Had a new garage door installed a couple of days ago. I did contemplate doing the job myself (and if I had realised that my new door came complete with frame and pre-tensioned spring I probably would have done!) but decided in the end to give the job to a dedicated garage door installer. Mistake! The door is fitted but why is it, whenever I get any 'professional' in to do a job for me, I end up dissatisfied and having to carry out numerous little snagging jobs myself that the 'professional' should have done? The job is not terrible - but neither is it good. The door would not 'click' shut after he had gone. Why? because the top bolt was not adjusted properly and instead of hitting the 'slope' of the catch, it hit the edge of the catch and stopped the door dead. All it needed was the length of the bolt operating cable adjusting, and the catch smearing with grease, and now the door clicks shut without problem. I went around checking the brackets where the door is fixed to the sides. What do I find? Half the bolts just swizzle around because the hole in the brickwork is too big and the rawlplug too small. I ended up taking most of the bolts out, one at a time, and packing the plugs to ensure that the bolts screwed in tight. One of the brackets had half a dozen packing washers behind it - but they were totally unnecessary because the other angle of the bracket had oval adjusting holes and using them the bracket could be just slid right up to the wall. I've now done this and removed the packing washers. The door opening spring is over-tensioned and the door flies up with such force that any unsuspecting door opener would end up being laid out flat with an uppercut to the chin. My 'dedicated' garage door fitter did not have his tensioning tools with him and so will have to come back to make the necessary adjustment. The old door had a wooden frame - and the new door a platiscote metal frame. Problem is that the space above the door was filled with plastic cladding fixed to vertical battens fixed to the frame. In removing the wooden goal-post frame, these vertical battens are now left dangling from their upper fixing and the whole cladding set up now moves in and out! I despair - whatever happened to pride in workmanship? The old adage has never been more true - If you want a proper job doing, then do it yourself! The fitter did offer to give me a quote for replacing the cladding when he comes back to adjust the spring tension - I've told him I'll do it myself!
Uno-Hoo!