Thread: Adding door to garage tilt door

Panel or tilt ? You kinda suggest both.

The tilts I've owned previously were pretty flimsy once the outside framing was detached, after all they are just aluminium sheets rivetted to a hinged tilting frame. Possible but you would want a decent frame around the human sized door so the whole lot doesn't twist and buckle with use. Not sure about securing the extra door either but then they not real secure anyway.

The panel-lift I currently have has horizontal stays at each section that act as hinges between sections. Might be possible but just as easy to open the whole thing.
But I have often thought about adding "skylights" to the top section of my panel-lift for extra natural light in winter.

Sorry to confuse ...

It's one of the older tilt units.

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As I re-read your original post, it looked like that's what you meant but I thought I would ask anyway. Does it need to stay a garage (mine does)? Maybe the whole thing could be replaced by wall that includes a smaller door. That leads to different issues of course, if like me, you prefer the bigger door open in hot weather.

I kinda like the tilt door, cause it provides a small verandah to the doorway, which while raining (and not windy) means the door can be opened.

Like you i also like the idea of having the door up when warmer.

Having the larger door also means machines can be brought in and out as requires, which I couldn't do through a standard door.

I only use it as a workshop, because we have a garage at the front attached to the house. The workshop is in the rear corner of the property and is a steel / colorbond job. Hard against one side is the boundary fence, so I cant put a door in there. On the other side is a pool area.

I could put a door in there, but god knows what regulations that would entail (locking mechs, self closing mechs, blah blah blah).

That really only leaves the front tilt door as the practical (?) alternative.

I was hoping that I could get the best of both worlds .. not too much to ask.

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if its the old style with a steel frame I would weld 1"shs vertically to act as jamb studs, and make a jamb out of angle iron as this will weatherproof the door which i would also make out of 1"shs, I would swing the door out for weatherproofing and so it cant fall on one's head when the tilt door is open, if you need to cut braces in the original door then rebrace as appropriate, sorry if this is as clear as mud.
cheers joel
ps make sure the handle wont foul when the tilt door is open

Thanks Joel.

Any ideas on rerouting the cable mech that latches the tilt door closed ?

possibly get a loner cable and use some pulleys or modify the locking mech to have 2 handles one each side

Hmmm ... I was thinking of a couple of pad bolts each end. So similar thought process.

Just not sure if pad bolts will hold door firm and stop it rattling.

Glenn,

Yes you can but there are a few things that have to be obeyed if you don't want it to fall apart or have the door jam and not close or worse not open.

I don't have any photos of the one I did about 20 years ago but I'll try and explain it.....

The tilt a door I did had a centre vertical strut with braces running diagonally.
Removed all the bracing and centre strut and put in (riveted and welded) two vertical struts for the door to be located on.
This put the door in the centre of the tilt a door.Rebraced the diagonals to these two struts (welded once again).

Then riveted the skin to all the bracing.
The door then became just like a standard door except it was all metal. Used a deadlock to secure it.

The original centre lock for the tilt a door was disgarded and internal locks were used to secure the tilt a door.
Access was then through the standard door and then the tilt a door was unlocked from the inside.

Just remember that a tilt a door is not a truly rigid structure hence all the new struts and bracing have the welding added for more rigidity.

It's a lot of work but in the end I got the desired result.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Steve. My door doesn't have any diagonal bracing. Its basically as box section with a horizontal about half way up. So that would appear to bode well for success.

Tell me. Would I be correct in assuming you left the square tube that would be nearest the ground in place ? Effectively meaning you stepped over it ? Or did you remove it ?

I would think removing it would allow twist between the now two (almost) tilt separate door structures.

Will post a pic in a second.

Glenn,

That's right. The top and bottom where left there. Cut the horizontal one for the door space. Then add the new vertical pieces and weld the horizontal one to those.

Then I would add more horizontal bracing making sure is attached to the vertical ones near where the hinges will go.

This will kept the stiffness of the tilt a door.

The more I think about it, the better I like the idea. TB's solution makes the whole thing more secure by discarding the existing latch cum lock (always a weak point on tilts) but still locking the tilt door when not being used.

It's doable and as others have mentioned you will need to reinforced to frame around the new door insert to maintain a rigid unit.

A minor adjustment to the tension springs at the side to compensate for the extra weight of the door frame that you add.