I'd like to embed a standard door, INTO my wooden garage door. Possible?

[sva50233]

Guys, I might be asking a dumb question here, but I never open my garage door, because I have a lot of stuff in my garage that borders the door and doesn't allow it to open, namely tall racks containing my musical instruments. There are two additional doors that are built into the garage on the other sides of the garage, however I am about to block one of them off with storage containers which won't allow access to the door, and the other door is on my neighbors (who is also my tenant) side. I've been entering through the neighbors/tenants side, but that's not going to work out for me anymore because I don't want to enter their back yard execpt to clean it up. I don't want to hassle them needlessly.

Now I'm left with the option of installing a roll up steel door to replace my standard wood garage door with hinges, or of installing a standard door (think hinges and a door handle like you use every day to get into your rooms) into my wooden garage door. I've priced roll-up steel doors and they are out of my budget, unless someone knows of a cheap roll up door that I can find somewhere online. The door pictured below is my garage door--it's made of vertical planks of wood that are about 2" deep and 9.5" wide. What I am thinking of doing is literally cutting a rectangle in my garage door with a sawzall and going to Home depot and grabbing an outdoor approved door and installing it in there along with the frame. Is this a dumb idea or has anyone ever heard of anyone doing this before? Please stop me from making a huge mistake if that's what I'm about to do

Thanks!

 

[nealtw]

Yes it can be done. It looks like you have a slab door hand operated for opening, likely with counter waits inside to help with the lift.
Measure the distance between the top board and the bottom board, they want to stay intact for strength.
Find a local company that supplies doors , tell them that measurement and the thickness of the door and have them order a steel security door with a steel frame and when it is installed you want 2 screws into each of those panels. If you ever want to open the door in the future you will want to way all the wood you take out and weigh the door and frame that you put in so you can adjust the weight of the counter weight.

 

[JoeD]

Don't know if you can convert you current door but they do make roll up doors with integral man doors.

 

[bud16415]

Anything is possible and most times expensive.

If you have a man door on the side of the structure that is blocked now by the stuff you are storing and you have a place in the garage door where you can make an opening for a new door. Why don’t you just move the stuff over to where this new door will be and free up the door you have?

On the anything is possible side I once carefully reframed a wall in the garage once and then framed the part I was removing to be a door. I cut out one side and installed hinges (barn door type) and then cut out the other 3 sides and had a door using the wall that was there for the door. All I had to do then was add some stop and a latch and drove my garden tractor out the new door.

 

[1stTimeDIY]

I know it can be done, just don't know how. The barn I boarded my horses at as a teen had a large garage door that had a wooden door in it that was broken i guess you would say in the places it would bend when the door was open... In the winter the garage door stayed closed but we entered the barn though the door in the garage door... the horses had to go in and out through one of 2 side entry ways...... I'm sure that didn't really help much sorry.