# Garage Shop Owners - Has Anyone Ever.......



## BelleCityWW (May 28, 2007)

Have any of you Garage Shop Woodworkers ever removed your overhead door and closed in the opening? If so, got any pictures? I am looking for ideas for shedding the overhead door and filling it in with an insulated wall with a double door entrance or something like that.

Thanks!
John


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## DMIHOMECENTER (Mar 5, 2011)

I've done it for others. They liked it.

I have considered doing it for myself. My main concerns are two things: 1) In my case I would need/want to saw- cut the concrete drive on both sides of the new door so that it looked like it never was a garage door. 2) I loathe pinned one side double doors because they do not seal well, but with a t-astragal I would not have the use of the full 5 or 6 feet of width. If I do it, I will have a 4' wide single door made.


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## cjwillie (Sep 6, 2011)

Sorry I can't post any pics but I closed in an overhead door. I had two 7×9 overhead doors and removed one. Frame it in to match your exterior wall. I put in an insulated steel 36" door close to the remaining overhead door which leaves me with some useable wallspace to the corner. I used 3" screws on all my framing in case I ever want to put the other door back. Insulate the hell out of it. It makes a huge difference having the small door to get in and out without opening that big door and losing all my heat.


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## lysdexic (Mar 21, 2011)

I have done this but I'm certainly planning on it. I've got a 3 bay with a 1 bay and 2 bay overhead door. There is NO other exterior door which drives me crazy. I am planning on framing the single bay so that it can be easily reversed (as cj suggests) and putting the disassembled door in the crawl space.

One thing that I look forward to is getting rid of the overhead tracks so I can place a ceiling fan.


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## BentheViking (May 19, 2011)

Interesting post…I have another post going here and this is a bit of extra things to think about in relation to that


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## lysdexic (Mar 21, 2011)

This idea has been a hard sell to the wife. I cam understand her point but…..

There is no outside access other the overhead doors. The family has a habit of raising the door and leaving them open all day. Even when the weather is nice like now all the leaves blow in and the bugs love the lights. The Mosquitos like me.

I know that I will never pull my truck into the single bay as long as I own the house.

It has to be easily reversible.

My garage door has no windows and the hinged door would thus allowing more natural light.

When the weather is too hot or too cold I still have two large "warm" walls and when the garage door goes up it gets cold real quick.

To me it is a no brainer


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## tom427cid (Aug 21, 2011)

It's not a garage(was used as one) it's a barn. Had barn doors,they were a bit draftylol. I found a salvage place and bought two 36" entry doors with side lights and built a casing inside of the original opening.I normally only use one door but once in a while it's nice to have a 72" opening. I left the barn doors so now in the cold weather it seems to break the wind and keep draughts to a minimum.
tom


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Thats a idea, John.


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## brianhavens (Nov 23, 2009)

I have been kicking around this idea for a long time. In my case, I would replace the rollup with a double set of carriage doors. I would have done this long ago, except that I am not sure how much longer we will be in this home. I got the idea for the approach I would use from Fine Woodworking issue #216, Winter 2010/2011. As this method is potentially reversible, simply filling the existing opening, I may decide to do it anyway. I could restore the rollup door, and take the carriage doors with me when I move!

If I do replace my rollup door with carriage doors, I will make them in the same panel style as roll up doors, so that the style blends in. (The irony here is that the panel styles on rollup doors mimics the original style of carriage doors.)

One other issue I did consider is whether this would be considered "obsolescence", which in real estate appraiser jargon means that there would be a reduction in the appraised value of the home because it is obsolete in function. My wife, who is a real estate appraiser, said she would take value away if any of the bays in the garage were not accessible, but if I replaced the double rollup door with two sets of carriage doors, I would be OK. As such, the plan would be to change to carriage doors, but temporarily bolt one bay closed to form a pseudo wall.


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## BelleCityWW (May 28, 2007)

Hi Brian,

Dumb question, I know it's dumb but humor me. How do you get in the garage? I have no service door so whatever I do to the garage door opening, I have to be able to get in there without letting out too much of my precious heat. Nice looking doors by the way!

