What to do about old garage doors

[charmed]

I just bought a foreclosure house with a nice 2 car garage. There are two wooden garage doors each in pretty good condition (other than peeling paint) and they each have a row of windows on them.

The foreclosure came with no keys to the garage doors and it was locked, so I had to get a guy to drill out the lock. I asked him about putting new locks on the garage doors and he said he's never seen locks like that before. The house was from 1947, so the locking mechanism might have been from that time.

He suggested I just replace the whole garage doors. But the doors close just fine and look pretty nice other than needing a scrape/repaint job. And there are no garage door openers; it's just manual pull up/down at this point. Would I need new garage doors to have openers added?

I would obviously go with the lowest cost approach but also one that makes the most sense.

[norlando]

Are you considering an opener for security (because of the drilled-out locks)? Or because of convenience (manually opening/closing is a chore)?

[A.Powell]

Shop around for a lock. Some garage door companies just happen to have an old lock laying around or in storage.

Otherwise, go ahead and get things updated as much as possible. One thing I've learned in the business is that people want those openers.

[stampdoorparts]

Install a reinforcement bracket to the top panel. Get the adjustable type. Then buy some new garage door openers from your local store.

OR

The cheapest way would be to get new "keyed lock kits" keyed alike. These use a T handle and cable system to lock the doors. You would just have to make sure the holes you have drilled are not too large for the replacements.









Stamps Garage Door Parts
Stamps Garage Doors - Illinois

[tmordoor]

You dont have to get new garage doors in order to have openers installed. You can also get new lock kits installed to fill the old t-handle and lock cylinder holes. It sounds like you have a detached garage with no entry door so if you go with new motors make sure you get a vault release on one of the doors in case the power goes out.