Fill In A Garage Door Opening

The first step in converting a garage is to remove the door and build a wall.

Fill in a garage door opening. Add 2 by 4 inch framing boards on 16 inch centers to fill in the wall area. Plan to add wooden framework to fill the empty space. Take down the garage door and tracking before you implement the framework plan. He started by ripping out the old door door frame and the flimsy insulation leaving a giant hole in the house.

This lumber will be used to attach your garage door track and a portion of your assembly. The end of day one was looking a lot like this. Pull a measurement from the floor of your space to the ceiling next to the door opening. Plan to add wooden framework to fill the empty space.

A confused student is a good student. We decided to do a wood frame wall rather than a stone or masonry wall for one main reason. Take down the garage door and tracking before you implement the framework plan. Width of garage door opening standard widths are 8 9 10 12 14 16 17 and 18 height of the garage door opening standard residential heights are 7 7 6 8 header the header is ideally a minimum 12 wide micro laminated beam that spans the width of the garage door opening.

Include window space in the framework if you will install a single window or a larger window section. However if you are putting bricks thick river rock stones marble or anything else on both sides that is more than 1 thick you will want the rough opening the same. That hanging plastic was there just to block the wind some and keep the debris outside. We have seen many people try and save time and money by leaving the frame in when they try to block up an opening but this never works.

Garage door torsion springs mounted above the door are under high tension and can unwrap with great force. Filling in a door or window opening is not hard and as long as you have the correct equipment it can be done fairly quickly. Therefore making the width of the garage door rough opening the same size as the door would be fine if you are going to use a thin layer of stucco vinyl siding or 1 by lumber. If the garage has a support column build a temporary bridge support by doubling up some 2 by 6 temporary headers and wedging them under the garage door header with 2 by 4 stilts on either side.

Most garage designs i work on have portal frame or shearwalls on each side of the garage door so my thinking is a continuous stemwall might be stronger and better resist the bending moments imposed on the foundation by the lateral loading of the shearwalls. Cut two 2 x 6 pieces of lumber and attach to the face of the wall running from the edge of your garage door jambs to the ceiling of your garage. See our project on removing window and door frames to first get the old wooden frame out of the way.