Custom Garage Door Design Elements

Elegance & Class

Our business is focused on making beautiful overhead garage doors that reflect the beauty of your home or business with a historically influenced carriage-house-look door or a modern, custom-designed door.

This section is dedicated to describing design elements that should be considered when selecting a door for your home or business. Some elements are obvious and don’t need much explanation, but others can be confusing.

We hope that this discussion of design elements will help guide you in selecting a custom garage door design that will complement your home and satisfy the creative spirit that wants to set you apart.

Door Size

Size is an important design element when garage doors are wider than a typical single-door width. Many door designs can be multiplied, stretched or compressed to accommodate the size of a door you need.

Please keep in mind that our doors are made to order. While there are typical door sizes, our doors are constructed to fit the unique width and/or height needed for most applications. We use the terms single and double doors as follows:

Single Doors are most typically 8 or 9 feet wide and 7 or 8 feet high, but they vary quite a bit and include doors up to 12 foot wide. As a single door size gets wider, designs can be stretched out, but there comes a point when duplicating the design makes sense.

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Double doors include doors OVER 12 feet wide but are most often 16 or 18 feet wide and 7, 8 or 9 feet high. Double doors most often look like two single doors placed side by side. However, double doors smaller than the typical 16-18 ft wide doors would require a stretched-out single-door look, or the look of two (2) single doors placed side by side but compressed.

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Understanding Door Styles

The majority of the doors we make are overhead acting, sectional roll-up doors that look like carriage-house-style doors. We also make true swing doors, oversized for your vehicles or pedestrian size, and door slabs that can be used for sliding doors or for other uses. In all cases, we use the same language when describing our doors.

Descriptive door styles have evolved and have been categorized based on what historic carriage-house doors have looked like but also include newer door designs. Basic door styles, Swing, TriFold, BiFold and Barn can be identified by thinking about whether a door swings, folds or does a combination of both and how many implied moving parts there would have been if the door were installed in a 100-year-old carriage house.

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Barn doors are usually swing doors that have fewer windows in them, but they can also be sliders.

A Traditional Stile and Rail door is a description of the way the first overhead doors were made and they are still in production today. The same style designations still apply but the doors look a little different. These doors visibly show the construction method with the very visible vertical stiles and horizontal rails. The rails become a design feature in any door style and will be noticeable at every section break in your door design.

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Of course, we offer truly custom doors that take a unique approach to the carriage-house door or may be very contemporary in look. We can make custom doors in most any size.

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Describing your door by one of these styles will help explain what you are looking for.

Top Sections

There are three questions that need to be answered about this part of a door:

Glass or no glass?
This is an easy choice – select a solid top or glass in the top section.
Windows and grille options will be addressed in the next section.
Square top or arched?
Square tops are typical and familiar.
Arch top options depend on the type of door you have – overhead or true swing. Most arch tops are simulated arch tops, which means there is an arch in the door’s top section but the top section remains square.
Both standard arch tops are available as well as custom arch tops.
True arch-top doors are available only for true swing doors.
Overhead door or true swing door?

Overhead doors run up and down vertical tracks on both sides of the door that start at the floor of your opening and run up into the ceiling space above. In order to roll up, the door must have rollers in the tracks on both sides of the opening and that requires a square top for roller placement. An overhead door can ONLY have a square top. However, our square top simulated arch top doors can sit behind an arched opening, maintaining the arch top look while providing the ease of overacting operation.

True Swing doors can have square tops, simulated arch tops, or they can actually have a true arch top with an arched opening in the wall. Since a true swing door relies on hinges to operate, a true arch top is a customized feature.

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How much of an Arch is possible?

We use standard radius to make our arch tops. However, we can make the arch match your opening. You can provide custom measurements or a physical template. Our arch tops are limited only by maximum height and weight of the top section plus overhead track clearances.

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What is an ELLIPSE Top?
These are very custom. Ellipses are compound curves usually defined by two different circle dimensions. While we can work with the major and minor axis, it is best to provide a template of the existing ellipse opening. An ellipse top will cost more to manufacture.

