Garage doors are an expensive design, so more and more car owners are trying to assemble and install them on our own. The method of making a garage door with your own hands is not as complicated as it might seem at first, and if you follow the instructions exactly, the “home” for your car will receive reliable protection. But first, let’s look at what variations of garage entrance groups there are.

Swing gates are the most popular among motorists

Modern car enthusiasts prefer swing gates, because they are the easiest to create for a garage with your own hands. Having purchased steel sheets, angles and profiles, the owner will be able to create the entire structure without the involvement of assistants. Other types of gates can also be made at home if desired, but they show their advantages only in regions with warm weather conditions.

However, if you really want to protect your garage with lifting-sectional or rotating structures, you should take care of heating in the room. Otherwise, in extreme cold, the linkages and guides will freeze. We propose to make swing gates yourself, so we will describe in detail their manufacture, installation and fitting with locks.

Creation entrance structure begins with project development. The drawing is made on paper indicating the dimensions and materials. First, the owner is recommended to decide on the width and height of the future structure. The minimum value of the first parameter should be such that the distance from the machine on both sides to the gate frame reaches 30 cm or more. The maximum width is 5 m, but standard width The gate varies between 2.5 - 3 m. This space makes entering the garage comfortable.

Example drawing garage doors

When choosing the width of the garage door, you should take into account the distance between the frame and perpendicularly standing wall. He should be given at least 80 cm.

The height of the structure is calculated based on the size of the “iron horse”. A minibus requires an opening of 2.5 m. For a regular car, 2 - 2.2 m is enough. To avoid inconsistencies with the garage plan experienced craftsmen It is recommended to create sketches of the gate at the time of designing the room.

The design of the gate that we will make for the garage with our own hands consists of several elements:

• sheet iron;
• two doors on hinges;
• frame for framing a garage.

Making a frame requires purchasing a 65 mm steel angle; it is advisable to use reinforced hinges. We will create the frame from a rectangular steel profile and cover it with iron sheet 3 mm thick. We will calculate the amount of building materials according to the dimensions of the future structure.

Making a garage door frame is a very important process!

We begin work on creating a garage door with our own hands by making the frame. It is most convenient to do it during the construction of the front wall. As soon as the masonry reaches half a meter in height, we install the frame and continue laying out. To make the frame you will need materials and equipment:

1. steel corners – 65 mm;
2. pieces of steel reinforcing rod;
3. grinder with welding machine;
4. square, measuring tape, level;
5. steel strips 3 cm wide and 4 mm thick.

We create a frame for a garage door step by step. First, cut the corner into 8 pieces. 4 pieces should match the width of the opening, the other 4 pieces should match the height. We cut the corner exactly with exact observance of the distance or make a 10-centimeter margin. In the second case, we cut the side of the corner intended for the inside of the opening to size. On the sides inside and outside the wall we leave 5-centimeter strips at the top and bottom or cut them off at an angle. This approach will ensure convenient welding of strips.

Making a garage door frame

At the second stage, we lay out the corner blanks on flat surface and measure the angles to ensure they are 90 degrees. During the work, we regularly monitor this parameter with a square.

The third stage is welding the corners to obtain a frame. Here you can do things differently:

1. Overlap the edges of the corners and connect them.
2. Cut the edge at an angle and weld the parts, but this connection is not as strong as the first.

A corner that has deviated to the side is corrected using a lever, which is a piece of a corner. By welding it in the desired position, the frame part is oriented in the planned direction.

We carefully clean off the excess welding from the outside of the frame and proceed to the following work.

Making frames for sashes

The size of this part should be smaller than the garage door frame. The frame needs to be made so that it fits easily into the opening, and the sashes fit snugly on the outer part of the frame. To make a frame for the sashes, take steel angle or rectangular profile. But it’s more comfortable to work with a steel corner:

1. We cut 4 pieces from the material with a length different from the height of the frame by 10 - 15 mm. The gap ensures ease of entry of the sashes into the opening. Considering the number of sashes, and there are two of them, we separate 4 more horizontal parts from the corner. We calculate their size as follows: divide the width of the gate frame by 2 and subtract 30 - 35 mm from the resulting figure.
2. Having laid out the segments on level ground, we check that the angles correspond to 90 degrees. The layout inside the welded frame allows you to quickly see errors.
3. We connect the sections into a solid frame and strengthen the structure with an additional horizontal piece - it will prevent the panels from skewing. We place the element in the center of the frame.

Manufacturing of gate leaves

For the gate leaves that we make for the garage with our own hands, you will need steel sheet thickness not less than 2 mm. We deal with it as follows. We cut out two canvases 4 cm higher than the length of the garage opening, but make the width different. One sash should be a couple of centimeters less than the width of the frame, the other 2 cm more.

