Roller doors in the UK

[dkl1971]

First post so be kind!
My house is very old and a "listed building" in the UK.
I'd like metal roller doors on my new garage but the powers that be have rejected the idea, they want timber.
Has anyone come across a firm that makes roller doors but with timber slats?
They may not accept this either but at least it will be wood.
Thanks

 

[bczygan]

I would ask the "powers that be" to specify EXACTLY what they would accept, with links to the manufacturer, model and color.

 

[dkl1971]

Oh if it were that easy!
Generally the answer to that sort of question is
"You must submit a proposal for our consideration and we will respond"
I am waiting for an answer to a few questions but what exactly comes I have no idea.
They may or may not be helpful. They certainly won't mention actual suppliers it will only be styles/designs etc.

 

[Lippyp]

How about something like this, aluminium, insulated and with a choice of timber effect prints

http://www.thegaragedoorcentre.co.u...age-door-sws-aluminium-roller-shutter/1100002

They also do sectional timber doors that go up on an overhead track.

 

[Megadodo]

Knowing the ****** planners, it being wood just wont be good enough, the whole style will be considered, they'll probably want barn door "stylee"!

 

[Lippyp]

I suspect that will be the case. I've not owned a listed building but our last house was in a conservation area and that was enough of a PITA. Nothing quite like a "period" garage door, reminds me of the "reproduction antique" telephone table, because as we know Thomas Chippendale did a great line in tables with a little seat and somewhere to stash your copy of the Yellow Pages.

 

[dkl1971]

I'd deliberately avoided "wood effect" as its can look a bit naff. I doubt it would be accepted but I'm open to anything about now!
I suspect only "barn style" doors will be accepted which isn't what I want as I want them automated and open doors sticking into the turning area will take up more space than I want to lose.
You can automate side opening doors but the mechanism tends to be in the way of where I want to put a 4 post lift.
Round the corner doors might work but would divide the garage up effectively when they are open.
None of it is insurmountable but just making life that little bit more difficult.
I'm still waiting for an answer to a few questions which I hope will guide me to what may be acceptable.

 

[Lippyp]

Could you have bi or tri-fold doors that opened on a track, would minimise intrusion into the inside and cut the amount sticking out into the turning area by half or two thirds. Should be easy enough to automate them. When I do the roof on mine next year I'm turning two openings into one big one (and increasing the eave height over the doors with a dormer) and the only way I can see to do the doors without ending up with a huge amount sticking out into the yard is to make them bifold/trifold jobs.

 

[dkl1971]

Phil,
I did consider bifolds but I'd need to see how to automate them.
The drive is gravel so I foresee the odd issue with doors jamming with stones in the runners but I suppose this will be rare.
I can't find any roller doors with wooden slats so I suppose that might be for a reason!

I want a steel building and then clad it in wood. The conservation officer wants a "natural" roof so is after cedar shingles but as the roof pitch will be only 12 degrees the water proofing of shingles will be poor. CO reckons marine ply for the base will be fine but I'm concerned that layers of wood at that pitch will fail far too quickly. I can't see why I can't keep the original steel roof and put a timber frame screwed onto the internal structure and the shingle on that.
I need to speak to some roofers.
We shall see.
David

 

[Lippyp]

I would think automating bifold doors wouldn't be hard, you only need to pull the top or bottom along a track, that could be by cable or rack and pinion. I can see the issue with gravel jamming so maybe a small concrete or cobbled apron in front would help stop that.

Cladding a steel building in wood seems like an odd way to go. Why not just build it in wood straight off. A neighbour of mine has just had a beautiful triple bay L shaped garage with a full second floor built, green oak frame and shiplap timber outside at a very reasonable price, Slate roof and beautiful hardwood barn doors. You haven't put your location on your profile so I guess it depends what the local vernacular is in terms of your house as to whether something like that is aceptable to them.

I think over any distance the thickness of timber that you'd need on a roller door for strength would be prohibitive, at best it would have to be a veneer over steel/aluminium.

 

[dkl1971]

I want the internal space to be as uncluttered as possible to allow a 4 post ramp where I want it but I also need to keep the ridge height down to keep the neighbours happy.
Timber always seems to have internal rafters which take up the space I need.
I looked at an oak frame which was lovely but just didn't quite do what I wanted.
Steel gives a far more uncluttered internal space.

You may well be correct about the timber slats on roller doors. Possibly why I can't find any for sale!
We're in wiltshire - the house is listed but the area isn't conservation. This means all the neighbours have every sort of metal door but that cuts no ice for me sadly

 

[Lippyp]

You can get different types of trusses that minimise intrusion, something like a scissors trust would give you better roof height than a normal truss if you have to go timber framed. I find it somewhat bizzare that they want cedar shingles, a roofing material that is pretty much totally alien to the UK it being a north American roofing material, the UK generally being either slate, tile, tin or thatch. Sometimes it's really hard to fathom out which planet planning officers come from.

http://www.truswood.com/types of roof trusses.htm

 

[dkl1971]

That's useful, thanks Phil.
The house is thatched and that costs enough to redo every so often so I'll steer away from that!
I don't honestly think they would mind what the tiles are as long as they are the real thing. I offered lots of modern, lightweight looky likey products but it was a big fat no.
I'm happy with the idea of shingles. They look ok and are lightweight but I take your point about origin.

 

[dutchgray]

I take it you haven't got the room for a great big pair of sliding steel doors that you could nicely clad with timber.

 

[dutchgray]

Roof wise there is no reason why you cant have tin and rail it for something pretty, just look at how they do solar panels, I would not use ply as the waterproof layer at 12deg as whatever you put on top is bound to leak short of zinc or copper.

 

[dkl1971]

I take it you haven't got the room for a great big pair of sliding steel doors that you could nicely clad with timber.

Possibly - it will be 9.5m by 5.5m so a decent size (for the UK anyway!) I imagine 3 sets of sliding doors could be arranged. Worth looking at.

Roof wise there is no reason why you cant have tin and rail it for something pretty, just look at how they do solar panels, I would not use ply as the waterproof layer at 12deg as whatever you put on top is bound to leak short of zinc or copper.

I have no experience of this but that was my exact thought. Conservation officer thinks otherwise.
I figured that as the roof sheets are fixed onto the underlying frame at the lowest part of the box profile we could simply add a timber batten that was deep enough to be just higher than the highest part of the box profile. These battens would run from apex to eaves. We could then batten at 90 degrees (so across the building) at 12" intervals and fix the shingles to that.
Frankly the shingles would almost be for decoration only.
I'm speaking to a co in Taunton who do steel and timber garages and hope they can make a composite.

 

[dutchgray]

It is a big garage for the UK, there are plenty of houses on smaller foot prints than that, steel frame is the way to go though, they are relatively cheap and very quick to put up. Its worth spending the extra getting it galvanized though, not that they don't last ages anyway, it just makes a nice finish.
I would agree with you on the roof battening method, it will take a bit of time and normally they only fix the high points of the profile but it should work fine.
All the steel buildings I have be involved in were made by Curtis engineering at Frome, who have always been good and these were a couple of farm barns and a few industrial units from 3000 to 10,000 sq feet.

 

[dkl1971]

Frome isn't far so I'll look them up.
Cheers chap.