Georgia Pelicans- I need a roll-up garage door!

[carnut169]

Any suggestions for a source of a 9x7 roll-up type garage doors? Can't spend a whole arm and leg- Thanks in advance! Sean.

[makaio]

Home Depot or Lowes should be able to provide one for around $300 or so. I just priced a 9X16 and it was only $425.

[carnut169]

I don't think so... I need a roll up door- the kind w/o overhead tracks that get in the way of a lift!

[carnut169]

Kinda like this....

[R22tech]

Overhead Door Company Of Atlanta should be able to get you one of those.

[ToyCollector]

Sean,

How's the garage coming? I break ground this week. I will have to search the board for some updates. I am not sure what your internal ceiling height is, but the other option may be to use a standard door and add some "dummy panels" to the garage door at the top, and make the whole vertical part of the track go up several more feet before it takes the 90 degree bend for the horizontal portion of the track. It's basically a inexpensive way to elevate the tracks and the motor mounting rather than having it dropped from the ceiling--it also gives you a normal looking door.

[makaio]

Sorry Sean! Didn't mean to stear you wrong.

[carnut169]

Ury914- Thanks for the suggestions on the garage update post- you have convinced me to insulate. Plywood.... its is sooo expensive compared to drywall, and I hope that shelves do most of the holding (also, my wife is looking at the monster tool box set Home Depot has for xmas ). I also plan to install indoor floods- not spots. They are recessed (I think they are called "eye"- the angle can be adjusted) and I am putting up 10 of them, plus lights over the workbench. I shouldn't have bad shadows and it will look great. The 8' florescent lights are just so institutional looking. Any suggestions for a company that might work w/ me? I have talked to The Overhead Door Co of Atlanta- they sell another brand for my size "dbci", Wayne Dalton has a couple types, plus Trac Rite. Any better than the other?

Toy Collector- good to hear you are breaking ground. My garage is comming along- roof is done, sheathing is done, window is installed, building wraped in tar paper, siding one the rear of the house has been started, and I have started drilling for electrical and copper pipe. Wish I could take a week off of work and get a ton of it done. I don't really want anything overhead- see the big hole---->

I just do not want to cover it w/ anything. It makes the garage seem much more open. Thanks!

[URY914]

Carnut,
I don't think the can floods are the way to go. If this is a shrine to your car and you want to set the mood, they will be fine, but a real workshop needs light. What about the ceiling? the cans have to be installed in cut outs in the ceiling-more work to do.
Walls: One other advanage to the plywood is you screw to the walls and paint it and you're done. Drywall is taping the joints, mudding and sanding. A real pain in the butt to get right. About the time you think your done sanding you paint it and you sand and paint some more. (sorta like bondo and primer) And it won't be that much more than the cost of the drywall-tape-mud-paint-sanding-mudding sanding-painting. What's another couple of hundred bucks-its really for your car, so you can justify it.
Door: Any door company will give you a one year warrenty. Overhead Door Company of XXXXX are all over the place. It must be a franchice-every city has one. Your door will be getting very little use compared to a commercial door some don't spend much money on it. (take the saved money and buy some plywood)
Good luck....

[ToyCollector]

Sean,

My 2 cents--I agree with URY914 on the lighting. I'd go flourescent. They show everything off should you wax your car and detail it. All imperfections come out under that light. If you throw a good amount in there, you will have nice even light with no "hot spots" Also, once they are sparked up, cheaper to run. The other thing I have found is they last longer. Some rooms in my house have the floods, and it seems I am changing them all the time.

[jamesiii]

Regarding URY914's comment re: plywood v. drywall--how much taping, sanding & painting you do is VERY dependent upon the quality of the framing. By looking at the picture of carnut169's garage it seems the framing is excellent (blocking is aligned, joints look tight, etc.), so it shouldn't be that much of a struggle. Also, you get a much more professional looking and much better insulated final product w/ drywall as opposed to painting plywood (either CDX or AC). If you're willing to do the work yourself and aren't too fussy about the joints, you can also increase the "roughness" of the texture on the drywall to hide all of the rookie mistakes...a medium knock down would suffice. If you're looking for a smooth finish the only way to do this is to hire a professional at $40 for each 4X12' sheet.

