The shop on Dovecot Lane
Built beside the house, not bought off a shelf
A catalogue door is sized to the catalogue. Yours is sized to an opening that has shifted since 1926, on a lane where every third delivery driver has misjudged the stone pier. We draw each door against the measured opening, the trim colour and the roof line — and the drawing you approve is the door that arrives.
The drawing is the contract
Every Carriage Row door ships with the drawing it was built from — sections, rails, window lights, colour — attached to the invoice. If the door that hangs in your opening differs from the paper, the difference is ours to fix, not yours to absorb.
Services
What the shop builds
01
Carriage-house wood — from $4,900
Hemlock and larch, mortise-and-tenon rails, insulated core hidden behind real board. Drawn to your opening, primed and top-coated in the shop, hung on hardware weighted for a wood door's honest poundage.
02
Wood-look insulated steel — from $2,150
A 24-gauge skin with R-12 foam, stamped to carriage proportions and painted from a colour match taken at your trim — for the houses that want the line without the maintenance calendar.
03
Restoration & re-hanging — from $680
The valley is full of beautiful doors hanging on tired guts. We re-glue the joinery, re-hang on modern track and torque-matched springs, and keep every panel, light and forged strap exactly as it was.
04
Openers, quiet by design — from $610
Belt drives tuned to wood weights, side-mount units for tall carriage openings, and the rail hidden behind the top rail where the drawing says it belongs.
How it goes
From measure to balance test
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Week 0 — the measure
Two visits, one drawing
We measure the opening, headroom and side room, take a trim colour match in daylight, and sketch the door into a photograph of your house. You approve a drawing, never a description.
Weeks 1–4 — the build
Cut, assembled, primed
Rails and stiles cut from the drawing, panels raised, joinery assembled and glued, two primer coats and colour in the shop. You receive photographs of the dry-fit before it is a door, while changes are still cheap.
Install day — one day
Old door out at eight
Track and springs sized to the built door's weighed pounds go in first, the door stacks on them section by section, hardware and straps land where the drawing puts them. By four it is a door, not a project.
Before we leave
The balance test
Opener disengaged, the door lifted to waist height — it holds. You watch, you sign, and the twelve-year joinery warranty starts from that afternoon. The care kit and the drawing go home with you.
Hemlock & larch
Valley-sourced where we can get it, kiln-dried where we must, and moved into your garage two weeks before the cut so the wood is acclimated to the air it will live in.
Hardware from one forge
Springs, drums and track rated to the door's weighed pounds; straps and hinges from the same forge that supplies the restoration work, so a hundred years of parts still speak to each other.
Colour, matched on site
The match is taken against your trim in daylight, mixed while you watch, and brushed onto a spare board that goes home with you — because a colour approved under showroom lights is a colour argued with all spring.
Our carriage house is listed, and the conservation officer wanted "like for like or nothing". Carriage Row drew the door into a photograph of the building, the officer approved the drawing in a week, and the door that hangs there now is the door on that paper — down to the forged straps. When the balance test held at waist height, my wife signed the card before the installer finished his sentence.
Design visits booking into November · (555) 018-3327 · visits@carriagerowdoors.example
Start with a drawing, not a brochure
The design visit takes ninety minutes, costs nothing, and ends with a sketch of your own house you can hold. Evenings and Saturdays suit most valley houses. visits@carriagerowdoors.example