The first diagram shows the location of gate leaves made of corrugated board or wood.
In the second diagram of the location of gate leaves made of steel sheets

We weld the canvases to the frame. At the same time, we try to ensure that the top and bottom of the canvas extend beyond the frame by 2 cm. On the sash that will open second, the canvas should not touch the edge of the frame, let 1 cm remain free. A small gap is needed for a tight fit of this canvas. We weld the other sash so that it protrudes 3 cm beyond the frame.

The steel sheet slips during welding and spoils the geometry of the product. Therefore, you first need to grab the corners and center of the sheet, then spot weld the sheet completely and maintaining a distance of 10 - 15 cm. To avoid deformation, the welding is cut off at the corners.

Garage door hinges

Finally, we weld the hinges. We attach the bottom of the parts to the gate frame, the top to the opening leaf. We strengthen the fastening by welding metal strips and reinforcement inserts. We bend an iron strip 7 mm thick and weld it to the top of the hinge and the sash. We fix the reinforcement element from the inside.

When the structure is laid out on a flat area, the owner will be able to check the correctness of the work performed and the ease of movement of the sashes. If there are no mistakes, proceed with the installation.

Garage door installation

Garage door installation requires careful steps

First we will install the inner and outer gate frames. If the garage is just being built, then if there is a front wall 50 cm high, we introduce the structure into the opening. For a neat, even position, carefully check the vertical and horizontal of the product. We fasten the frames with metal strips 4 cm wide, welding them to the frame at intervals of 60 cm.

We continue to build the wall, allowing the bricks to take place in the middle of the external and internal structures. At the same time, we introduce the frame into the masonry: we weld 3 reinforcing rods about 30 cm long and install them between the bricks directly into the seam. Having reached the top of the frame, we make a ceiling from a concrete or metal beam. Next, we check the operation of the gates that we made for the garage with our own hands - the doors should open and close easily.

Installation of locks and latches on garage doors

Lock - lock for garage

We complete the production of garage doors by installing locks and latches - these minor work We will also do it ourselves. Car owners have adopted an option in which only one door is closed from inside the room due to rods going into the floor and ceiling. For the lock to work, holes 5 cm deep are needed. They are made in the frame, floor and ceiling.

The second gate is equipped with a lock, the retractable rods of which extend behind the gate or fall into holes made in the frame of the second part of the gate. WITH outside In order to increase reliability, the design is equipped with an external lock on special eyelets. It will connect both doors.

A “Spider” lock or a “Crab” lock is one of the most reliable for garage doors

Despite a certain degree of reliability of such a lock, it does not provide a 100% guarantee against intrusion by intruders. Burglars can use a grinder to cut off hinges or remove doors. Let's consider an option that increases the chances of car safety. A piece of corner is welded to the place where the hinges are attached to the sash frame, which, when the sash is closed, will extend almost 20 mm into the wall. For this maneuver, you need to make a free space in the masonry in advance. When you try to remove the doors, the corner will cling to the garage frame and will not allow dismantling.

The “spider” lock is considered a reliable option. Its pins are fixed into the floor, wall and ceiling of the garage. The lock is supplemented with a locking mechanism that jams it closed. To unlock the spider you will need a special key.

Garage door insulation should be effective and economical

Insulation of the entrance structure is a topical issue for residents of harsh climatic regions. It is better not to cover the doors with cotton insulation, as they quickly lose their properties. beneficial features. Optimal materials are sheet foam and extruded polystyrene foam. To insulate the gates, proceed as follows:

1. Mark and cut out pieces the right size. With help wooden planks a small gap is made between the metal and the insulating material. TO metal surface The planks are secured with liquid nails.
2. The empty space is filled with insulation. The remaining voids are filled with construction foam.
3. The gaps in the stiffening ribs are sealed with foil-based insulation. It is also attached with liquid nails.
4. Close the gate with insulation over the entire area and wait for the glue and foam to harden.
5. In accordance with the parameters of the area, a sheet of plywood is cut out and treated with an anti-rotting agent. As the foam and glue dry, the plywood is fixed to the stiffening ribs and leaf of the gate structure using self-tapping screws.

After installing and insulating the gate, do not forget to organize high-quality ventilation in the garage.

All work on creating a garage door with your own hands is completed by bringing the structure into an aesthetic appearance. To prevent corrosion, it is painted on the inside and outside. They work carefully with the brush.

