Need help with garage door specs

[bluedog225]

Gentlemen

I am building a cabin (24x24) with a flat roof. The tall side has an opening that is about 21' tall. I'd like to put an aluminum and glass garage door in that space to open up the living area.

I can divide it up into two 8"-10' wide doors or have an 18'-20' wide door.

How tall can these doors be? The maximum I have heard discussed is 16' tall.

I suspect any doors are available custom for the right money but I am trying to make a smart decision here. For example, I hear that 18' doors are much cheaper than 20' wide doors.

The site is out in the country. So no codes apply. Just common sense.

I will have it all reviewed by a civil engineer.

Many thanks.

Tom

 

[wssix99]

Food for thought:

- The larger your door opening, the more rigidity that you'll take out of the building. This will dramatically drive up your cost for the additional structure needed. (Above and beyond the cost of the door.)

- Big openings aren't very efficient for heating, so if you are heating the space that might be another consideration to think of.

- A conventional 20 ' high door would cover your entire ceiling when its all the way open and would cover up all your lighting. You'll be wide open, but won't have any usable ceiling lighting in that situation.

- You may be after something that is designed more for aircraft hangars. Your building sounds like it has more in common with a hangar than a garage. They also have a bunch of other design options and hybrid doors that might be appealing to you.

 

[bluedog225]

Thanks for your thoughts. The architect seems pretty comfortable with the allowance around the door as far as creating a rigid structure is concerned. Not an air conditioned space so a good breeze is the goal (esp in Texas). I had not thought of lighting concerns. But since it is going to be a glass/aluminum door, I am not too worried. Also, all solar so lights may not be on the roof.

Those aircraft hanger doors (Hydroswing) are really nice. Too expensive for my project.

I was wondering if there were any natural breaks for garage door height. For example, 16 foot seems pretty common.

 

[gpflepsen]

Door panels come in assorted sizes (heights) so the varied combinations give the range of heights needed.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[jstroede]

Thanks for your thoughts. The architect seems pretty comfortable with the allowance around the door as far as creating a rigid structure is concerned. Not an air conditioned space so a good breeze is the goal (esp in Texas). I had not thought of lighting concerns. But since it is going to be a glass/aluminum door, I am not too worried. Also, all solar so lights may not be on the roof.

Those aircraft hanger doors (Hydroswing) are really nice. Too expensive for my project.

I was wondering if there were any natural breaks for garage door height. For example, 16 foot seems pretty common.

Can it be done? Yes it could be it isn't going to be cheap. In fact it would be VERY expensive, and VERY heavy even with 1/8" glass. I would figure a weight of roughly 1300 lbs for an 18' x 21' full vision door with 1/8" glass. Now you could get the weight down a little with acrylic, but the cost would go up too.

Very narrow and tall doors like that are very difficult do deal with because there isn't much space for springs, and you have to do things like tandem spring shafts.

At the end of the day, I would not recommend going with a door that large, especially a full vision type of door.

John

 

[wssix99]

^ That's very practical. The springs for that could be so heavy, they might need their own structure! omg

Thanks for your thoughts. The architect seems pretty comfortable with the allowance around the door as far as creating a rigid structure is concerned.

Yea. It can be done. When the structural is done and the contractor comes to you with palm extended for you to fork out the cash for a steel header across the doors, (because engineered wood, etc. won't cut it) it won't be the architects problem! Beware of the architect who would rather see you bankrupt than "unstylish."

Not an air conditioned space so a good breeze is the goal (esp in Texas).

Does your architect know about this? You'll need some extra help/design if you want a breeze with that door open. You'll need cross-ventilation to get that. If you put in clerestory windows to get that on the back wall, you'll get a nice breeze - but it will flow right over your head and you won't feel it. (The air will take the path of least resistance.) With a giant opening like that, you'll need some creative engineering (probably vents near the floor) to get a breeze that you will feel.

I had not thought of lighting concerns. But since it is going to be a glass/aluminum door, I am not too worried. Also, all solar so lights may not be on the roof.

Does your architect know that you are planning on entertaining in the space with the door open? They may not realize that the door will cover the ceiling. In addition to scattering any lights up there (even if you can pull off full glass doors) it will throw off the effect of skylights, as well. Having the grid of the door over your source of the light on the ceiling could make the space feel like a cell.

 

[Voi]

Gentlemen

I am building a cabin (24x24) with a flat roof. The tall side has an opening that is about 21' tall. I'd like to put an aluminum and glass garage door in that space to open up the living area.

I can divide it up into two 8"-10' wide doors or have an 18'-20' wide door.

How tall can these doors be? The maximum I have heard discussed is 16' tall.

I suspect any doors are available custom for the right money but I am trying to make a smart decision here. For example, I hear that 18' doors are much cheaper than 20' wide doors.

I'm in nearly the exact same situation. Building a bunkhouse at our lease and did start some price estimates for glass garage doors last winter. We have several bars, restaurants gyms and open air stores that use glass garage doors as large window walls (and yes, they're in South Dakota and open year round).

According to the supplier in my town who has provided most of these, it was either above 8'9" or 10'6" where they started to get expensive.

My recollection is that the 21" tall panels had a cost savings over the 24" tall panels so the above numbers would reflect either five or six panels at 21" tall each.

They also said that when doors get over three panels wide they can start to get more expensive on a cost per square foot basis.

When I was talking with them I think I speculated a 12' wide door would be "not that much more expensive" than a 10' wide door of the same height and the person on the phone said that's what they would expect. Something to do with the glass they start with being 48" wide.

I should add that this company only deals with one glass door brand so some of the above rules of thumb may not apply to other brands.

If the part about doors of a certain height being prohibitively expensive is true it might be worth considering two doors stacked on top of each other and separated by a header of some sort. Two openers and two sets of tracks but maybe it's net cheaper overall? [EDIT] Sorry, I guess in your case that might be four doors if going wide was too expensive. That would be a bit crazy.

Also, there is a video online somewhere of a cabin with a glass garage door that opens to the outside. So the tracks were attached to the underside of a covered porch roof. That would give a much cleaner look inside and not block lights. I suppose if you you had driving wind it would sort of "push" the door against the building and maybe help with seal. If the door were inside the same wind would act to push the door back in its tracks and reduce the seal.

Just thinking out loud on those last two paragraphs. Please report back or PM if you find any details. I probably won't be using a glass garage door for our project but I haven't given up on it either. I don't remember the exact numbers but I was quite surprised at how generally inexpensive they were in the 12' x 8' size range, even with double paned glass and the bottom panels being tempered.

 

[Voi]

Here's one picture I found of glass (partial glass in this case) garage doors that opened up on a tall wall. This was is an art studio.

 

[bluedog225]

Thanks everyone. I will report back with pics.

 

[Chris705]

Check out doorson-line.com they seem to offer 8' x 16' tall glass doors. This is Amarr's online ordering web site.

 

[upndown]

A vertical lift door would be my choice.