I’m interested in building my own garage doors and am seeking as much advse as possible. I have two doors to build 1) 16’Wx10’H, 2)9’Wx10’H.
My thought is to build a frame and apply 1/4″ luan on the rear and a 1/2″ western red cedar plywood on the front.
My first question is regarding the frame. What thickness and what type of wood. My thought is to use doug-fir plane down to 1-3/8″ and finger joint the 16′ span with four 4′ sections.
Weight and strength being primary is fir the best wood?
Also any good internet sites regarding garage door construction would be appreciated.
Thanks, JPlum
Replies
I have built them using straight 2x stock for the core frames, planing it from the 1-1/2 nominal down to 1-1/8.
But I just built a pair about a week ago, and used 5/4 stock, which measured and actual 1-1/16" thickness. Size was 9w x 7h, four equal-height panels, each 21".
I rip 5/4 x 6 stock for the frame rails, which home-run from edge to edge. For my 9/0 width doors, I trimmed them on the face so as to see three equal vertical panels, and thus there are two intermediate stiles, plus one at the 8/0 length to pick up the luan joint on the inside.
Maybe it is best shown in the pic, attached. Open it to see my frame construction.
I pocket screw the frames together, butting the vertical stiles to the horizontal rails. Rails measure 2-5/8 in width, stiles are 3-1/2 at edges, 2-5/8 intermediate. I cut 1" rigid foam to go into each void.
I roller on exterior yellow glue to the frame surfaces, then staple 5.2mm exterior luan on the faces. These doors got an 8/0 and 1/0 length on the inside face, and the outside face was sheeted with 6/0 and 3/0 lengths. The red cedar trim boards cover the joint on the outside.
One side of each panel is sheeted, then the foam is placed into the voids, with some nice blobs of PL foam adhesive each side (I do one near each corner, and one in the middle), the other side is sheeted, and then it is time for long-edge routing, to create a 1/4" shiplap joint.
After the jointing is done, I trim the faces with 3/4" cedar boards.
Set your air stapler to drive the staples just slightly below flush of the luan, and a nice alkyd primer and a couple coats of acrylic finish will make them just about disappear along your edges where you don't have trim boards.
I am also including a pic of the first door I made, and that one had lites in the upper panel. Its face ply was 3/8 SYP no-groove T111.
Nice Shed!!
thanks for the information. i'll digest it an probably have more questions. As the other poster said...nice shed.