Additional protection from moisture can be achieved by installing a canopy over the doors. Nice visor obtained from corrugated sheets or remnants of iron sheets. It is attached to pipes or steel plates. It is not recommended to cut this part out of wood. On the eve of installation, you should calculate the load-bearing capacity of the canopy, i.e. how much load it can withstand.

For home handyman If you are planning to build a reliable garage door with your own hands, the diagram (drawing) according to which they will be assembled should become the main document. Based on this, you can calculate the amount of materials needed for the work and adjust the shutters to the opening with maximum precision in order to prevent moisture and cold air from entering the room. winter period. Therefore, you need to take this stage of work on installing a garage door with the utmost seriousness.

When designing swing garage doors, care must be taken to ensure that the doors can open at any time of the year.

Another responsible task will be assembly and installation finished design. The safety of the car and the service life of the gate itself, the replacement of which will require investment, will depend on the thoroughness of each operation of this process. Money and additional efforts by the owner.

What needs to be done before starting work?

When installing swing garage doors, first of all you should evaluate the topography of the place where the garage is located. Considering that the doors can reach a width of 2.5-3 m, care must be taken to ensure that they can open outward freely at any time of the year.

Their opening angle must be at least 90° to ensure free movement of the car through the opening without the risk of damage side surfaces body If it is impossible to install gates with leaves, you will have to choose more expensive models With lifting mechanism, roller shutters or sliding gates. In any case, before preparing necessary tools and materials, the master will need a diagram, which you can also draw with your own hands.

During the production of the drawing, you will need to put the following dimensions on paper:

• the width of the opening, which is determined taking into account the width of the body vehicle, plus 30-50 cm on each side from it to the gate frame;
• gate height equal to 2-2.2 m for a passenger car of any model and at least 2.5-3 m for a jeep or minibus;
• dimensions of the doors, each of which is equal to half the width of the gate;
• the dimensions of the gate and the distance to its frame from the edges of the sash;
• the height of the hinges of the doors and gates, the location of the eyelets for locks and internal gate locks.

In addition to the main dimensions of the gate, you will need to mark on the diagram the location of the stiffeners on the doors and the gate. IN finished form a drawing of a swing garage door may look like in Fig. 1.

In addition to materials, you need to make sure that you have the following tools on hand:

• Bulgarian;
• construction and hydraulic level;
• tape measure, square;
• welding machine.

Use a grinder to cut a corner for making a gate frame, frame and stiffening ribs for doors and gates according to custom sizes and needs.

How to mount a gate frame?

This part consists of 2 rectangular structures, which will later be connected to each other. Hinges for hanging the doors are attached to the outer part of the frame; the inner part is used to hold the gate in the wall opening. They must be made from a corner at least 6.5 cm wide in order to securely hold the garage door, made by the owner of the building with his own hands, when the doors are open.

Figure 2. Diagram of the gate frame stiffeners.

Ideally, the frame should be installed during the construction of the garage.

1. To make the frame parts, you will need to cut 8 pieces of angle iron with a length equal to the width and height of the gate (4 pieces for each measurement). Lay out the material on a flat surface, forming rectangles from the resulting segments. By measuring the diagonals and angles, achieve a perfect fit of the parts to the opening of the garage wall.
2. Use a welding machine to connect parts of structures.
3. Install the resulting rectangular parts in the opening, adjusting them in place, and connect the outer and inner parts with crossbars made of a rod or metal strips, as in Fig. 2. dividing the height and width of the gate into equal sections. When using a rod you can make through holes in the garage wall and, driving pieces of reinforcement of the required length into them, weld them to the frame parts. More often connecting elements welded over the edges of the opening.

Manufacturing and installation of gate leaves

According to the drawings, measure and cut corner pieces 4x4 cm wide and lay them out, forming the frame of future doors and gates. Align, measuring the corners and diagonals of each of the rectangular structures, and weld the frames.

Cut a steel sheet or corrugated sheet according to the dimensions of the gates, taking into account that their edges should form an overlap of 2-3 cm wide around the perimeter of the gate frame. The wicket canvas should also have the same overlap. This measure is needed to bridge the gaps between the frame and the frame of the sashes. This will prevent it from getting into excess moisture through the cracks, will eliminate the occurrence of drafts in the insulated garage and will additionally protect the garage owner from the penetration of strangers into the premises.

To attach the sashes to the frame, you will need to weld the hinges:

After installing the leaves in place, hang a gate on one of them, using the same sequence of actions that was used for the gate. Install latches, hooks and handles after the sashes are completely installed. Weld the eyes for the padlock in the desired place, install the mortise lock according to the instructions, using welding or a threaded connection.

In a heated room, garage doors are installed with your own hands, additionally insulating them with any known heat-insulating material. To hold it in place with inside the shutters must be secured with a sheet of thin steel or corrugated sheet. This can be done by welding or using metal screws.

