Historic Fimbel Doors

During our nearly 10 decades of manufacturing, our family has built doors that continue to live in the openings of many residences as well as historic firehouses of the FDNY and historically specific buildings across the country! Today we are proud to offer the technology of today with the classic aesthetic required by historic societies as well as the particular consumer. While our product line focuses on carriage style doors, we offer a wide range of capabilities for you and your historic project.

For 96 years, our family has committed to quality. We are proud our products do more than bring lasting beauty but also support our mission for sustainability. Behind the smooth, high end look of wood, we use composite materials from partners who share our values. Fimbel doors are durable to stand the test of time and low-maintenance to add time to your lifestyle. Residential or Commercial. Carriage Style to Modern Design. Historic Restoration or New Build. We offer you more in a garage door. 

Classic Carriage

As the 90's came to a close, the market lacked a true carriage door with the classic big windows and the sturdy overlay look. Other manufacturers in the industry had come close using steel with the lumpy, embossed wood-grain texture in the face and plastic snap-in inserts as the window grille. They came close, but the final appearance lacks the quality and accuracy of a historic carriage style door.

Seeing this opening in the market, Ed Fimbel III developed two platforms upon which the Fimbel Carriage Style door was born. With innovative materials and outside the box engineering, the Fimbel Carriage Style products brought the timeless allure of a painted wood door with the longevity, cost, and low-maintenance appeal for the needs of any home and homeowner!

One of the predominant features found on a classic American carriage house door are the big windows. This highlight of the product is one to truly make it stand out. Where many others use window inserts or have to joint the pieces together, our tops are made of solid, one-piece vinyl material. This means the entire face of the top, or grille as it is referred, is one quality sheet of carved material with no joints or inserts.

Although the American Legends is limited to standard widths, the Estate Collection offers 1" height and width increments. That said, the construction of the top section of all Fimbel products allows for either larger or smaller window options and are available in 1" height increments for greater flexibility. To truly make this top your own, custom designs and arches are available in nearly any configuration for simulated divided lites. You can also choose from a C-profile (standard) or a V-profile to complement the details of your home! For those projects that require a full, solid top, we also offer this product without glass! 

Make it Your Own

The first step in navigating our product offerings is to understand that we make our doors in two innovative ways to offer a vast variety of styles and solutions. When buying a Fimbel door, you can count on the look of real wood, durable construction methods, low-maintenance, precision fit, bold windows, reliable R-value, and more, more, more!

Our first construction platform offers carriage and traditional styles using a vinyl clad steel pan and applying vinyl overlays to create the look of a classic wood door. This door is exceptional for two main reasons – the first is the platform (pan) made of a smooth, steel base made for the elements that we coat (clad) in a thin layer of crisp, white vinyl. This innovation allows for the American Legends series to live nearly anywhere, even near the ocean, without rusting and rotting away in the elements. To this we add the smooth, solid white overlays made of sustainable material. Separating ourselves from the competition's fake wood grain completes the constructed look to appear as real, traditional wood. Both features ensure the longevity our ethics demand, the look we all crave, and a price point sure to please.

Our second construction platform truly shines in the blend between tradition and innovation. Using a hand placed wood frame and nesting in our insulation, we laminate a vinyl back cover and a solid vinyl exterior that encases the face. This slab now becomes a blank slate to bring you more for your door. Using both 3/8" and ¾" material, primarily Versatex, we have options to add select profiles and nearly limitless designs to satisfy inspiration. You will see these designs in our Euro-Dor and Presidential Collections offering both carriage, traditional, and modern styles.

To achieve a more classic carriage look, we offer the Roaring Twenties. This series starts with the same platform yet adds solid, sturdy overlays pocketed (nested) into the face. The pronounced look of this classic style can be modified in myriad ways to satisfy decorative features and historic applications. Each of these series offers incredible longevity and beauty we can all feel good about! 

Complement the Past

When the platform is established, the rest is up to you! Based on the needs of the project, we are able to add a faux centerpost to make it pop, custom arches to complement non-standard openings, custom rails and designs to match architectural features, and whatever else you desire. With the design determined, you can now add factory finish, decorative hardware, specialty glass, and so much more! 

Built to Last

We know the garage door is no longer simply a function of access and storage, but it has become a showpiece to many projects. At Fimbel we offer you more beauty. There is much to know about our capabilities, but you can be assured that if you can dream it, we can build it! The products offered today originated on old-world craftsmanship and classic designs, but we have added innovative technology and materials (more on a few of them below) to offer unmatched beauty and durability. You can design to your heart's delight.

We offer a wide range of finishing options from our faux stain and factory finish to two tone doors and custom color matching. We have recently published several other blog posts detailing our finishing, so if you want to learn more, please check out the value in our finishing! But our options don't end there. With Fimbel you can make selections for your door on the glass options based on the style and purpose of your space. You can also incorporate design details into the interior of the door to complement the splendor of the exterior. Adding decorative hardware is another way to enhance the sophisticated beauty of Fimbel Doors and no matter the size, we can customize most aspects of the door to accommodate. 

Looking Ahead

Our ability to design and engineer custom applications makes us a favorite among architects and design-build firms. We make the Fimbel ADS's engineering department available to provide insights and inspiration to architects and engineers seeking to solve a tough challenge or simply needing to design a completely unique door from advanced materials. Enjoy a quick 'tour' of our showroom.

In 1924, traditions began. The world meets the first ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, and our family meets the world. Our commitment remains to that time-honored tradition today. We will design and build your door using low-maintenance, energy efficient materials, manufactured in a sustainable way because we know the past is what got us here, and the future depends upon our good choices. We look forward to our family working with your family to create something truly special.

When we build, we build for beauty and durability that will last because we care about your satisfaction as well as our environment. From our processes to our products, we reduce, reuse, and recycle everything we can. We run on solar, and we love to help reduce your overall maintenance efforts and costs. Challenge what you think is true of garage doors! We dare you! Find a dealer or reach out to the factory for more specifications.