Articles
Articles and posts about carriage doors.
Enemies of carriage doors
Carriage doors have their enemies. All good things do. Sleeping Beauty had the mean stepmother. Glaciers have global warming. Bacon has the American Heart Association.
Who would want beautiful, useful, virtuous, convenient, classically admired carriage doors to fail? Two arch enemies: weather and gravity.
Carriage doors, unlike sectional roll-up doors, swing innocently outward, enjoying the clear air, and inviting it in. That’s when they are sneakily attacked by rain swooping down from above, and wind buffeting from the side. Even when they are closed, snow comes piling and drifting up against them.
And gravity! No occasional foe, gravity besieges constantly, pulling downward on the side-hinged door, attempting to pull it apart at its seams and wear out its hinges. Of course gravity is the enemy of roll-up doors too; watch out if the tension spring holding up the door ever snaps! A roll-up door is a deadly guillotine for innocent passers-through, while the swinging carriage door is merely susceptible to sag and drag.
Evergreen knows both of these enemies well, and we safeguard against them with our own methods of construction.
The Evergreen door has a shear panel of marine plywood that supports the joinery, keeps the door from sagging, and provides layered strength for the panels. When rain runs down the face of the panels seeking a groove to settle in so it can rot out the solid rails, it is disappointed, and simply weeps out the bottom of the rails instead.
And when a gust bangs the carriage door up against a wall, the strap hinge (required by Evergreen’s warranty) protects the edge of the door from cracking off in the fracas.
Evergreen doors are built to resist enemies. That’s a good thing, because carriage door enemies are your enemies.
- Richard Hampton
