Home >  Lifestyle >  Homes

Saturday, October 12, 2002

By Gretchen McKay

When it comes to home renovation, replacing old garage doors hardly rates as one of the sexier projects. Though they're stronger and better insulated than when they were first introduced in the late '40s, it's hard to get excited about the standard assembly-line metal or wood overhead door. Besides, who really pays attention to garage doors?

	Thomas and Lauren McLeod replaced their three picturesque, but inconvenient, garage doors with custom carriage doors that match the architectural style of the building. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)

Thomas McLeod, for one. When he started renovating his 1913 Georgian in Edgeworth two years ago, he wanted a garage door with as much character and style as the rest of his house.

For customers like McLeod and for people building high-end new homes, several garage door manufacturers have recently introduced garage doors with a touch more class -- ones that appear to swing or slide open like 100-year-old stable or carriage house doors but are actually sectional overhead doors that roll up with an automatic opener.

Not only do these doors fit in better with a home's architectural style (a plus for older or historic homes), they're just plain prettier to look at, particularly if your garage entrance is located smack in front of the house.

"People are realizing that garages are more than just a place to park," says Sarah Appleby, marketing communications assistant for Wayne Dalton Garage Door Systems, which in 2000 introduced its Carriage and Equestrian Collection line of specialty wood garage doors. "They can also make a design statement."

The McLeod carriage house turned garage is a perfect example.

Virtually unchanged since it was built almost 100 years ago, the two-story structure desperately needed updating. Though picturesque, the heavy paneled doors were extremely inconvenient.

	SOURCES: Amarr Garage Doors, http://www.amarr.com; 1-800-503-3667. Citywide Garage Door Co., 2001 Brownsville Road, Carrick, 412-881-4675 Designer Doors, http://www.designerdoors.com, 1-800-241-0525 Overhead Door Co. of Greater Pittsburgh, 400 Poplar St., Etna, http://www.overheaddoor.com; 412-781-4000 or 1-800-273-2185. Thomas V. Giel Garage Doors, 5799 Grubbs Road, Gibsonia, http://www.thomasvgielcorp.com; 1-800-641-4435 Wayne-Dalton Residential Garage Door Systems, http://www.wayne-dalton.com; 1-800-827-3667.

"We couldn't park close, and you had to get out of the car to open them up," recalls McLeod, founder and managing director of Tenzing Consulting LLC, a Pittsburgh management consulting firm.

He quickly discovered it would be nearly impossible, not to mention financially prohibitive, to mechanize the old wood doors. Standard garage doors, however, wouldn't preserve the architectural integrity of the property.

So at contractor Jeff Ott's suggestion, he turned to Thomas V. Giel Garage Doors in Gibsonia, which starting selling custom and semi-custom Clopay carriage-style overhead doors about two years ago.

Owner Ed Giel's solution, crafted from a snapshot: three sets of custom doors with the same number of panels (six) and windows (eight across, two down) as the original carriage doors. Though the green-painted cedar doors cost more than twice as much as traditional steel doors, McLeod was delighted.

"It really does look good," he says. "And it completely matches the renovations we're doing."

Though this niche market is just starting to take off (it accounts for about 5 percent of total sales), carriage-style overhead garage doors have been around for more than a dozen years. Wisconsin-based Designer Doors began selling custom-designed, craftsman-built garage doors in 1987.

Though founder Kent Forsland at the time sold and installed steel garage doors, he fell in love with the beauty and durability of the old-fashioned wood carriage doors he was replacing. So he pulled one apart piece by piece and figured out how to rebuild them in sections so they could operate with automatic garage door openers.

Today, the company offers all-wood doors in 140 different styles, including French country, Spanish eclectic, Tudor and Richardsonian Romanesque. They also craft custom "commissioned" doors from architects' designs or homeowners' pictures.

Decorative accents include exposed wood buttons, bubbled glacier and bronze-tinted glass and custom hardware that reflect traditional door construction techniques. Door tops can even be curved.

Built on a Douglas fir frame, the doors usually have Western red cedar on the outside, but they can also be veneered with teak or mahogany.