Thanks!
John


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I have a roll up door in my garage/workshop and I do not know why one would want to get rid of it. Just leave it closed and it becomes a wall. Insulate it and it is an insulated wall. I see your issue of not having a small service door up there in Racine, I used to live in Racine myself, is there a place to just add a service door somwhere and leave the roll up door in place?


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## BelleCityWW (May 28, 2007)

Hi Jim.

No, there is no place for a service door and that is the problem.

John


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## twoblacklabs (Jan 12, 2011)

I feel your pain. Take a look at my blog entries and maybe you can get a few ideas. Mine is still a work in progress. Good Luck.
http://lumberjocks.com/twoblacklabs/workshop


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## brianhavens (Nov 23, 2009)

In my case, I am only blocking one of the double carriage doors, so the other would provide an entry. Since I do have alternative access, I was planning on having the door locked from the inside, but I suppose an externally operated lock would also work.

In the FWW article, one of the bays had a double carriage door, and the other bay is framed out and takes a standard entrance door. If you do not care about the obsolescence, then you can simply frame in the opening and add whatever door/widows yo want, but if obsolescence is a issue, just frame it is such a way that it can be reverted with minimal effort if you sell your home.

Personally, I cannot stand my roll up door. The ceiling in my garage is 8' (no attic), so the rails are so low that they block significant wall space. I would gain about double my wall space by losing the rollup.

So many ideas, so little time….


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## russv (Sep 21, 2009)

hey John, I see we are neighbors. :>)

i have done garage door conversions twice.

I will say first, closing in the opening will be a huge savings when heating (and) cooling the garage.

a warning though. The first time I did this was in Gurnee, IL. After converting the opening to a big window and walk in door (this was a double door opening), the building inspector showed up and gave me a $600 fine saying that it didn't meet code because it wasn't a garage any more without a garage door. He classified it as living space. so, check with your local inspector first. Since I moved to Wisconsin i find them to be a little more home owner freindly. i have pics of my conversion somewhere and will look for them.

5 years ago, I sold that home and moved to Wisconsin. There i had 2 single doors garage. I was only renting the house therefore didn't want to do anything permanent. Also, during the summer I want to open the door for more light and fresh air. What I did there was build an 2×4 8' foot wall with 1/4" plywood skin on the outside and insulated it. if you look at the opening of your garage door, you have enough space on the outside of the opening to slide this wall in and not interfere with the door opening and closing. I slide these walls in for the winter and pulled them out in the summer. The whole time the overhead doors remained functional.

I recently bought a home in paddock lake and have a double door and a single door here. My plan is to build the wall sections in 4' increments so as to make it easy to put in and take out with the seasons. I do caulk the seams to help seal it from drafts but that is cheaper enough each winter. for summer months i will have screen partitions i put in to keep the bugs out.

russv
paddock lake, WI


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## russv (Sep 21, 2009)

John,
one more thought. you can make one of the 4' petition frames with a door so you can still get in and out.

let me know if you need more details.

russv
paddock lake, WI


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## BelleCityWW (May 28, 2007)

Hey Guys,

Thanks to all for the input and information. After considering the cost to renovate the garage, we have decided to move the shop back into the basement of our home. YEAH!!!!! Cool in the summer and warm and dry in the winter  I had my shop down there previously but we moved it out to have a pool room (aka Hang out area for the Kids) they are all going their own ways now so we decided to convert it back to a wood shop.

Thanks again for the help!
John


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## ACR_SCOUT (Oct 23, 2011)

When I was looking for a house to buy back in Indiana I was so confused in one house because there was an overhead garage door but no garage. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure it out. The previous owners had provided an box, if you will, in the ceiling of what had become the family room. The overhead door still worked but went up into that box. It looked like the ceiling bulkhead was suppose to be there. There was even a three foot entry door that lead to a storage area behind the overhead door.

Kind of confusing to write about but if you slid up the door, there was about a 3 or 4 foot area behind the overhead door, the width of the garage. Storage you could get to from the overhead door, or via a 36" entry door that lead into the house. Pretty cool idea if you ask me.


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