Side hinged garage doors, 1/3 and 2/3 split

Having recently become the owner of a house with a garage, I’m reminded how rubbish up and over garage doors are.

I’d like something more secure and quieter (it’s an internal garage with a child’s bedroom above). I have no need to put a car in the garage either.

Ideally I think I’d want side hinged doors, with a 1/3 and 2/3 split. The smaller door needs to be wide enough for 800mm handlebars. Ideally it would open inwards and the larger door outwards, no idea if that is possible though.

Anyone got anything like this?

I did some research on posh insulated metal doors like this a while back to sort one for my garage. Not cheap though

I’ve been looking for similar.

Not sure if you’ll get on with a 1/3 opening inwards.

I’m looking at this one:

If you don’t need to put a car inside then I’d simplify it and just have the standard-sized external door that you need, cheaper too. Fill the 2/3 with blocks and decorate to suit: render, fake door, whatever you want

I’d like something more secure and quieter

I did this 9 years ago and though it was relative expensive, it secure our garage and made it 100% more convenient to access & if you mean to stay long term it definitely worth while. What I would say is that I didn’t get the new doors filled with insulation, so it is quite boomy if you slam it. If you anywhere near Birmingham I can recommend an installer who does these door cheaper than direct Birmingham Industrial & Garage Doors | BGID

I had a side-hinged door fitted in our previous property. It made a lot more sense as we were never using it for a car and it actually created a fair bit of additional usable storage space compared to the up-and-over. I always felt it was more private too as passers-by didn’t have a full view of the garage contents every time the door was open. I’ll not hesitate to fit another if/when our current door needs replaced.

Mine’s like the one pictured by dirkpitt – though the small door is on the other side. (think it might’ve been better that way ^^ round in hindsight, but it still works well). The small door isn’t quite wide enough for 800mm bars, but that’s never a problem, just rotate the bars a bit – also it’s so easy to open both doors, it really doesn’t matter. Just find it so much more convenient and quicker than up and overs, I’m very please with it. I used to keep my commuting bike in the house so I didn’t have to open the up and over garage door in the morning, now it stays in the garage (ha! except when I’m riding it to work 😀 ) .

One issue, you need a way to stop the doors blowing about in the wind – they do that a lot more than up & overs when open!

Bought mine from garage door king on ebay – has quite a few options last I looked. Not sure about inwards opening ones though.

I was in a similar position and had joiners close the opening by framing and cladding then creating a frame for double doors, both secured with bolts from the inside. Far more secure, looks good and was cheaper than getting a fancy door in. Added bonus was it created more internal space as the inside of the frame is useful shelf space.

@z1ppy I’d be interested in getting the details if possible.

in 2016(ish) I changed an old incredibly noisy GRP up and over door to a Carteck insulated steel door.  Back then it was about £1200 I think it – I fitted it with the help of a friend for lifting, it wasn’t difficult.

Very happy with it.  It’s silent (we have a living room above), and it’s made the store room a much nicer place – warmer and cleaner.

Oh and removing the old door created enough space to put a mezzanine floor in which has given a ton of storage space.

Ideally it would open inwards and the larger door outwards

I’m not sure that’s possible because of the door sill – both doors would need to open the same way.  Anyway, inward opening doors would rob you of some space.

The best doors available: https://www.lathamssteeldoors.co.uk/security-garage-doors/

Not cheap, but then nor is all the stuff you keep in your garage.

We had a 1/3 & 2/3 outward-opening doors solution retrofitted to a garage doorway about this time last year. It was from the range of

https://www.ryterna.com/side-hinged-garage-doors/ and took maybe a month and a half from ordering to delivery/fitting. Again, as others have said, not exactly cheap (about £2500) but all’s good with the end result. A local fitter in Telford did all the initial measuring-up, ordering, delivery and fitting of both the steel frame and the insulated doors for that. It’s certainly a marked improvement on the old wooden doors that were there before. I’d agree with the comments about ‘both should open the same way’, not just because of the sill design but also for the fact that opening inwards would effectively sterilise part of one wall for storage.

Another vote for BGID. We had double bifold steel insulated doors, custom painted from them and a single side door. They are lovely quality, but quite costly. And they weigh a ton!

It’s so convenient being able to open a single door, or any combination of the 4 leaves as required.