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Wood vs Steel Garage Doors

housebaby
16 years ago

Hello - I need THREE garage doors on an old house - 1894 Victorian. The doors are visible when driving from one direction on the street. Wood looks beautiful; steel - especially in white or almond colors - seem out of place on the house.

If you've used wood, which manufacturer do you recommend? If steel, how have you handled paint (they say no dark colors - is that true?)

Comments (5)

  • yadax3
    16 years ago

    We bought our cedar door from the Ranch House collection at our local Overhead Door distributor. It's beautiful but you have to be willing to make a commitment to maintaining (i.e. staining) it on a regular basis.

    Alternatively, Overhead Door also has a Renaissance Collection, which are steel doors with a wood look.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Renaissance Collection

  • kkm96
    16 years ago

    Your best bet would be to call a garage door company who is willing to provide you with many options and variety. You are the customer and if they want your business, they won't mind spending time with you to help you with your purchase. Also I would recommend a company that uses more than one supplier.There are so many options out there today from custom reserve wood doors to carraige house barn door and a variety of wood and steel combination doors. If you are in the philadelphia area, I would highly recommend Arrow Door. They will spend the time to help educate you and assist you with your purchase. I have used them personally and highly recommend there services.

  • patser
    16 years ago

    check out this website ... They have beautiful wood doors. I've not used this company but I've spoken with people who have and they only have great things to say. I don't work for them and am not associated with them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: real carriage doors

  • doorguy06
    16 years ago

    It all depends on how much you want to spend. There are wood doors that have wood glued to steel sections or there are the real carriage house doors as mentioned in the above link. Which ever route you choose to go you will be spending a whole lot of money on three doors. If you go with the real carriage house doors, you will have to change your openers as well. I personally dont thing the steel carriage house doors look all that bad. They can be wood grained to look like real wood. My mother wood grains on the side. I have a steel front door on my house and you would never know the difference unless you knock on it.

  • housebaby
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    This is all very helpful -- thanks for the guidance. I found a guy recommended by my contractor who indeed represents about half-dozen brands (including the one that doorguy hates, so I was able to educate him on that!)
    He suggests looking at garaga, a Canadian company I read about on this forum, and which sells steel doors in natural, muted colors.
    Thanks all.