Garage door options??

[UroWerks]

So I am starting to convert my garage into my personal workshop.Lift will be installed soon.I am considering other door options.Ideally I am thinking about a roll up insulated door but I am not sure if anyone makes anything like this for residential homes??Other option is to change the current door into french doors with actuators to open and close them.My main reason for this is to avoid causing damage to my car while its on the lift and someone like my wife hits the button to open the over head door and therefore damaging my car.Anyone else have a similar issue??Whats the best way to resolve this issue??

 

[Truman Sparks]

I believe the main issue with a roll up door is getting it to seal very well. They do make them insulated, but they tend to be leaky.

 

[Streetbu]

NO matter what you decide, go with the SMALLEST door that will work for your needs. I know that sounds backwards but hear me out. ALL garage doors leak! IF you're going to heat your garage it is a HUGE air loss. I have a 16x7 & the wind blows it all around, usually cold air is flying in and I've spent hours sealing it up better than it was new. Wish I had two 9x7 instead. Dont go too small though, you'll regret not being able to pull something inside.... If I had the ceiling height I'd want 9x8 or 10x10. Good luck!

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

I'm planning a new garage and to eliminate the overhead door storing itself over my workspace, thus obstructing the lights, cutting into the lift space, etc., etc, I am considering a sliding "barn door" type door. I know a fellow who has one and he said that as long as he latches the hooks which go from the door jambs to the door leaves them selves, he has no problem. Although there is no easy way to put a operator/opener on doors that slide, I can live with that.

What say you all?

 

[nolimits76]

Until you find a solution you like, I would suggest using the lock feature on your garage door opener. In the lock position, it won't accept signals from the remote. Alternatively, you could pull the rip cord.

Both would prevent an accident -- assuming you remember to do them.

 

[justanengineer]

Ive worked in a few shops that simply had the door opener safety switches mounted off the ceiling to sense cars on lifts.

 

[upndown]

Wire in a simple light switch to your ceiling plug, now you control whether it's powered or not!

Don't rely on others. I've had to bail off my ladder a number of times, both homeowners knew i was going to be there and it says garage doors on my truck.

 

[JakeKohl]

NO matter what you decide, go with the SMALLEST door that will work for your needs. I know that sounds backwards but hear me out. ALL garage doors leak! IF you're going to heat your garage it is a HUGE air loss. I have a 16x7 & the wind blows it all around, usually cold air is flying in and I've spent hours sealing it up better than it was new. Wish I had two 9x7 instead. Dont go too small though, you'll regret not being able to pull something inside.... If I had the ceiling height I'd want 9x8 or 10x10. Good luck!

I disagree. My insulated Overhead doors have rabbited and gasketed seals between the panels. The only weak spot for air leaks is around the perimeter of the door where it meets the walls and even that isn't too bad with a properly fitting gasket. So...with the right door, the interior panel seals are not a problem and you're only talking about just a little more of that flap seal if the door is larger. I heat and cool my garage and my doors are thermally invisible as far as I'm concerned. I have a 16' and 12' door on opposite ends of my garage...which is worst case for breeze infiltration.

 

[UroWerks]

What is your ceiling height? I ask because most garage door tracks hang quite a distance down from the ceiling. They have kits so that you can modify your existing door tracks so that they pull the door vertically all the way to the ceiling before turning and running horizontally across the ceiling with only a couple inch gap between them. You can also replace the center mounted opener motor and track with a jackshaft opener that is mounted to the wall and it opens the door by directly twisting the shaft that your torsion rods are mounted to. That eliminates all the center mounted obstructions completely when the door is down, and allows you to get the door right up against the ceiling if you also do a track modification. If something like this would work for you, it would save you the price of a whole new door. The first picture shows the jackshaft opener circled in red.

Thanks Jeremy,I was considering this(jackshft garage opener) liftmaster 3800 or the likes for sure.However my house is a ranch and has a hip style roof.So the ceiling height is the tallest in the center of the garage and the lowest at the garage door.So the other problem I am running into the sloped roof on the end of my garage.I was thinking about running the door tracks along the roof slope but I dont know if its possible give the style of roof and space.However I havent seen any kits or modification of this kind yet.Its an option I am considering if possible.

