This is a Carriage-House Style garage door construction technique that blends the functionallity of an overhead garage door with the curb appeal of a Carriage-House Style door. This technique applies "veneer" wood boards onto a standard metal overhead garage door using hidden fastners in a way that allows for natural seasonal wood movement. It also creates a 1/16" airspace between the boards and overhead garage door panels so the wood can breathe.
Supported by a 2X4 easel, the garage door panels are stacked and temporarily fastened to the easel in the order they will be installed. Aluminum J channel is applied horizontally on the bottom and top of all the panels using pop rivets to attach - see picture 3.
The top and bottom ends of each stile and panel board are milled as shown in picture 4 .
J channel is used to hold all the stiles and panel boards vertically and L clips that fit into 1/16" routed slots on the back of each board holds the boards horizontally (side-to-side) - see picture 4, 5.
Picture 6 shows a panel board being installed in place by pop riveting the L clip to the garage door panel. The panel board is spaced away from the previous panel board by the removeable 1/16" aluminum spacer shown between them. This removeable spacer also properly aligns the panel boards vertically.
The top, bottom and intermediate rails are attached to the garage door panels by sliding the router slotted rail in between two previously properly attached J channels running the length of the rail - see picture 7, 8.
The L clips are made from the J channel and the J channel is an item commonly available in 10' lengths at semi tractor trailer repair supply houses like Stoops Freightliner in Indianapolis.
The stiles and rails are 1 ¼" X 5 ½" and the panel boards are ¾"X 3". Lap joinery is used throughout. All edges are routed with 1/8" round-over, sanded and stained before installed. After installation, the stile and rail edges are distressed by an orbital sander, then restained with a contrasting stain.
The overhead door was ordered from Coplay with springs sized for the extra 135 pounds added to the garage door. They also provided extended brackets to allow for an extra 1-1/2" door thickness.
My wife's garage is shown in the picture - I installed another on our house. They have withstood two years of Indiana weather and look like they were installed yesterday. This same technique was used on a 3' exterior entry door on our shed. I am fabricating another one for my 1835 hand-hewn log building located next to my home - it was my cabinet shop from 1975 to1984. I outgrew that wonderful shop and built a new one on a nearby four-lane highway.
I had a 30 year career practicing my passion - woodworking. I no longer hire out, but I do have the pleasure of doing projects like this.