Are garage doors from the big box stores inferior?

[realsquash]

I've "remodeled" my shop area and need a new door, 10' wide by 9' high. Currently I have an uninsulated steel one that has seen its better days. I would like an insulated one and I've found a few commercial ones that have about R-15 insulation (injected polyurethane).

Menards wants $850, door place wants $1250. I've talked to a couple of other door places and Home Depot, Lowes and it's the same story. The door places all say that the big box stores get a crummy low-end cheap flimsy version of the door that they charge up to $500 more for. None of these include installation fees or openers.

What's wrong with a Menards Clopay commercial door for $850?

Andy

 

[brad d]

Depends on what options you want.. with the "door place" you can pick the size of the rails, the kind of weather stips, the kind of brackets (i went with one big L bracket that is 8' tall over a bunch of small brackets for the rails)

 

[realsquash]

Menards has the same options-two different low-headroom kits (I need one), track width, windows, locks, etc. I don't know about the L bracket, that sounds useful though.

Andy

 

[brad d]

the other thing i got was a solid shaft over a hollow one.. but if you can get the same options then go with the cheaper one IMO

What about R value?

 

[tim096]

I have 3 garage doors 1 came from lowes,clopay, 2 from a garage door company,clopay
they are all heavy duty, same door, the ones from the door company have a torsion bar, the lowes ones have springs.

 

[nova65ss]

Same stuff from most box stores they just carry a name brand door under the box store name. Just make sure you look at the thickness of the steel etc. The ones they keep in stock on the showroom floor are the lowend thin steel doors and only come with extension springs.

 

[nova65ss]

the other thing i got was a solid shaft over a hollow one.. but if you can get the same options then go with the cheaper one IMO

What about R value?

Curious as to why you wanted a solid shaft? Them things aint cheap!

 

[ket-tek]

I installed 5 clopay doors from home depot (2 insulated and 3 non-insulated) for a friend last year. They were pretty nice, easy to install, and the panels seem to be the same as the clopay door the door company put on all the spec homes around here.

But as mentioned above, all the door companies installed I've seen are torsion bar, and the HD/Lowe's ones are a extenstion springs..

Neither store stocked torsion doors, but does sell and install them.. I think they may not want to endorse selling torsion doors to the public due to the drama surrounding the potential dangers of a non-professional handling of a torsion design.

 

[brad d]

Curious as to why you wanted a solid shaft? Them things aint cheap!

the ones on my house are hollow shaft.. and i had one bend a bit on me.. might of been a bad install (i did not do them )

 

[brad d]

the potential dangers of a non-professional handling of a torsion design.

some one told me 6 people die a year in Canada from torsion springs

 

[BlackLead]

I installed 3 Clopay/Holmes doors (same door, same manufacturer - Clopay, just different places sell them) that are standard height, 8' wide. I was able to order them with the EZ-Set torsion spring system, which is much easier to install than the standard torsion springs. In either case, care needs to be taken, but the EZ-Set won't throw a bar at you, since it uses a drill-driven winding unit instead. In my experience, the Overhead Door folks were far and away too expensive, whereas Lowes/Home Depot had much better pricing. If you can read and understand the directions that come with the doors, and have a decent level of home repair skill, then you should be able to install the doors yourself, although not ALL by yourself. You'll need a friend, who hopefully has equal aptitude. The doors I got from Lowe's are of excellent quality and Clopay stands behind it's product if you have any issues. When I had to replace a panel that was damaged in shipping, they didn't give me any grief over it, although there was some confusion on Lowe's part which caused a delay. Unless you buy store stock, there is (or was, maybe it's improved) a six week timeframe between ordering the doors and receiving them at the store. Overall, I'd say it was a good experience, albeit not without some frustrations, primarily with trying to square up the rails. A professional installer could probably do it quicker, but if you've got a weekend to spare, I'd think it's a worthwhile endeavor. Your mileage, of course, may vary. You can google up the installation instructions in PDF format on the web, to give yourself some idea of what you'd be up against.

 

[chaingang]

My experience was the same as blacklead mentioned above. Clopays from Lowes with the EZ springs. Put them up with some help from my Dad 6 years ago. No problems, but my doors don't get opened every day.

 

[327-365hp]

A hot rod buddy of mine who installs garage doors for a living, highly recommended Garaga doors.

http://www.garaga.com/index-en.aspx

Polyurethane insulation with a factor of RSI: 2.8 (R:16). More than my walls!
26 gauge steel 1 3/4" thick door with 5/8" pvc overlays
GARAGA uses 14-gauge tracks, with welded mounting brackets, rather than riveted or fastened (clips). This is where alot of door brands cheap out, with flimsy tracks.
Torsion spring with solid shaft.
My doors are 9 x8 They were $1500 each installed, plus $200 more with the high lift track. The doors are above the transom windows when opened. Then I bought the Liftmaster 3800s on ebay for $325 delivered. My door guy said that was cheaper than he gets them for.
I'm really happy with my doors!

 

[Gary S]

I bought my doors 5 years ago from Menards. Mine do have the torsion bars, but they are made so you don't wind them by hand. They are equipped with a small gearcase at one end of the torsion bar. You attach your variable speed drill to the drive shaft and wind up the torsion bar with it. When you reach the desired amount of twist, you simply stop and the gearcase holds the torsion bar in place.
If Menards had this design 5 years ago already, everybody should have it by now. It is safer and easier than even the long spring doors.

 

[autoist]

I bought 4 Clopay doors for my garage from Lowe's about 15-or-so years ago...great product, no issues to date.

 

[pmpski_1]

Costco has a deal here for Garage doors - installed by a door company. They're Amarr doors. I did some comparisons between them and HD (Clopay) doors, and the cost was about the same. This is with 10% off from HD until 4/01.