Timber Garage Door Construction
Timber garage doors offer greater flexibility than any other material for manufacturing garage doors. Almost any size can be built although many standard sizes exist in line with other steel and GRP door sizes and there are many traditional and contemporary designs available.
The real flexibility is that almost any style and design can be created with either minor adjustments on a standard design such as wider bottom rails, smaller windows and so on or a completely bespoke design from a drawing to match existing features on a property. The main timber used for up and over and side hinged garage doors is generally cedarwood as it is light in weight, light in colour and very stable in our U.K. climate. For sectional garage doors Hemlock and Nordic Pine is used by European manufacturers and Cedar with U.K. manufacturers.
Other species of timber can be used if required especially for side hinged and round the corner garage doors and these include Larch, Oak, Iroko, Superior Spruce, Mahogany and Meranti. With up and over and sectional garage doors the use of various hardwoods such as oak and mahogany is limited due to the weight and general construction limitations of a door that opens and then suspends across a span above your head.
Up and over timber garage doors are generally constructed using 2 different methods, one being traditional mortice and tenon joinery techniques to create a one piece door panel constructed entirely from timber with stapled or glued joints. The other method is to use a box section steel chassis for the door chassis and then add the chosen timber type into this chassis to create a timber panel but with the strength and stability of a steel framework. This second method gives a greater degree of flexibility in using heavier species of timber such as Oak or Iroko as the strength is not required from the timber for construction and therefore relatively thin sections can be used keeping the overall weight below the lifting capacity of the spring operating mechanism and CE regulations.
All side hinged garage doors are constructed using mortice and tenon joinery techniques along with stapling. Cedarwood is again the preferred species for weight and stability in our UK climate and cedarwood is a hardwood by definition and far superior to cheaper knotty redwood alternatives on the market which have a very short life span (unless you are lucky).
Timber sectional doors are constructed in individual panels using traditional mortice and tenon joinery methods with glued timber sections. The main timber species used for sectional timber doors are Cedarwood, Hemlock and Nordic Pine with more exotic variations available in Oak, Larch, Iroko and Mahogany. It is imperative that timber sectional doors are treated correctly before installation as there are many more moving parts and exacting tolerances between panels than other garage doors meaning any movement in the timber can seriously affect the door operation.
Other door types using predominantly timber as a material include around the corner garage doors and fodling type doors, both offering great versatility in desgin options and sizes. Timber garage doors can offer the greatest flexibility and of course enhance most property types, modern or period, especially with the superb range of timber treatments available offering superb protection and enormous flexibility in final appearance.
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