I had no idea what garage doors cost, but was told by our builder that the one he would put in (if he were building ours as a "spec") was $3500. I didn't like the seemingly high cost, but then I saw the doors. I love them. Carriage style, windows, very well insulated, nice color choices. This is for a 3-car garage (1 double, 1 single). We'd already exceeded our budget for windows/doors, but had to have nice garage doors, so we went ahead with his suggestion.

I think the price included the openers, too (Lift Master pro, I think).

Oh, I hadn't thought about the openers. Bet those are included too. Our budget is more like 4500 per door which seemed really high to me!

I am on the fence about windows. Love the concept but don't like the idea someone can look in my garage and see if I am there :).

Thanks for the input - that helps!

We saved a lot of money by going with the Wayne Dalton 9400. Since we were also going with a painted finish, we didn't see the point in paying for wood. They are carraige style and have handles and has the look we want. Most people see your garage from far away, and our is a side loader; so, we wanted to save some money in this area.

Here is a link that might be useful: garage doors

Wow, $4500 per door seems like a lot! We are also looking at some of the Wayne Dalton doors. The 9700s are similar to the 9400 that gobruno mentioned but have a few more options. I would think you should be able to get something really nice for no more than $2000-2500 per door. This seems like a good place to save a few bucks. Good luck.

Ours were from Amarr, their highest end, carriage style, with windows, including openers, lift, multiple layers of insulation, double door...$4500. I think each alone would have been about $3K. My neighbors have wood, carriage style doors and paid well over $10K for 2.

I don't have the estimates here with me out of town but I think that was what was priced - all wood, carriage house, from high end supplier like Carriage House Door Co.

Sounds like we can save quite a bit here :) Ours are side loading and not visible from the street (house is off the road and you approach from the non garage door end). Here's hoping we can find some other things like this . . .

polkadots - do the Wayne Dalton doors come with a smooth finish or are they woodgrain? One of the options actually would go very well with the shutters we think we are using . . .

We have Wayne Dalton doors on our current house and are putting them on our next house. We've been exceedingly happy with both the product and the company. It is an area we also decided to save money. We're going with the 9600s in Sonoma. Our garage is also side loading and our house is set back quite a ways. We chose no windows. They cost more and are less energy efficient. Plus, we already have windows in the garage, so that was another place to cut costs.

It may be different for every door model, but the 9700s are a wood grain look. The brochure says "Embossed, high tensile steel front panels give the look of wood with the strength of steel." Obviously, these are not your truly custom, all wood doors which are beautiful. But there are advantages to these (insulation, low maintenance, still have some character)and the cost savings is real - I'd rather spend those extra $$ inside or on the front of the house. :)

I am waffling on the window issue too. They look good, but I keep thinking about the doors with windows I see on houses built in the 60's & 70's and think those look really awful now. It seems like the solid doors are a safer choice, but not sure on this one yet...

Here's ours. I think the $3500 was for 1 double door since that's what he told us the neighbor's cost, and theirs was just the 1 door--I guess we'll have a larger bill then.

From CHI Overhead Doors (www.chiod.com):

If you are going to paint then anyway, I would do insulated steel garage doors. Easier maintenance in the long run. Like you said, your garage doors are not a prominent part of the elevation. Ours on the other hand are very visible so we did cedar. We are staining them. They cost $3000 each (unfinished) but I don't think that includes the opener. I decided against glass. Especially since our garages have windows so there's plenty of light. Plus, historicaly, I don't think real carriage doors would have had glass in them.

(still in the process of staining)

We wanted the wook like garage doors as well with the front.
We have to go Fiberglass as the VikingDoors guy said wood will fade away fast (several in our sub-division had wood and have issues already with weather and sun). We live in the bay area (San Jose).

We are thinking Fiberglass front door that looks like Alder or Mohaganny (Jeld-Wen doors). But we are now looking for garage doors that look like wood.

$7,200 for three composite material doors and openers (Amarr/Jeldwen and Liftmaster). #45 on the site I believe.

Great bdpeck - I had looked at those before and glad to know they fit into our revised budget of 2500 a door :)

When we redid our garage we wanted a carriage-style door but also didn't want to spend the money, have you considered just getting a standard profile and buying hinges/handles for it separately? Our "redo" cost all of $30...again I'm not sure if you're interested but this would probably be the bottom line of getting the look you want, especially if you're painting the doors anyway!
{{gwi:1487593}}From Stonegate Cottage

after
{{gwi:1487594}}From Stonegate Cottage

They don't have the custom look necessarily of carriage doors but it could get you some more wiggle room in your budget, just a thought!

Actually, if you got a standard paneled door with the arched windows (still not expensive) it would look remarkably like the CHI doors pictured above. You could get your hardware off ebay (tons of it on there, good quality and hundreds less than ordering with a "carriage door") and the only difference in aesthetics would be that it wouldn't have as large a "panel" in the middle as the custom doors...it would be a huge savings though and the hardware is easy as pie to install.

Thanks again for all the thoughts - this budget needs to find a lot of wiggle room! Great to know about the ebay hardware as well even if we decide to go the carriage door route.

We didn't want windows and did want to paint.

Our lead carpenter made our garage doors. He took a standard wood flat panel overhead door and put wood panels on it in the pattern I drew for him. He then *undercut* the added panels along the door joints -- undercutting keeps the 'seams' from showing when the door is closed. This does make for a heavier door, and requires a slightly stronger door-opener. The doors appear to be arch-top because the door surrounds are arch-top and the applied panels have arches. Nobody else has 'carriage doors' exactly like OURS! Price it out. You will be amazed!

Check out Clopay. We are doing carriage doors with glass and I believe our quote was $1,800.