The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Roll up shop doors

Anyone have time to school me on roll up doors? I've been acquiring material needed to put a 20x40 shed style roof on the front of my shop. When that happens the double 5' swing out doors in each 10' opening are going to be less than ideal. . Typical overhead doors will interfere with the hard wired (as in conduit) shop lights so I'm looking at alternatives.

My suspicion is insulated roll up doors will be pretty expensive and not sure how effective they'd be due to the roll up design. Also what about door seals along the sides?

Thanks,

RonR

I’ve seen lights installed on the inside of traditional paneled garage doors so wheen open and stored on the ceiling you again have overheated lights. Powered by a pigtail cord like a door edge sensor may be wired with.

I doubt too that an “insulated” roll up door is worthy of calling it insulated.
I have an “insulated” traditional garage door, probably less than 2” of foam in it, all that I thought was available at the time. Better than the old aluminum skinned non insulated door but it’s easily still the cold or warm spot in the garage.

I tried researching what sort of insulated doors they use way up north where they have real winters for better part of the year but didn’t find much. They must use something better than what we have available here. Closest thing I’ve found are manufacturers of cold storage garage doors, 4 and 6” foam options, heated seals so they don’t frost over and freeze shut. but no mention of a basic version for normal garage use, less the walk in (drive in) freezer part.

Curious what you figure out.

Metal Roll up doors we have at our shop our electric and manual chain ( like a chain hoist). It would also depend on what your shop is structurally made of, just looking at the doors we have they're heavy, and wouldn't stand a chance if they were in a wooden barn. There maybe be lighter ones out there, but Id imagine they're not cheap since there are lot more moving parts to them, and again no insulation. The other issue with them is they'll bind up if someone puts a good dent in them.

My uncle had a large barn door on a sliding track 12' tall offset to the corner of the shop. It sealed properly, was insulated, and never swung out on windy days. If one door is too wide for opening, you could split into 2 halves

Horizontal bi-fold door like used on small aircraft hangers?

Try this site- - - - -I'll be getting a door made by them soon, but I'm close enough to make a short road trip and pick it up at the factory:

https://www.rollupdoorsdirect.com/

They have several designs, and they will build a door to fit whatever opening you have. Mine is going to be 12 X 12 feet.
Jerry

Thanks all for the input. Jerry, the site you linked looks pretty good. I like their instructional video. Since I've never seen a rollup door installed it answered a lot of questions. I still have to decide exactly how I'm going to do the concrete slab for the new front and then actually do the build. So I have time to consider all options and hopefully not wind up with buyers remorse when I do pull the door trigger.

I have one similar to the ones in the link Jerry provided. I have had it in for a number of years. Mine is 10w x 12 hi. It is "insulated" with a piece of bubble wrap type insulation. I think it is R4 value or something lame like that. Better than nothing but, not the best. I heat with a wood stove so,. I don't worry about losing some heat there. The shop is barn shaped and gas R19 in the walls and R30 in the ceiling so, it is pretty well insulated other than the door. I am more than comfortable out there in the winter but, we rarely drop much below the upper 20s. Most of the winter is closer to upper 30s lower 40s overnight so, probably a bit warmer than your winter!

My next shop will have a roll up, problem with overhead doors is you loose the light when the door is open. In the day time not so bad on the hot summer nights when you are working with the door open, not so good.

Well, there's roll up, then there's roll up.

The roll ups at my shop maybe take up about a foot and a half from the wall. Not much light blocking there.

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Interesting idea Mr. Grigg

LED lights mounted on an overhead door might be durable enough to survive repeated opening and closing vibration. Incandescent or fluorescent, not so much, I'd guess.
Jerry

Not sure how I missed this thread. My 24' X 25' shop has 12' walls. I have two 10' X 10' roll up doors. They have a chain like a chain hoist. No spring assist. Pretty easy to roll up. Very heavy doors, so I chose chain hoist instead of spring assisted pull up. As I get older, I would worry about my back.
Here's an early video. LINK HERE

I'm pleased with the doors and ease of use. There is a flap type seal along the top edge because when the door is down the gap between the large drum and the top of the door frame is large. That gap becomes smaller once the door is up because the drum is wrapped with the door.

I wish all my doors were the swing open type since I have the room. The primer booth and the finish paint booth have the swing doors which can give a positive seal. Have two overhead track sliding doors, 12' and 24' which leak even though they have rubber flaps on bottom, seal in center, and a flap at the closing point for the outside edge. The chain actuated 12' overhead door is the worse leaker with gaps on both sides and no good way to seal from the door frame to the roll. The building skin is 3' wide metal R-panels with ribs so haven't come up with a good way to seal the overhead door but the darn thing sure is handy.