someone help john HD with his garage doors!

[john hd]

hey gang,

this has nothing to do with trailers except you can see the rear of my excella in one of the pics. that is why it is in the off topic forum.

just completed redoing the interior of my 100 year old horse barn i use for a garage/shop. i raised the walls 4 inches and completely reframed and insulated the walls.

what i need to do now is build a new set of swinging doors! what i need is some ideas on a design. i refuse to use plastic roll up doors from the home center.

i will build them from scratch... i just need some ideas. any of you out there with vintage buildings? any ideas?

i would really like to to have windows in the top 1/3 of the doors if possible.

any one feel like doing some cut and paste?

photos would be great!

john

here it is... outside and inside

[john hd]

saw this little garage in bellville wisconsin this last week. cute little building, about the same vintage if not a bit older.

i like this set of doors. just looking for others...

john

[Ken J]

My father built doors on our summer house many many years ago - used tongue and groove wood with a "z" on it to hold it all together - kinda hard to describe, but kinda cool looking. I have a client that custom builds doors, I'll see if I can get ideas from them and perhaps send them to you - whats your timeframe? I'm Airstreaming/biking this weekend in Moab, so it will be mid week before I get back.

Ken

[john hd]

hey ken,

that's sounds like what i'm interested in.

the time frame is flexible, mrs. HD would prefer i redeck the front porch before i start this project! she spends most of her time there doing her paintings and birdhouses. i gotta jack the roof up and replace about 50 doug fir boards.

have fun in moab, and send ideas if you get time....no hurry!

john

[Ken J]

I'll do it, if for some reason I forget next week, please remind me - I'll miss Chat night next week too.

Ken

[whistler]

john, i have some photos of old buildings with some nice designed doors. problem is they are not digital, i will try to get them scanned and see how they come out. if they don't i could snail-mail them to you. it will take me a few days, going to grandsons baptisim over the weekend. back mid week, i'll try then. (also will take me some time to find and dig out photos)

whistler

[markjoandall]

John,

I did a lot of research into swinging doors for my barn also. Your barn is different than mine in that you are putting doors on the gable end. My doors are on the eave. You can have your doors swing in or out. When you start building doors of the size nessary to let an AS pass they become very large and subsequently very heavy. The proper hinges then become a problem. You will need three or four hinges on each side that will carry a substantial load. I found some in McMaster Carr. They are not cheap. I think they are over $100 a piece. When I began pricing out swinging doors of the proper thickness and strenght, they were more expensive than custom installed, steel insulated overhead doors. I know overhead doors don't look the same, but you know, they keep the bad stuff out and the good stuff in.

BTY, if you want, I'm willing to part with these hinges for a song. PM me if you're interested.

Mark

[norbert]

john,
very cool doghouse! .....$100 bucks a hinge?....time to set up a forge and learn blacksmithing!
norby

[blucloud]

Morning John,

I've enclosed pic of barn doors I've built. Total cost $100 including hardware and paint. The pic of the doors you like would be easy to adapt to the method I used.

Raining in Ohio,
Dave

[john hd]

mark and dave,

thanks for the responses!

mark, pm me with the details on the hinges if you would. my garage is so small i would never fit any airstream in it except for a 16 footer with 3 feet missing from the top!

dave, are the doors based on plywood? i may consider something similar to help them retain squareness. the ones on the little white garage use the 45 degree framing method, and seemed to be pretty square for thier age.

keep the ideas coming!

you too norby!

john

[john hd]

here is a little more info, sorry for the delay my cdrw drive was giving me fits!

now that i can access the rest of my pics here is one showing a long shot of the house in relationship to the garage.

my place was built around 1906 prior to city water and widespread use of automobiles. hence the need for horses and the barn.

it is two stories as you can see, the loft was used for feed and there is still a chute for tossing hay down. i kept it when i redid the interior just for the novelty and being able to pass large objects between floors.

also during the interior reframing i noticed the remains of stalls and a much narrower left side door. i'm guessing the side the animals were on may have had a dutch door.

when the horse and buggy were replaced in the '20s i imagine the doors were widened for automobiles.

one of my other projects is to run water and sewer out to the right side so i can have a complete "full" hookup! but, that is a few projects down the list...

my nieghbors are still amazed every time i back the excella in!

john

[overlander63]

These are for sale, made to order.
Can you say "Wil-Burrr?"
Terry

[john hd]

terry

hadn't really given dutch doors much thought until you posted the pic.

one nice benefit of them would be that i could have my two dogs out there with me. if i leave them in the back yard they tend to get into trouble with the stray cats in the 'hood!

and yes i can say wiiiiilllbuuuur!

john

[davidz71]

John,
I like your house. It reminds me of my cousin's house when he lived in Conn.

[HP9K]

John - I remember a project that Norm did on "this old house" a few years back. They installed what was basically your standard sectioned overhead door, but on the front of it they applied a wooden facade that looked like the old wooden carriage house doors they were trying to replicate.

They looked just like the old style doors when closed, but you hit the button on the opener and they rolled up just like the modern ones. Each panel was fronted separately, so it still hinged at the right places.

I don't remember the details of how they did it, but I got the impression they were built to be used this way - you might check with the various door companies and see if they make these.

[markdoane]

John,

Here are some ideas. I'm sure you could split the doors in the middle to make them swing. I just think they look nice.

Also, I have a single door hinge you can have if it matches the others. It's a refigerator door hinge from an ice cream truck. Brand new.

[john hd]

hp9k,

i have seen the doors you describe and remember that episode of this old house. my only problem is head room, the ceiling is about 7 feet, if i went with roll up doors i'd be banging my head on them!

don, thanks for the offer on the hinge. i would just need to find about eleven more just like it. there is a medium duty truck dismantler near me. perhaps i could find some just like it on a schwanns truck. they certainly look heavy duty!

craig, thanks for the compliment!

john

[silver suz]

Our old barn has doors which hang from wheeled rollers on a heavy metal track. If you have enough room, the doors (and these are heavy ones) slide to the side where they are out of the way. Even the horse's doors slide from these upper tracks, and dont take much energy to push to the side. They are not fixed on the bottom. In a bad wind there are simple latches on the side to keep the doors flapping. It was built in 76. silver suz and no pics are not possible yet, but will be in another week or too.!!!

[Cruiser]

Here's a photo from a garage door website for some more ideas.
http://www.designerdoors.com/
Doug