Modifying/raising garage door headers

[jetranger]

I'm thinking about purchasing a home, but am having a lot of trouble finding 8' garage doors in my area. Most of the houses that have them are about $200k over my price range. I am just finishing up a 2 year build on a vehicle, and it's about 7' 2" tall WITHOUT the rack. I'd love to be able to keep the rack on, but it's not a deal breaker if I can't. I just need to be able to park my vehicle inside.

Anyway, has anybody modified their garage door headers to allow for a taller opening? What was involved? I have looked at a few houses with close to 9' ceilings in the garages, but still only 7' doors.

Keep in mind, this is the Las Vegas area, so most of the houses look the same, they're just finished differently.

Here's a couple pictures of what I'm dealing with This is in my current 3 car garage, which we have already outgrown.

(oh, the top has not been painted yet because I can't put it on permanently yet so it sits outside)

 

[black00lightning]

Subscribing

 

[jetranger]

For example- this is a house in our neighborhood we thought about making an offer on. It has 9' ceilings, but only 7' doors. It does have RV parking on the side, but I really don't want to park my project outside in the Nevada sun

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[upndown]

First off Nice fj40

Just wondering if you have an HOA? If so that's where I would start. If they even allow it, they may require you to keep the elevation looking the same. Re-engineering both doors, two new 8' high doors, new openers, gonna get costly.

How high is your rack? 9' ceilings may sound like alot, but when you consider a Standard door installation is a Minimum 12" of headroom, with an 8' door there's your 9' ceiling. Just some things for you to consider. Good luck and Welcome.

 

[jetranger]

Thanks for the reply.

The rack is only about 6 additional inches, so an 8' door would be more than enough.

There are no HOAs in the neighborhoods I'm looking in. Here is a picture of the house to the left of the one I'm looking at. He has a pie-shaped lot, so he built a shop. Unfortunately, those lots are extremely difficult to come by around here.

As far as cost- I'd be happy if it cost less than $10k. I'm also wondering how difficult/expensive it would be to buy a single story with a 3 car garage, remove the trusses from the garage area, add about 2 or 3 feet of height to the walls, then put new trusses back on.

 

[kbs2244]

With a 9 foot ceiling you should be able to get an 8 foot door.

But this is a somewhat big carpentry job.
You have to build a temporary support wall inside the existing wall.
Then remove all the drywall on the existing wall.
Remove the existing header and replace the supporting studs at the ends.
Then replace the header.
You will be messing up your exterior as well.

Go to a big box store and get a rough carpentry book.
It will have PICs and descriptions of how a garage door is installed.
You can work backward from there.

 

[jetranger]

Good info, thanks for the reply.

 

[upndown]

Are you planning on doing it to the large or small door? That big door is going to be more of a challenge considering the living quarters above!

 

[jetranger]

In this case, yes, the smaller one. It would be much easier to deal with. I only need one tall opening and it doesn't matter which one.

 

[RVDan]

You might get lucky and the header is already high enough and the opening is just built down. My doors only have a 2x6 header above them but there is a triple 2x10 beam at ceiling height so I could go higher if I need to

 

[readhead]

The answer is money. What was the question exactly? Raising the header is pretty simple but it is going to involve some exterior refinish. Another option would be to lower the floor. Not as hard as you might think. The driveway is sloped up to the house.
Or you could let some air out of the tires.