Garage Door Painting

Painting the biggest door on the house

Steel, wood and composite garage doors can all be painted. What matters is cleaning off the film, priming only where needed, and using a paint the door maker allows. Safe Choice Painting paints garage doors on their own or along with a full exterior painting job.

On many homes the garage door is the largest single surface on the front wall, so its color shapes the whole look of the house.

Steel garage doors

Many garage doors are steel with a baked-on factory finish. That finish is sound but slick, and paint will not bond to it as it is. Clopay's painting instructions for its steel doors set out the steps we follow on most steel doors:

• Clean. Wash off dirt, chalk and grease with a TSP-type cleaner, then rinse well.
• Scuff. Lightly abrade the factory finish with a fine gray pad so paint has something to grip.
• Prime bare metal only. Scratches and dents down to bare steel get a zinc-rich or rust-inhibiting primer.
• Test. Paint a small area and run a tape test once it dries, to confirm the paint is holding.
• Paint. Use a 100 percent acrylic latex exterior paint. Clopay says not to use oil-based or alkyd paints on its doors.

Rust spots at the bottom edge are common where water sits. They are cleaned down to sound metal and primed before the finish coats.

Can you paint a garage door a dark color?

Sometimes. Dark colors absorb more sun and heat, and that heat can warp or delaminate some doors. Clopay's supplement for its Settlers composite doors allows dark colors only when the paint has a light reflectance value, or LRV, of 8 or higher. LRV is printed on most paint color cards. Other makers have their own rules, so we look up the door model before you pick a near-black. West-facing doors in North Texas take full afternoon sun all summer, which is when this matters most.

Wood and composite garage doors

Wood doors move with the weather, so they need a primer on bare wood, sealed panel edges and a flexible acrylic finish. Peeling at the bottom panel usually means water is wicking up into the end grain, and that edge gets extra primer. Soft or rotted spots on wood doors are pointed out at the walkthrough before any painting. Composite doors are cleaned and scuffed like steel and painted within the maker's color limits.

Picking a garage door color

• Match the trim to keep the door quiet and let the front entry stand out.
• Match the body to make a wide door blend into the wall.
• Use an accent color for a door with carriage-style panels or windows that you want to show off.

Our front door painting page covers the entry door, and the two are often planned together.

Garage doors and HOA rules

Many neighborhoods treat the garage door as part of the approved exterior color scheme. We help with HOA color approvals by giving you color names, codes and samples for the board. Rules differ by community. At Lake Kiowa, the property owners association handbook says exterior painting and staining need no permit, though color choices can still matter to neighbors. In Lantana about 97 percent of homes were built in 2000 or later, so many garage doors there still wear their first factory finish. See exterior painting in Lantana and exterior painting at Lake Kiowa.

What a garage door painting visit looks like

1. The door is opened to working height and the floor, opener track and weatherstrip are masked.
2. The door is washed, rinsed and left to dry. Heavy grime may need pressure washing first.
3. Bare spots are primed and the factory finish is scuffed.
4. Two coats of acrylic go on, panel recesses first, then the flat faces.
5. The door stays up until the paint is dry enough to close without sticking.

Garage door trim and the header board are often painted at the same time, and our trim, fascia and soffit page covers that work.

Opening the door after painting

Garage doors are painted on dry days. We tell you when the door can be opened and closed again, since running it too soon can pull fresh paint apart at the panel joints.

Nearby

• Garage door painting in Denton, TX
• Exterior painting
• Siding painting
• Exterior painting in Lantana, TX