Suggestions needed on wood panel garage door

[jeffberk]

I have a 1980 built house with an attached garage. The two 9' garage doors are wood framed sections with Masonite panels that in the past few years I've had to selectively cut out and replace due to deterioration. I've added a foil insulation on the inside of the doors to make it a little more hospitable to work in my garage using my overhead heater. I've installed a dual torsion spring to handle the weight of the doors.
I'm trying to decide if I can better insolate the doors using fiberglass or foam or just to replace them. The cost of replacing them would greatly exceed any cost savings associated with heat loss but would cut down on maintenance.
Does anyone have suggestions on what is the best option?

 

[PCustoms]

Modern insulated doors are a 2" metal shell filled with insulation.

Wood doors are 1.5? Inches thick, adding the same insulation to it adds a lot of thickness and weight.

Replacing is the better option overall.

Do you use the doors? If not you could make a temporary wall and insulate that

 

[AC-WC]

Agree with replacing with newer/better insulated.
I did the same as you and had fixed a lot of issues with my old wood doors and the steel insulated function 100% better, 0 problems in 15 yrs, 0 repaints, lighter, windows.
Not cheap in today's money though.

 

[Low Definition]

I also replaced mine when the panels started bowing and were about to fall out. I bought the replacements from Menards. I just looked , you can get a 9x7 insulated door for $539

 

[jeffberk]

Thank you for the quick responses. I think my problem isn't so much money as not wanting to put something in a landfill that still has life left in it. We use our doors a lot. It will be interesting how they handle the hi-lift door.

 

[AC-WC]

Be sure to get the high lift option for the tracks, drums and springs. Retro fitting will be more$ if you don't. Min $1200 w/labor.

 

[Bert_]

I love the look of a rail and stile wood door, much nicer than metal. Especially if it has windows.

With masonite it might be a loosing battle.

You could glue foam to the panels.

 

[reader2580]

A guy I knew is a very good hobby woodworker. He built his own wood garage door out of Ipe I think. The problem is that they look like **** if not refinished every few years. The door looked great when it was freshly refinished, however he got behind for a time and it looked horrible.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

This post just reminds me so much of myself. I fought a pair of flip of garage doors in the garage area of my barn for about 20 years. I had so many braces and extra screws in them by the time I gave up and called the overhead door company....just trying to get them through one more year.

The sales guys came in had it measured in 20 minutes. A couple of days later 2 young men showed up and had the old flip up doors in the back of their truck and new doors installed in less than a day. Best thing ever? They installed garage door openers for me so instead of going out there and wrestling with these flip up monstrosities, I could just push a button and up they'd go.

After all that I wrote a check. That was 10 years ago and I have to say the only mistake I made was fighting those doors for all that time.

This was the old doors. Note that they flip out at the bottom, so in this picture they can't be opened due to the snow.

 

[Steve W.]

Thank you for the quick responses. I think my problem isn't so much money as not wanting to put something in a landfill that still has life left in it. We use our doors a lot. It will be interesting how they handle the hi-lift door.

OK, remove the doors, strip the hardware. Cut the panels into manageable sizes, toss them in the back yard fire pit, roast some marshmallows.

.

 

[CraigStu]

I wasn't even thinking about insulation. Just wanted to keep my wood doors functioning and decent looking. My last step was adding 1/4" panels of plywood on the outside so all the raised panel look was replaced w/ flat smooth panels. Three coats of good exterior paint made that job last another 5 years and then I gave up and called HD. Guy came out first thing in the Am and left before lunch and I had a nice fully insulated metal inside and out 16x7 door w/ windows in the 2nd from the top of 5 panels. Best move I ever made.

 

[jeffberk]

I also replaced mine when the panels started bowing and were about to fall out. I bought the replacements from Menards. I just looked , you can get a 9x7 insulated door for $539

I looked that one up but I was surprised that when you purchase a door it doesn't come with the springs and torsion bar since I thought springs had to be matched to the door's weight. I bring this up because when my standard lift door spring broke 10 years ago, I replaced it with a pair of high duty cycle springs. I installed the high lift door 7 years ago and did the same torque spring upgrade. Since the contractors all include standard duty cycle single springs in their estimate, I feel like I'm downgrading the hardware.
Would it be possible to buy this kit and just replace the door panels and keep my hardware or do I need to somehow match cables and springs to the new door?

 

[Low Definition]

The Menards door comes with everything needed to install. The only thing I bought separately was the bracket for the garage door opener. It comes with a "ez-set" torsion spring that you wind with a drill.

I have 2 doors, on one I installed it as is from menards, on the other I did an install where it follows the roof line and worked with a local company (ddm garage doors) that sold me new springs, cables and high lift drums

 

[finn]

I had those old wood / Masonite doors on our Naperville house. They faced South, and started degrading after ten or fifteen years. I replaced one section, and then a second section a couple of years later. The sections weren’t all that expensive at the time, but by the time the third section needed replacing, the first section replaced was deteriorating.

I got pissed, and called the company that originally installed the door.

I don’t recall them coming out to measure. They may have had the original order on file for all I knew.

A week or two later, they installed a new insulated door and hauled the old one away while I was at work. It was lighter, quieter, and the insulation helped keep the heat in.

it cost less than what I expected.

Best move I ever made. I could have avoided a bunch of wasted effort if I had called them when the first panel went bad.

 

[firebirdparts]

I say replace. Steel is a lot better door. People in this forum routinely post that they spent a lot of money for doors, but 9 x 7 insulated doors that are used for store stock are really pretty cheap (I see $479 but insulated is about$675 ish). They're fun to install.

So I would certainly recommend that. We had those masonite and wood doors too, 40 years ago, and a steel insulated door sure is a lot nicer.

 

[jeffberk]

I guess what I'm going to do after all this input is buy insulated replacement doors likely from HD since they are expecting a sale in March, keep my old hardware and just not tension my old springs as much to compensate for the lighter doors. That way I can avoid downgrading my torsion springs to stock and save the time needed to install new rails, cables, and torsion bar & springs. I'll just sell the new parts I don't use after I verify my old hardware works with the new door.

It looks like if I want a door with a steel face on the inside covering the insulation, its going to run about $1K.

Thank you all for your opinions.

 

[jstroede]

This is a horrible idea. Torsion springs don't work that way. Just use everything that comes with the new doors. If you really want, you can upgrade the springs when they break. Standard torsion springs will be good for 10k-12k cycles generally. The chance of your old springs working on these doors is very low.

John