Let's Talk Windows...or Lites

Start with the style of door you want and notice how many parts the door has. The number of parts in the door are the potential minimum locations for glass. When talking about glass, typically:

SWING doors have 2 areas where glass can go.
TRIFOLD doors have 3 areas for glass.
BIFOLD Doors have 4 areas for glass.
BARN doors usually don’t have glass but could. Any glass areas are usually smaller than in other styles of doors.
CUSTOM doors – anything goes. Tell us how many and where.

How many windows or lites are there in a door?

The TOTAL number of lites (windows) is the count of all lites across the entire width of the door. Always count the number of lites (or panes) across the entire door, whether it is a single or double door.

How best to describe windows in a door?

Think in terms of the number window areas or SETS for the entire door.
Then describe the lites for each set, such as 3 lites (or panes) over 3 lites, or maybe just 4 vertical lites.

See our examples below:

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Unusual Window configurations:
Mullioned Lites are created when the door frame divides a glass area into more sets than is typical for the door style. Refer to the custom door above with 5 mullioned lites. Each of the 5 sets are individual areas of glass.

Prairie Lites are a style of window grille made popular by Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 20th century. They are most noted for the square corner lites and a large middle area of glass. 1 set of Prairie Lites would have 3 lites over 3 lites over 3 lites.

Custom Lites:
Almost anything goes. Sometimes it is an unusual grille and sometimes it is oversized or an extra glass section. Call and let us know what you are looking for.

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Simulated vs. True Divided Lites:

Simulated divided lites have a large pane of glass that covers each large window area. Then there are exterior grilles that divide that large piece of glass into lites.
According to Prairie Lites example above, there would be 4 large pieces of glass for each set, then the exterior grille would create the look for the 9 lites in each set.

True divided lites are significantly more expensive because EACH lite in the window area is a separate piece of glass with its own exterior frame and interior stop. The same Prairie Lite example would mean there are 36 individual panes of glass.

Window Glass Options:

Our standard window glass is double-strength, clear glass, 1/8” thick.
Tempered glass is generally an option. When window areas get very large or are located closer to the floor, tempered glass becomes a requirement for safety reasons.
Other typical glass options include:
- Insulated glass
- Wire-glass
- Glacier glass
- Clear seeded glass
Other Specialty glasses are available but are dependent on our suppliers.

Panel Details

There are 3 decisions needed when considering panel details:

How many panels?
What kind of panels?
Any additional Trim boards in the panels? See next section for more details.

How many panels?
The number of panels a door has depends upon the door’s style, which sets the minimum number of panels for that style of door. If a door design doesn’t follow the minimums below, it is generally considered a custom door. However, all door styles can have more panels that would be narrower in width, but the number of panels must be a multiple that makes sense for the door style.

Swing doors have multiples of 2: 2, 4, 6 panels, etc.
Trifold doors have multiples of 3: 3, 6, 9 panels.
Bifold doors have multiples of 4: 4, 8 12 panels.
Barn doors are just swing doors with less glass and are also multiples of 2.

SWING style doors – Panels in multiples of 2

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Traditional Stile & Rail SWING style – Multiples of 2

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Trifold-Multiples of 3

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When looking at the number of panels, don’t forget to consider the relationship between the number of panels in your door and alignment with your window grille pattern above. This is a personal preference but should be considered.

What kind of panels?

Panel options address the texture and shape of the panels on a door and will vary across our product lines. Not all panel options are available on every door but specific options will be detailed under the features section for each door series we offer.

This list summarizes the panel options we currently offer:

Flat composite wood (paint grade only)
Flat solid wood
Flat vinyl and urethane panels
Flush Tongue & Groove (T&G) wood panels
V-Groove T&G and V-Groove panels – wood, urethane and vinyl
Beaded T&G and Beaded panels – wood and vinyl
Composite wood raised panels (paint grade only)
Raised, solid wood panels- limited panel width of 12” or less
Raised flush T&G wood panels -over 12” wide
Raised vinyl panels
Raised recessed panels (simulated raised panels)

Flush, V-Groove and Beaded options are usually placed in the panels with the seams being vertical. Please refer to the door examples above and note that there are options for the direction of the textured panels.

