Do-it-yourself installation of a garage door is, of course, a difficult task, but doable. Before starting any work, it is worth deciding on the type of structure that needs to be installed. Today, there are several options, each of which is fully justified and has its own advantages.
Gate Options
The choice of one of the options directly depends on financial capabilities, as well as on the needs of the owner of the object.
- It is practically impossible to mount lift-sectional garage doors with your own hands , since the design is quite complicated. This object consists of a continuous canvas, which is composed of refracting sections that go under the ceiling of the garage. The basis for this design are transmission guides, as well as spring mechanisms. It is because of the complexity of installing these elements for the installation of such gates that specialists are required.
- Installing swing garage doors with your own hands, on the contrary, is one of the simplest and most common activities. This design is also different in that it does not require the purchase of any expensive materials for work. The frame for the object is usually assembled from an ordinary steel corner, and ordinary sheet metal is used as a skin. Ready-made gates are reliable and easy to operate.
- Often you can come across a photo of a do-it-yourself garage door for your garage. If earlier it was a question of lifting-sectional, then there is also a lifting and turning design. Such objects consist of a leaf, which during opening moves rotationally with respect to the horizontal axis. This rotation takes place until the sash reaches a place under the garage ceiling. The advantage is that such gates do not need a lot of space, but their installation is quite complicated, and installation is only appropriate inside a heated room.
Features of the assembly of different designs
At present, installing garage doors with your own hands is most often the assembly of an oar structure. Of the materials for work, only steel corners, profiles, and also sheets of iron will be required. With all this at hand, as well as some metal skills, you can easily make swing gates from start to finish on your own.
Do-it-yourself installation of hoisting swing garage doors is possible if the owner is familiar with the basics of mechanics or has an engineering background. However, in the building materials market, you can buy a ready-made copy, which you only need to install in the garage. As mentioned earlier, sectional doors will deliver the most problems and troubles. Installing a lift gate for a garage with your own hands of this type will lead to large financial costs. In addition, due to the complexity of the mechanism, it is most likely impossible to make them the first time so that they work properly, and therefore it is better to simply buy them in an ready-made form than to build them yourself.
Design
Based on the foregoing, it follows that it is best to do the installation of swing gates for the garage with your own hands.
As a project, you can use both a simplified version, drawn on A4 paper, and a full-fledged drawing, applied to the paper. Naturally, at the same stage, you need to determine the size of the structure. It should be borne in mind that there are minimal restrictions. For example, the minimum acceptable width is equal to the width of the car itself, plus 0.6 meters. As practice shows, the most common width parameter is 3 meters. The largest optimal and maximum size is 5 meters. If we talk about assembling a garage door with your own hands, a photo of which will be presented, then it is also worth noting that the height is selected based on the size of the car. The average for cars is 2.2 meters. If a minibus is used as a vehicle, for example, then the average indicator increases to about 2.5 meters.
The simplest design of the swing gates includes a frame that serves as a contour located around the perimeter of the entrance to the garage, as well as two wings. Sashes will be attached to the hinges. It is recommended to use a steel corner with a shelf width of 65 mm as the main material for the manufacture of the frame. To strengthen the casement, it is recommended to use a rectangular steel profile, as well as a corner, but with a width of 50 mm.
In the photo of the garage door, made by one’s own hands , it can be seen that on the inside the product is also sheathed with a material such as sheet steel with a thickness of 3 mm. As for the hinges, they must be external reinforced type. Further, based on the selected sizes and materials, you can go to the building materials store and purchase everything you need.
Beginning of work. Frame
DIY garage door installation, of course, begins with the fact that you need to make a frame. It is worth noting that the assembly of the frame is carried out in parallel with the pulling of the front wall. When the height of the masonry is equal to 0.5 meters, then you can go to the full installation of the gate, and then return to the masonry.
As mentioned earlier, for the manufacture of the frame you will need steel corners with 65 mm shelves, several steel strips with a width of 30 mm, and a thickness of 3 mm. To increase the reliability of the fasteners of this element in the opening, it is recommended to have reinforcing bars on hand. For the successful completion of all work, such tools as a welding machine, grinder, tape measure, level will be required.
Frame Design Steps
At the first stage, it is necessary, using a grinder, to cut steel corners into 8 parts with different lengths. 4 blanks should be suitable for the height of the opening, and the other 4 - for the width. It is important to note here that it is possible to cut exactly according to the given sizes, but you can make them more by 100 mm. If everything is clear with the first option, then in the case of the second, everything is somewhat more complicated. How to make a garage door with your own hands in this option? In this situation, that side of the corner that will be internal with respect to the opening is cut according to the drawing, and the external surface and external parts are made in the form of strips. In this case, they will have to go beyond the required dimensions by 50 mm on each side, and not 100 mm on one side.
Next, you need to find a perfectly flat place and lay out all the available parts at an obtuse angle. In addition, the angle between the corner parts is checked using a steel corner, it should be equal to 90 degrees.
In order to successfully assemble the frame, it is necessary to weld together all the corner parts. Weld parts can be lapped if you put the ends of the shelves on top of each other.
