Hey Aftermidnite,
Why would he need all this steel and welded plates and stuff??? Why not just build a 2x6 wall complete with top and bottom plates, a foot or so back from the door opening and a couple joists wider than the opening? As far as the structural stuff goes (in Mass) a licensed contractor can do that.

I've dealt with the local companies that make the glulam beams and they can tell you the load specs. Usually if you need one beam 16" tall, you could substitute 2 beams maybe 10" tall or 3 beams 8" tall. These numbers are not exact but you get the point. Go talk to these guys and explain your situation. They look at all the deflection numbers and a whole bunch of other factors and can spec that out for you. The guy I go to is actually a truss builder but also sells glulams and stuff like that so he has all the specs for them also.

You possibly could sink the taller beam up into the floor joist and hang the joist off the side of the beam.....might be an option to keep your head room at a maximum. This would be a much bigger job but still doable. You'd probably need a temp support wall on the first floor also to support the first floor walls once you cut the band joist and floor joist to length, the wall would have nothing to sit on until the beam is installed.

 

Because he already has sag over that door, and he needs to jack the structure back up. Also if he puts that much weight on the floor where there's no footing he could buckle/crack the concrete floor. He needs metal plates in the new header to keep the wood from sagging/warping. Have you every seen a wood boat hull? Using heat, moisture, and pressure you can bend the heck out of wood and over time he'll have all three working on the header. Dan has another post that goes into more detail of his problem.

 

We just put new doors on our ranch style house and had a hard time finding something of good quality that doesn't look like every other garage door in the state. A local company, Twin City Garage Door Co. (not affiliated, etc.), just started handling a new line of commercial grade heavy gauge steel residential doors made by Genie. Very heavy duty, well insulated, steel both sides and can be made up in any width. We were attracted by their carriage house style doors and we are now very unique in the area.

We've actually had people ask how they open they look so good right down to the hinges, handles and what looks like a gap in the center between them! Not cheap at $2800 for the pair installed with all the trim (I had to prep and paint them) but heavy enough for use on truck docks and damned attractive. Wish I had some photos to post.

 

Just got a quote back from one clopay dealer right in my city and they want $1360 for the door at 17'x7', 2" wide, R9.1 rated, steel on both sides (premium door), insulated glass windows, colonial style.
They want $1455 installed. This assumes I have the framing correctly done for them. Seems like having them do it for only $95 might be worth it.
I plan on going with this custom door unless I hear of better options. I figure I might as well pay the few hundred extra for a custom door and have it look right.
The steel header seems the way to go since it will fit great in my current opening and I know it is plenty strong enough. I spent too much time trying to figure out how to fit glulam and lvl and it just wasn't going to work as well. You have to be all critical about exactly where you drill holes to attach multiple pieces together, the piece would be bigger to hold the load, it would require me opening up the wall more and fixing more later, I never figured out how to adequately attach it and shim it, etc. The steel header will cost me about $400 and solve a lot of painful problems. I think it is the cleanest and quickest solution. I could stack 5 of my expeditions on top of it before it would let go.

Many thanks to those of you who have stuck with me through this thread. My hopes are high now that I can accomplish this task myself and save a couple thousand dollars. It has been a great learning experience so far and I will be sure to show you all the finished product by posting some pictures.

 

Anyone have experience with raynor garage doors? How do they compare to clopay? I can get a raynor relante door with a higher R value because it uses polyurethane insulation for less than the clopay door (about $100 less). Only diff is that it doesn't have the dual pane insulated windows then. The door is something like 3/8" or 5/8" thinner too which I am not sure is good. Clopay also advertises instructions, video, and easy torsion spring system while I didn't see anything like this for raynor. Which door should I go for and why?

 

These are the ones I'm going with on our new house...
http://www.chiohd.com/5240.htm

only about $200 upgrade from our builders standard...

like the Carraige style but yet steel without the maintenance of wood...

 

When I was hangin' doors for a living we used to do installs only for the lumer yards. We hung a few of the Clopay's with the EZ torsion, the system worked well other than the gear housing for the winder was made of plastic but that has been years ago and they might have changed it. As far as the quality and durability of a door Raynor is 10 times the door Clopay is.

Duane
Southeast Kansas Coordinator

 

Do you know if the raynor doors have an easy torsion system setup as well. I have heard that can be a dangerous install and was wondering how hard it really is. I think raynor looks more durable and to be a better value as well but I think clopay is the winner for marketing. They seem to have easy installation and provide directions and even a video tape. Do you know what raynor gives out?

 

Just ordered two 9'w x 9'8"h 2" insulated raised panel doors for my new detached garage. Did an extensive search online and settled on Clopay. They have extended height doors and wind load rated doors. the units I orderd are W6. I'm in a w5 wind area. Cost each installed was $1142.00 not bad cmparted to $1300.00 each for roll up uninsulated.