Successfully Restoring a Garage Door
It took almost three years from the time I first saw the house until now, but I finally replaced the ugly roll-up door some previous owner installed with rebuilt bypass doors. Some before and after pictures of my house including the garage doors are at:
http://www.chuckwhite.com/photogallery/eichler/beforeandafter.htm
To make a very long story short, I got some doors and all the hardware from an Eichler in Marin County. I was more than a little disappointed when I saw the siding was compeltely different than the homes in San Jose, but figured the frames and hardware were worth the price of the rental truck.
I had them sitting along side my house for over a year before I started rebuliding then with the matching siding. I contacted several garage door companies and none were interested in helping me. I finally found someone (referral on request) who was really interested. He hated cheap roll-up doors particularly on Eichlers so even though he had never installed them, only removed them, he was game.
Friday was the magic day and we were done in about 6 hours including moving and reinstalling the garage door opener. Had to do a bit of tweaking to the height of the tracks and a few different modifications behind the door jambs to build up something for the back door to close on, but that was about it. He thought it would take two days!.
The difference is amazing. It's everything I was hoping it would be in returning the look of the house to what was originally intended, and what is in the rest of the neighborhood.
Chuck
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Your house looks great - the doors made a huge difference. Your new colors also add to the effect. Thanks for sharing. We have an original garage door but the siding has seen better days. Please send the name of the referral at sparklefourATcomcastDOTnet. Thanks.
Good job Chuck! I wish there were more people like you out there who understand the architecture and are willing to "do it right"
thanks for sharing!
Just out of curiousity, why did you demo your swimming pool (or did it come demo'd when you bought the house)?
Seems like throwing away $20-30k in potential home value (for the right buyer) if you decided to sell.
Congrats! What a huge milestone. It makes all the difference in the world.
We live in a San Jose/Willow Glen Eichler and have the original doors and siding, but really, really wanted automatic openers. Hubby and I "discussed" it for years. What to do? Dump the old doors and replace with those creepy metal roll up ones? Give up and forget it and just deal with trying to get in and out during the winter w/o getting mud all over our car carpets?
We finally found a local guy that specializes in installing automatic garage door openers on Eichlers - moving them side-to-side. We had them put in about a year ago and they are terrific. Not one problem. The remotes each have two buttons, one for each side, plus we have a separate keypad near the front gate of our courtyard model, in case we need to get in and out while doing yard work. Each door has its own light as well, so we can see getting in and out of the cars. We will replace the siding and repaint when we get around to it. We were thrilled to be able to keep the original Eichler doors and get the automatic openers. For the longest time we thought they were mutually exclusive. What a luxury!
PS: love your new color scheme. Very nice.
Cathye
Well Done! What an improvement. The restored garage doors make your house an Eichler again as well as your new lights and address numbers.
My biggest pet peeve is a colonial looking carriage light on the front of an Eichler. Sort of like "Paul Revere slept here...not". Anyway, thanks for sharing.
cathye,
Could I get the name of the person/company that installed the automatic garage door openers. I would love to have both doors open. As it is now only the door to the left has an automatic opener. My e-mail is mchester (at)berkeley(dot)edu.
Thanks,
Margaret
We finally found a local guy that specializes in installing automatic garage door openers on Eichlers - moving them side-to-side. We had them put in about a year ago and they are terrific. Not one problem. The remotes each have two buttons, one for each side, plus we have a separate keypad near the front gate of our courtyard model, in case we need to get in and out while doing yard work. Each door has its own light as well, so we can see getting in and out of the cars. We will replace the siding and repaint when we get around to it. We were thrilled to be able to keep the original Eichler doors and get the automatic openers. For the longest time we thought they were mutually exclusive. What a luxury!
Cathye, please let me know who did this for you! Inquiring minds want to know!
Thanks!
actually i would be very interested in the automatic garage door solution as well. thanks.
It would be so helpful to have from Chuck and Cathye the names and contact information of the people who helped you with your garage door restoration/automatic opener installation. We are restoring our garage, including the original doors. The sliding doors drag. I need to find someone to help fix them (including some termite damage repair) and then ultimately automate them. Before our new floor surface can be put on in two weeks, I have to have the door raised up so it does not drag. A conventional garage door person won't come until after the floor is in. Frustrating. Thanks for your reference(s). mbauriedel
They can e-mail direct to mbauriedel AT ursu.com
Cathye and Chuck, could you refer us to the folks who helped with your garage doors? We are trying to do the same thing. You may contact us at kerrplunks at yahoo dot com
Thanks.
I'd also really appreciate the name of the referral.
Hi,
We are restoring our Eichler garage doors, and would appreciate a referral for the person who helped with your installation.
Thanks!
Sorry - the email address is [email protected]
Cathye, I'd love to have the name of your automatic garage-door installer too. Email is [email protected] --
many thanks, Mary
We just bought an eichler and would like to put automatic openers on our sliding garage doors as well.
Cathye, if it wouldn't be too much trouble can you send me the contact info for your garage specialist also? Thanks in advance!
chinorl99 AT yahoo DOT com
