Edina Garage Doors: 1920s Detached Garages, 1990s Wide Doors, and What Each One Needs

Edina grew in two directions at two different times, and the garage doors show it. The streetcar suburb of Morningside and the planned lots of Country Club went up between 1915 and 1940 with a detached garage at the back of the lot, sized for a car that was four feet shorter and a foot narrower than anything in a driveway today. Then, from the 1950s through the 2000s, the city filled west and south: the ramblers around Southdale, the two-stories of Indian Hills and Parkwood Knolls, the three-car garages near Braemar. Those garages have the opposite problem. Here is what each does to a door, and what I do about it.

The 1920s detached garage: narrow, low, and worth keeping

A Morningside garage opening is often 7 feet 6 inches or 8 feet wide and 6 feet 8 inches tall, with the rafters six or seven inches above the header. Nothing in a catalog fits, and a standard opener rail will not clear. Three things make these garages work with a modern door:

• A door ordered to the opening. Most manufacturers build to the inch. An insulated steel door in a carriage-house panel style keeps the look of the neighborhood (and satisfies the Country Club historic guidelines, which care about the street-facing elevation) while sealing properly. From $2,000 installed; what moves the price.
• Low-headroom track. A double-track or quick-turn bracket lets the top section clear with 4 to 6 inches of headroom instead of 12. How low-headroom track works.
• A wall-mount opener. The LiftMaster jackshaft mounts beside the torsion shaft, needs no ceiling rail, and is the quietest opener made. It is the right opener for almost every detached Edina garage with a torsion door. Wall-mount opener guide.

What I will not do is widen the opening or raise the header without a carpenter and, in Country Club, the district’s sign-off; the garage is part of the house’s value. More on old garages across the west metro.

The west-side door: wide, heavy, and under-sprung

The 1980s and 1990s two-stories west of Highway 100 came with 16- and 18-foot insulated doors on a single torsion spring, sized by the builder’s sheet rather than the real weight of the door. Twenty-five years later the spring is tired, the door weighs 250 to 320 pounds, and the opener has been lifting most of it for years. The calls from Indian Hills, Parkwood Knolls, Braemar and the Highlands are almost always the same: the opener strips a gear or the spring finally snaps on the first cold week. The right repair is a matched pair of springs sized to the real weight of the door, with a new center bearing, which spreads the load and roughly doubles the service life. Spring replacement cost and how much these doors actually weigh.

Southdale, Edinborough and the association garages

The 1950s and 1960s ramblers around Southdale, Pamela Park and Lake Cornelia are the easy middle: standard openings, attached singles and doubles, the usual springs and openers at the usual prices. The association garages at Edinborough, Centennial Lakes and along the Southdale corridor are a different kind of account: one invoice per address, a certificate of insurance on file, and a property manager who wants the door fixed before the resident calls twice. I set those up as standing accounts. Property manager and HOA service.

Neighborhood by neighborhood

Morningside, Country Club, Arden Park, White Oaks, Sunnyslope: 1920s-1940s detached garages, low headroom, doors ordered to size. Pamela Park, Concord, Southdale, Lake Cornelia, Lake Edina: 1950s-1960s ramblers, standard hardware. Indian Hills, Parkwood Knolls, Braemar, Highlands, Interlachen: wide 1980s-2000s doors, undersized springs, myQ opener installs. Edinborough, Centennial Lakes: association garages. The Edina page has the full list.

A note for Edina Chamber members

David’s Urgent Garage Door joined the Edina Chamber of Commerce in October 2026. Member businesses, their employees and their customers: mention the Chamber and code SPRINGS for the service call waived and new cables included with any spring replacement. Commercial doors on the 50th and France and Southdale shops, and property-manager accounts, are welcome too.

Split-level with the garage under the bedrooms? My tuck-under garage guide covers the headroom, the drain at the bottom of the door and the noise upstairs.

In the Country Club District or Morningside? The 1920s carriage-house garages have their own guide: odd-size openings, wood doors, wall-mount openers and what needs a Certificate of Appropriateness.

Different decade, different garage? The Garage Door Age Check gives the short list for any garage from the 1920s to today.

Edina garage doors – FAQ

The other half of Edina, the 1960s ramblers and split-levels with the attached garage under the bedroom, has its own guide: Edina split-level garage doors.

When a garage door fails at a bad hour, with the car trapped or the house open, call (763) 265-7671. Here is how my emergency garage door service works and what it costs.

Written by David Tuito, owner and lead technician of David’s Urgent Garage Door, St. Louis Park. Minnesota-registered contractor #IR790255, insured, in business since 2019, 4.9 stars on Google. David answers the phone and does the work himself. About David · (763) 265-7671