the door, fabricate a hinge 1.5' section with siding. When the section is down, only 7' of the 8'6" door is showing, looking like the main garage. Cost not much of an issue with this option. Question would be how to operate that hinge section. Could probably do something manually, maybe a cable could come out of the soffit and tied to a hand winch. Since this door wouldn't be operate routinely, this type of arrangement might work out OK.
My other design option to get 9' is drop the floor 6" and slope the driveway into it. Rain and snow melt drainage would be critical - thinking trench drain across the front of the door. Not sure though whether the 6" would be that noticeable from the street??
Any thoughts, ideas, or previous experience would be appreciated.
My main garage has standard 7' doors with about 1.5' above the doors before the soffit. So an 8' high door would work and probably look OK, but that's not likely enough height. Based on the trucks I'm looking at, I need 8'6" minimum, 9' would probably be better. So I could go 8'6" which would run the door right to the soffit. The looks of that might be an issue though.
So I've been thinking about some options. One is some type of carriage door arrangement with what looks to be a garage door to 7' and then put siding on the top 1.5'. When you close the doors, from the street it would look like a 7' door with 1.5' of siding above it like the main garage. Not sure about the cost on something like this.
A somewhat similar idea would be a standard 8'6" overhead door. In front of the door, fabricate a hinge 1.5' section with siding. When the section is down, only 7' of the 8'6" door is showing, looking like the main garage. Cost not much of an issue with this option. Question would be how to operate that hinge section. Could probably do something manually, maybe a cable could come out of the soffit and tied to a hand winch. Since this door wouldn't be operate routinely, this type of arrangement might work out OK.
My other design option to get 9' is drop the floor 6" and slope the driveway into it. Rain and snow melt drainage would be critical - thinking trench drain across the front of the door. Not sure though whether the 6" would be that noticeable from the street??
Any thoughts, ideas, or previous experience would be appreciated.