The last stage is the grinding of all irregularities or growths that could have formed during the welding process. This must be done, because the flaps should be adjacent to the frame, and welding seams can prevent this.
Sash operation
In order to successfully produce a casement frame that can be mounted without problems in the main frame, you need to make it slightly smaller than the base. As the material for the assembly, you can use the same steel corner or elements of rectangular steel. As for the sequence of work, it is as follows.
- The first stage is the cutting of raw materials into 8 segments. It must be remembered that two wings will be installed. 4 elements in size should be 15 mm smaller than the total height of the frame. This must be done so that the casement frame can enter the frame without any problems. 4 more elements should have a size equal to half of the total width of the opening minus 30 mm. The gap is left for the same purpose.
- Next, you need to weld the structure together, for which it is possible, as in the first case, to lay all the details on a flat surface. However, there is another option in which you can use the finished form of the main frame. Using the second option ensures that the angles between the parts will be much easier to observe, and eliminating possible flaws - easier.
- To successfully complete the assembly of the frame for automatic garage doors with your own hands or for ordinary ones, you need not only to weld all the parts together. Quite often, experts recommend making an additional connection. As such a connection, another rectangular profile is used, which is installed in the center of the main frame.
Casement
Sheet metal is used as a gate leaf. The reliability of the design will depend on the thickness of the metal. This parameter must be a minimum of 2 mm or more.
- Next, you need to cut two leaves from this material. Here you need to be very careful with the size. Firstly, the sash should be higher than the garage opening by 30 mm in height. As for the width, one of the elements should be 10 mm less, and the other, on the contrary, should be 20 mm larger.
- As for welding the canvas and the frame, there are several nuances. The sashes must be welded so that at the lower and upper point of the frame they extend beyond the edges by 20 mm. The part that will open the second should be 10 mm narrower than the base. This must be done so that the first sash, which will be 20 mm larger, can closely adjoin the second.
- The last step is the welding of reinforced loops. The lower part must be fixed by welding directly on the garage frame itself. The upper hinges are already welded to the gate leaves.
After all the work is completed, it is worth a final check. To do this, ready-made sashes are laid loops to the sky and an inspection is carried out. If no defects are noticed, then we can assume that the work is successful and you can proceed to installation.
Product Installation
After the casements and the frame for swinging garage doors with their own hands were made, you can proceed to the installation. It is worth noting that the outer door frame is installed first, and then the inner one. The installation process itself is carried out in the following order:
- First you need to use the level to check the vertical and horizontal structures.
- The frames should be interconnected by means of metal strips, the width of which is 40 mm. They are fixed by welding in increments of 0.6 meters.
- After this, it is necessary to begin the construction of the front wall. Bricks should go into the empty space that formed between the frames. In the process of increasing the height of the wall, it is additionally fastened to the garage door with the help of reinforcing segments. On the one hand, they are welded to the frame, on the other, they are walled into the wall. The length of each reinforcement should be about 0.3 meters. Vertically, you can install up to 3 pieces of such fittings.
- After the wall masonry reaches its upper point, it is necessary to lay the upper floor beam.
After all the stages are completed, you can check the gate performance.
Description of the pivoting structure
DIY do-it-yourself garage door can also be installed. They are considered the next in complexity after swinging. As for the benefits such gates can provide, they are as follows:
- Hacking such a design is difficult enough.
- Such gates open without much effort.
- If you observe the assembly technology and the correct installation, then such a gate has a huge service life.
- Installing such a gate will save more space.
- There is the possibility of installation in a variety of openings.
However, this design has several drawbacks, due to which the popularity of the product does not reach the first place. Firstly, the installation of such a design is quite complicated. Secondly, with improper assembly, you can overload any mechanical parts, and they will quickly fail. The last minus is the high thermal conductivity, because of which it can be quite cold in the winter inside the garage.
As for the design of this product, it consists of the following elements. As in the case of swing, this is the frame, which is the main part of the entire product. The remaining parts will be attached to it. Swivel shutter, which will be installed in a steel frame. It is worth noting that there is only one sash. It will be necessary to install a return spring, which will be responsible for the return of the gate to the place in manual mode. The last element is the mechanism itself, which is responsible for the rotation of the sash.
How to make folding garage doors with your own hands
The choice of folding garage doors is most often justified where there is simply no place for the installation of conventional swing products. As for the advantages of this type of product, they are as follows:
- Compactness. As mentioned earlier, such gates do not require much space. To be more precise, they do not require additional space either inside or outside in order to fully function.
- Convenience of installation lies in the fact that you can install such a gate with an "accordion" on either side of the opening.
- The design of these gates is designed so that the main load falls on the walls, the roof is practically not loaded.
- Easy to use. It is worth highlighting that such gates are much easier to open in the winter, since they do not require preliminary cleaning of the territory, like swing gates.
A distinctive design feature that allows the gate to operate in this mode is the presence of special panels. These panels are interconnected using some kind of flexible material, such as rubber or other dense but flexible fabric.