Garage door questions

[rcordon]

New here. Couple questions regarding garage doors. I have a single car garage with the single panel wood style door that opens outwards. Springs/hardware on the sides of the door to assist it opening. I live in a complex with an HOA and all the garages need to look the same. I however want to change my garage door to the 4 panel metal style, and clad matching wood to the door.

Looking to do something like this:

How to install wood panels on garage doors | Customized garage doors

Customizing your garage doors with real wood is a great choice. Learn how to install wood panels on garage doors.

www.buffalo-lumber.com

1. The current frame of my door is 8’1.5” wide. It seems the standard size is 8’ wide x 7’ high. Is this 1.5” extra acceptable to install this 4 panel, 8ft wide door? If not, any suggestions here so I don’t have to order a custom door?

2. I also need to cut the wood I am going to clad to the door at the seams of the door. I want it to be as seamless as possible to match the garage doors of the rest of my complex. Any suggestions to do so? Such as cutting them at an angle? See step 5 in the link as an example.

 

[firebirdparts]

Normally you'd ignore the door and figure out how wide the hole is. You'll have to close the hole and normally, those little vinyl sealing strips would do that. If you think you need to run the wood off the edge of the door, that's going to be dicey. Garage doors are pretty simple. I guess you can add a bunch of spacers to keep the wheels pushed out, and that would keep the wood from hitting the tracks. That's pretty unorthodox, for what it's worth.

I guess an angle cut would be a good idea. I don't know of anything more clever.

 

[jstroede]

Ok I have built a ton of this type of door. Now there are some things that you would not be able to replicate because of production items I had available to me, but I will say that the linked page is a very good resource. Some notes I will add though:

On your door size, your opening is larger because it had a one piece door. You can very easily get an 8'2" wide sectional door, and that is what I would do. Commercial doors commonly come in +2" lengths. Your one piece door was meant to fit and operate within the opening, that's why it is larger. The sectional door is meant to be behind the opening. If you try and run the wood off the end of the door to make it wider, you are going to cause all kinds of issues with the track and hinges and such.

Next thing, lay out all of your boards before you start and number them. The boards will not all fit together well and it takes mixing and matching. Make sure you don't have any knots where you will be cutting.

To make tight gaps, figure out what saw you are going to use. Measure out what the kerf is. Make shims to match the width of the kerf and put them between the sections before you strap them together.

I didn't use saw horses, I worked on cardboard laid out on the ground. Two people is a must pretty much, and three is helpful to glue while the other two place boards.

Mark the back of the boards so you don't glue across the section joints. It's a pain to clean up.

Find a good straight edge to use as a saw guide. If the door is getting trim over the tongue and groove, screw down to the door under where the trim will be. If it is just tongue and groove, you have to get creative to clamp it down. Almost all of them that I built were trimmed, so I screwed my guide in at multiple locations including the middle to assure a straight cut. I used a cordless circular saw set to just cut through the t&g with a thin kerf blade.

As far as adhesive goes, liquid nails will hold, but it is a PAIN to deal with because it takes so long to set up. Getting things to stay in place while it cures is touch. I used hot melt urethane adhesive from a drum. I would apply it to a board, put the board in place, and place a weight over the board and move to the next board. By the time I had the next board down, the previous one wasn't going anywhere. The adhesive only had an open time of like 90 seconds at the bead size I was applying. There may be some products like Gorilla Glue that would perform similarly but I don't know that I have a good recommendation there.

Also I don't recommend trying to do any sort of angle cut if you are using cedar or something similar. Your sharp corners will not hold up and it will look like ****.

Also, wherever you get the door from (don't try and deal with a box store) will need to know the weight of the door after its built to spring it. They will also need to know that the door is going to be additional thickness. Good door guys will know what all needs to change, but it is multiple items. At the size you are talking about, you shouldn't need to get crazy with track and hardware if you start with a decent door.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

John

 

[rcordon]

Thanks for both of your responses. I attached a photo of my current garage. One thing for me to clear up, is I wouldn’t be extending the wood I apply to the metal door beyond its edges.

Next, the wood I would be using is plywood siding to match my current garage door (need it to match best I can for the HOA).

Here’s what id get:

0.594 in. x 48 in. x 96 in. Wood Primed Siding (Common: 19/32 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft.) 1277125 - The Home Depot

AraucoPly panels are made from pruned, plantation-grown Radiata pine logs for fewer knots and consistent appearance. For flatness and stability, AraucoPly panels are laid up on composed cores using exterior

www.homedepot.com

They come in 4’x8’. Id guess is have to get 3 to cover the extra 2 inches.

I didn’t know I could get a door at 8’2” easily. The picture I put black arrows was my thought to just add some type of thin wood frame around the garage opening, like 1”x1”x7’, and I would just add one in the top to match. But doesn’t look like ill need this if I get the 8’2”x7’ door.

Also, this complex was built in the 80’s. What are those attachments on the door next to the blue arrows? Ive never seen these before.

I’ll have to add those and the vents/frame as well so it matches my current door appearance.

 

[CraigStu]

Is there anything else you can skin the door with besides wood? I would hate to buy a nice modern aluminum water proof door and then skin it w/ wood. Also, I know it would be more expensive, but look through various door manufacturer websites. They make doors that emulate all kinds of classic doors. Maybe there is one like you need.

 

[rcordon]

Is there anything else you can skin the door with besides wood? I would hate to buy a nice modern aluminum water proof door and then skin it w/ wood. Also, I know it would be more expensive, but look through various door manufacturer websites. They make doors that emulate all kinds of classic doors. Maybe there is one like you need.

I would hate to do all the work for this too, but basically dont want the HOA to ***** about it. Im risking it by just changing my door and doing it this way. Im going to keep my old door for 6 months or so in case they make me remove the new one. To me, its worth the risk/time/money.

Ill check sites and see if there’s something similar, but I can’t imagine anyone would want their door to look like this. Its pretty ugly tbh.

Not sure what other material I can put on it. Basically trying to make it look exactly like my neighbors door, minus the cut lines youll see across the wood/door for the seams.