Some of you offered some helpful advice on my recent home-made garage
door question. After reading some of the responses, and chewing it over,
I decided to make the doors out of timber instead of WBP ply. I purchased
tongue & grooved redwood floorboarding (22mm x 135mm) to be exact. I also
got some 5" x 1" planed whitewood for the bracing. For the bracing' I'm
thinking three equally-spaced horizontals with diagonals in-between. I am
planning to have no vertical bracing at the edges, as the tongu+grooved
timber is nearly an inch thick, and seems very rigid, If the doors seem
too flexible after they are constructed, I can always add vertcals later.

Before I assemble the doors, I could do with some advice on joining and
finishing. I've ourchased waterproof wood glue, thinking I should glue
the grooves before tapping in the tongues, I assum this is correct?

To fix the bracing, will zink plated wood screws will do, and should also
use waterproof glue?

As for finishing, I'd like the fnished doors to look as decent quality as
possible, so they'll hopefully add value to the property (if that's
possible using the relatively cheap softwood..). I imagne there are a
number of options. As I like the look of wood, especially if it were
stained to look more like hardwood or a redder form of redwood, would
something like a coloured preservative be OK (such as tge Cuprinol stuff
sold in B&Q for sheds and fences) , or is regular oil-based paint (and
lots of it) going to the greatest longevity and the least need for
repainting in years to come?

How about the door frame, which buts up to the concrete blockwork? Should
I apply preservative before painting. Or, again, will a tinted
preservative do?



Many thanks,

AL