Directional Options:

Vertical, the hands down favorite, where textures run from top to bottom of the panels.
Herringbone, a 45 degree angle with textures pointing up or down.
Horizontal, where the textures run left to right.

Please note that the following examples of many of our panel styles show best when diagramed for wood. Other materials will have the same beaded or V-groove edges.

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Trim Board Details

What are Trim Boards?

These are additional decorative boards that can be added to your door design to enhance the door. These options are available for most of our product lines and include:

Cross Bucks (X-Bucks)
V-Bucks
Z-Bucks (A-Bucks)
Cross Rails – one or more and can be positioned low, mid or high in the panel area. Position, or to y our custom locations.
Sprung Bucks (shallow-curved boards that are positioned like a V or Z (A) Buck on a door.)

Please note that door style impacts the way trim boards can be applied. Most trim boards look best in pairs. Trifold doors have 3 panels so often the middle panel differs from the end panels. Traditional stile & rail doors will also look different because there will always be ‘cross’ rails across the door where the sections will break to roll up.

The name of the trim board option is descriptive, but examples are always best.

Cross Buck examples:

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V-Buck examples:

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Z-Buck (A-Bucks) examples are:

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Cross rail examples are:

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Sprung Bucks:

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Glossary

SECTION: The horizontal piece of an overhead activating door. The number of pieces that roll up when operating the door. Customers are not typically concerned with SECTIONS until they have purchased a door.

PARTS: Think of this as the number of leaves in a door. A single true swing door, like a bathroom door, has 1 leaf. A double, true swing door has two leaves, or 2 parts. A traditional carriage house swing-style overhead door looks like it has 2 parts that could swing out when opened. A trifold door has 3 parts and a Bi-fold door has 4 parts that work like an accordion. Door leaves, or PARTS (for Artisan) are usually separated by double vertical stiles (boards) and have a line or KERF separating them as if the door actually opened at that vertical line. Custom doors are just that – custom. They may have 1 part, 5 parts, or more.

PANEL: Look at just the part of a door that is usually under the window section. Count the areas divided by a vertical board that stops at the window section, and you have the number of panels for a door. Swing doors have multiples of 2: 2, 4 , 6 panels, etc. Trifold doors have multiples of 3: 3, 6, 9 panels. Bifold doors have multiples of 4: 4, 8 12 panels. Custom doors can have any number of panels and don’t usually match our definition for parts. The number of PANELS does not increase if glass or cross rails are added to the door design. The number of PANELS is determined by counting across the entire bottom rail of the door, going left to right.

LITES: Windows. Count the number of panes of glass in ALL of the window areas for a given door. To clarify the idea of lites, count the number of distinct window areas and then note the number of panes over panes. For example a typical swing-style door could have 2 sets with 4 over 4 lites (or panes). A Trifold would have 3 sets of 3 over 3 lites.

BARN: A Barn door is really a swing door with a mostly solid top section. In addition, there is usually no horizontal rail at the upper section break where windows are normally placed in a swing door. If windows appear, they are usually located in a small area in the top section and are very few in number.

CUSTOM: This category covers any door that doesn’t fit our other definitions in terms of standard number of parts, panels and lites. This includes a large number of contemporary doors that have one panel with no perimeter trim boards and many other very custom doors.

TRIM BOARDS: These are the boards that form a frame around the entire door, divide it into parts, and separate glass sections from the rest of the door. There are additional trim boards that can be added to any door in the PANEL sections and solid top sections. These include cross rails (horizontal boards), V-Bucks, Z-Bucks (or A-Bucks), Cross Bucks (or X Bucks) and Sprung Bucks (curved).

Don't See What You Need?

Please contact Artisan today to talk through your unique design needs.

Elegance & Class

How much of an Arch is possible?

What kind of panels?

What are Trim Boards?

975 Hemlock Road | Morgantown, Pennsylvania 19543 | F: 610.913.6036