How to install other types of gates?

Lifting and roller gates require the use of ready-made mechanisms for opening and closing, so they are often purchased ready for installation or ordered after having previously designed a garage door drawing. In such cases, you can only make and install the gate frame and hang the door leaf yourself according to the attached instructions.

To install sliding gates, a frame is not required, as for other structures. Making such gates with your own hands involves welding a single large-sized leaf. To do this, you can use a sequence of actions, as in the manufacture of a sash with a gate. To hang such gates, guides are installed at the top and bottom of the opening along which the door leaf will move. All accessories are purchased ready-made, and installation is reduced to placing the parts in their regular places in accordance with the instructions.

The simplest and most inexpensive garage door, which can be made with your own hands by a person who has skills in working with metal, is the swing door. They are most often installed by garage owners in garage complexes and private backyards.

Gates are an indispensable component of any garage, because they protect the interior space from unauthorized entry. In addition, garage doors must act as a strong and reliable fourth wall, not be afraid of changes in temperature and humidity, and look attractive in appearance. The easiest way is to buy them or have them made, but this will not save money and will not be as pleasant as if you built a garage door with your own hands. After reading this article, you will learn how, if you have simple tools make a strong gate.

If buying ready-made gates does not appeal to you, then there is only one way out - to make them yourself. And the reason for this may not be so much financial side as much as the need to create something useful and durable that will be a pleasure to use every day. And while the walls, foundation and roof protect your car from bad weather, the gates perform a much more important function - they protect the car from possible theft and damage. If the gate is strong and reliable, you won’t be afraid to leave expensive tools and other items in the garage that don’t have a place in the house.

There are several types of gates based on the opening principle, and in this article we will look at step by step creation swing and lifting structures. This way, you can evaluate and compare the features of both systems and choose the optimal one.

Hinged garage doors, as the name suggests, swing open to provide access to the premises. They consist of one or two doors, a frame, hinges and other elements. The size of the sashes and the number of fittings on them can be very different, so work should begin with the creation of a detailed drawing. If you install a gate in an existing doorway, then you need to build on its size, but if you plan to reduce or increase the opening, take into account the following recommendations:

1. There should be a minimum of 30 cm from the side of the car to the gate post. It is better to increase the distance in case you will use the same garage for a larger car in the future.
2. The height of the opening should be at least 2 m, but it is better to make it 2.1-2.4 m.
3. Choose steel sheets with a thickness of at least 3 mm.

Assembly of swing garage doors

For standard swing gates you will need sheet metal, metal corners, profiles, hinges, latches and locks. To work with metal, prepare a welding machine and a grinder; a square, tape measure and a building level will also come in handy.

We make garage doors:

1. First of all, you need to assemble the frame. To do this, you will need a welding machine and basic skills in handling it. Using a grinder, cut the profile into separate elements in accordance with the parameters in the drawing, lay them out on a flat plane, weld the seams and clean them to get a perfect smooth surface. Seams are the most vulnerable place from which corrosion and destruction begin, so treatment should not be neglected. In addition, if they are not smooth, future doors will not be able to close tightly. Make the outer and inner frame in a similar way.
   
2. Next from metal profile 60x20 weld a frame for each sash. Check the evenness of the corners using a square. Leave a small gap between the sections and the frame so that it is convenient to open the doors later.
   
3. Attach sheet metal to the frame so that the leaf of the left sash overlaps the frame of the right one by a couple of centimeters, and therefore the right one should be narrower by the same distance.
   
4. It is better to prepare the loops in advance. Weld the lower part of the hinge to the frame, the upper part to the canvas. To make the fastening stronger, use reinforcement by welding it on the inside.
   
5. To increase security, in addition to a regular lock, it is better to use a deadbolt by installing it on the inside of the gate. But it is rational to make a deadbolt only if the design includes a gate. So you will first enter the garage through the gate, open the bolt from the inside and open the gate completely. You can choose mortise or padlocks. In the first case, additional metal plastic will be required for installation, and in the second, external hinges will be required. It’s better not to limit yourself to one lock, but to install 2-3 at once, so that if one of them breaks, you can still close the garage.
6. All that remains is to paint the gate, and this must be done before installation. Painting is necessary not so much for aesthetics, but to protect metal components from corrosion. Accordingly, for this you need to use weather-resistant anti-corrosion paint for metal. It can be applied manually with a brush or roller or using aerosols, which is much faster and more convenient. Before applying paint, the surface should be primed. It is better to apply the paint in 2-3 layers and renew the coating every couple of years.

