Westwood's garages are nearly a century old, and nearly none of them are still perfectly square.
A square mile of pre-war housing
Westwood is small enough to walk across and old enough that almost every garage in it predates the modern sectional door. Homes here largely date to the 1920s through the 1940s, sitting on compact lots near Rainbow Boulevard and the KU Med campus. Detached garages off the alley are the norm, and so are openings that are narrow, short and no longer perfectly square.
The practical consequence is that Westwood is a measuring job before it is an installing job. An opening that has racked a half inch over ninety years will not take a door dropped in square, and forcing one in is how you get a door that binds and a spring that wears unevenly. We measure the opening at multiple points, shim what needs shimming, and hang the door to the building as it exists.
Getting a truck to the alley
Alley access behind Westwood homes is genuinely tight, and street parking is limited. It is not a problem, but it is worth mentioning when you book so we bring the right truck and plan where to stage the door instead of discovering it on arrival.
Low headroom and the opener question
Most of these garages were built without openers and many still do not have one. Adding a rail-mounted opener needs ceiling room that a lot of Westwood garages simply do not have. A wall-mount jackshaft unit that sits beside the torsion bar solves it, and it needs no ceiling clearance at all. If your garage is short, that is almost certainly the answer.
Doors that suit the house
A flat contemporary door on a 1930s Westwood cottage is visually wrong and every neighbor will notice. Carriage-house styling in insulated steel is the reliable choice — period-appropriate face, modern performance, no maintenance.
Getting to you
About twenty minutes from the shop.
