OnPoint Pro Doors installs and services carriage-style doors around Grand Junction in real wood, wood-look steel and composite, chosen for a climate of strong sun, very dry air and wide daily swings. The measuring visit and the estimate are free.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and you can say no.
Carriage doors copy the look of the side-hinged doors on old carriage houses and barns: a seam down the center, framed boards or overlays on either side, handles and strap hinges, and often a band of windows across the top. Nearly every one installed today is still a sectional door that lifts overhead on tracks and runs on a normal opener.
On the older houses downtown, the style looks like it has always been there. On a ranch house up on the mesa it works too, in a simpler pattern with square windows and fewer overlays, so the door suits a long low roofline instead of competing with it.
The pattern itself can lean several ways: a crossbuck brace for a farm feel, tall vertical boards for a cleaner look, or a grid of framed panels that reads like a pair of old stable doors. The pattern is chosen with the house in front of you, not from a brochure.
Real wood doors, built from cedar, redwood or similar species, have a warmth no other material quite matches. They also feel the climate more than anything else on the house. Very dry air pulls moisture out of the boards, which can open small gaps at the joints, and strong high-desert sun breaks down the finish on the face that looks south or west.
None of that rules wood out. It means the finish has to be kept whole and renewed every few years, and that the door is installed with that upkeep in mind. You hear the honest version of what owning a wood door here involves before choosing one.
Placement matters as much as species. A wood door shaded by a deep eave or facing north keeps its finish far longer than one that takes the full afternoon sun, and that is weighed honestly when wood is on the table.
A carriage door has more choices than a plain one, so the visit follows this order.
Most carriage doors here are wood-look steel or composite. Wood-look steel has a grain pressed into its skin and a stained finish over it, so it carries the carriage look while ignoring the dry air entirely. Composite doors add molded overlays on a steel or insulated core, which gives deeper shadow lines and takes paint well.
Both are lighter than real wood and both come with insulated cores, which keeps the garage steadier through hot afternoons and cold nights and makes the door quieter. Lighter colors and stains last longest under strong sun, and the samples are compared outdoors in daylight, where the difference shows.
A row of windows along the top section lets daylight into a garage or a shop without opening the door to the dust. Square panes suit ranch houses; arched tops and divided panes suit the older homes downtown. On a quiet road with few neighbors, clear glass is often fine; on a busier street, frosted or seeded glass keeps what is inside out of view.
Tempered glass is the usual choice in a door, since it breaks into small blunt pieces if something does hit it, and insulated double panes help the windows hold heat on cold nights.
Windows are built into the sections, so they are chosen when the door is ordered. A cracked pane later can usually be replaced on its own, and a damaged section is covered on our page about garage door panel replacement.
The carriage look is at home on outbuildings too. Shops and equipment barns around the orchards often carry taller, wider doors, and a carriage pattern lets them match the house across the yard. Those doors get heavier tracks and hardware, springs sized for their height and weight, and struts so a wide face stays flat in the spring wind.
A real wood door on a large barn opening is a serious weight. The springs are sized to the door's actual weight, not to a chart, and the opener is matched to it, so the door runs smoothly and the motor is not doing the springs' job.
Where a shop door opens many times a day, longer springs with heavier wire are worth considering. They spread the load across more coils and last longer, and the room they need along the shaft is measured on the first visit.
A real wood door is checked on service visits for cracked finish, open joints and a dry bottom edge, and you hear when it is due for refinishing. Wood-look steel and composite need much less: an occasional wash, a look at the bottom seal, and the decorative handles and hinges checked so none of them work loose and catch on the frame.
On any carriage door, the hinges, rollers and springs are looked after the same way as on a plain door, because the extra weight and the decorative pieces add load to the parts that do the lifting.
If a wood door has already grayed or checked, it is not always beyond saving. When the boards underneath are sound, cleaning and refinishing can bring it back, and the technician can tell you whether yours is a candidate.
Hardly ever. What looks like a pair of side-hinged doors is a sectional door that lifts on tracks; the handles and strap hinges are trim.
Not a bad idea, but a demanding one. Dry air and strong sun wear on the finish and can open small gaps, so a wood door needs its finish kept up. You hear what that means before choosing.
Wood-look steel and composite in lighter colors hold up best. Darker stains fade faster on a door that faces south or west.
Yes. Taller and wider carriage doors are made for outbuildings, with heavier tracks, springs and struts to match.
Usually, especially in real wood. The springs are sized to the door's actual weight so the opener is not overloaded.
Yes, in wood-look steel or composite. The foam core keeps the garage from swinging so hard between afternoon heat and night cold, and it quiets the door.
Yes. The measuring visit and the estimate are free, and nothing is ordered until you decide.
A two-hour window instead of a whole day, and a call before the technician leaves. Free throughout Mesa County. The estimate is free either way.
Want to talk instead? Call (970) 238-2833.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and you can say no.