Installation of swing garage doors

Once the paint has dried, you can install the sectional garage doors. To fix the inner and outer parts of the frame, use metal pins about 15 cm long. Fasten them in the slopes, cut and sand the ends so that they do not impede the closing of the sashes. Fasten the two parts of the frame together with steel plates 4 mm thick, welding every 50 cm, after which the finished sashes can be hung on the hinges.

At this stage, it is worth thinking about insulating the garage doors, since almost 50% of the heat escapes through them alone. If you prepare basic materials, this is very easy to do. Shoot down wooden sheathing made of lumber, fix it from the inside of the sashes, and then fill it with insulation. The cheapest materials can be used as thermal insulation, for example, stone wool or polystyrene foam. You can cover the sheathing with clapboard.

Overhead garage doors

Lifting garage doors are very popular, but many people think that making them with their own hands without the appropriate experience is completely impossible. In this part of the article we will try to prove the opposite. First of all, let's look at what the structure itself is and what its advantages are compared to the swing structure. When opened, the leaf of such a door rises on hinges to the garage ceiling, moving from a vertical to a horizontal position. So it takes a lot less space than swing doors.

There are two types of design overhead gates:

In the case of such gates big role The noiselessness of their operation plays a role, since their design does not involve the use of rollers with guides, but the decisive factor is that you can make it yourself. To do this, you do not need any special skills or large financial investments.

Installation of overhead garage doors

The lift-and-turn structure consists of a frame, a sash and a lifting mechanism. For the frame, you can use not only steel, but also wooden beams, which are installed in the opening. IN door frame guide profiles are placed along which the gate will move when raising and lowering.

The obvious advantage of up and over gates is the integrity of the door leaf. It can be made of wood, it can be sheathed with sandwich panels or metal. A solid wooden panel will be quite expensive, and it will weigh a lot, and the material itself is not as stable and durable as plastic or metal, although it looks beautiful. The best and most common options are wooden or plastic panels and sheet steel. Sandwich panels are even better in this regard, since they act as cladding and thermal insulation. Other materials will need to be additionally insulated with foam plastic or stone wool slabs.

Manufacturing technology for overhead garage doors

Before installing garage door roller shutters, you need to decide on the opening mechanism.

There are two types of devices:

1. Hinged-lever is a popular solution that guarantees simple movement of the sash and anti-blocking of the leaf. However, such a mechanism requires very precise installation of the guides, as well as meticulous adjustment of the spring tension, which a beginner is unlikely to be able to do. If the guides are not set strictly vertically and parallel to each other, the shield will be blocked.
2. On counterweights - the principle of operation is that a cable attached to the lower corners of the frame and passed through a block leads to the winch pulley, and a counterweight is attached to its other end. The heavier the door leaf, the heavier this counterweight should be. However, it should be taken into account that the structure is subjected to heavy loads, so it is mainly used for the construction of massive gates, and for private garages for 1 car I use a hinged lever mechanism.

When you have decided on the design of the future gate, transferred the dimensions of the opening and developed a sketch, it’s time to prepare tools and materials.

Let's look at the construction of overhead gates using the example of a structure for which you will need the following:

• steel pins (reinforcement scraps 15-18 cm long);
• wooden beam 120x80 (racks) and 100x100 (crossbar);
• steel corners 40x40x4 and 3.5x3.5x0.4;
• channel bracket 8x4.3x0.5;
• spring d30 mm;
• plywood panels;
• Sheet steel;
• steel rod d8 mm.

How to install a garage door:

1. Take 2 racks, a crossbar and knock down the box, connecting the parts with corners or plates. Bottom part bury it in concrete screed by 2 cm.
2. Secure the box in the opening with steel pins.
3. Assemble the frame of the canvas and cover it with plywood, attach sheet iron to the outside.
4. Use the corner to create a support for the mechanism.
5. In one of the shelves, make a hole for fixing to the racks, in the other, make holes for the spring bracket. To secure the bracket, which will be used as a support for the spring, drill 3 holes.
6. Make an adjustment plate from a steel strip and use it to connect the spring to the bracket. Bend the extreme coils of the spring with pliers to form hooks, and attach a steel rod underneath.
7. Make a hinged corner from the corner and weld it to the frame. This way you can mount the lift arm on a 12 cm hinge.
8. Attach the plate for the tension regulator to the end of the lever.
9. From a couple of corners, construct guide rails for the movement of the gate itself. To do this, weld the corners along the edge, making sure that the internal distance between the peaks is strictly 5 cm along the entire length.
10. Attach the rail to the plate, leaving 8cm of clearance between the bottom end of the crossbar and the axle.
11. Attach a channel to the other end, 12-15 cm from the bottom, and then attach it to the ceiling beam (use a bolted connection).
12. At each stage, before securing anything, check that the guides are level.

