Learn me: Garage doors

I need to learn about garage doors. I've never used a garage for actual parking so I've never though about them too much. I've got a 16 foot opening into a 24 foot wide space. The ceiling in the garage is going to be 12 feet tall. One side of the garage will be used for daily parking by my wife, the other will have a lift of some sort and will be used for work, in theory.
Do I do one big door or two smaller ones? I can't see any reason to go above 9 feet high, but maybe there is? What makes a garage door good and what makes one a pain?
Teach me all things garage door.

Since you already have a 16 foot opening, get a 16 foot door. If you were to install two smaller ones you'd have to put a center post in there.

If you intend on installing a lift, the door should have a high mounted track so the door will be as close to the ceiling as possible when it's opened - otherwise it will be in the way of the lift.

16' x 7' high is a standard size door at the big box stores, but you can get them 8' or 9' high as well.

Personally I'd get one full-width door. I think it'd be cheaper, but also, it makes getting things in and out easier if those things don't run and drive on their own. Other than that, spend the coin for a good garage door opener. I'm going to replace my craftsman turd with this. They have a lifetime warranty and are super quiet.

Two 7' doors will have two extra 7' edges for potential heat loss.

following this w/ interest

hope to build new next spring/ summer

For an opener, assuming you have a torsion spring operated door the hot setup is the Liftmaster 3800: http://www.liftmaster.com/lmcv2/pages/productmodeldetail.aspx?modelId=19724

It mounts on the end of the torsion rod, which eliminates having anything overhead that will get in the way of a lift. This photo shows one, it also shows a high mounted track that gets the opened door up as high as possible.

SkinnyG wrote: Two 7' doors will have two extra 7' edges for potential heat loss.

I'm in south east Texas, heat loss isn't a major concern. Cold loss on the other hand......
Being able to cool the space off is a priority though, and that's one of the reasons I was thinking of two smaller doors. Every time my wife goes in or out that's going to be a really big hole for all of my cold to rush out. Would there be any practical difference between a 16 foot wide hole and an 8 foot wide hole for the time it takes to enter or exit the building? The 16 footer would make it much easier to get in and out though.
Also, I really have 17 feet of space, so I could get away with the center post and still make it work. I think.

Watching woody install the lift master and the high tracks is what really got me thinking about doors. It looks like a really slick setup.

Given options, don't go for the torsion type spring, it'll remove teeth faster than an all night dentist. The closed loop pull type springs are readily available at Big Box stores; inexpensive and can be installed by you and I.

Get the 9' door!! I have a 7' door and my Transit Connect just barely fits( less than 1" clearance). The garage where I store my Focus also has a 7"door but the trim is low enough that I can't get the TC in the garage when I go to swap them around. I had a roof mount Amateur Radio antenna on my F-150 and had to take it off every time I wanted to put the truck in the garage.

Thanks for the spring advice. This is the sort of thing I hadn't really thought about. Garage doors have always just sort of been there and worked, so I didn't think much about them.
I'm leaning toward a 9 foot door. I know 7 is too short, and if I'm going to step up to 8 I might as well go 9 and make sure it's tall enough for a four wheel drive van. Just in case.

A single door will be cheaper than two doors. Less hardware, single opener, less rubber gaskets, etc...

And it will be more functional, because you won't have a piece of wall between your doors.

I would get as high and wide as possible. You don't have to open it all the way if you want to keep a bit more air in.

And get the tracks as close to the ceiling as possible. Leaves more room and makes it easier to get rid of bad air (dusty, full of fumes, etc...) that might be trapped at the top of the garage.

I used to have two separate standard (9x7 high) size garage doors at my first house. It was a pain. The wall section between the two doors always seemed to be in the way, and as other already mentioned, there are more rubber gaskets to leak hot (or cold) air from. Also, if you want it to be functional, you will need two openers which means more money.

I now have a 14'x9' high single door at my new house and I am much happier. In fact, it could have been 16' and it would have been better. Also, my door was build with the same hardware as the smaller single doors and it is at the limit. I've had to replace two track wheels already and another one is on the way.

The act of installing torsion springs may be dangerous to the person installing them, if they don't know what they're doing, but once they're installed they're fine.

I like the idea of having no track above the door, but I think I've heard that they have some reliability issues? For that reason I think I'd personally buy for Sommer unit.
No springs to replace, only one moving part, lifetime warranty.
Does anyone have a Liftmaster that can speak to it's reliability?

