More questions on home-made wooden garage doors

But without any real connection to the horizontals (there must be a real name for them, stiles?). On a normal door they would be tightly morticed together and the brace(s) notched in. The cladding is then just that decorative cladding, things do change with 3/4" T&G "cladding" but I don't know in what way.

Hinge pins.

Why faff about undoing the crews when you can just lift the door off, maybe? If it closes fully into the frame a scroat wouldn't be able to just lift it. If you stop the screws being removed they'll just angle grind the hinge bands through.

I would use coach bolts on any hinge that you can get to the screws even if the door is flimsy. Breaking a door makes a noise, unscrewing hinges doesn't. It the reason why fences are more of a deterrent than brick walls, you can climb a wall in silence, you cant do that with a fence.

Fit hinge bolts. They stop the door coming out of the frame. Some hinges have interlocking pegs that do a similar job and should be used anywhere the pin is exposed.

PS.... Here is an interesting diagram I found:

Al

Not elliptical nails, but I used these on my shed to fasten the cladding on (used st. st. screws, then about an extra 50% nails so that whole sheets couldn't be removed):

I'm glad I wasn't going mad :-)

I wonder if having verticals is common in part just because it was easier for door makers to build a standard frame which could then accept both horizontal and vertical cladding?

I'm really not sure how old ours are - no older than 60 years, anyway. They're sagging quite a bit, anyway. If yours are an inch thick then there must be quite a bit of weight to them (ours are about that, too).

Sounds like those two hinges you saw are a bit more 'meaty' than the three on each of our doors, though. Our current ones are just screwed, and there are signs of wear in both the pins and screw holes.

long gate hanging from those then the force trying to pull them apart must be considerable; hanging a taller-but-narrower door from them shouldn't tax them too much. Nice hinges, too, although personally I'd go for black ones :-)

The way I always figure it, it's a wooden structure - if someone wants in, they can bash or cut their way in pretty easily anyway. I think I'd just risk it. Like others said, put a final bolt through if you want.

Don't use opposing hinges - with only two, you'll have the entire weight of the door hanging from one hinge. If you want to stop someone lifting the door off, bolt some sort of plate just above the hinge pin that can only be removed from the inside.

cheers

Jules

Was any of the wood pressure-treated? I'm not sure that you can use galvanised with that (I always thought they were OK, but then saw a warning on a box the other day that they weren't suitable for PT lumber).

With plain old fixings, the stuff they use for the treating reacts with the metal and they corrode quickly.

I'm not sure if the same is true of brush-on preservatives, or if it only applies to pressure-treating.

cheers

Jules