SteveBell wrote:
Shanghai McCoy wrote:

Time to replace the door on my 2-car garage. All I'm seeing for
replacement doors are metal. Does anyone sell wooden garage doors
anymore?

A wood door just went in on a new house near me. I didn't see the
inside of it, but I assume it's a metal frame with wood cladding. It is
in sections so it rolls up.

I *assume* that the price is right up there, since I mostly see them on
high-end houses. I'm *sure* that they're heavy and will require a beefy
opener.

Not a lot of construction up here in the frozen economic wasteland of
Michigan lately, but in going to garage sales in the beige subdivisions,
I mostly see traditional 2-layer wood doors with foam cores. Hollow
metal/fiberglass doors are a entry-level thing here, since they are hard
to insulate, and most people want to keep the garage a little warmer
than the outside. Only rich people heat them any more, but leakage from
the house and hot engine blocks/tires can keep them from freezing hard
until it goes sub-zero. In residential sizes, you don't need an
oversize/commercial style opener unless door has a fancy applied surface
like they do on TOH, like to mimic carriage house doors or something.
Plain old chain drive Craftsman or similar seem to be the most common
here. I have a 2-layer wood 2-car wide, 7 feet tall, and when the power
goes out, it only takes one hand to open, even though it is 25 years old
with no apparent upkeep done. Strong enough springs and a careful
installation is the key.

One of my mother's previous houses in central Indiana had a fiberglass
door, and it was utter crap. Rattled, leaked, drummed in the wind, kept
racking and jamming, etc. My house in Louisiana has a 1-bay metal door,
but it gets little use (used as a woodshop, not for parking), and it
almost never freezes hard there. They do seem to be more common down
there, but even fancy houses usually have carports, with maybe one bay
with a door to store the pilferable toys.

--
aem sends...