Question:
My house still has the original single "wood" garage door
and it has 6 windows across the top measuring approximately 12" across
and 16" down; a very nice look. The wood is unfortunately corroding
badly now and in need of replacement. I was looking for the same
design, which is simple, in Vinyl with the six windows. However, it
appears that the major vinyl garage door manufacturers only seen to
have 4 windows across in a landscape, instead of a horizontal design,
like 14" or 16" across by 12" down. I've tried all the major home
improvement stores like Home Depot & lowes and even a specialty store
where I live, but they all seem to carry just a few of the same
brands. Would anyone know if I am just spinning my wheels looking for
a 6 window vinyl garage door or does someone know a manufacturer or
know of a place that may sell them. Your advice is much appreciated.
Also, any advice on what to look for in a vinyl garage door would be
appreciated as well. Kind regards to all.
Answer:
As you've discovered, the major brands are all pretty similar as all
are competing against each other for the mass market. You'll probably
have to go to a custom to actually match what you have precisely, but
if you have the budget, you can get anything you want. The question
will be whether it's worth the cost.
The cheapest alternative will probably be if you're in a large-enough
metro area that there is a local manufacturer who will do custom
jobs. For that, you'll need to look in the yellow pages for garage
doors in the wholesale or manufacturers section as well as retail.
You may also want to try the local independent garage door installers
and see which of them do high-end residential work (which entails the
occasional custom job).
Failing that, you're down to one of the custom-manufacturing places
and getting it shipped in. I don't suppose there's any chance of
identifying a manufacturer of the existing door any longer, is there?
As a final alternative, depending on how bad the door is, it just
might be possible/feasible to repair it by replacing the bad
sections. I have an unusual sized door on a garage (it's tall enough
for a full-size truck, almost 9') and it was falling apart at the
bottom rail. Unable to get one locally to replace it, I did make a
new bottom rail for it and replaced the panels of the bottom section.
Fortunately, in this case, the upper sections were still ok and I
happen to have a full woodworking shop and experience, but a good
cabinet maker could have made the pieces required. It takes a couple
of people to handle such a section though, of course.
Magazines like Fine Homebuilding and other architectural-related
sources are a resource of such specialty products. Again, of course,
that route will be more expensive.
