Putting a new wood garage door on a Dunwoody house
Can an old wood garage door be replaced with a new wood one?
Yes. A cedar or mahogany door is built to the measured opening and hung on new tracks and new springs like any other new door, and it can carry the raised panels the house was built with. Wood sits at the top of the range for new garage doors in Dunwoody, and it comes with a maintenance schedule that steel does not.
It is the right answer for a few of the houses on the bigger lots, where the front was designed around a wood door and steel would read as a stand-in. It also suits the ranches and split-levels in Dunwoody Club Forest, Kingsley, Mill Glen and Village Mill when the owner wants the original look back rather than a copy of it. The install day runs like any new door’s, with the old door and its hardware hauled off at the end.
Why did the original wood doors rot, and does a new one have to?
The originals were painted on the street side and left bare on the inside face, so the garage’s damp summer air soaked into the back of every panel for decades. The bottom section took rain splash off the driveway on top of that. A new wood door does not have to go the same way. It holds up when every face and edge is finished before it is hung, and the finish is kept after.
The order matters. Once the hinges, the bottom seal and the track rollers are mounted and the door is in its tracks, the edges between sections and the wood under each hinge plate can no longer be reached with a brush. Bare end grain at a section edge is where water gets in, and the bottom edge, which sits on the slab every time the door closes, wicks up more of it than anywhere else on the door.
Some wood doors arrive with a factory finish and some arrive bare for a painter to finish before install day. The written quote says which. If the jambs and header the old door hung on went soft with it, rotted jambs and header trim around the opening get dealt with before the new door goes up.
What does a wood garage door need every year in Dunwoody?
A walk around the door once a year, inside and out, at the places Georgia humidity reaches first, and a fresh topcoat when the maker’s schedule or the wood itself says it is due. Nothing here means adjusting the door. The springs, the cables and the bottom brackets they tie into are the technician’s. What to look at:
- The finish on whichever side takes the afternoon sun, and on the bottom section all the way around. Wood that looks or feels dry, or color gone chalky, means it is time to refinish, and a door facing south or west tends to get there before the long end of the maker’s cycle.
- Bottom seal and bottom rail. A seal that has gone stiff or split lets splash sit against the bottom edge, the end grain the rest of the door depends on.
- Water coming off the roof onto the door. A gutter over the garage that overflows in a July downpour keeps the face wet long after the storm has passed.
- Hinge and bracket screws backing out as the wood swells and dries through the year. Note which ones and tell us when you call.
Most wood-door warranties are written around that finish. Makers generally require every face and edge, including the wood under the hardware, to be finished before the door is installed, and coverage can be voided when the door is finished after it is hung or the finish is let go. Keep the painter’s invoice, or the factory finish paperwork, with the warranty.
Does a wood garage door need heavier springs than a steel one?
Usually, yes. A wood door weighs more than an insulated steel door the same size, so new springs are sized to the new door at the install and the door is balanced before the opener is reconnected, and whether the old opener stays gets settled at the measure. Springs never carry over from the old door, even wood to wood.
What does a wood door cost against a steel carriage-style door?
A custom wood door runs $5,500 to $12,000 installed here. A 16 by 7 steel carriage-style door with windows and hardware, the steel door made to read as swing-out wood, runs $3,200 to $6,500.
Most of the spread in the wood figure comes from the species, with cedar toward the lower end and mahogany toward the top, then the size of the opening and the windows in the top section. A custom wood door is built to the order, so it lands at the long end of the 2 to 6 weeks a special order takes to arrive, plus the days the finish needs before it goes up.
The steel carriage door is the lower-upkeep way to get the look. From the street it shows the strap hinges and the row of windows across the top, and its care is a wash and a look at the bottom seal. On a street under covenants, either door may need HOA approval before it is ordered. The price page lists what a new door costs here in every material, steel through wood.
Both doors get measured at the house and quoted in writing. When the call starts with a rotted bottom section, the quote can price the wood door and the steel one side by side.
When it is time to call: new garage doors in Dunwoody, wood ones included.