Garage doors for maximum height

[Chris Green]

I have bought a new (to me) tractor and to my pleasant surprise the cab is lower than the ROPS system of my old tractor and thus the new tractor will fit into my garage if I change the up and over door for something providing more clearance.

The doorway has a Catnic lintel which defines the headroom, at present there's a wooden doorframe below the Catnic which reduces the height by a couple of inches, I *may* have to remove this to get the required clearance but I hope not.

So what are my options for something that will not reduce the clearance at the top of the doorway?

Obviously I could have plain swing doors on hinges and these can be bought not too expensively but they always seem to get tatty and wobbly fairly quickly. Are there any that are robust and last well and would fit with top flush to a Catnic lintel?

I think the other possibility is a roller door, there is only about

300mm clearance between the top of the doors and the rafters though, are there roller doors that will fit in this space?

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, Chris Green [e-mail] writes

If you are only looking for a couple of inches... could you slot or lower the entrance?

[Steve Walker]

I am sure I have seen roller doors where guides fit to the front of the building rather than inside or in the opening and the roller mechanism is contained in a neat housing that sits on the outside as well - like some shops' roller shutters.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Hah, yes, see

for a couple of examples (down at the bottom of the page).

SteveW

[Tricky Dicky]

I have a roller door on my garage and the mechanism housing is 300mm tall and protrudes inside by the same amount. The drop on the door is 2m which I know for you is probably only half what you need but when rolled up there is not much space in the housing maybe get another roll on it at a push. At a guess to roll up say a 4m drop I would say you are looking at a housing at least 400 X 400mm taking into account that as the roll circumference increases more of the vertical drop is accounted for.

Richard

[Chris Green]

No, the existing up-and-over door eats up too much headroom, I need just about the whole height below the Catnic, maybe a couple of inches to spare.

[Chris Green]

I only need a tiny bit over 2m, it's only a compact tractor! :-)

I have just on 300mm clearance inside above the door so yours would probably work for me. What make is it?

[Chris Green]

I just looked at the existing (up-and-over) door, if it was a simple hinged door there would be enough clearance, it's the door hanging in its open position that reduces the clearance too much.

Has anyone ever converted an up-and-over to hinges? It's a fairly crude and simple galvanised door. I think it will be stiff enough, I could add some bracing if necessary. What else might be significant in trying to do this?

[Jeff Layman]

Autoroll do similar ones - mechanism inside or outside if required. I've had mine 6 years without any problems at ll.

[Chris Green]

A further possibility would be to convert from the existing 'canopy' style door to a 'retractable' one which (if I understand them right) takes a lot less vertical space. Does anyone have any idea where/how I can find retractable door mechanisms sold by someone who actually knows the answers to these sorts of questions?

[T i m]

<snip>

Nearly. I converted an up-and-over *doorway* to one with hinges by making a new frame from angle and a tri-fold door set from box section steel and steel sheet for the infill.

The main 'frame' was just the sides and the top (with some lighter stuff across the bottom), made from 100 x 100 x 10mm steel angle and so it only intruded into the opening by 10mm on the height (the lower frame is recessed into the ground). The right hand door pair fold to the right and that leaves me a personal door on the left to keep the heat in if I'm working in there. ;-)

It wasn't a particularly 'easy' project but it works very well for my needs.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. the up-and-over door my pre-fab-concrete garage came with was 8' square and because so I only need just over 6' (6' 6") for the personal door I put a bar across at that height and some skylights above (one fixed, two opening). I did consider making that hinge up from the bottom to give me the full height but as I have things suspended from the roof (like material stock and folding boats) there probably wouldn't be much point. ;-)

[NY]

Why is it that garages are still made with the doorway significantly narrower than the garage itself? There's no advantage in a garage being wide enough to open the car doors if you risk scraping the paint off the wings every time you try to get the car in and out of the garage.

Likewise, a lot of double garages have two single doors (*) with a dirty great brick plinth between them, when a good RSJ or concrete lintel should be able to allow a double-width door. OK, a double door is heavier but that just means it needs heavier counterweights or stronger counter-springs.

(*) So there is no advantage over two separate single garages.

[Tricky Dicky]

Chris the manufacturer of my door is Autoroll UK Ltd.

Richard

[T i m]

I don't know. Mine was 8' and the garage is 10' and I'm not sure how many cars are 8' wide? ;-)

But I agree with many modern / narrow garages the doors being even

*narrower* doesn't help (or is it that garages are the same with they have always been and cars are getting wider).

Quite.

One (big) door would make sense to me if you still had a personal door, weren't on the high road and didn't want to display the entire contents to any passer by?

Cheers, T i m

[Tricky Dicky]

I think most of the roller door manufacturers will offer custom sizes 8' being the standard. My garage manufacturer offered custom door widths and they used Autoroll UK. I had mine widened to 9' because I have to approach the garage forwards at a slight angle and have to straighten up once partially inside.

Richard

[GB]

How about this?:

1. Keep the existing doors.
2. Get an air pump.
3. Reduce tyre pressures.
4. Drive in.
5. Pump up tyres again.

And vice versa coming out again. Depending on how often you are parking the tractor, this may be a lot less work than changing the doors.

[Chris Green]

:-) You could be right, though the tractor is quite busy at times.

Anyway, thanks everyone for all the ideas, I'm still considering options and welcome all input.

[GB]

See around 1:40 onwards

[Rob Morley]

You beat me to it. :-)