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old wooden garage door

2 years ago

We have an old wooden garage door that lifts overhead manually. We would like to change this to a bifold door as we can’t park our car in the garage. Would it even be possible to just cut this door in half/down and buy a sliding bifold door mechanism? We hate to get rid of a very solid old door, but the functionality doesn’t work for us as we bike for commutes and have no way to lock this door from the outside. Thanks.

Comments (10)

  • 2 years ago

    No. But you can purchase a lock and install it.

  • 2 years ago

    Yes I’ve read on the garage defender, but our driveway is sloped for water drainage, so the more secure ones won’t work as they require a flat install surface. I haven’t run across another lock we can use on the outside that would be secure enough for the area we live in. We’d like to use this as more of an every day/entrance/exit area.

  • 2 years ago

    " Would it even be possible to just cut this door in half/down and buy a sliding bifold door mechanism? "


    No, by the time you spend the dollars to attempt that it will cost you more than buying the correct door now. And IF it worked it would be a bear to open as it would be very heavy.

  • 2 years ago

    Stax, that was unnecessarily rude.

  • 2 years ago

    Edit: unnecessary and rude.

  • 2 years ago

    My son had an old garage door like that. They did not use it for cars. The company filled in the sides and put in a regular door that opened in. with a door knb and lock.

  • 2 years ago

    We’ve thought about putting in regular French doors as an alternative or manual carriage garage doors. I mostly just hate to throw out something old into a landfill just because it doesn’t quit work for our family. And, yes, I have done a fair amount I’d research on various locks, so thanks for the uncalled for remark Stax. We have a few thoughts to mull on here. Thanks for the input.

  • 2 years ago

    You might be able to cut it and hang it like french doors on heavy enough hinges, or make one side fixed and one side operable for less than some sort of sliding or folding hardware. And it would be easier to secure if it was a hinged door.

  • PRO
    2 years ago

    From the photo, it looks like out-swing doors won't work due to the steep slope of the driveway.

    Bifold doors would require a cut down the center of the middle lite on each side. Probably not feasible.

    Looks like the only possible opening direction is up.

    Have you considered just installing a garage door opener? It would be a lot cheaper and solve a lot of problems, assuming the garage has electricity.

  • 2 years ago

    We got a MyQ automatic door opener that works off of our phones. We already had automatic door openers and wifi in the garage. But even a standard automatic door opener will get you a remote and you can buy more. An automatic door opener will prevent the door from being opened without the remote. It works really well if you have another door in case the power is out or the system fails. Since this will be rare, you might get by with a window that you can unlock from the outside.