The Great Northern Door Company: A Great Company For Rustic, Wooden Garage Doors

Up until recently (after we attended the Nashville Log Home & Timber Frame Show), I hadn’t thought much about the type of garage doors I wanted for our new log home.

Rather than color or style, I think my biggest concern to date has been whether to have one “big” door to accommodate 2 cars, or 2 individual doors — one door per vehicle. I had always thought that was more of a personal choice than a design issue, but I recently learned that 2 garage doors (plus a third, utility door) are in our future. It mostly has to do with support and beam issues, and with the home as we’ve designed it upstairs, we will be required to have 2 separate doors on the garage which are off the basement downstairs.

Enter into the picture: The Great Northern Door Company!

When we passed their booth at the The Great Northern Door Company, we couldn’t help but stop and take a second look!

They had the most beautiful solid-wood garage door on display. It looked similar to the one in their ad:

NOTE: While their business materials state https://www.greatnortherndoor.com/ as their website, it is not currently working. They said the site will be ready in another week or so.

Our First Impressions Of The Great Northern Door Company

The company rep we met with at the log home show was Ty. He was very helpful, and very knowledgeable. He answered every single question we had… and more.

Plus, since the guys were from Minnesota, they were a joy to “listen” to — because their accent was so strong! (I wonder if they happened to get tickets to the Nashville Predators vs Minnesota Wild game that same night… If so, they would’ve enjoyed it. Preds lost 1-4.)

What we learned from Ty:

• These garage doors cost about twice as much as “regular” garage doors do.
• Yes, they’re all electric-opening garage doors. (Even the ones that look like manual doors — with big handles on the outside — are often on an automatic door opening system, just like traditional garage doors.)
• The Great Northern Door Company includes better quality railings and hardware than traditional garage doors come with (…as a result, they’re longer lasting and quieter).
• They can also make custom entry doors for your home, as well.
• There are lots of options, including glass, or no glass… curved archway or square.
• The garage door(s) arrive at your home site unassembled. So you or your contractor would need to put them together (which isn’t unusual, the same is true no matter which garage door you choose).
• The lowest price is $2,400 for one garage door, including all of the tracks & hardware necessary to make it work.
• The garage door opener and installation are the only things not included in their price.
• They can ship the garage door(s) to your homesite or to your contractor, whichever you prefer.
• You will (obviously) have to treat and stain your garage doors to match your house. And they will need to be included in your regular maintenance schedule (of treating and staining your log home) every 3-5 years, or whatever you choose.

Until now, I’d always admired what I call “barn-looking” garage doors — you know, with the criss-crossed wooden slats that give a door that rustic, barn-like look. But I figured they were either a pipe dream, because they’d be too expensive, or that Jim wouldn’t like them.

Surprise! After seeing the doors available from The Great Northern Door Company, we’re pretty sure we’re going this route now. I think they look absolutely great on log homes.