New Garage Doors for Timberlane's Late-1970s Housing Stock

How Long You Are Without the Door

Most houses in Timberlane went up around 1978, and the door that came with them was almost always a single-layer steel panel on a roll-formed track, no insulation, hung on an 8-foot or 16-foot opening depending on whether the garage was built for one car or two. That door has had over four decades of Gulf humidity and the occasional freeze to work through, and by now the steel has usually bowed, rusted at the bottom panel, or the seams have separated from the rollers. A new install isn't a same-day job. We come from New Orleans, about 13 miles out, so we schedule the visit, confirm the opening size and track type on site, and if it's a standard 8x7 or 16x7 steel door we usually have stock sizes on hand. Wood-look composite or a nonstandard width takes longer because we order it after we measure, not before. We'll tell you which situation you're in before we quote anything, and we won't promise a date we can't hold to from across town.

What Is on the Truck

For a Timberlane install we bring standard steel sections in the common 8x7 and 16x7 sizes, since that covers the bulk of garages built in this era, plus torsion springs sized for mild-climate steel doors - no cold-climate derating needed here, since the area sits in a mild band with only occasional freeze. We carry galvanized track, new rollers, and the cable drums that match older torsion setups, because a lot of the original hardware on a 1978-era door doesn't match what's sold today. If your opening is oversized, undersized, or was reframed at some point - which happens on older stock - we won't have the exact panel on the truck and will need to order it. We're upfront about that rather than forcing a fit that won't seal right.

What It Costs

We don't post a flat number here because the spread between a standard steel door and an insulated or wood-look upgrade is wide, and sizing from a 1978-era double-wide opening can run differently than a single-car garage next door. What we can tell you is that Timberlane's median household income runs higher than the wider service area average, and that shows up in what homeowners here typically choose - more insulated steel and composite upgrades, fewer bare single-layer replacements than we see elsewhere. We price the job after we see the opening and the track condition, not off a phone estimate, because hidden jamb rot or a reframed opening changes the number.

What the Fix Involves

Pulling an old single-layer steel door starts with disconnecting the torsion spring safely, then stripping the track off the jambs - on a house this age the track is often rusted into the brackets and has to be cut free rather than unbolted. We check the jambs for rot or settling before the new door goes up, since a 1978 frame that's shifted even slightly will bind a new panel if we don't shim it. Setting the new door means new track, new rollers, and springs sized to the actual door weight, not just matched to what came off. If the opener is also original to the house, it's usually due for replacement at the same time, though that's a separate call we make with you, not an automatic add-on.

Booking a Visit

We travel from New Orleans to Timberlane for installs, roughly 13 miles each way, so we book the visit for measuring and the install itself as two steps unless the door is a stock size we can confirm by phone first. Bring us the rough opening width and height if you know it, and tell us whether the garage is original to the house - that one detail tells us a lot about what track and spring setup we're walking into before we even load the truck.

Frequently asked questions