Wood doors look better than steel ones. Nobody in the trade seriously argues otherwise. A stained cedar carriage-house door on the right elevation does something that no embossed steel panel manages.
It is also, in Broward, an exterior joinery product that moves several times a day and lives in air that is near saturation for a good part of the year. That is a maintainable situation and a badly-understood one.
Wood is hygroscopic, which is the whole story
Wood exchanges moisture with the air around it, continuously, seeking equilibrium with the relative humidity. Take it into damp air and it takes up water. Take it into dry air and it gives it back.
Two consequences follow, and they are both mechanical rather than cosmetic.
It changes dimension, unevenly. Wood moves far more across the grain than along it. A stile does not get longer, it gets wider. So a door that fitted its opening in March can be tight against the jamb in August, and the movement is not the same in every part.
It changes weight. This is the one nobody thinks about. A large solid wood door can gain a meaningful amount of water across a wet season, and the springs above it were wound for a specific weight. A door that has gained water is a door whose springs are now slightly under-sprung, which the opener absorbs by working harder.
That is why a wood door in this climate benefits from a balance check twice a year rather than once, and why some installers here deliberately spring wood doors for the wetter end of the range.
The six faces rule
This is the single most important thing about a wood garage door and it is the thing most often skipped.
Every face of every piece has to be finished, including the top edge and the bottom edge. Not the visible faces. All of them.
An unfinished bottom edge sits inches above a concrete floor that is wet after every storm and damp most mornings. Bare end grain is the most absorbent surface on the door by a wide margin, drinking water many times faster than a finished face. A door finished beautifully on five faces will take up water through the sixth and then move, cup and delaminate while the paintwork on the front still looks new.
If you are commissioning a wood door, the question to ask is whether it is finished on all six faces before hanging. If you already have one, the bottom edge is worth looking at with a torch.
Finish choices, honestly
- Clear or lightly tinted varnish looks the best and lasts the least. There is very little pigment blocking ultraviolet, and on a south or west elevation here it will want attention on a short cycle.
- Semi-transparent stain lasts longer because the pigment provides some protection, and it fails gracefully by fading rather than by peeling, which makes recoating much easier.
- Paint lasts longest and hides the grain, which is usually the reason the door was chosen.
The general rule for exterior joinery holds: the better it looks, the more often it needs doing. Anyone who tells you a clear-finished wood door in South Florida is low maintenance is selling something.
The overlay alternative, which is not a compromise
Worth stating plainly, because it is what a lot of people actually want.
A steel or composite door with a wood overlay gives you the carriage-house appearance with a structural core that does not take up water. The overlay still needs finishing, but the door underneath does not move, does not change weight, and does not care about a wet floor.
There are also composite and fibreglass doors made to look like wood grain, which have got considerably better and which are the sensible answer for an exposed elevation where nobody wants a refinishing schedule.
If the reason for wanting wood is the look, these deserve a serious comparison. If the reason is that it must actually be wood, that is a legitimate preference and the maintenance is the price of it.
Signs a wood door is losing the argument
- Sticking at one edge in the wet season. The door has grown into the opening.
- Cupping across a panel, visible by sighting along the face. One side has taken up more moisture than the other, which usually means the back is not finished.
- Dark grey or black staining along the bottom rail. Water has got into the end grain.
- Fasteners weeping rust stains. Damp wood around a fixing.
- The opener working visibly harder than it did. The door has gained weight, or a stile has swollen and it is binding.
The money question
No prices, but the structure of the cost is different from a steel door and worth understanding before choosing one.
A wood door costs more up front, and its ongoing cost is a refinishing cycle rather than a repair. It also needs heavier hardware and a spring specification calculated for a heavier and variable weight, which is a real part of a correct installation and the first thing trimmed out of a cheap quote.
Against that, a well-maintained wood door lasts a long time and can be refinished indefinitely, which is not true of a dented steel one.
What not to buy
- Do not buy a wood door finished on five faces. Ask about the bottom edge specifically, and get the answer before it is hung.
- Do not buy a wood door quoted on the existing springs. The weight changed and the arithmetic has to be redone.
- Do not buy a clear finish for a west-facing door here unless you intend to maintain it on a short cycle and are happy about that.
- Do not sand and recoat a door that is already cupping. Fix the moisture path first, or the finish is a cosmetic layer over an active problem.
The short version
Wood in this climate is a material that gains water, changes shape and changes weight. All six faces finished, a refinishing cycle, and a balance check twice a year makes it entirely manageable.
The honest recommendation for a lot of the houses we look at is an overlay on a steel core, which is a less impressive sale and a much quieter decade.
M&M Garage Door Service · (954) 787-3756 · mnmgaragedoorrepair.com
Serving Plantation, Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.