How do I make my garage door 6" taller? Has anybody done this???

Rebeldad1 · Jul 7, 2020

I need to cut the opening to the garage 6" taller. That is the easy project as the building is plenty tall for this.
The door track should be easy as well.

How do I add 6" more to the 16' wide door itself? The panels are aluminum.
Appreciate any ideas...
Thanks!!

homesteader13 · Jul 7, 2020

My suggestion would be to add 6 inches to the bottom, not the top of the door to simplify things,
Use a 2x8x16 rip it to 6 inches width and use the same hinges and rollers that are on the current door and add the bulb weather strip to the bottom.
Thays what I would do, good luck with your project, let us know how it turns out, with pics!

3Ts · Jul 7, 2020

We need a lot more information to help you.
- Is your wall load bearing?
- How is it framed?
- What kind of garage door do you have and what do you plan to replace it with?
- Do you have to cut into concrete to make it wider?
- Is the 6" only on one side or are you wanting 3" on both sides?
- Why do you want to go only 6"? That is a non-standard door size. I assume we're talking about some sort of roll up residential door.

Pictures would be helpful.

Diggin It · Jul 7, 2020

3Ts said:
- Do you have to cut into concrete to make it wider?
- Is the 6" only on one side or are you wanting 3" on both sides?
- Why do you want to go only 6"?

Pictures would be helpful.

How do I make my garage door 6" taller?

Industrial Toys · Jul 7, 2020

I did it once, or a contractor rather did it to get my JD 770 ROPS in the garage. I was removing galvanized steel anyway and having the building reclad in pine B&B. The door panels can be a little higher than the opening.

I did run into all kinds of issues with insuficient drop for a jack shaft opener, and clearance to the bottom of the joists?/rafters?. Had to put an idler wheel on the underside, as the door panels would bow in the sun slightly and hit the joists.

Also then, there was little drop to the track so I had to add pusher springs to get the door started, and now I can't open the door manually anymore.

Turned into kind of a sheit show. Still glad I did it though.

ns_in_tex · Jul 7, 2020

On our last overhead door, they made 24", 21" 18" panels, mix or match, so you could have most any size door you wanted. You might check on your brand, and possibly find a panel 6" wider, so you only had to change one panel.

bcp · Jul 7, 2020

Lower your tractor instead.

Bruce

JethroB · Jul 7, 2020

An old farmer joke:

A farmer bought a new mule but the mule refused to be led into the barn. City slicker salesman happened by and asked what the problem was. The farmer replied that the mule was skittish and refused to go into the barn because his ears kept hitting the top of the doorframe. Salesman says to just dig out a little beneath the door. The frustrated farmer says, boy it ain’t that his legs are too long it’s his ears are too tall.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

CobyRupert · Jul 7, 2020

I’m with the ‘Look at making the ground 6” farther away club’.

Diggin It · Jul 7, 2020

CobyRupert said:
I’m with the ‘Look at making the ground 6” farther away club’.

And if the floor and/or drive is concrete or blacktop?

I'm in the 'build a new shed for the tractor' club. It might even cost less and be less work than modifying an existing structure.

Rebeldad1 · Jul 8, 2020

my issue isnt with the door opening. its wide enough.... the floor is concrete so i dont want to lower it.
The opening is going to be a easy fix other than a 125 mile round trip to purchase new door opening trim.

adding 6" to the bottom with its own rollers and hinges may work. I know I still need to raise the tracks and opener.

Didnt know they made door panels in assorted heights. not sure what brand the door is. its probably 20-30 years old.

It may require a new door...

Keep the ideas coming...
THANKS!!

coldsteelva · Jul 8, 2020

Garage door edge seal trim and door weather seal is available on Amazon - no driving necessary.

fidowanttobe · Jul 8, 2020

X2. You may even get one panel from a local door distributor that is taller. However, if the door is 30 years old, I'd upgrade to a new one rather than stick money into it.

ns_in_tex said:
On our last overhead door, they made 24", 21" 18" panels, mix or match, so you could have most any size door you wanted. You might check on your brand, and possibly find a panel 6" wider, so you only had to change one panel.

zzvyb6 · Jul 8, 2020

How many panels make up the door. Add 6/(no of panels+1) to the top or bottom of each panel.

dannoGT · Jul 8, 2020

Helped neighbour do something like this year's ago. The original plan was to raise the garage door and add 1 more panel but as people have pointed out there really wasn't enough header above door especially in snow load country. So what we ended up doing was raising entire garage. Now this wasn't as big a deal as you would think! The garage had good solid concrete floor and we cleaned out garage and then built timber cribs in each corner of garage. The ceiling joists were all open so we added 2x8 under joists to distribute the load and then he had an old 30 ton hydraulic jack and we spent two days going from corner to corner lifting 1/4 inch at a time and shimming as went. So once we had it up one more panel that was same height as 2 rows of 10 inch concrete blocks. So we built a short block wall under the garage walls and then set everything back down on new wall and added extra panel to garage door. The only other thing that need to be fixed was the man door in the side of garage needed to be brought back down and filled in above. He added some flashing above block put on some siding to cover block and it looked great!

3Ts · Jul 8, 2020

Before you raise the door tracks, see how much room you have above them and what the minimum distance to the ceiling is for the door. I'm in the camp for replacing the whole door because of it's age.

My wife and I replaced the header over a 16' door with the joists running parallel to the door and a two story building at that. It's not that hard, but you have to be accurate and it goes slow, it took us about a week to do it, but we were both working full time. That helped to ensure we didn't rush it. If you rush the lifting or lowering, you'll probably break something.

bcp · Jul 8, 2020

Rebeldad1 said:
my issue isnt with the door opening. its wide enough.... the floor is concrete so i dont want to lower it.
The opening is going to be a easy fix other than a 125 mile round trip to purchase new door opening trim.

adding 6" to the bottom with its own rollers and hinges may work. I know I still need to raise the tracks and opener.

Didnt know they made door panels in assorted heights. not sure what brand the door is. its probably 20-30 years old.

It may require a new door...

Keep the ideas coming...
THANKS!!

If the door is taller, it will also go farther back when opened. Maybe both taller and longer tracks will be needed.

Bruce

s219 · Jul 9, 2020

Why only 6"? If you have the space, add an entire additional panel (or two). I would imagine you can find one that will match the others, or be very close in appearance.