In this new house I am helping oversee building for family we have a mechanical room in the garage.
There is a furnace, pressure tank and hot water heater in it. The room is about 34" x 96" roughly. Thinking this six'ish door in front of the two tanks and would also give access to service the furnace. Otherwise I am thinking a sliding barn type door. Which is not my preference.
Any thoughts on these roll up doors. Are they super expensive. I am thinking the garage door guy must install. What say you guys.

Why add the complexity and cost of a steel roll up door? They're also not that particularly smooth to operate. Why not just plain old steel double doors?

Depends on the space needs to open the double doors. If that’s a problem, the roll up may be the better option.

How about pocket doors?

My storage locker has a flexible, heavy plastic roll up door. Would a plastic door work for your application? Should be lighter and easier to mount.
And you will need quite a bit of space above the door for mounting.

Something like this would be perfect. I do not think Menards is around here. Never seen one out west.

https://www.menards.com/main/d...33884867-c-12358.htm

Growing up in western NY, in the winter, barn doors and sliding doors were a real pain, if you get drifting snow there I would avoid them.

Menards ships - might be pricey but if they have what you need buy once cry once. I shop Menards regularly and they are a reliable company imho.

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Originally posted by trapper189:
How about pocket doors?

This was my thought, simple and easy to open, very little to go wrong, will be out the way for any work needed, look better as well, more of a finished look vs industrial...

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Something like this would be perfect. I do not think Menards is around here. Never seen one out west.

https://www.menards.com/main/d...33884867-c-12358.htm

Make sure you have the 16" of headroom & 17" of depth above the door, might be a problem. A garage-type door would need less headroom, but more depth above the opening (a little more than the height of the opening, doubt you have that if it's what I'm picturing) just read the 34" deep part, don't think a ~30" tall garage is gonna do you much good

I don't think Menards is west of the Mississippi, but could be wrong. Their shipping is stupid, and then expensive. You can get same thing elsewhere.

Since menards is right across the street for me:
Double steel door
I'd mount something like this out-swinging from the room. It'll also block sound a lot better than 26ga steel on a track.

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Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
How about pocket doors?

This was my thought, simple and easy to open, very little to go wrong, will be out the way for any work needed, look better as well, more of a finished look vs industrial...

You'd need 3+ foot of wall on either side to do a 6' opening, doubt he has that & a single opening on one side of the 8' wall WILL be a pain in the ass at some point, either for a HVAC guy or Plumber.

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...we have a mechanical room in the garage

Just to clarify, this is a divided section of the garage? ie back wall of the garage? A room, inside a room?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
How about pocket doors?

This was my thought, simple and easy to open, very little to go wrong, will be out the way for any work needed, look better as well, more of a finished look vs industrial...

I can’t take credit for it. We had a house with a bonus room above the garage. The stairs going up to the bonus room were behind the left garage wall. The builder put a small room under the stairs that had two pocket doors opening to the garage. The one side, where the stairs come down to meet the floor, is extra storage. The other side, where the stairs met the landing to the bonus room, is where the air handler for that side of the house was installed. I thought it was really slick.

I have used both bi-fold and French doors for that application.

Much easier to install and has no tracks and maintenance to deal with.

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Originally posted by snidera:]
You'd need 3+ foot of wall on either side to do a 6' opening, doubt he has that & a single opening on one side of the 8' wall WILL be a pain in the ass at some point, either for a HVAC guy or Plumber.

From the OP: "Otherwise I am thinking a sliding barn type door.”

If he’s got room for that, he’s got room for pocket doors.

I will have room going one direction and not the other. (re: pocket doors). A barn type door can open one direction only. Fwiw.

The mechanical room will be a room on the back wall of the garage. The garage is 24' wide. The MR will be about or 10 or 12' and will be on one outside wall. Then 10 or 12' towards the center.

I really would prefer not to have regular metal doors the open to the outside.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:]
You'd need 3+ foot of wall on either side to do a 6' opening, doubt he has that & a single opening on one side of the 8' wall WILL be a pain in the ass at some point, either for a HVAC guy or Plumber.

From the OP: "Otherwise I am thinking a sliding barn type door.”

If he’s got room for that, he’s got room for pocket doors.

A barn door can slide into open space, a pocket door needs a wall. You can't put 6' or 2x 3' pocket doors along a 8' or 10' wall. You'd need 2+ more feet for a 6' opening.

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I will have room going one direction and not the other. (re: pocket doors). A barn type door can open one direction only. Fwiw.

The mechanical room will be a room on the back wall of the garage. The garage is 24' wide. The MR will be about or 10 or 12' and will be on one outside wall. Then 10 or 12' towards the center.

I really would prefer not to have regular metal doors the open to the outside.

Then I think the roll-up* or the barn door** are the best options to get a 6' opening. The negatives vs a double-door are sealing & sound. Maybe a tilt-out door like we have on our shop (doesn't need the headroom or depth like a garage door). But that would be something you would have to move cars to open, it would need just slightly less than the height clearance to open. It would seal better than a roll-up or barn door, but not as good as 6' of steel exterior doors. I'd guess it would also be a custom job for one that small.

*make sure you can give up half or more of the 34" depth above the door - my furnace would not allow that.
** I have seen a barn door that will slide to the closed position, then slide back flush with the wall. It allows better sealing. I'm not sure of the name or if it was a custom job (likely it was).

i think the "storage unit" type metal roll up door is the answer. The garage has a 9' ceiling so a 7' door should be good and we have the 17" depth. Not worried about noise. It is more about access and not having the three appliance's just sitting out n the open in the garage.

Will discuss with the builder soon.

I appreciate all the great conversation on the topic guys.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:

A barn door can slide into open space, a pocket door needs a wall. You can't put 6' or 2x 3' pocket doors along a 8' or 10' wall. You'd need 2+ more feet for a 6' opening.

Ah, in my head, I pictured the front face of the mechanical room being flush with a wall of the garage. I didn’t imagine someone building a mechanical room protruding into the garage and using valuable garage space.

Since it seems rollup is the only way to go, then this one was about $1,500 installed:



It’s rated to take a hit from a 8’ 2x4 shot out of a cannon at 150mph or some such.

We purposely made the garage 28' deep so we could use 3' of it for the mechanical room