Get the biggest, best insulated door you can possibly afford. Its one of those things that is a huge waste of time and money to upgrade at a later date.

Same with a lift (when you get one). Sure, you may not own anything over 6000 lbs. NOW, but who is to say you don't get into off-roading in 5 years. You'll need to get that lifted Suburban through the door and up in the air somehow, right?

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Get the biggest, best insulated door you can possibly afford. Its one of those things that is a huge waste of time and money to upgrade at a later date. Same with a lift (when you get one). Sure, you may not own anything over 6000 lbs. NOW, but who is to say you don't get into off-roading in 5 years. You'll need to get that lifted Suburban through the door and up in the air somehow, right?

I have big garage doors

The day you, your wife or kid scrape the car on the center post you'll regret it. Get one big door.

You don't have an entry door? For Tx style heat, I'd consider what you're going to do when you run inside for a beer (you will want to buy a garage fridge), talk to the wife, get BBQ timing instructions, etc. A "man door" or entry door will be good juju no matter what garage door you get. Go high and insulated on the garage door. I'm using a 5000 btu window a/c unit to cool my 16x20 two story garage, and it does just fine- I've got an insulated door and walls/ceiling are also insulated. Check into the Depot/Lowes cheap installation deals. Got mine installed for $150 or something- this from the guy who did everything when building my garage. Will get one more for the actual "cool", but dehumidify function is 100% appreciated in NoVA.

Teh E36 M3 wrote: You don't have an entry door? For Tx style heat, I'd consider what you're going to do when you run inside for a beer (you will want to buy a garage fridge), talk to the wife, get BBQ timing instructions, etc. A "man door" or entry door will be good juju no matter what garage door you get. Go high and insulated on the garage door. I'm using a 5000 btu window a/c unit to cool my 16x20 two story garage, and it does just fine- I've got an insulated door and walls/ceiling are also insulated. Check into the Depot/Lowes cheap installation deals. Got mine installed for $150 or something- this from the guy who did *everything* when building my garage. Will get one more for the actual "cool", but dehumidify function is 100% appreciated in NoVA.

Judging by this I'd say there's a walk-through door also:

Definitely stick with a single door. I went back and forth on ours that we're building and eventually decided to go with two 9' wide doors, but this is on new construction, and there's still drawbacks. Stick with the 16' wide opening. One door means no center post, only one set of hardware to buy/install, only one opener, etc etc.

Whatever you buy, make sure its good quality. Overhead doors are so cheap, there is no reason to have less than the best, and a cheap 16' door will sag in the middle pretty quickly.

There is the side entrance plus there is a 10 foot wide opening in back. That will be the bicycle/lawnmower door so the kids aren't trying to move bikes past the cars and running into them.
Aussie: how tall is that? Could it fit through a 9 foot door? Not that I want one, but I kind of want one.

I dont want to be a downer but if you DO ever get into large vehicles, your 12ft ceiling is going to crimp your lift fun unless you roll around on a stool (which is legit, ive done it at work even when i didnt have to!).

Otherwise, this is pretty exciting. This is all semi-relevant to me as im scheming to build a metal building which will include my car work space.

DrBoost wrote: I like the idea of having no track above the door, but I think I've heard that they have some reliability issues? For that reason I think I'd personally buy a Sommer unit. No springs to replace, only one moving part, lifetime warranty. Does anyone have a Liftmaster that can speak to it's reliability?

You may be thinking of Wayne Dalton - they used to sell an opener called the I-Drive that operated off the torsion rod, but it was famously unreliable and was discontinued a couple years ago.

stuart in mn wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I like the idea of having no track above the door, but I think I've heard that they have some reliability issues? For that reason I think I'd personally buy a Sommer unit. No springs to replace, only one moving part, lifetime warranty. Does anyone have a Liftmaster that can speak to it's reliability?

You may be thinking of Wayne Dalton - they used to sell an opener called the I-Drive that operated off the torsion rod, but it was famously unreliable and was discontinued a couple years ago.

I think you're right. Wayne Dalton sounds familiar.

Wider is better. Ever try to back a trailer in a garage, when the trailer is about 1 inch narrower than the opening? Men mightier than I might not have a problem with it, but I want the thing to be as wide as possible.