On Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:32:36 +0000, Al 1953 wrote:

Jules Richardson wrote in
:

Hmm, aren't those diagonal braces the wrong way round?

Yes! I didn't notice that...

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

Regarding vertical braces, I'm not sure they do add much to the
strength. They'll reduce the tendency to warp or for the door to twist,
but you can probably do without them if you want given that you've got
an inch of material already.

Glad to hear someone support this notion. If the finished door seems too
twisty or flimsy, I can add vertical jambs

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?

As for hinges, hard to tell how big is "big enough", although I think
I'd use three per door. Like you say, mountings are more important. I
think when I come to rebuild my garage doors I'll put metal plates on
the reverse side of the doors and bolt the hinges right through the
doors and the plates behind (ditto with the jambs).

Luckily, I had a real life pair of wooden garage doors (on a gargae I
have access to) to look at for guidance. They are obviously quite old,
maybe 20 years, and are still working fine, and still fit well. They
have two hinges per door, but they are hefty items, with square holes to
take coach bolts.

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.

Here's what I bought (though I got mine from Jewsons at a lower price):
http://tinyurl.com/yfakzzl

Having seen those, my gut feeling is you'll be OK with two - if you had a
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 :-)

One thing that I'm pondering about is the "axle housings" for want of a
better term. They screw onto the outside face of the door frame, using 6
crews. That is obviously the Achilles heel, security-wise, unless the
screws are made unscrewable somehow, after they are in place. To achieve
this, I'm thinking filling the slots with epoxy or even butchering the
slots with a drill to render the slots useless. Anyone got other methods
to share?

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