Garage door cut down to add man door?

[TheBadDog]

I bought a new house in part to get a better shop (among other things). I now have a nice shop, along with plans to improve of course. But one of the most troubling things is that the "front" has 2 full size single vehicle garage doors and no man door. So I have to either go out the back, and all the way around, or open the huge door. Not a problem unless I'm trying to keep the inside at a bearable temperature when the outside temps are well over 100 (at times over 115 here in Phoenix!).

Due to interior considerations, one of the doors is no longer usable for vehicles anyway, though I do still need it for pallet jack access, or to get some of my big roll carts and such in/out. But it doesn't need to be 10' wide. It's an insulated multi-panel roll up with power opener.

What I have in mind is to cut it down to just outside the first row of hinges, recap and reinstall rollers, frame up the resulting hole and install a 36"+ insulated metal pre-hung door, reduce the ballast spring tension (new springs?), and call it good.

The wall is block (slump block to be specific), and no real good space to cut a new door hole, so I think this is my ideal solution.

I've seen other posts about cutting doors, but just wanted to see if anyone has done this before, and/or has suggestions regarding best practices or things I may not have considered.

 

[nova65ss]

How wide would the garage door be after cutting it down? May be just as easy to take the door down frame it up and install the man door. Then if you need to use that bay for a garage again pull out the framing and reinstall the garage door.

 

[gipraw]

They make garage doors with walk through doors built in. That might be the easiest fix, although not the cheapest.

 

[Zeke]

Sounds like he has a sectional door so the whole door would have to be replaced with a swing-up door to install a walk thru. I think just doing what he said is good enough.

However, with the ability to open the door when needed, why not scale down the man door to 30"?

 

[nova65ss]

Sounds like he has a sectional door so the whole door would have to be replaced with a swing-up door to install a walk thru. I think just doing what he said is good enough.

However, with the ability to open the door when needed, why not scale down the man door to 30"?

They actually make walk through doors built into a sectional overhead door but they are very expensive.

 

[TheBadDog]

The garage door would be about 5-6' wide, about like a small utility garage door on the 3rd bay of a "3 car garage" tack house. And I do have carts and pallet jack access needed on that side, so can't just replace.

Pass through doors are expensive, and not ideal design from what I've seen. Really only practical if you want a walk in door AND the ability to drive through from time to time.

As for scaling down, I've considered that too. But loosing 6" on the man door to gain 6" on the roll up doesn't get me much. And the whole point is quick/easy access without opening the big door with associated air transfer. It's not uncommon to need to carry out larger stuff, maybe on a dolly, so the 36" low seal door seemed a good choice.

 

[JakeKohl]

Sounds to me like Nova's suggestion is the way to go (i.e., do it "right"). Remove the door, frame up one side for an entry door, install entry door and new narrower garage door (can probably reuse existing tracks and maybe some of the door hardware).

 

[CNGsaves]

Welcome to GJ. Sounds like you've got good size garage to work with, and looking for solution for your garage doors.

Post up some pics to show us what you've got. That will help to get the best replies.

 

[JamieK]

What about framing the garage door opening and installing some wide French doors or even sliding glass doors. This would let alot of nice light in, too. You could even leave the garage door installed and close it for added security from someone breaking through the glass doors.

 

[upndown]

If it's a flush door you can cut that door down to any size you want, If its a raised panel you're some what limited by outside appearance, If that doesn't matter.. Cut away! Either way just make sure to reinstall end caps properly!!Good luck..

You are going to have to re-hang your opener, or do it the easy way..just fabricate another operator arm style, that's what i'd do!

 

[dfiler2]

Here's a few examples.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ove...FC6IQyjcIRQ&ei=cYybWYfNIabajwSbiq-QCg#imgrc=_

 

[TheBadDog]

Thanks.

Looks like I missed the last few replies back then.

In the end, I didn't do anything with it. It's nice to open the big door(s) when the weather is nice, or sometimes at night even when it's hot in the day. But during the summer it sure is a hassle to go all the way around because it's 117* F outside, and the AC has the shop at a relatively comfortable 85-90 or so. Opening either of the big doors for any length of time looses the cool air, and is a hassle, so maybe I'll get more motivated this fall when it cools off more. The ideas I've liked best are to put up a "temporary" (if not easy to remove) frame-up just in front of the roll up. Then, if I ever do decide I want the bigger door, just take down the frame-up and fill a few holes.

 

[rayra]

Skip all this silly complicated stuff about altering a large single garage door and just cut a new man-door into the side wall of the structure adjacent to the front corner, opening into the same space just inboard of the single door.

Likewise, just mount a heavy or weighted curtain across the inside of the single door. That will keep most of your conditioned air in place.

 

[TheBadDog]

Not really practical for my purposes.

First, it's slump block, which could be cut, new lintel, and hopefully not produce any extra fracture problems. Not particularly easy, but with a rental heavy masonry saw, it's doable and is done every day. But there is only about 3 feet total between the door and corners, so that's not practical. And that's where my "wall of cabinets" starts (in an efort to use that otherwise unused space). And the space between the 2 sectional garage doors is about 25' all heavily covered with 1-phase and 3-phase conduit clad circuits along with associated machinery. That's also where the majority of the shop plumbed (copper) air lines including filters, regulators, and oilers for separate connections. Could it be moved and rerouted, yes, but yet more work. But then I would have to move some of the machines that depend on all those as well just to make a decent path for a door. Right now the machines there have only enough gap to function and get between, one entire (large) machine would have to find a new home just to make a path after relocating the various lines and conduit. And sad to say, particularly with a new turret mill making the scene a few weeks ago, finding a new home for something to make a new door (and sacrifice that wall space) isn't really in the cards. As for just beside the big doors between, a surface grinder hand wheel lines up with the inside edge of one, and a Sync-350 Welder face (and air reel) line up with the inside edge of the other. The opposite end from my cabinets is the central nervous system including a huge 30HP "CNC rated" (so it says) 3ph rotary converter, 1-ph and 3-ph main panels, and a big 80 gal Curtis compressor feeding the shops air plumbing. No way in he77 I'm moving that anywhere.

So if it were as easy as "just cut a new door", it would have been done long ago.

Good point on the curtain. I've also thought about that some time back. I used to work in a grocery where the meat market freezer doors (and the cutting floor) were sort of air-locked off with heavy plastic curtains so you basically walked from freezer to cutting floor to back aisles by going through a "curtain". The only door that stayed closed was the front to customer area. Anyway, I thought long on that, but couldn't figure out a good material to use that would both be heavy enough to function, flexible enough to function, and hold up over time.