I went from "someday I want to replace these" to "maybe I want to replace them sooner since I had to repair the door again after the seal froze to the ground and the opener tried to rip the door apart" to "maybe I should replace these like now-ish."
Called my local place just to see if they could sort of straighten me out and give me an idea of cost. Amazingly, they did. So I decided to visit since I was off yesterday.
My local place is Carr's Overhead Door on the other side of town. https://www.carrsoverheaddoorinc.com/
Ended up going with a Wayne Dalton 8300 which has about an R12 insulation rating. This is definitely a few rungs better than the crappiest hollow door. The doors are 8' by 6.5' which is a short door. I will do the vertical short panel style, with the 3 light style (6 total), in black. Going with black saves any temptation to spend $80 per door for magnetic hardware to dress it up. No point with black since the hardware is black. He suggested that black is the best bet for today's trends and what we plan to do with the house (white windows and trim, and then whatever siding color other than brown, SOME DAY).
Originally he thought I would need low overhead clearance tracks (it's a dual track system) but upon measuring this afternoon, we modified the plan. He said he can do regular tracks which saves $400. Torsion springs on both. Originally I was going to reuse my bay's opener but he said it would need to be mounted to the header (i.e. properly) or else it would rub on the new door (as the old door has done). So we decided to pursue jackshaft openers on both sides, which are $950/ea. I will have to add some 2x4 pieces for mounting and push some wires out of the way on my bay but this is simple and will be worth it. The clearance gained from the jackshaft openers plus the silent/smooth operation is worth it even though I have two functional openers now. I hate my Genie screw drive in Jamie's bay so that will be good riddance.
The final thing is he suggested redo all the trim around the doors since it is wood, the paint is failing at the top, and it's rotting at the bottom. This will add cost. But in the long run it makes total sense to just get it all done.
He is supposed to get me the revised quote and then we can move forward.
Originally the quote broke down like this:
Doors were $1300 each, for the 8'x6.5' R12 steel. I guess that was installed. These don't include any windows.
As I said the plan (before he came out) was to go with a low overhead clearance kit which is a double track. This would have added $200 per door but is no longer needed with the current plan.
$400 for the glass panels for each door.
So the doors and track alone, installed, is $3,400. Based on some basic research this is a totally reasonable price.
Then, the original plan was one jackshaft opener at $950 installed. But upon further discussion he convinced me to match the other bay and just enjoy the clean ceilings and silent/smooth operation. So instead of adding another $950, it's x2, for another $1,900. Already up to $5,300.
Finally, he was looking at my terrible trim condition and said it would make a lot of sense to do it all over with PVC and brickmold, and modify the design of the header to look more modern. He mumbled some numbers which could be on the order of another $1,200 but I think it does not make sense to do premium garage doors with old crappy trim. So I'm just gonna do it.
New garage doors
Re: New garage doors
Quote came back at $6,700 all in (trim came back as $1,400). Moving forward with it. By sometime in March this will probably be completed. They get 50% down for material and the rest upon work completion. Pretty typical.