Fire Rated Garage Door
There are first times in every occupation and today was one of those firsts for me when we had to deal with a metal coated garage door.
On my recent mudroom remodel we had to cut the garage access door along the bottom because new slate flooring and underlayment raised the floor height by 3/8″ resulting in the door not closing properly.
Like Nothing We’d Seen
This garage access door was unlike anything we have ever seen. It was completely wrapped in tin. When I say completely I mean all six sides including the door panel molding. [see photo below]
As designer Sandra Stout said, “it’s wrapped up tighter than a Christmas present.”
As we all studied this door with no idea what to do, I started wondering how much a new door would cost………
I have seen many old garage access doors with a layer of tin nailed to the garage side. Garages attached to the house are supposed to have a 20 minute fire rated door into the house but this one had us in awe and bewilderment.
After poking at it for awhile we carefully unwrapped the bottom tin on this door to reveal that someone really spent a lot of time and considerable skill wrapping this metal coated garage door. Grooves were cut vertically into the door for the tin to disappear into. Real old school craftsmanship!
Do No Harm
Once we carefully unwrapped the door to expose the bottom we cut the wood door back and then re-wrapped the tin skin.
We reinstalled the door and both looked at each other thinking we lucked out on this one!
~ concord carpenter