Whatever the material, be prepared for sticker shock. While a cookie-cutter single-wide steel door can be had for as little as $500, these one-of-a-kind beauties start at about $3,200, including shipping and installation. The typical order takes about eight weeks.

Most carriage-style sectional garage doors end up in upscale new construction because architects and builders can easily incorporate them into the design. Installation in established garages, however, can pose some problems.

Not only must established openings be reframed to support the new door's tracks, but there must be sufficient overhead clearance for the hardware. Amarr Garage Doors' Bob Timberlake Collection, for example, must have an absolute minimum of 8 inches above the actual door's height to retract. And as the doors are often backed with steel, they cannot simply be trimmed to fit.

Ken Rost, owner of Citywide Garage Doors in the South Hills, said owners of older homes often must choose a smaller door to compensate for the low ceiling height. He carries products by Amarr, which offers Timberlake doors in five styles. All are constructed of Western red cedar and cedar overlays on a 24-gauge steel, open-back door that is insulated. The doors, which range in size from 8 to 18 feet wide and up to 10 feet tall, are shipped with their natural wood finish to allow for custom painting; clear grade wood for staining is available by special order. The top section can be closed or outfitted with windows; optional period-style handles and hinges add even more charm.

Prices start at about $3,000 for a single-car garage and $6,000 for a two-car garage, including installation.

Overhead Garage Door Co., which invented the first upward-acting door in 1921 and the first electric door opening five years later, also offer carriage-style doors. Available just this year, sales are growing quickly, says Daley Lichy, owner of the Pittsburgh distributorship.

Following the national trend, most buyers are putting the doors in new construction in wealthier neighborhoods, but Lichy also sees the occasional retro-fits on older homes.

"Garage doors are plain-Jane stuff unless you do something creative," he says.

"Kick-out" style doors that look like barn doors (also called shin-kickers) run anywhere from about $1,500 for a single-wide crafted from exterior-grade plywood to as much as $8,500 for a mahogany or cedar door. Depending on the style and size of the door, number and type of windows and whether or not the door features custom trim work, it's possible to spend even more.

Lichy credits at least some of the doors' growing popularity to baby boomer's love of things past.

"It's the same nostalgia that's bringing back the '60s Corvette," he says.

Wayne-Dalton's 7100 series of specialty wood garage doors, available at Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse, are a little more affordable. Excluding delivery and installation, prices range from about $1,775 for an 8- by 7-footer with six divided windows in the colonial-style to about $4,894 for an 18- by 8-foot door with 12 windows. Made from hemlock, fir, western cedar or mahogany, the doors are face-sanded and ready for painting; stain-grade doors cost 15 percent more. Window options include tinted bronze, gray or antique art (semi-obscure) glass; doors tops can be square or arched.

Clopay's Reserve Collection of semi-custom carriage house-style doors, available at Thomas V. Giel Corp., are constructed from cedar, redwood or hemlock and come in six basic designs. They can be painted or stained to match your home. Sizes range from 7 to 8 feet high and 8 to 18 feet wide. Prices range from about $1,500 to $2,500 for a single-wide door to $4,000 to $7,000 for a double-wide.

Or, for about 30 to 40 percent more, homeowners can duplicate an existing door, create a wholly original door design or modify a design from the semi-custom line using any type of wood and style of window. Prices range from about $3,500 for a single-wide to more than $9,000 for a double-wide door.

Five years ago, says owner Ed Giel, the company averaged one set of such high-end doors a year. Today, they're averaging a set a week.

Not only are people spending more on their homes, "They know what they want and they're willing to pay for it," says Giel.

Like the look of carriage house doors but on a budget? Last month, the company introduced the pre-finished steel carriage door by Clopay -- an option, Giel says, that not only delivers a lot of value but requires less maintenance than wood-faced doors. Prices run between $1,000 and $1,500 for a single-wide door and $2,000 to $3,000 for a double-wide door.

Gretchen McKay covers homes and real estate for the Post-Gazette.