Helpful advice: to make the garage brighter, you can make blind windows in the canvas. To give the structure additional strength and to avoid accidental impacts and damage, glue a rubber edging with compensating pads to the canvas.

Finally, we suggest you watch the video where overhead garage doors are shown in detail:

Garage doors: photo

Recently, artistic painting of garage doors has been gaining great popularity. Drawings with a 3D effect are especially in demand:

A garage is a mandatory building for a car owner. Those who live outside the city in private houses build garages next to the house or even add one to the house. And for those who live within the boundaries big city, you have to store the car in a garage cooperative away from home. But no matter where the garage is located, the safety of the car in it is ensured by gates, the design of which may differ depending on the preferences of the owner and the capabilities of the room, space and expediency. The most simple solution It would be better to buy ready-made gates and install them in place, but you can make garage doors yourself, be sure to take into account all the design features and customize them, as they say, “to suit you.” In this case, you will be absolutely sure of their quality and reliability.

1. Making garage doors with your own hands
2. Manufacturing of gate leaves
3. Insulation of garage doors
4. Some secrets to protecting garage doors from burglary
5. DIY garage doors: video

Types of garage doors: which is better

There are several types of garage doors, most of which appeared quite recently, just when we began to focus on Western technologies. Thanks largely to Hollywood films, we learned about gates that rise up and go to the ceiling when you press a button on the remote control. Now such know-how is not uncommon even in our country.

Swing gates are the oldest and most reliable option garage doors. However, such gates were used everywhere, not only for garages, and earned the trust of many years of trouble-free practice even in difficult conditions operation. Swing gates consist of two hinged leaves and a frame in doorway, the doors close tightly, leaving no gaps. Making garage doors with your own hands is quite easy; the mechanism is simple and reliable, “forever.”

Sliding gates began to be used sometime in the first half of the 20th century. They represent one leaf that slides to the side parallel to the front wall. Although there may actually be two doors, then they will move in different directions, or even one, but folding into several sections. For such gates to move freely, you need to have a lot of free space in the front wall of the garage. Therefore, sliding gates are used in hangars and industrial enterprises. In private construction, such gates are installed not in the garage buildings themselves, but at the entrance to the site.

Up and over gates appeared relatively recently. They represent one leaf (gate leaf), which rises up to the ceiling when the gate is opened and becomes parallel to the floor. These gates are based on a hinged lever mechanism and guides. The convenience of these gates is that they do not take up free space either in front of the garage or inside it. Up-and-over doors can be considered as the door to your garage if climatic conditions allow it or if the garage is heated.

Overhead sectional doors are also new to our market. They are a canvas consisting of sections that are refracted and slide along guides under the ceiling when the gate is opened. It is based on a spring mechanism and guides with chain drive. The advantage of such gates is the same space saving.

Rolling gates are rarely used for garages, as they do not provide the required reliability. They are aluminum plates, like in roller shutters, which fold into a special box under the ceiling when the gate is opened. It is advisable to install such gates only in facilities with security and access control systems, as well as in heated premises.

Important! Gates of any type can be made automatic, operating from a key fob.

When choosing a garage door, consider not only beauty, sophistication and laudatory reviews from advertisers, but also practicality, durability and adaptability to our climatic conditions and other operating conditions. The most reliable choice would be swing gates, they will not let you down even in severe frost, well, maybe at most you will have to warm up the lock.

Before making your garage doors up-and-over or up-and-section, think carefully. Firstly, all the advantages of these types of gates can only be felt in warm regions. If you really want just such a gate, remember that the garage must be heated. Remember our winters, in sophisticated gates both the guides and lever mechanisms will freeze, you will not be able to open the gate at all, you will have to leave the car under open air. In pursuit of a client, the manufacturer praises his product so much that sometimes his odes are full of absurdity. As, for example, as a virtue overhead sectional doors The fact is that you don’t have to clear snow from the gates, because they open upwards and not outwards, like swing gates. Where is the dignity here? If there is snow in front of the gate, you simply won’t be able to enter it. And if you do, you’ll push a couple of tens of kilograms of snow inside the garage with the front of the car. So, don't flatter yourself. The snow will still have to be cleared.

Making garage doors with your own hands

The easiest to manufacture are swing gates. You can complete them yourself from start to finish by purchasing required material: steel angles, profiles and sheets. Accordingly, the dimensions of the gates and their design features you can plan in advance and make exactly the kind of gate you like.

