Garage Door Question v.3

[L5wolvesf]

I’ve posted previously about trying to find a 9’ wide x 7’ tall garage door to replace my current very heavy wooden rolling (to the side) door. That size in a regular door seems to be a bit unusual around here. But, I have come across a decent looking used 8’ wide x 7’ 4” tall door. Obviously it is a foot short width-wise so:

Do y’all have any good, simple, economically priced, ideas to make the door a foot wider?

Thank you for your input.

EDIT: I'm looking for a used door.

 

[nmk_61802]

Make your opening 6” narrower on each side and redo trim, or buy the right size door.

 

[Hot Rod Grampa]

Not knowing your skill set or tool arsenal, suggestions are tough. Since the weight has to be transferred all the way ro the bottom of the door, how you attach the side extensions may be dependent on how you hang the door. A conventional sectional door, including older wooden ones, are designed to be supported and raised by the very bottom of the door. That is where the original cable brackets were attached. A typical sliding door has all the weight supported by the very top rail. All the weight hands off that one board. An easy way to attach side extensions is to buy 6/4 or 8/4 lumber, depending on how thick your door sections are, then glue and Kregs screw the new boards to the original door edges. But remember they may not be able to carry a lot of weight that way. Or just buy a new 9 x 7 door. Wood ones can still be ordered through your local dealer.

 

[L5wolvesf]

Not knowing your skill set or tool arsenal, suggestions are tough. Since the weight has to be transferred all the way ro the bottom of the door, how you attach the side extensions may be dependent on how you hang the door. A conventional sectional door, including older wooden ones, are designed to be supported and raised by the very bottom of the door. That is where the original cable brackets were attached. A typical sliding door has all the weight supported by the very top rail. All the weight hands off that one board. An easy way to attach side extensions is to buy 6/4 or 8/4 lumber, depending on how thick your door sections are, then glue and Kregs screw the new boards to the original door edges. But remember they may not be able to carry a lot of weight that way. Or just buy a new 9 x 7 door. Wood ones can still be ordered through your local dealer.

Thank you for your input. I have most any tools (except Kreg) available and skill-wise could do it. But it sounds like it would be under a significant amount of pressure / potentially dangerous. Your input did give me some further info to work with - always a good thing. I'll continue to wait for the right / good deal.

 

[pattenp]

A 9'X7' door is a standard single garage door. They are listed as 108"X84". Do you have a Lowes or Home Depot in your area?

 

[rburke65]

If there are 2 standard sizes in the garage door world, it is a 16’x7’ and a 9’x7’. I don’t know where you are looking but..... That’s like saying you can’t find potato chips!

 

[L5wolvesf]

A 9'X7' door is a standard single garage door. They are listed as 108"X84". Do you have a Lowes or Home Depot in your area?

If there are 2 standard sizes in the garage door world, it is a 16’x7’ and a 9’x7’. I don’t know where you are looking but..... That’s like saying you can’t find potato chips!

My bad on this. On my prior questions I had indicated I'm looking for a used door.

I found the chips and evidently I was the dip.

 

[yeldogt]

What's the goal -- why not fix the door you have? Lots of houses around me with those doors .... some over 100 and still going strong. .. they can be fixed.

 

[L5wolvesf]

What's the goal -- why not fix the door you have? Lots of houses around me with those doors .... some over 100 and still going strong. .. they can be fixed.

My current garage door is a rolling, to the side, door made of many 2x4s and OSB and is a heavy MF and hard to move. When we bought the place it wasn't a door - it was in the place of the 9x7 opening with a man-door built into it.

 

[b-boy]

There are usually places that will do custom doors. I had one of my doors custom made. It wasn't cheap, but I'd say that beats trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

 

[firebirdparts]

Interesting. Here in Tennessee that is the most common size. Shelf item everywhere.

It's a crapshoot looking for used doors, but to suggest it's a custom size is totally offbase. It's not easy to find used doors in any case, and I guess you need to talk to all the installers in town and try to get them to save you one for $100. Homeowners are the ones that have 9x7 doors, and they don't want to be bothered trying to sell a door for $50. You can give it away to a scrap-collecting crackhead.

 

[L5wolvesf]

There are usually places that will do custom doors. I had one of my doors custom made. It wasn't cheap, but I'd say that beats trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Before I started looking I thought 9x7 would be a fairly common size. Custom would be way out of my budget.

Interesting. Here in Tennessee that is the most common size. Shelf item everywhere.

It's a crapshoot looking for used doors, but to suggest it's a custom size is totally offbase. It's not easy to find used doors in any case, and I guess you need to talk to all the installers in town and try to get them to save you one for $100. Homeowners are the ones that have 9x7 doors, and they don't want to be bothered trying to sell a door for $50. You can give it away to a scrap-collecting crackhead.

Thinking about it, around here double wide doors seem to be the most common and I checked Home Depot's site for new doors and found:
8 x 7 (133)
16 x 7 (128)
9 x 7 (13)

There are plenty of used doors around here, but they are either wrong size or overpriced and some are junk (but not all). I will contact a couple local installers to see what they say. Thank you