I want to build some carriage doors to replace a worn out garage door. I was planning to build two doors 4 feet wide each to fill in the 8 foot space of the existing garage door. What kind of wood should I use for the frame? I was thinking about using mortise & tenon joints with dowels in the tenons. Is there anything that I could get at home depot to use for this?
thanks, Bob
Probably clear fir or white oak would be my choice.
Oak would be your best bet,,,,
Randy
What kind of climate? When I lived in Veracruz (hot & steamy) cedro was the wood of choice. Come to think of it, there *wasn't* much choice :)
Generally (as others said), clear fir or white oak should work OK but there are others...black locust, cedro, (Spanish cedar), mahogany, et al.
Any need to be maintained and if well maintained most any wood will work OK.
Much as it would be a lot of fun building these replacement doors, think I would pass.
Today's product, build with modern materials, is s....................o superior in terms of wear, thermal insulating properties, etc, etc.(Urethane foam is a great insulator).
If I would actually build them, Houndouras Mahogany would be first choice, white oak 2nd.
Lew
I'm assuming you must live in a more nearly tropical climate than I do. I have a pair of carriage doors (that swing out) on my garage, which swing outward as usual, and it makes it pretty much useless in the winter. Snow from the (metal) roof slides down in front of them, and it's far more work to shovel out the garage enough to get the doors open and drive in or out than it is to simply clear off the car. If I weren't renting, I'd very seriously look into an overhead door, even given the very low headroom in my garage. Although there would still be shoveling, it would not need to get down to within a half inch of the ground, nor cover so broad of an area to provide clearance for the doors. Naturally, in an area that gets little or no snow, that's not a concern.
However, in answer to your question, my main suggestion is to make sure you think about sagging. If it were me, I'd base the doors around a plywood (with an appropriate surface treatment of grooves or battens or whatever) with some sort of an attached frame. Failing that, I'd at least make sure there was a diagonal brace built into the frame of the door running upwards from the hinge side to the center. Wood in compression works a lot better to prevent sagging than wood in tension--or, perhaps more accurately, the joints at the ends are a lot easier to keep from working loose and allowing sagging.
I have built many, many sets of these using that exact method. Down here in south Texas there have been mroe carport/parking pad to garage conversions than you could imagine. Since we don't get snow or ice except as an oddity, there are many of these conversions everywhere in the city.
When I build this style of double doors, they are hung no large strap hinges (three each side) and I put a small wheel on each door to roll (if it opens onto a driveway or concrete) to make sure there is no unnecessary downward force to make the door sag. You won't believe how much difference that little wheel will make.
I have never built any large set of doors from anything other than a hard yellow pine frame covered with plywood or siding, with the appropriate bracing as described above. Never had a problem, and in fact the doors I built for my parents this way 30+ years ago are still in fine shape since they have been painted as needed.
One aspect overlooked when building these is to make sure that the door is secured in place when closed and cannot move around too much. I use a foot bolt (usually found as a "cane bolt") and a sliding bolt as a head bolt to make sure both top and bottom are secure. They won't warp of you put a bolt on top and bottom. The middle is secured by a twist hasp, or in some cases (remember, very stable with a small wheel) I use a stainless lockset.
Robert
True mortise and tenon with pegs.
The lower panel is marine ply and is glued into a plow for racking strength.
Tom Watson tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
Agree all the way.
Jeez, your profile isn't helpful. Which end of the Self family are you stuck with?
Cheers, Charlie
Spring behind the wheel to account for driveway surface irregularity?
Absolutely. Works like a champ.
Robert
In our area years ago the traditional wood for barn doors was willow, fairly light weight and good in the weather. my great grandfather built many of the post beam, gambrel (sp) roof style barns in the area back at the turn of the century. ross
The only thing I'd add is to consider loose tenon joinery. Norm used that method to build a large entry door, and said he got the technique from a door shop. In any case, when working on a large scale, I would think loose tenons are easier to do accurately than standard mortise and tenon joinery (if you're Tom Watson, of course, that statement may not apply...) Eric
Cedar, cypress, redwood, teak, mahogany all will take the weather well. None are available in 8/4 thickness at HomeDepot, to my knowledge, but maybe you can special order... Oak and maple are 'sweet' woods - they'll get black with mildew very easily.
The rails and stiles will need strength that red cedar and redwood cannot provide, both to hold at the tenons and to tolerate the force on the hinge attachment points. Yellow cedar might be good.
Sometimes a Z-frame (horizontal battens and a diagonal brace) is a good choice for structure, and only the facing will show with the doors closed. Hinges attach directly to the strong battens.
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