You can try to make up-and-over gates yourself, but to do this you need to have considerable engineering experience and knowledge to the right choice counterweight and installation of mechanisms. In most cases, such gates are simply purchased ready-made and installed according to the attached instructions.

It is impossible to make overhead sectional doors yourself; there are unreasonably high costs, time expenditure and no guarantee that it will all work correctly. Therefore, if you decide to install such gates in your garage, order them from the manufacturer.

Like any important business, garage doors begin with design documentation. It’s not difficult to make drawings of a garage door with your own hands; just draw a sketch on a piece of paper, making sure to indicate all the dimensions and materials.

First you need to choose the right height and width of the gate. The minimum permissible width of a garage door should be such that the distance from the car body on the right and left sides to the door frame is at least 30 cm. Of course, the greater this distance, the more convenient it is to enter the garage. The maximum practical width is 5 m. Most often, garage doors are made with a width of 2.5 to 3 m.

Important! When choosing the width of the garage door, please note that the distance from the door frame to the perpendicular wall must be at least 80 cm.

The height of the garage door is selected depending on the size of the car and most often ranges from 2 to 2.2 m. But if you plan to park a minibus, then it is better to immediately make an opening of 2.5 m.

Our swing gates will consist of a frame that will frame the entrance, the garage opening, and two doors on hinges. It is best to make the frame from a steel angle of at least 65 mm. To make the frame of the valves, you can use either a 50 mm steel corner or a rectangular steel profile, then sheathe them with sheet iron 2 to 3 mm thick. The hinges will need reinforced external ones. Based on the drawn diagram of the garage door and the dimensions marked on it, we calculate the amount of required materials and purchase them.

Important! A drawing of a garage door must be made at the design stage of the entire garage.

The production of garage doors begins with a frame that will frame the entrance to the garage. It is best to start doing it at the stage of constructing the front wall. When no more than 50 cm of masonry is ready, it is necessary to suspend work on the construction of the wall and install the gate, and then continue laying the wall.

To make the frame, we will need 65 mm steel corners, steel strips 20–30 mm wide and 3–4 mm thick, as well as pieces of steel reinforcing rod to secure the frame in the gate opening. The tools you will need are a grinder, a tape measure, a square, a level and a welding machine.

The frame for the garage will consist of two parts: outer and inner.

• Using a grinder, we cut a corner so that we get 4 segments with a length equal to the width of the gate opening, and 4 segments with a length equal to the height of the gate opening. In this case, you can cut the corner evenly, measuring the required distance, or you can cut it with a margin of 10 cm, and then do this: cut the side of the corner that will be inside the garage opening equal to the size of the opening, and on the sides located outside and inside the wall, leave strips 5 cm long at the top and bottom or cut them off at an angle to make it easier to weld them together in the future.

• We lay out the pieces of corners on a flat surface, first checking this with a level. We carefully measure all angles, they must be exactly 90 degrees. We constantly control this with a square.
• We weld the corners together to form a frame. Welding can involve placing the edge of one corner on another and welding, or you can cut off the edge at an angle, then the welding will be strictly in the same plane, but such a connection will be slightly less strong than with an overlap.

Important! If during the welding process the corner bends, this can be corrected using a lever welded to it from scraps of the corner, which will help to forcefully correct the geometry of the frame. Holding it in the required position, we weld the corners to it. In the photo depicting the process of making a garage door with your own hands, you can see what this lever looks like.

• On outside We carefully sand off all welding flaws on the frame, since the sash should fit as tightly as possible to this side.

Making frames for sashes

The frame or frame for the shutters should be slightly smaller in size than the garage door frame so that it fits easily into the opening and the shutters fit snugly against the outside of the frame.

To make a frame for the doors, you can use a steel angle, as for the gate frame, or you can use a rectangular profile. The difference will only be in the convenience of work and the load-carrying capacity of the frame.

• We cut 4 pieces of material, the length is 10 - 15 mm less than the height of the gate frame. This gap is necessary so that the sashes can easily fit into the opening. Since we will have two leaves, to make them we will need 4 more horizontal segments, which should be equal to the width of the gate frame, divided in half, and another minus 30 - 35 mm.

• Lay out the pieces on a flat surface and carefully measure the corners. Ideally, they are best placed inside a welded garage door frame. This way you can see the shortcomings. We strictly control angles of 90 degrees.
• We weld the frame from sections. To strengthen the structure, another horizontal piece of material can be welded inside, which will serve as a spacer and prevent changes in the geometry of the valves. It is best to place the reinforcing element in the middle of the frame.

Manufacturing of gate leaves

For the sashes you can use sheet material; the most reliable is considered to be a steel sheet with a thickness of 2 mm or more.