As some of you mentioned wiring in a light switch,I would assume the light switch would cut steady power to the opener??

 

[Nowater]

I say this with some experience from my own shop which is constructed of insulated structural panels, and is very air tight. If wind is blowing in through your garage door, it is also blowing out somewhere.

Half the battle of sealing the garage door is sealing where all that incoming air exits your garage.

Regarding the roll up doors, they were my first choice, and rejected because they do not seal nearly as well as the others.

 

[upndown]

Any door can be balanced properly with the Correct combination of springs, cables and drums. They have whats called a normal open position, anything beyond that you run the risk of the cables popping off the drum.

That's why anytime I have a custom installation, I let the Factory or Door Co make those calculations. If something is wrong it's their problem!

 

[UroWerks]

Yes, the light switch is usually wired to just turn on and off the ceiling mounted outlet that the garage door opener plugs into. As a side note, if you have kids etc. you might want to mount the garage door opener switch up higher than normal or in a strange location so you don't run into the problem of the switch accidentally being flipped by someone else while you are out and then you not being able to open the garage door when you get back home and want to park the car in the garage.

As my attached picture shows, the tracks can easily follow the angle of the ceiling instead of running horizontally. It is not a big deal to do.

I don't know if I understood you correctly or not, but if the angled hip ceiling for the garage's side wall (adjacent span) extends into the up-sloped ceiling track area (under the main span) for the garage door then you would have some issue. You would then have to make the lowest point of the ceiling (adjacent span) become the level the other garage door track runs at which could eat up some of your lift headroom.

NOTE- If you decide to install up-angled tracks like the ones in my picture, think seriously about installing automatic track slide locks (that pin through the door track when the door is all the way up) for the garage door. I am not sure if this something regularly done for this type of track layout or not, but they are commonly used for the door when it is in the down position to help prevent break-ins. The reason is, a regular door lays horizontally when up so if a torsion spring ever snaps the door will most likely stay in place, but with an angled door track (depending on the failure) it could drop like a rock and possibly injure someone severely if automatic slide locks are not activated when the door is in the up position. Jackshaft doors usually come with one set of these already(for the down position), so you shouldn't need to add a second set, just wire the regular set so it also engages a second track hole when in the up position. Most likely no more money for parts, just a couple minutes more wiring, some drilling of new holes into the track, and some extra planning so all the hole locations for the slide bolts are in the right spots.

The other thing is, depending on your particular installation you might lose the ability to easily open the garage door manually. A garage door set up like this is not as easy to balance with torsion springs, so it might not want to just stay in place on its' own when up without the jackshaft opener motor holding it there. If the torsion springs are set up to hold the door in place when up, they would most likely be pulling way too hard when the door is down which would cause the door to jump several feet up on its' own if you disengaged the opener motor, so it is sort of a pick-your-problem situation. If you only intend to open the door with the opener motor the problem is not much of an issue at all.

There are some failures associated with the automatic slide locks not disengaging as they should and then damaging the jackshaft motor when the garage door is being opened. That is a risk you have to be willing to take with a more complicated setup. It would be a safer setup having the slide locks, but there is an increased chance for a costly opener motor failure if they fail to work correctly for some reason.

I like the picture, that is something I am considering.Yes the door is wide and I will have to consider the hip roof angle on one side of the wall.If I can't do it this way,my next option is possible to have french door with actuators to open outwards??Is the sealing scenario better on french style doors or rollup doors.That is something I would like to know just in case,I cannot have the door lift along the angle of the roof.

 

[UroWerks]

Thanks.Yeah im hoping to run the door along the roof slope.But I still have to check if that solution will work.Ideally that would be best for me.

My other issue is changing the interior structure of the roof in order to get the full lift height.So thats another thing i have to deall with before putting the lift in.I just purchased the home.Im not there at the moment but the next time im there i will take some pictures of the interior and the issues i have to deal with.

 

[mbatarga]

I ordered and installed a Clopay (Home Depot) commercial insulated 10' wide x 8' high door with angle tracks to follow the 3/12 pitch on my scissor trusses. So far I've been rather impressed.

 

[UroWerks]

how much did the door cost you??