Very popular in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, timber side hinged garage doors have gradually declined in popularity as GRP (fibre glass), fully finished powder coated steel and a whole range of other products have entered the garage door market.
Recently, a local customer near Coedpoeth, Wrexham asked if we could match some existing softwood timber side hinged doors for him which were for a log store next to his existing garage.
We offer Cedar Door solid cedar side hinged doors but these would not have matched and are 2 to 3 times the cost of the doors that we sourced.
We had some doors made at a local joiners shop (the same joiners who made a timber staircase for us to the flat above our offices). The door leaves are mortice and tenoned rather than the cheaper, weaker dowel jointed ones commonly available. Double bracings on the rear of the leaves, door stops built into the frame and 15/16mm finished board thickness made for a very favourable door set. The customer will varnish them himself.
The fitters took some great photographs of the job as it progressed:
Frame fixed, doors in postion
The door leaves and frame fitted ‘dry’. Note the extruded aluminium theshold fitted to level the floor. This also provides a bit of ‘lift’ to ensure thet the outward opening leaves do not catch on the driveway.
Hooks and bands hinges in position
These hooks and bands hinges are the straight type (my mistake) so we changed them for the cranked ones which allow the straps to sit flat on the surface of the door.
Frame clamped to subframe
It’s difficult to fix into fresh air. On the left looking in, from approximately half way up there was no wall to fix to so we added a sub frame to give ample support.
Doors hung, in the open position showing aluminium threshold
This picture shows the heavy duty extruded aluminium threshold neatly mortared into position. Please note the double diagonal bracings on the rear of the door leaves which will add strenth and stability.
Mortice lock fitted, ready for handles
Nice neat job Paul. You can tell he used to be a joiner/shop fitter. The mortice lock is chopped into the active leaf. Holes are drilled for the spindle/keys, ready for the handle to be added.
Finished Item
You can see the adjacent existing softwood side hinged doors the customer wanted to match to. Ready for a good drink of varnish.
Finished door set
A good shot of both door sets, new and old. Hinges on, handles fitted (and shoot bolts on the inside, top and bottom on the ‘fixed’ leaf.
A lot more work overall to install than the preframed pre-hardwared steel door sets that we generally sell but a good trip down memory lane.
If you have any questions about this garage door option , or any others please get in touch.
Phone us on: 01691 650394 or email: sales@arridgegaragedoors.co.uk
