Worth trying to replace panels on an old garage door?

Sigh- Mother Nature and her nasty boyfriend Entropy continue to kick my ass, just to see the look on my face. My house is reverting to the component elements it was made from, and the decay curve is getting steeper.

Top of the list at the moment- Wayne Dalton 2-car garage door, maybe 25 YO, the entry-level model, with masonite skins over cedar and styro core. A similar-looking model is still on their web page. On the bottom panel, the masonite is disintegrating, starting in the lower corners. Stared at it awhile, and think I need to replace the stop mold, probably with the plastic stuff with the attached weather flap, and caulk the crap out of the weather edge of the crack.

Anyway, the rest of the door and the hardware is in tolerable, but not great, shape. (Just replaced torsion springs a couple years ago when one broke.) Is there a chance anyone will carry replacement panels at a reasonable price, including Actual Expert installation? Or would it be better to bite the bullet and replace the whole damn thing? (Preferably with something more weather resistant.) Note that inside faces and edges were never painted or otherwise finished, and there are water trails where it leaks through when door is cycled in wet weather.

To tide me over for a few months, I frosted the failed areas like a birthday cake with outdoor-rated wood putty, and threw some paint at it. But my gut tells me it is gonna look like crap again come spring. Yes, I know, epoxy or bondo would probably have worked better, but the putty was cheap, and the short open time on epoxy or bondo would have meant doing tiny sections at a time.

Not looking for fancy, just looking for blue-collar presentable, since I hope to sell this place within next five years or so.

Reply to
aemeijers
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See if the company "Overhead Garage Door Company" Is in your area. I have used them on 2 homes. Insulated colored aluminum covering. I bought 18 ' x

8' for our needs. Garage stays at 40 plus degrees in the winter with no heat. (Colorado) Main company is in Colorado springs Colorado but they have franchises in other places. WW
Reply to
WW

Yeah, Overhead is around here- that is who changed my springs. And they would be the first place I would call. But I am trying to do this on the cheap, and wanted to gain some knowledge before I wasted their estimator's time. Around how much did your doors cost, installed? And were they new construction (which is usually cheaper) or rip'n'replace jobs?

Reply to
aemeijers

Reply to
Michael B

If the framing/stiles of the door are in good condition, I would just make some new panels and use them to replace the masonite panels. That is what my son and I are planning on doing to one of his garage doors that is 40 years old where the masonite is bowed out and disintegrating. The plastic stop mold with the flap is great, I put it on my garage door last fall and the garage was much warmer this past winter. Before you could see daylight around the door, now it is totally black and no drafts. Highly recommend doing the stop even if you don'e do the actual door itself.

Reply to
hrhofmann

LMAO...

If you replace the sections, they need to be the same weight as the old ones for spring compatibility. You should have no problem finding an installer to do it. I would not call Overhead Door as someone said, they are mostly commercial and cost more $$$ than an independent installer.

Reply to
G. Morgan

"G. Morgan" wrote

Yes, Overhead does a lot of commercial work, but in my case, they were cheaper than the independent.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

"aemeijers" wrote

Kind of stuck there. A patch job will get you by for a year or two, but in five, may really look like crap. The question is, then, what is the payback?

Buy a new door now and take advantage of a nice door until you sell, and get a higher sales price and easier sale. Versus. A door that is in poor shape and the buyer know he will have to replace it in a year or two.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

New construction. If I recall about $1200.00. These are larger than normal doors as our Sportsmobile van is over 7 feet tall and Iprefer a wider width door. WW

Reply to
WW

Right now, based on recent sales of similar houses in the neighborhood, house is worth slightly less than I paid for it. (although, since it was a starter-class house, I'm not upside down like the drywall McMansion owners around here are.) Already replaced roof and furnace and added insulation, before housing market tanked, since those start paying back immediately. Along with garage door, need rip and replace on siding and driveway and back deck and various inside things, but have held off since they would never pay back at resale, other than making house faster and easier to sell. On a (maybe) 120k house, 5k here and 10k there starts to add up very quickly, compared to on a 220k+ house, where you would not even hesitate. Basic structure of house is in fine shape, but at 50 years for original house, and 25? years for addition, the little stuff is purely starting to nickel and dime me to death.

Reply to
aemeijers

Locally they are significantly better priced than many local independents. - and they sure know their stuff - unlike the Bozos you get from the "borg"

Reply to
clare

If the siding is sound, a good coat of paint can improve the curb appeal significantly, for a small investment. Use the best paint you can get - the cost of the paint is small potatoes compared to the labour involved to do it (again). My 38 year old aluminum siding was dent free, but the colour had pretty well washed off in some areas - so a few gallons of Benjamin Moore's best was applied and it looks like brand new.

Reply to
clare

On 8/31/2011 2:48 PM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote: (snip)

Sadly the siding is not sound- it is that horrible OSB imitiation of T1-11. Along with the garage door, I also puttied up most of the 'bullet holes' the drive-by woodpecker gangs left in siding, mistaking the voids in the OSB layers for the tunnels bugs leave under the bark of a tree. They have also made large holes in my wooden chimney, which I have screwed wooden patches over. I've had a few siding companies out for estimates- only people in town that admit they do (woodpecker-proof) Hardie-Panel didn't seem to want the work- quoted me 16k, which is a non-starter. All the other guys acted befuddled when I told them I did NOT want the usual vinyl with coil-stock covers on the window and door frames. 'But that is what everyone wants!' (I hate vinyl- more power to the people that like theirs, but I hate the way it looks.) I had the place painted a couple years after moving in, with good SW paint and what looked like adequate prep work- $2600. It is failing already, on sunward side. Checking and splitting all over the place. I know what the proper cure is- strip existing fake T1-11, and replace with the real plywood stuff, properly primed and painted on all edges and properly Z-flashed, etc, etc. But even if that comes in a couple thousand lower than Hardie, I just can't make the dollars work unless housing market recovers soon.

Anybody make vertical plank vinyl that doesn't look like vinyl? The windows would end up looking funny unless I could find an artisan to extend the outer part of jambs, but skinning the existing stuff is probably more in my price range.

/frustrated rant mode off

Reply to
aemeijers

If you've got the crappy OSB stuff the ONLY solution is to strip it and replace it. Good aluminum siding IS still available - but pricy. Vinyl is a non-starter for me too - which is why I repainted my aluminum.My hose is brick on the first story and garage front - aluminum siding on the upper floor and side and back of the garage.

All my windows were replaced with vinyl - frame out - so no crappy aluminum capping there - but the patio door was done as an "insert" so the old wood frame there is capped. Had it re-done last summer as the original job was shoddy and over 20 years old.

A lot of places around here are getting the acrylic stucco treatment in place of traditional siding - and on some houses it really looks good.

Reply to
clare

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