About this app
If you are fortunate enough to own a large garage you will often have two single sized garage doors as your main form of entrance.
As attractive as these single sized doors can look you are losing a lot of usable space due to the central pillar between the two doors.
It is relatively easy to turn your single sized doors into one large double sized garage door thus utilizing the full opening width to its maximum potential.
Before you consider converting your garages you need to check pricing and availability of the new double sized door. Being that these are often larger than any standard door you will need to look towards a company who manufacture bespoke doors that can be designed to fit your garage.
Choosing a respectable garage company you may find they are able to carry out the conversion of your single doors for you as well as installing the garage door itself.
Converting the door is a relatively simple procedure. The basics are as follows:
Firstly a new lintel has to be arranged as almost certainly you will have two lintels at present resting on top of the center pillar. Removing the center pillar like this would result in the whole roof collapsing. The new lintel will be in one piece and spanning the whole opening width of your garage.
Using props to hold up the roof of the garage the new lintel is installed, resting on the brickwork either side of the garage. The central pillar is now removed. Be prepared for a lot of brickwork to be disposed of - often a skip is the only way to dispose of this. PVC cladding will most likely be required to cover over the lintel and make everything look nice.
You now have one large double opening ready to have your double sized garage door installed.
If you've ever driven through Levittown, Long Island, you've seen the paradigm of post-World War II housing. Designed for the young parents who were giving birth to the baby boom generation, Levittown houses were built in accordance with the principles of pre-fabricated housing constructed for servicemen, but they incorporated the "must-haves" of post-war life: big yards, modern appliances, a television antenna, and other conveniences. Promotional photos for Levittown over a period of years show that the evolution of the garage followed major trends in the changing American lifestyle.
The earliest house plans from the 1940s show boxy, Cape Cod-style homes with a living room, dining room, bath, and two bedrooms. There were no driveways: the single car owned by most families was parked on the street. By 1950, the company brochure offered five houses in a modified Cape Cod/Ranch style, each with a driveway leading to a single attached carport. And in the sister suburb of Levittown, PA, in 1954, the developers presented a variety of homes that incorporated the latest essential in home design - an enclosed garage.
Today, if you drive through even the most moderate suburban neighborhood, you're likely to see a gaping, two- or three-car garage opening directly onto the street, with living quarters sprawling behind and above. The garage has become the façade of the modern American home.
The growth in the importance of the garage has coincided with the presence of more and more cars in the typical American family. When Henry Ford lowered the price of his Model T so that "the workers who build them can afford to buy them," the option of owning an automobile became a reality for families of modest means, and through the decades from 1910 to 1930 car ownership grew steadily.
Auto sales fell as World War II limited both income and the availability of raw materials, but millions more women learned to drive as they filled jobs previously held by servicemen. By the time the subdivision building boom began shortly after the war, nearly any young couple could afford a house for $8,000 and an $800-dollar station wagon. Typically, after driving her husband to the commuter train station, the housewife used the car to shop and run errands.
