My first choice would definitely be custom wood. I agree that a steel door with a wood look would look cheap. I would alternately choose a painted steel.

I don't like any material that pretends to be wood (wood grain). Go with the real wood and deal with the upkeep.

I decided against wood at the last minute and I'm glad I did.

Do you want it to look good at the street? Then the faux wood finishes are fine. If you want it to look real up close for your own benefit, not possible.

Real wood doors can take a beating, especially if you have southern exposure. I've seen my friend refinish her south-facing wood door many times over the years.

I have 2 white Coachman model doors from Clopay on my south-facing garage. (I think they were in the $7k range; can't remember.) I'm very happy with the quality and look - still solid and undinged after 8+ years, 2 teenage drivers, and proximity to the basketball hoop. I recently power washed them with no problems.

I've used high-end resin wood composite doors, which can be easily custom designed and may require less maintenance than natural wood.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but we used the Thermacore insulated steel doors with a dark wood-grained finish that matches my front door (which is factory finished fiberglass with a wood grain finish as well). We spent less than $2500 for doors and openers for a 3 car garage (1 double, 1 single). Would I have rather had real wood? Sure. But I had a limited budget, and I chose to spend more on other items. We built in an existing neighborhood where steel doors are the norm, and I have lived with cheap painted steel doors my entire life. I think these look so much better, and so far, they have held up very nicely.

To me, the fake wood doors look like you are attempting the real thing, but not so much. If you can afford it, go with real wood, and plan for the upkeep.

We went with steel pressed into a wood grain. It looks great from afar, and reasonable up close.

Worthy- what brand did you use? We are looking at clopay canyon ridge, but haven't seen them in person yet. We don't want the maintenance of real wood, but definitely want the wood-look. We will have a 3 car facing south and an 2 adjacent 2 car facing west. Any one else have any thoughts or ideas? TIA!

We have wooden doors. They're actually plywood with groves routed to them and more plywood and molding applied to give the appearance of rails and styles:

http://www.ronnatalie.com/house.html

Well...south and west facing doors are probably the most likely to have the effects of sun fading, if you use natural wood. And then there's the effect of rain and storms, but these do not usually come from the south. West, however, can be another issue entirely.

That said, it's hard to find a solution which looks like wood, but isn't wood. There just isn't anything yet which looks like wood but is not.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. :-)

The (relatively) new Sikkens Cetol Door & Window three coat system works pretty well on exposed wood.

Chellefnp- I’m looking at thermacore doors as well, but worried that the wood grain will look fake. Can you post photos?

We went with. Clopay CanyonRidge doors primarily for reasons akin to maintenance and living in the NW. The customer service was okay, but the doors turned out nice.

JB - would you mind sharing the cost of your doors? We're likely doing Clopay doors in the PNW too and are looking at the Canyon Ridge Modern doors. Our architect keeps pushing for aluminum and glass doors, but I'm just not a fan.

We built two homes, One with a three car garage the other with a four car garage. The three-car garage with a double bay and single bay was @$9500 with openers and install, the four-car was @10,700.

I absolutely detest fake woodgrain embossed in things. A proper painted WOOD door wouldn't telegraph through like that. I paid extra to reside the previous house to get rid of the woodgrain.

The current house has wood doors, albeit they are plywood carefully groved and layered to look like rail and styles.

[IMG]http://www.ronnatalie.com/images/House-Snow.JPG[/IMG]

Ron - thank you so much for chiming in and detesting the choices here we are discussing. Thanks for the contribution and Merry Christmas.

JB, Your doors look nice. Thank you for choosing Clopay. It sounds like you really researched your door options. If you have a moment and would like to post a review on our website to help other homeowners considering the Canyon Ridge Collection garage doors, we would greatly appreciate it. https://www.clopaydoor.com/canyonridgeultragrain

The non wood doors fade with time. So heavily in my area the garage door companies will rarely even sell them. They are less expensive but not worth the investment of even that cost.

That's interesting to hear. Where do you live, Jack?

Anyone have experience with the quality, look, and how they hold up of the following in woodgrain?

http://www.chiohd.com/homeowners/garage-doors/stamped-carriage-house

“The non wood doors fade with time. So heavily in my area the garage door companies will rarely even sell them”

lol, and in my area...you can’t find anyone that wants to sell you a wood door!

This is our door. We got it in paintable/primed and they are at our painters place getting painted to match our house. I think just shy of 7k each. Very nice doors.

we have a Northwestern exposure with no protection. Wood would have been a bad choice for us as beautiful as it is.

I have a computerized pic of what the door looks like on our house that the garage door guy did but can’t find it on my computer. Nice extra to help make the decision.

https://www.clopaydoor.com/canyonridge

Here are pictures of the Canyon Ridge Collection faux wood garage doors. https://www.clopaydoor.com/canyonridge They can be painted or stained and you can choose from three woodgrain species - Mahogany, Clear Cypress, and Pecky Cypress. The doors do require a clear coat of polyurethane every couple years depending on the exposure. They are molded from actual boards and hand assembled for a realistic appearance. Dealers are located throughout the US and Canada .https://www.clopaydoor.com/where-to-buy/residential

Our Clopay canyon ridge carriage doors are being installed Monday. We went with the pecky cypress. I ordered a sample and was quite impressed with how much they look and feel like real wood. Fingers crossed!

Thank you for choosing Clopay. We would love to have you share a photo after your doors installed here on Houzz or on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/ClopayGarageDoors/

Many of my neighbors have real wood garage doors, stained. All hate them. They required constant maintenance. i feel fortunate that the style of our home dictated painted garage doors. One neighbor replaced his with some very high-end wood-look something or another. It looks fab from the street, and he is very happy with them. I will try to find out what he bought.

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.

Sounds like wood-look which match your design. Definitely do NOT go for real wood. Go for an embossed faux wood look, powdercoated, alum or galvanized steel. You did not specify location, but I would suggest insulated and sealed unit 2-pane glass if you want glass.

The operator also matters. Consider jackshaft (side-mount).

These are our Clopay doors (Canyon Ridge Ultra Grain Series in Cypress medium finish). They need to be cleaned - still under construction - but they look pretty good! Have gotten lots of positive comments about them in person. Western exposure in MD so real wood was definitely not an option. @Clopay Building Products will these need a clear coat of poly in a few years or is that just the limited edition line?

They are beautiful. Thank you for sharing photos. We love the arch windows.Here is a link to the care and maintenance brochure. http://clopaypdfs.com/pdf_files/RSDR-CRCAREMAINTBR-17.pdf

We recommend waxing the steel portion of the door surface annually. It is very easy. See the video below.

The composite overlay portion will require a clear coat every two years or so depending on exposure.