Prefabricated Garage Kits

In the process of building a barn to house a truck workshop, I was a little unclear on the type of garage door that I wanted.

The first choice was the type of garage door that rolls up overhead. This type of door could have been included in the steel garage kit but the price of the doors was too much for what I was willing to pay.

So I went on the hunt for some used garage doors. There were never any that suited my needs. Several years before I had found some great wooden garage doors that only had some rot at the bottom.

With a little bit of ingenuity and a table saw, I was able to make some replacement parts for the garage doors and they worked perfectly.

With the barn, however, the roll up aspect limited the amount of overhead space that I would have when they were installed.

The type of construction that was chosen for the building was so that there would be plenty of overhead space, so garage doors that eliminated that would be out of the question.

I had noticed this type of problem in my father’s garage. Anytime anything needed to be jacked up it would require the door to be closed.

It became necessary for me to make my own garage doors. I had decided on the type that would swing out into the yard.

To help with the stress on the parts of the doors, each opening for the garage door had two garage doors for them. This means that there are four garage doors for every two garage openings.

Where I began was with the fabrication of the frame for each door. I used one inch tubing. The frame was made to fit inside the opening for the garage door. The frame was faced with corrugated steel. This type of sheeting goes along well with the rest of the finish on the garage.

The frame of the door was welded using joints at the corners and a brace going diagonally from the hinge up to the corner on the opposite side. The doors, once they were completed, were flexible so that they could withstand a strong wind and solid enough to keep the building secure.

For some extra security, I added a lock to the sides of the garage doors where they joined. A padlock will lock them to each other.

The materials for this project only cost around two hundred dollars. This is enough material to cover two openings that measured ten by ten. They are easy enough to open so there is no need of an electric door opener.

This would have been necessary with a roll up garage door. For the amount of money that was spent on materials, I would not have been able to find a used door.

These barn doors are very good for the purposes that I required. They keep the elements out of the garage and allow me to lock up my tools at night.

I am able to get vehicles in and out without any trouble and there is still a good amount of overhead space.