Garage door with embedded man door? (scheming for more garage space)

Has anybody here used a man door embedded in a garage door on a regular basis? How different was the function compared to a normal man door? Was it clunky to use?

I am contemplating converting part of our finished walk out basement into more garage space. Issue is we need a man door for primary access in and out of the house - multiple times per day. There's no room for a garage door plus a separate man door. The garage door function would be used occasionally when the race car needs in or out, but the man door will be used all the time.

Existing door is a 3ft door with 3ft fixed sidelights on either side, so the total wall opening is 9ft wide. Idea is to replace that with a garage door with man door built in.

Example of product I'm interested in, except a low threshold version:

Well, it's made of 4 pieces that have to fold and roll up, then somehow function as a single door. 
 

I've never seen one that wasn't clunky. 

If you have an opener and a button on each side, a garage door is big enough for most men.

What about one of the carriage-style doors?  Seems like it'd be easier to put a swinging door inside a swinging door.

I've looked into those in the past to solve problems. 

I find lots of pretty pictures. A couple companies that wouldn't list prices on their web site, and a lot of people who liked the idea, but never anything from anyone who actually owned one.

I hear that style is more popular in Europe, but I've never talked to anyone that actually owns one. 

I'll follow along in case there's new info in this thread

In reply to SV reX :

I've never actually seen a 4 piece door with a door in it. Very dumb plan, but I guess somebody has built most anything!

My mind went straight to the old one piece garage doors that lift... had their own idiosyncraticsy's, and adding the weight of a walk through door might be to much. But that's where I'd look into first. 
I've only used/seen them in industrial settings. All in sliding(rolling) huge doors. Hanger size and larger. 
A double swing out carriage door could work out, with a walk through in one side?

In reply to RevRico :

I've had friends and family with sliding or two piece barn doors on garages. All got replaced along the way with 4 piece, so...

I don't get it. If you are going in and out a ton then just raise the main door and leave it up. If you are not going in and out frequently, just hit the button and walk out the main door and then put it back down. 

Plus wherever you have this man door will inevitably be the place where you accidentally piled a bunch of stuff or parked the car on the way so you can't use it anyway lol.

I'm a big fan of garage designs and stuff but I can't see I've ever been to a garage that has anything like this. 

The jobber store I worked at decades ago has one (the building is still there), but it is in a large metal roll-up door.   It was a bit janky and didn't seal well.  However, that part of the building wasn't conditioned, so sealing wasn't a consideration.   How it "worked" was by basically adding hinges on each side of the door opening edges.  It didn't have the step-over as in the picture. IIRC, the base plate was flat steel welded to each side of the main door, which seemed to work well enough to tie the main door aligned. 

While I can mentally envision how to make a man door within an existing garage door work, I would rather have a carriage door mainly because those should be easier to seal than a garage door.  Of course, the question is how often you plan to use the door.  A carriage door could be annoying if you have to open the door every day.  But once a week or so to get a project in/out might be ok to live with. 

I may install something like a door in a door in the back of my garage.  I can have a man door, carriage doors, or this - but there isn't space for a man door and a garage door.

In reply to sevenracer :

Basement... So I am assuming there is minimal overhead clearance.

How about a large sliding door, with a man door in it?   Is there space to one or both sides?  This could essentially be a wall hanging on barn door hardware.  The man door would be significantly less janky.

SV reX said:

Well, it's made of 4 pieces that have to fold and roll up, then somehow function as a single door. 
 

I've never seen one that wasn't clunky. 

That's been my experience as well.  Clunky, kind of junky and after a few years leaky.

For what it's worth we use one of the overhead doors in my shop as our primary entrance to the house.  I don't like letting out all the heat when it opens in the winter but other than that it's perfectly OK.

A bit of context, my wife is ok converting the space, but she still wants quick/easy access in/out and a traditional garage door doesn't fit the bill for her.

Regardless, I got a surprisingly fast response for a quote and price is ~$5k with a 22 week lead time, sooo... not really an option.

The new race car is ~75 inches wide with non folding mirrors. I had considered getting a set of 78 or 80 inch french doors, but those don't seem to be a standard offering. Plus I'm sure the threshold isn't really designed to take the weight of a car rolling over it.

Barn style sliding doors don't fit the bill either.

Most likely a hinged carriage door is the best option, though an offset split seems like a custom or semi-custom configuration. So, maybe not much better on price or lead time than the crazy door in a door (insert Xzibit meme here) 

Something sort of like this:

Just use the overhead door, and program it to auto-close after 30-60 seconds. If you are still walking through it, the electric eye will keep it open. 
 

It will leak less energy than the janky man door.

In reply to sevenracer :

my 9' wide boat house doors wind up being only 4&1/2 feet wide each.  Easy access by swinging one door at a time.   
 Open both and there is your garage door. 
  Want a easier option than custom made doors?  ( took me a week to make )  hang a regular door on the dominant side.  Then build a panel on hinges on the opposite side.  Dead bolts top and bottom and Bob's your uncle. 

In reply to frenchyd :

If the widths work out, I like F's doors. One door wider than other is a great plan. Like him, I would build my own, but time vs money vs tools, etc. 

In reply to 03Panther :

Thank you

       What I found out is you can usually pay for tools/equipment  with the cost difference between buying things and making things. 
If you buy good quality  tools not only will you get a better job but sell them for much more on the secondary market when finished. 

In reply to frenchyd :

You are welcome. That doors are beautiful. 
I hope the OP understand the rest of my post, you missed the point entirely.  
You are correct on the tool quality importance, and cost, just not what I meant. 

My garage has three doors. They were made of wood and were about 75 yrs old. I change the design a bit when drawing up the print. I had them made out of aluminum tubing with foam insulation on the inside with sheet aluminum moulded over the frame. The man door is hinged on one side as usual but the other two are hinged together to swing as one but can be swung together. 

Nice doors Frenchy and MyMiatas!

This will definitely be a buy not build situation for me. Need to reach out to some vendors and see what they offer.

Call up local door installers.   Since a lot of them do custom work you can have it done  for you. 

Paging toyman as door expert in residence. 

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

Not sure he can help. He does commercial automated doors. 

What about doors like car dealerships have?  They have basically this exact use case scenario.  

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

Super expensive. (I build car dealerships)

SV reX said:

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

Super expensive. (I build car dealerships)

Whats expensive?  I see them in the $3k to $6k range - A decent insulated garage door plus the opener wouldnt be too far behind and to add the geegaws of an opening man door would likely push you close.  Gotta pay to play I guess.