Custom Garage Doors in Pewaukee, WI

Most garage doors are made in a set of common widths and heights, and the majority of homes fit one of them. Plenty do not. Older lake cottages, converted carriage houses, additions built by previous owners and detached workshops often have openings that are a few inches off standard, or very different altogether. Some older garages were built for smaller cars and have narrow or short openings that make modern vehicles a tight squeeze. In those cases, a door ordered to the exact width and height of the opening fits better, seals better and looks right.

A custom size starts with careful measuring. We measure the width and height in several places, check headroom, backroom and side room, and note any out-of-square framing that will affect how the door sits in the opening. Sometimes the best answer is to order a door to the opening exactly. Other times a small framing adjustment allows a standard size that costs less and arrives sooner. We will tell you which approach makes more sense for your garage, so you are not paying for custom work you do not actually need.

Enlarging an opening is another option, especially when an older garage needs to fit a larger vehicle. Widening or raising a garage opening usually involves structural work on the header and framing, and it may need a permit and a contractor who handles that type of carpentry. We focus on the door itself, but we can tell you what size door the new opening should be built for and what headroom and side room the door will need. Planning the door and the opening together avoids mismatches once the framing is finished.

Pewaukee is a lake town, and many homeowners want to store a boat, pontoon, trailer or camper inside instead of paying for storage or leaving it under a cover all winter. That usually means a taller garage door than a typical seven-foot residential opening. Tall doors are common on detached garages, garage additions and newer homes built with an oversized bay. The height you need depends on the tallest point of what you are storing, including a boat on its trailer, a tower, a windshield or a bimini frame that cannot fold down.

Vehicle lifts are another reason for a taller door. If you plan to install a car lift to stack two vehicles or work underneath one, the door cannot simply run along the ceiling in the usual way, because it would hit the raised car. The answer is often a high-lift or vertical-lift track system, where the door travels up the wall before turning back, or runs almost entirely vertical. These setups need the right ceiling height and wall space, and the opener has to suit the track system, so planning ahead is important.

Taller and wider doors are heavier, which means larger springs, heavier gauge tracks and stronger reinforcement to keep the door from flexing in the wind. A tall door facing the lake catches more wind than a standard door, so struts and solid mounting into the framing matter. Insulation helps too, especially if the boat or camper shares space with a heated workshop. Spring and cable work on large, heavy doors is strictly a job for trained technicians, since the stored energy in those springs is much greater than on a standard door.

Real wood custom doors can be built in many species and patterns, from simple vertical boards to detailed carriage house designs with overlays and crossbucks. They suit lake homes, timber frame houses and cottages where the garage door should feel like part of the architecture. Wood can be stained to match a front door or exterior beams, or painted. The beauty comes with maintenance: wood needs a quality finish on every surface and regular refinishing, especially near Pewaukee Lake, where damp air and wind-driven rain test the finish every season of the year.

Arched-top doors fit openings with a curved or eyebrow header, often found on older homes, custom builds and houses with arched windows. The door's top section can be shaped to follow the arch, or a standard rectangular door can be paired with a decorative arched trim panel above it. True arched doors need careful measuring of the curve, and the tracks and seals must be planned to close the gap at the top. We check the arch shape closely before ordering, because even small differences show once the door is installed.

Custom colors and glass let you fine-tune the look. Many manufacturers can match a specific paint color or offer a wider range of factory finishes, so the door matches your trim, shutters or front door. Glass options include clear, frosted, seeded, tinted and laminated glass, divided-lite patterns and full-view panels in aluminum frames. Insulated glass helps in a Wisconsin winter, and obscure glass keeps the inside of the garage private. Every custom choice affects price and lead time, so we review each option with you carefully before you decide on the final design.