The rolling green hill country of southeast Texas, renowned for its blooming bluebonnet fields and tranquil lakes, is vastly different from the arid panhandle of west Texas. One might expect that across this big state you can see many changes
in the lay of the land during a drive that would take more than 10 hours to complete, covering the 650-mile stretch from El Paso to Dallas.
It was in this attractive area of Texas that Donna and Greg decided to building a new country home. At the encouragement of their architect, they decided on two Schweiss Doors hydraulic designer doors … one for the 3,000-square-foot garage/barn
and the other on the fancy basement party room in the home. The doors are 29-feet, 7 inches by 9 feet, 7 inches and 20 feet by 9 feet, 4 inches, respectively.
The compact hydraulic pumps are each mounted 45 feet and 65 feet from the doors. One of the hydraulic pump units was installed in the basement, away from the party room. The pump in the garage was put in the mechanical room behind doors.
“We like the shade that the hydraulic doors create when opened,” Donna says. “The shade created by the door is huge, they just make sense in the south where we look for ways to stay out of the sun. For our party room, when we
open the door, we’ve added a covered porch to it. That’s really wonderful!”
The exterior of the door is clad in 24-gauge metal panels and the interior is handsomely clad with vertical Douglas fir. Roy Weisinger’s company, Hangar Rental Inc., of Brookshire, Texas, installed the hydraulic doors, including a rubber
buffer at the bottom of the doors to ensure a good seal to keep out insects.
“These doors are beautiful,” Donna says. “I can’t imagine any ordinary garage doors on where they went. I like how massive they look. They bring a presence you can’t get with a regular garage door. The doors are strong
enough to lift a lot of weight and have a lot of material on them; the wood is heavy, both have a heavy product on the inside and the outside is sheet metal. I’ve never had a problem with them.”