Little things can make us happy!

[chistech]

My garage is a fairly large concrete block building that sits in front of my house. Originally my dad bought this property for the garage to repair the family business vehicles in. I later bought the property from my family and built my house behind the garage about 350’ off the road. The garage sits about 80’ from the road, has a 10w x 9’h garage door along with a walk through door on the front, and just a 10w x 8’h garage door on the back. Because my house is behind the garage, this meant every time I had to either open the back garage door, or walk around to the front. Opening the garage door quickly loses all the heat you’ve got so I always wanted a “man door” in my rear garage door. I tried pricing them out and heard two things every time. Eitherit would cost me over $4000 or that they don’t put man doors in a garage door that’s only 8’ high. I figured there has to be kits available to do it so I looked finding that they do offer kits for sale but only in England and Europe. It seems the USA saves them to be a specialized, expensive, dealer installed option.

        Well two weeks ago I’m looking around on FB Marketplace as I can often find good deals on my train and RC plane hobbies, when a picture catches my eye. It’s a garage door with a man door! The add says it 10x10 but can easily be made to 10 x 8 by removing the top panel. The price was half of my 10 year old quote and this door has two windows and an exhaust port, both costly options I didn’t even have priced out originally. So a deal was made and I now have my dream door. A huge plus is the door is insulated and white on the inside making the shop both warmer and brighter. See, it’s little things that makes up happy!

[3macboys]

That is a very cool solution.  I've never seen anything like that but very slick!

[46 woodie]

Don't you just love it when someone tells you that you can't do something and you do it!!! Nice job.

[JamesR]

I'd be happy if I could even have windows on my garage door! Great concept and installation.

[padgett]

Just wish I had that much empty space. That door would have a rear bumper 8" away so hope it opens out.

[keithb7]

I was so thrilled when I fixed the hi-beam indicator in my ‘38 Plymouth. How’s that for small things that make us happy? Lol. 
 

nice garage door by the way. 

[dibarlaw]

I absolutely love the "man door". Most of the dealer garages I worked at that were built in the 1940s with huge wooden lift ups but had a man door. The Buick dealer I worked at had the main service door replaced with fiberglass and the "man door" disappeared.

[chistech]

5 hours ago, padgett said:

Just wish I had that much empty space. That door would have a rear bumper 8" away so hope it opens out.

Actually, right now there is a little room in the garage. If you notice, there’s a chassis on my rotisserie that I’m working on so it rolls around letting me have more room. Yes, the door opens out. My garage is 30’ wide and 60’ long so if I had it filled to the  door, I think my wife would kill me.

[Rusty Heaps]

I'd be thrilled with a garage!  One can accomplish so much more with an enclosed space. And yes, i do like the man door option for your garage. 

[just me]

Here is a best case of. Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. Looks great!

 

Be honest with us. After it was installed did you break into a happy dance? 

 

Today the feminists would label it a person door. 

 

Best

Charley

[chistech]

Yes I did! And my wife keeps hearing me go on and on about it. My brother is working on his 67’ cutlass in my garage these past few weeks and all he and I keep talking about is the damn door. How warm the garage is staying, how quieter it is, how much brighter that end of the garage is, how quietly the door goes up and down, and especially how awesome that man door, or excuse me (lol), “person door” is! Etc. you would swear we were talking about new girlfriend!😄 have to be careful, i might get the etiquette police down on me. 

[1937hd45]

I'd be thrilled if Overhead Door still has the bottom section for my two doors. Sold my Model T Ford speedster to cover the cost 42 years ago. Bob 

[chistech]

4 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

I'd be thrilled if Overhead Door still has the bottom section for my two doors. Sold my Model T Ford speedster to cover the cost 42 years ago. Bob 

I know exactly what you mean. My dad bought this property back in 78’ and put new doors on it. I replaced the rear door bottom panel about 5 years ago at at cost of close to $500 because it had rusted out. My front door bottom finally rusted through about 6 months ago and I was lucky enough to take the bottom panel from my rear door that I replaced with the new door and installed it on my front door. So actually I got my new door for $500 less because I was also able to fix my front door. Hopefully good for another 30-40 years. Now all I have to do is replace the front steel walk through door (bottom rusted out) and paint the building. I have one of those industrial airless paint systems so painting the garage goes quickly. It takes more time to mask off the windows and doors along with moving the ladder along than actually spraying the paint.