• We cut out two sheets of sheet material with the following dimensions: a height of 3–4 cm greater than the height of the garage opening, of different widths. One canvas should be 1 - 2 cm less than the width of the frame, and the second 2 cm more.
• We weld the panels to the frame in this way: the top and bottom of the panels should protrude beyond the frame by 1 - 2 cm, on one of the doors (whichever you like best, it will always open second) the width of the panel should not reach the edge of the frame, as would leave 1 cm free. This is necessary for a tight fit of the second sash. The leaf of the second sash, on the contrary, is welded so as to protrude 2–4 cm beyond the frame.

Important! Sheet material easily leads on time welding work, therefore, first you should weld the corners and the middle of the sheet, and then weld the entire sheet with point movements at a distance of 10 - 15 cm. After completing the work, the welding in the corners must be cut off so that the sheet does not become deformed in the future.

• We weld reinforced hinges. The lower half is welded to the garage door frame, and the upper half is welded to the opening leaf. To strengthen the fastening to the hinges, you can weld strips of metal and a reinforcement tab. We take a metal strip 5–7 mm thick, bend it and weld it to the upper half of the hinge and to the sash. We weld the reinforcement tab from the inside.

If our entire structure is on a flat surface, the sashes lie on top of the frame, we can closely examine what we have done, whether everything is correct, whether the sashes move easily everywhere, and whether they are catching somewhere. If all is well, you can begin installing the garage door.

First of all, the gate frames are installed: internal and external. Even at the stage of wall construction, when 50 cm of the wall is ready, it is necessary to place a gate in the opening.

Be sure to check the evenness of the location: horizontal and vertical.

The frames are connected to each other by strips of metal 4 cm wide, which are welded to the frames at 60 cm intervals.

Next, you can continue laying the front wall of the garage so that the bricks occupy the entire space between the outer and inner frames. As the masonry progresses, we embed the frame into the masonry: to do this, we weld reinforcing rods at least 20–30 cm long to the frames and embed them in the seam between the bricks. There should be at least 3 such rods in height.

Having reached the top of the frame, we install a floor beam on it: metal or concrete.

Upon completion of all work, we check the functionality of the gate: how the doors open and close, whether the metal is “clinging” somewhere.

Installation of locks and latches on garage doors

The installation of garage doors ends with the installation of locks and latches. The most common option is this type of constipation. One of the doors is closed with latches from inside the garage, which go into the floor and ceiling. To do this, it is necessary to drill holes in the frame and floor/ceiling with a depth of no more than 5 cm. And the second sash is closed with a lock, the tongue of which hooks onto the fixed sash or enters a hole specially cut for it in the sash frame. Outside this design It is further strengthened by a padlock, which is threaded into the lugs welded to the doors and connects both doors.

There are more complex options locks and latches for the garage, but it is better to consult a specialist on this issue.

Buy a good one garage structure Nowadays, pleasure is not cheap. It is cheaper to make a garage door yourself, but certain knowledge and skills are required. It is also advisable to have welding skills. Therefore, how to make a garage door with your own hands is a question that needs to be thoroughly understood. But then it will be possible to begin to complete the task.

Near a private house

Most users choose them for their compact size.

Advantages: convenience, burglary protection, universal use. Flaws: high price, folding structures are subject to damage.

Swing gates

The photo shows a swing version of the design.

On a suburban area

Sliding gates

Rollback option

Up and over gates

These are the most practical and convenient vertical structures. When opened, the sheet of metal rises up and lies horizontally in the form of a visor. The design of such a mechanism is simple. The canvas is attached to the frame and moves around an axis, changing its horizontal position to a vertical one. Folding gates convenient to use.

Lifting structure drawing

Advantages: resistance to corrosion and burglary, do not require additional space.

Comparison of characteristics

Based on the indicators in the table, we can say that the choice is only up to the buyer. It all depends on cost and reliability. For example, swing and sectional models are best placed in home garage, but they are not suitable for garage cooperatives, as they have a low degree of reliability.

Up-and-over garage doors are suitable for any building, but their main drawback is their high cost. Due to their low price, swing gates are suitable for a private garage. If necessary, they can be insulated, automated and reinforced with an additional sheet of metal. In addition, it is easy to weld garage doors at home.

Frame structure diagram

The frame is made of a metal corner, which is welded around the entire perimeter of the doorway. This is how the slope is finished inside and outside. The inner and outer corners are welded together with metal strips in several places. You should get a frame frame.

After the frame is ready, collapsible hinges are welded on the sides. The lower part must be connected with an outer corner, and the upper part with the frame frame. This design is also suitable for a garage made of