A: Judging from the pictures you have sent, your doors may just need repainting, not replacing.
Representatives from two companies involved in the repair and installation of garage doors gave this advice. Debbie Hopkins, office manager at C&D Doors in Gordonsville (540-832-3564; cddoorsgordonsville.com) said the company recently walked into a house where the bottom rail of a 16-foot garage door was completely rotten. That had to be replaced. But in your case she said, “I don’t see any rot.”
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Justin White, vice president of the Washington DC-based Overhead Door Company based in Beltsville (301-937-1800; overheaddoors.com/about/washington-dc) offered a similar assessment. “As far as I can see the paint is peeling off,” he said.
Of course, it is impossible to accurately diagnose the condition of a garage door simply by looking at pictures. However, if the wood is solid, all you may need to do is wash, scrape, and lightly sand the surface where the paint is peeling off, and then prime and paint. Since your home was built around 1995, there is little risk of lead paint, which the federal government banned consumers in 1978.
To test if the wood is rotten, try pricking it with the tip of a screwdriver or awl. If it only goes in an eighth of an inch or so, the wood is probably still healthy. However, if you can go deeper then you definitely need to at least replace the bottom plate. “It’s dangerous,” said White. Overhead doors have a cable and tension spring to make it easier to raise and lower the door. “All the tension is on the baseplate,” said White. If the wood there dissolves, the door can suddenly give way and seriously injure anyone nearby. White said his company would never judge security based on pictures. The company would arrange a visit to your home where someone could inspect the door and look for a replacement panel or a brand new door if necessary. There are no fees for this.
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It is possible to replace just a section of a roller shutter door, but the challenge with older doors is finding a suitable trim. A handful of calls to garage door companies in your area only showed warnings that wooden doors sold today tend to have raised panels, not the type you have. Also, people warned that you would need an exact size match. In order to function properly, the exchange must be the same not only in width and height, but also in thickness. And to be visually appealing, the stiles and rails (the vertical and horizontal frame around the panels) need to match what you have now. However, matching the type of wood or the type of wood product made is not a problem as your doors are painted.
Chris Hopkins of C&D Doors then said he believed your door was made by Wayne Dalton and that resulted in a call to Chris Clark, a sales representative at Davenport & Valley Insulation in Waynesboro (540-941-7670; Valleyinsulationinc) . com). He said based on the pictures you sent he thinks your door is a Wayne Dalton Model 110 that is still being made today. The company would visit your home for free to measure, or you could do it yourself.
For warranty purposes, Wayne Dalton requires its installers to paint the wood panels front and back and all edges before and after installation so that the company can ship the panels to your home for painting and then reinstall. Especially if you hired someone to paint you could save by paying Davenport & Valley Insulation to paint them in-house as it would eliminate the cost of an extra trip to your home. The company uses Sherwin-Williams paints so you can pick the color you want at a paint store near you and purchase matching paints for the top areas if you want to recoat them yourself.
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Including paint, delivery, and installation, Hopkins said a rough estimate would be $ 600 per door, but the actual price could turn out to be lower, especially if you replace the panels on both doors at the same time.
If you want to swap out the doors, an uninsulated steel door is the most cost-effective option. C&D charges approximately $ 900 per door including installation. Overhead Door’s Washington dealership estimated $ 1,400 to $ 1,800 for a pair of these doors. A pair of insulated steel doors, the most popular option, could cost $ 1,800–2,000 including installation, he said.
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