mini garage door

gkainz

gkainz

Final Approach
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Feb 23, 2005
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Greg Kainz
Need some ideas and help thinking outside the box. My grandson is in a wheel chair, and he will be 9 soon. He's fascinated with garage doors and I'm trying to conceptualize a way to build a powered roll-up garage door to replace his bedroom door. The thing I can't come up with a solution to is not having a bottom frame in the thing, as it would make an obstacle to his wheel chair to roll over. Unless perhaps I ramped it on both sides ... but still want it in a frame that would open and close like a regular door, for mom and dad, or in case of power failure.

Ideas?
 
how wide is the door opening?....or do you plan on opening up the door jam?

I'm thinking even a full sized 36" door might be snug with a frame.....but, I see no reason why you couldn't have a thin bottom member that joins the side frames. It won't be very strong or ridged when opening using the hinges (or opening with the door rolled up).....but could be an ok design compromise.

What about a second door.....in addition to the existing door?
 
Cool idea!
Could you make up an inverted U shape frame out of 2" or 3" square steel tubing, mount the roll up door to that and put door hinges on one side. Actually you could probably fit angle braces in the top corners to stiffen it even more........??
 
I'm not following the bottom frame part? Just tracks on the sides should be all you need?
 
the frame needs to open like a traditional door.....the sides will be flimsy without a bottom member.
 
Ah I thought you wanted to just make a normal garage door 36 wide and roll overhead. My mistake.
 
all correct above. Standard interior 36" door that I envisioned welding up a U frame with hinges on one side to match the existing jamb (except convert to 3 hinge instead of 2 hinge). Mount a rollup door with motor at the top of the frame and a latch of some kind where the existing door knob would go. I do want it to hinge and swing like a normal door would do, so mom and dad can get in and out in case of power failure or just convenience.

With an inverted U frame, the bottom may be too flimsy to swing on the side hinges, unless the roll up material had a bottom stiffener that pinned into the U frame when it was closed and became part of the frame.

It may work to bolt the track sides to the door jamb or rough opening if I remove the door frame, but then the door will have to have a manual motor disengagement accessible from outside so it could be rolled up manually. I'm thinking for emergency access or egress, this may not be a good idea.
 
What about doing shades instead of the door? Over the window. Could even use some of the windowed door panels so it wasn't a total black out? Might provide nearly the same entertainment value with a little less complexity.

or could you do the old style solid garage door with an outer frame and a normal swing door inside. The whole panel is rigid and drops back immediately as it starts to go up and back. If he likes the rolling function of each panel bending this may not be the best route. But it would completely clear the door frame for rolling access when it is up.
 
Bedroom doors and windows are designed to be functional for egress. If you want to spend a gob of money to engineer a bedroom door that meets egress while entertaining the child for a month or two until it becomes boring you can surely figure it out. All it takes is money. Google break-away overhead doors and you may find somebody's already figured it out.
 
Stewartb said:
Bedroom doors and windows are designed to be functional for egress. If you want to spend a gob of money to engineer a bedroom door that meets egress while entertaining the child for a month or two until it becomes boring you can surely figure it out. All it takes is money. Google break-away overhead doors and you may find somebody's already figured it out.
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40 years in the door business. Welcome to reality. I assumed the OP was looking for real advice.
 
Meh.. Back to fantasy land..

What about ripping out the wall and installing a small man door along side a roll up mini-garage door?

How much room do you have?
 
Stewartb ... I was and am looking for real advice, but just not for a full size functional garage door. My grandson has Cerebral Palsey, and is fascinated by things that I don't understand. But entertaining his fascinations give me almost as much pleasure as it does him. He's highly intelligent, extremely musically talented - recently evaluated by the gifted and talented program at school, where his reading and math skills are 2-3 years above grade level, and given a rating of "double gifted" (I'm not kidding - that's what they called it) in music. He plays piano by ear and can pretty much play any song he hears after hearing it once (limited by stiffness and limited mobility in hands and fingers) and has perfect pitch. The evaluator says she's never seen these talents in someone so young that is self taught.

So, enough bragging ... I seriously want to try to create some kind of powered garage door for his bedroom door, but will not jeopardize entry/egress ... hmmm, maybe his closet door would be a better endeavor?

This is a typical older house with a 10x10 bedroom. I don't think there's room along side the door for a second door.

Thanks for the repost over on GJ ... appreciated! And I see someone else had the same thought as I just did with the closet door instead of main door. Will check measurements and see about doing that instead.
 
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A roll up door is going to be noisy as all get out, you sure you want to do that? The bedroom door probably opens in, so the roll up would go in the hall, too? Closet door is a great idea, they make some vinyl roll ups???
 
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as far as noise goes ... hey, grandpas can give grandsons drum sets, so this can't be that noisy! :) I think I'm dropping the entrance door idea. Looking now for something like I've seen on storage sheds - a nylon or plastic kind of material in a top roller that I can add a motor to on his closet door. The Garage Journal entry also generated a comment to consider a door on a play fort or other outside structure that may be an option as well.
 
yep - exactly what I was just looking at - thanks for the link!
 
Garage doors typically have an un-latch mechanism so that the door can be manually opened if the drive or drive power fails. Is this not an acceptable substitute for hinges to make the whole thing a swinging personnel door?
 
Graueradler said:
Garage doors typically have an un-latch mechanism so that the door can be manually opened if the drive or drive power fails. Is this not an acceptable substitute for hinges to make the whole thing a swinging personnel door?
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Yep, mine has one. On the inside. No way to open it from outside without electricity. The OP here needs to open from outside the bedroom if they lose power.
 
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