We didn't want windows and did want to paint. Our lead carpenter made our garage doors. He took a standard wood flat panel overhead door and put wood panels on it in the pattern I drew for him. He then *undercut* the added panels along the door joints -- undercutting keeps the 'seams' from showing when the door is closed. This does make for a heavier door, and requires a slightly stronger door-opener. The doors appear to be arch-top because the door surrounds are arch-top and the applied panels have arches. Nobody else has 'carriage doors' exactly like OURS! Price it out. You will be amazed!

hi bruuunooo we live just down the road in kaukauna. you should frame it with with 2 x 6 then put 2 x 4 strapping across them to give you a 7; thick wall. this will elimenate the thermal bridging. then fill it with spray foam.. walls and ceiling. you will be glad you did even though it costs more. fiberglass insulation lets air filter through think of it as a great stock investment but it will payback with lower heating/ cooling bills for lifetime. also get triple pane windows, skylights are terrible heat wasters but solar tubes are great. make sure you put in a 90% or better heat ecovery unit. make sure your builder is enegy star listed make sure you have some roof facing due south for solar panels put solar water or hot air in, you will love it. go to builditsolar.com this site is great, lots of info on renewables and home construction. also next weekend june 20-22 is the MREA energy fair in Custer (stevens point). go to it, there are lots of people will ro answers lots of your questions o energy and building.,,,, mrea.com good luck gary

We purchased the Martin Pinnacle H Groove steel garage doors that look the most like wood of any faux wood doors I've seen, including Clopay. We had real wood doors prior to these that were damaged beyond repair due to the previous owner's neglect and didn't want to deal with the upkeep and maintenance of new wood doors; HOWEVER, in retrospect, I wish we had gotten real wood doors due to the following experience. The garage door installer ordered the doors through an authorized Martin door dealer. Martin sent the doors in the wrong color, but I actually liked the color, so we decided we would keep them if Martin would pay for us to repaint the trim on our house to match. They agreed. Once the doors were hung, we noticed MANY paint imperfections down to the metal on BOTH doors. I asked for replacement doors, but Martin would only offer a paint repair. I didn't like that answer because a dab-on paint repair is never the same as a factory finish and there were AT LEAST 20 spots needing paint. But we had no alternative so we scheduled one of their reps to come and do the paint repairs. The day after the install, we noticed a SIGNIFICANT difference in the temperature of the garage. It was about 10 degrees warmer than the day before. And this was only March in Phoenix. This was concerning because our summer temps are often in the 110 degree or higher range from July-Sept and we cool our garage. Martin's advertised R14 factor rating for these doors was completely misleading. When we inquired about the increase in temperature, we found out that the R14 rating is for the rails only, NOT the panels. The many panels on the door are only rated as R8! Being that we live in Phoenix and these doors face west, this was unacceptable to us. We knew that our AC bill would go through the roof come summer...and we were right; however, Martin was unwilling to remove the doors and refund our money. Our AC bill has been over $100 more per month this summer compared to last summer. So while the doors look nice, and even fool people who think they're real wood at a 5 foot distance, they are NOT what we expected for energy efficiency AT ALL! We are also disappointed in Martin Door. Even after speaking to the OWNER of the company, they were unwilling to help us. So if you're looking for the look of real wood garage doors, but don't want the real thing, and you don't care about energy efficiency, these are the doors. Nothing looks more like real wood.

You probably don't want to hear this, but...... I do a lot of DIY, and I'm generally not afraid of anything, but garage doors are one thing I won't touch. If the springs are tensioned correctly, there's a bomb's worth of kinetic energy in them. They can turn your hand or arm into raw hamburger in a microsecond. It's up to you, but I strongly suggest that you call a local overhead door contractor to get your door fixed.