Garage door arches

[gowings]

I am currently working on a triple car garage with a 16 and 9 foot door. 8 feet height. 11.5" deep. Currently framed with 2x12 P.T.jambs (Its a ICF built house)Anyone here have any ideas how to make arches on the doors. Owner wants them and I'm drawing up my thoughts and ideas on how to put the curves on. Both the curve material and circumferences so they match aesthetically to each other.
Any input appreciated.

 

[spotco2]

I don't remember the correct way of doing it, but I know how to do it and get away with it.

Get 2 10' sticks of PVC and stick them together. Go to the 16' door with 2 helpers. Hold the PVC up to the to of the door and have the helpers flex it until the arch looks right. You can drill a hole in the ends of the PVC and run a piece of string through it to tie it in place so you can keep the arch. Set the arch in position and trace it with a pencil.

Carry the arch over to the 9' door and trace it once you have it centered and at the right height.

You can cut the curves out of 2x12's with 2x's in between them for the wall thickness spacing. Use 3/8 or 1/4 plywood inside the arch between the 2x12's to fill in the gap.

Does that make sense to anybody but me? If not, I'll draw something up.

 

[wssix99]

I just finished the last pour on a 3.5 story ICF house with a 3 car garage at the very bottom. We have 8" and 6 1/4" walls over various bays and were able to build the bucks with plywood and vertical supports under that.

I assume the jambs you have put up are temporary and will be removed once the pour has cured? Or are you skipping a reinforced lintel and using the 2X12 to hold up the wall above?

The thing with ICF is that its a ***** to change in the future... For something like this, I'd build the opening square and then frame the arches out afterwards. Once the siding is on, you'll never know the difference and the framed arches will give future owners options on changing things up. (It will also be easier to pour.) We are doing this with one of our bays. We have poured it at 11' and are framing it down to 8'. (Our local code requires a commercial fire rating on the garage if any doors are over 8') If I need a bigger bay in the future, I can remove the framing and add more fireproofing to the garage interior.

We have a circular window and are doing the same thing - pouring the opening square and then framing it in for a circle. The architect first said the circle window was wonderful. Then, last week, they said they hated it and wanted to go square. The window was already ordered, but I was really glad we poured the opening square.

If you want to pour the opening in an actual arch, making the buck is not the hardest part. I'd make an arch out of 2X, cover the top with a build up and laminate (with liquid nails) several layers of 1/4" ply on top of that, and then fill the cavity with a build up of several thin layers of foam. (So you can curve the foam with out breaking it.) The 2X can be braced vertically with 2X6's from the sill. The catch with this is the reinforcing... If you have a straight lintel reinforcing detail up above, the edges of the arch that poke down will be weak. You'd need to reinforce these sections with a some curved rebar or other method. (I'd probably consult an engineer for a reinforcing detail like this.)

Did I mention that you might want to pour square and frame in the arch???

 

[wssix99]

Yesterday, a few hours after my post, pouring big and framing in later paid off: (My excavator was able to use his larger loader to back fill inside.)

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[wssix99]

gowings - I'm curious to know how you are planning the inside of your walls to receive the garage door tracks. I found very little info on this and only found one company that suggested cutting out the ICF and finishing the inside corner with 2X PT and then tying it in to the forms.

We didn't feel comfortable doing that and worried about the stresses of such a situation, so we capped the ends of the ICF with a ripped 2X buck and I'll be carving out the foam later so I can bolt the inside board to the concrete. (I have a radiant floor, so bolting the inside plate to the foam would place the door back so the heated floor would be exposed to the elements.

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[gowings]

When we formed the ICF. I framed in a 2x12 around the perimeter with 8" bolts into the pour. I notice you have a buck on the inside flush with the ICF. I did the opposite and faced the ICF with the 2x12 P.T. before we poured.

 

[AndyL]

Last few I did on ICF, ended up installing a typical 2x4 or 2x6 backframing - longer (6" i think) 1/2" anchors at 6' intervals - and just sandwiched the foam.

One of those has been running strong under my care for 6 years now... It's actually gotten 2 new door faces since (forklift incidents) framing is as solid as the day it was installed.

That said - that was one style of ICF, I know there's a few that become challenging to anchor into in this manner... So you'll probably have to take a quick peek / test to see what will work in your instance.

Oh and as for the arch... Make sure you create a false arch - so it stops 3" from the mounting face - so you can still weatherstrip the door "normally" (as in - as a square). Most people around here just use that bendy (notched one side) wood, for the underside - then use a couple fixed length studs to ensure the radius pretty much matches.

 

[wssix99]

When we formed the ICF. I framed in a 2x12 around the perimeter with 8" bolts into the pour. I notice you have a buck on the inside flush with the ICF. I did the opposite and faced the ICF with the 2x12 P.T. before we poured.

Ah. That's the way we would have done it had we not had the issue with the radiant floor and our solution to mounting the wood for the tracks to screw in to.