Dorama Tilt Up Door
The custom nature of our work and the vast experience we have with doors and windows has compelled our clientele to often ask the question, what about metal. Either cladding our wood products, reinforcing large wood doors, reconfiguring hardware to full fabrication of massive steel doors we’ve risen to the challenge, and like it.
I have a 'tilt up' garage door with an past-end-of-life track. I'm told by several local garage door companies that tilt up hardware is not made any more.Yet even the low clearance roll-up overhead doors can't match the headroom of the old tilt up. The garage ceiling is just 82', and the present door gives a 75 1/2' clearance above.
Modern low overhead tracks give us an entry low spot of 72' or less: 'duck when entering'.What might be a suitable replacement?Note we want automatic opening, so we can slide right in with bikes (we do all shopping and much travel by bike).Note: There's a hole in the floor that implies the original 1938 door swung out, but now the driveway slope appears to preclude swing out, at least without grinding away some material. There's a small triangular space above the ceiling, but only a few inches at the front. The current door appears 1950's.See alsoUpdate: the ceiling is lathe and plaster directly on the joists, which run parallel to the door opening. You could hide a spiral spring up there, but not much else. If the problem is only the track/hardware (and it looks like your door is in pretty good shape from the photos) and you could stand to wait for a little while, I have an alternate suggestion.
Get friendly with a local door company, not a chain company, and see if they could come up with some used track or hardware (whatever is causing you problems) from a door they take out. Chances are they could come up with it within a month (I took a 7' one piece out today. I'd offer you parts, but I'm in Arkansas and I don't see you making the trip for it).
It's a bit of a trick to put an opener on a tilt-up door but it can be done in most cases.Torsion to the rear should be able to work if you do replace you current door. Tell them to bring the cables over the top of the drums so they are up higher. As you're using your garage for storage, and not a vehicle, you could replace the door with shed-style doors. But it will decrease the resale value of the house, and they don't seal against the weather quite as well. Depending on the neighborhood, it may also violate your covenant.update: oops, missed the part below the picture, where you said it looks like it used to swing out.
There are some hinges that will lift as the door opens (so they're self closing via gravity). That might give you sufficient clearance. I've also considered mounting a caster on the outer edge of my garage doors so that they don't sag / drag as much. As long as your door is structurally sound (no rotting or broken framing pieces) and moves up and down smoothly, you CAN put an opener on this kind of door.
I see them all the time in the Seattle area. Grab the door from the top center while it's closed and pull in. The door should swing out and rise without issue.
If so, you can put an opener on it.Honestly, for your situation, your type of door is the best type to have, as it requires little to no extra headroom.Now, that said, this hardware is definitely hard to come. I do still remove them from time to time, but in the last year, I've only removed 4 of this type of door.If you want to refit the door, honestly, your best bet is to talk to a company in western Europe, like the UK, Germany, or Italy, to see about buying the hardware you need. There are some companies that sell this hardware online, but you'll need to contact them first to arrange the international shipping.For an opener, you may need to actually mount it back farther in the garage to get the operating clearance you'll need to make everything run smoothly. If you have to mount it back so far that the two parts of the door arm can't connect, you can make an extension with some thick wall metal electrical conduit.Good luck, and if you have further questions, feel free to look me up. What's the opening UNDER the fully open door right now? You might be able to simply lower the opening, without really 'losing' anything (or much) over what you have now, counting the door hanging there.Your measurements and your pictures don't appear to agree, or imply that you are taking an 'opening' measurement to something that's not actually open - there appears to be 2 inches above your door, on the inside shot.
Add a few inches at the front in the space above, and you might get there if you opened the ceiling up.As far as I recall, the best I could find 10 years ago was 7 inches above door opening for the 'special low-rise door track' - fortunately, I was shopping at building design time, so I just raised the wall height to get something that worked.Edit: Responding to comment: is there some additional aspect going on here, like the garage door company trying to sell you an opener (how they love to sell openers) as well, which is adding 3' to the low rise? I remain befuddled at openers, since my properly adjusted 10x10 foot commercial-type insulated door (heavy) is easy to open by hand.There's 3' gone missing someplace there. Are they not fully retracting the door around the corner at the top?
That should be an easy adjustment if the garage is deep enough to run the door further back on the horizontal track. The actual lip of the opening should be the low point, and 7' above that should clear the mechanism, so 75 inches should be achievable.I also found this on a poke around the web - 'low head-room rear mount springs' which is not something I found 10 years ago, and claims 4' clearance to operate (unless, of course, you require an opener.)Note: Standard Lift doors require a minimum of 12' of over doorheight. Not enough headroom? Raynor's Low Headroom FrontMount Springs package reduces the height requirement to 8-1/4' of overdoor height, while Low Headroom Rear Mount Springs require as littleas 4' (plus 2' w/motor operator).And another one with torsion spring to the rear claiming 5' (4-1/2 with extension springs).
In the evolution of garage doors, the tilt-a-door does seem like a relic from the dark ages. They were succeeded on family homes by the roller door which has been annihilated as far as popularity on new homes by the panel lift door.The tilt-a-door was first seen in the 1900’s and they are still manufactured today and can be seen in many houses an units. Tilt-a-Doors were quite revolutionary.
They made it practical to have a garage as part of your house as it is such an easy door to open and close. The secret of Tilt-a-Doors success was in their hinging system.
The sides of the door are connected to the door frame by a pair of large hinging mechanisms. The door hinges allow the door to move from a vertical closed position to a horizontal open position. In the open position the door is moved upwards as well to make a fully open doorway that a car can be driven through. The door uses large springs to balance the weight of the door and help kept them in the open or closed position. Even without the springs a Tilt-a-door is fairly well balanced.
When servicing a Tilt-a-Door the first thing to check is the door frame. The frame is usually made from solid timber bolted to the edges of the building.
Over the years this frame can rot or get damaged as it is exposed to the outside elements. Make sure the wooden frame is securely bolted in place.Tilt-a-doors can get buckled and bent as it is easy for a car to roll into the door and do some damage. If the door is damaged it will need repairing or replacing. Check that the hinges are not bent or buckled. Repair or replace any bent or damaged parts.If the tilt-a-door is not closing straight, it can be adjusted by moving the adjusting arms up or down as required. When closed the door should sit square in the frame.
Or as square as possible. Once the door is opening and closing correctly. Check to see it is locking correctly. Tilt-a-doors have an angled strike fitted to both sides of the door frame. As the strikes are at the bottom of the door they are prone to water damage. Check for rusty broken bolts. Also check the timber frame is not rotten on the bottom.The Tilt-a-Door uses a T handle lock in the center of the door and a wire mechanism to pull the catches at the bottom of the door.
They also have a release handle attached to the inside of the T handle.If the T handle is broken or worn out it is best to replace it. More secure locking handles are now available to suit the tilt-a-door system and locks can be fitted to If the door needs the lock wires replaced, a tilt-a-door kit is available to replace the wire and opening assembly. For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: Show Details NecessaryHubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized.
Dorama Tilt Up Door Replacement
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