Concerning the Toy Collector's lighitng comments...I agree that every shop needs florescent's. But you only need them over designated "work stations." To generally light any space, can's, or recessed lighting, works great. Because of the height of your ceiling I'm not sure 10 lights would be sufficient, you might consider doubling that. The can's themselves are cheap...it's the trim kit that get's expensive. I wouldn't use the "eye", just the classic trim would suffice if you place them with some forethought. Also, you don't have to change the bulbs that frequently if you buy 1000hr bulbs, or the curled light bulbs which last an incredibly long time and throw off a tremendous amount of light.

I've been a general contractor for a long time and have played with a lot of products. If you have any specific questions, or want to bounce off some ideas, I'd love to help if I can.

Jim

[URY914]

I feel for a do it yourselfer, plywood is the best way to go. It is easier to install and remember this is a garage and things are going to bang into the walls (floor jack handles, air hoses, rolling tool boxes, etc). You're going to get nicks in the drywall which will need repairs. Another way to go is drywall with FRP panels like you see in gas station bathroom, but it is more $$ than plywood. It all depends on your personal needs.

[jamesiii]

A happy medium might be a wainscot of plywood w/ drywall above...1X4 band to cover the joint. The whole exercise is a cost/benefit analysis...where do you want to put your dollars?!? I agree that w/ drywall there is a much higher chance of "dinging" the rock and that it's durability is certaintly not even close to that of plywood, but if your workshop ends up somewhat like mine there is very little "visible" wall space. The entire garage is lined with cabinets, work benches, peg board and various shelves.

I'm certain whatever you end up doing it will work great for you. Take the path of least resistance...or easiest work and you'll be much happier and can get on to more important things...like working on your car!

[URY914]

I thought about using a wainscoat, but the joint at the drywall/plywood would be a little bit of a problem. If you use a 1x you couldn't put your cabinet flush up against the wall. You would have a gap the stuff would fall behind.
But you're right-there are several ways to do this. Just depends on what you want to spend.
Cover the walls with racing posters...

[Jim Dosen]

Just installed 8 x 8 rollup purchased at Home Depot
for less than $500. White, lockable, easy to install.
my 2 cents

[jamesiii]

I like the racing poster idea! Didn't leave room for that in mine! Actually, didn't have room to begin with for such frivolous essentials.

[carnut169]

Not to mention antique dealer and vanity plates- I collect them.

Thanks to everyone for your time and suggestions- as you can tell, I am a novice to say the least and do consider every suggestion. It is great to have a forum like this...

I have ordered my garage door. Spent a little time thinking about it and remembered that here at work we just remodeled our auction lanes and service center building- we put in 48 roll- up doors! I contacted the sales rep who supplied the doors (Karavan Doors) and he is selling me a door made by ASTA at cost! I am getting a very nice door for under $300. I also was able to scavange a motor assembly off of one of the old doors they were planning to scrap!

Should have the door in about a week. Anyone ever hang one?

[URY914]

Hanging one is not that hard and I'm sure there is a web site out there that can walk you through it.
Rails go up, door goes in the rails, motor goes on, push the button-door opens.
Get the rails paraelell and plumb so the door doesn't get cocked and bind up.
You can do it.

[Oldporsche]

For the rest of you that need garage doors, I would like to suggest this.

There are a lot of Garage Door companies out there putting in new doors every day. They also take them out every day. Yes even new ones! Our local garage door companies sell these very reasonably. The reason that they have them is that the house builders will call for them to take them out because the buyer of the house is unhappy. They may have a dent in a panel or be the wrong color. Since they very often are a warranty item from the supplier they are taken out and another that will satisfy the customer is installed.

I have purchased several that had dents on the inside of the panels! Yes, some of the panels didn't match as far as the color. I just had to paint them. I believe that the last 9X7 door with new hardware cost about $150.

Good luck,
David Duffield