Because you are going to have to take off the whole torsion bar and bring it down to the ground level. They are 3" lags and sometimes don't go back nicely into the same holes.
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11 years ago
Bam! Garage door over-the-door torsion spring snapped! How to replace?
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11 years ago
Must have been a nice insulated door. In Houston I'll (well, used to before I got out of the business) install a 16 x 7 non-insulated door complete with take-down and haul-off for about $500.
Our cost on the door is $300. It takes about 1.5 hours to do, and the dump charges $30 to drop off the "dead door".
I'm not up to date on current prices, but I'm sure they have not changed much with the ads I see.
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11 years ago
That's my size - 4 panel - but his garage is attached so he probably got insulated. Pretty sure he got windows too. Might have an 18'. Mine is plain-jane but much better looking than the old wood one. I think I priced a similar door at about $400 at the big box when I was thinking about doing it myself. Then add the opener.
About the time the 2-man crew took. I was glad to see that old door hauled away on top of their van. Right there is what tipped the scale for me early about doing it myself. Getting old.
I'll never know, but no complaints from me. Heh, just had a visitor. His dad paid $700 for a door at the big box with 1/2" foam. Put it up himself.
4 times.- Vote on answer
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11 years ago
Wow. You live on a different planet from California prices!
BTW, I just now weighed the 7' tall by 8' wide steel garage door, and I was shocked it's 185 pounds (and not 135# which one installer told me based on my description of the door).
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Lesson: Don't trust what the installer says on the phone!
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11 years ago
That was a wrong number. It is off by 50 pounds!
I had described the door to an installer over the phone who said it was 135 pounds based on what I told him.
As a doublecheck, given the dimensions of the original spring: 2"ID, 0.243"thick, 26.5"long, 7'tall, 13"track radius the lift calculates to only about 125 pounds.
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However, today I physically MEASURED the weight of the door.
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The door clearly weighs 185 pounds!
Something isn't right by about 60 pounds!
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11 years ago
LMAO!
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11 years ago
135 Lbs. sounded pretty light to me.
Back when I used extension springs I'd have to lift the door all the way up without assistance of springs. I can easily lift an 8 x 7, but the
16 x 7's were a real bitch! I'd heave it up to my belt line, then "bench press" it the rest of the way to get some vise-grips on the track to hold it while I installed the springs. Extension springs are way more dangerous than torsion springs. I've seen the aftermath of one that snapped that didn't have a safety cable running through the middle. It shot through the other side of the garage and two layers of sheetrock.- Vote on answer
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11 years ago
FYI - we call them "sections". A panel is where you would cut out for a window. ;-)
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11 years ago
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Pretty much typical for California
Gunner
-- ""The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That?s why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.
Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don?t have a clue as to political reality. What amazes me is that you could take a group of people who are hard workers and convince them that they should support social programs that were the exact opposite of their own personal convictions. Put a little fear here and there and you can get people to vote any way you want.
The voter is basically dumb and lazy. The reason I became a Democratic operative instead of a Republican was because there were more Democrats that didn?t have a clue than there were Republicans." James Carvell, DNC operative
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11 years ago
Amazing how many jobs a ball joint tool will do isnt it? Mine has only done 1 set of ball joints..but gets used about 4 times a week for all sorts of other things...
Gunner
-- ""The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That?s why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.
Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don?t have a clue as to political reality. What amazes me is that you could take a group of people who are hard workers and convince them that they should support social programs that were the exact opposite of their own personal convictions. Put a little fear here and there and you can get people to vote any way you want.
The voter is basically dumb and lazy. The reason I became a Democratic operative instead of a Republican was because there were more Democrats that didn?t have a clue than there were Republicans." James Carvell, DNC operative
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11 years ago
I just got off the phone Dan Musick of DDM doors who said that there's no way my 2 7/8" thick steel (both sides) door is
185 pounds - so the scale must be lying to me (by 60 pounds!).
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630-293-1337
He says that it must be a Taylor door (due to the black plastic hinges) and that an 8 foot wide by 7 foot double sided steel Taylor door would be about 127 pounds (which is about right for the original spring which has an unusual 13 inch track radius).
We double-checked the coils to be 0.234" 30 coils = 7 inches = 0.233" 20 coils = 4 5/8 inches = 0.231" 10 coils = 2 3/8 inches = 0.237" Note: A micrometer came up with 0.242" but it's not accurate on curves.
And, we doublechecked the length at 26.5 inches by loosening the winding cone and slapping both ends of the broken spring together.
Moral of the story:
- Don't trust micrometers & digital bathroom scales!
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11 years ago
Ah, you noticed that!
That pickle fork I bought in, oh, the early 1980s to replace my ball joints - and it's still being put to use!
If I had the 18-inch long steel winding bars, I could also have just wound the door up and then let it sit back down on the scale.
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11 years ago
Two guys can lift it easily. One guy can lift it with some difficulty.
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11 years ago
I was trained years ago to See stuff in photos. Sometimes it a curse too. Particularly in my own photos. Sigh....
One of the reasons to never throw Stuff away.
-- ""The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That?s why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.
Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don?t have a clue as to political reality. What amazes me is that you could take a group of people who are hard workers and convince them that they should support social programs that were the exact opposite of their own personal convictions. Put a little fear here and there and you can get people to vote any way you want.
The voter is basically dumb and lazy. The reason I became a Democratic operative instead of a Republican was because there were more Democrats that didn?t have a clue than there were Republicans." James Carvell, DNC operative
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11 years ago
One problem is getting your hands on it because of the cheap plastic Taylor door handles.
Unfortunately, all there is, is one cheap plastic handle, way down low.
Trying to lift 127 pounds with that cheap plastic handle where you can only get one hand on it at a time, and you're half bent over, is, I think, the real challenge in lifting it up.
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11 years ago
Just to give you an update ... I'm waiting for the upgraded torsion spring & tools to arrive - and I will post pictures of the thicker spring & new tools when UPS arrives with it.
Meanwhile, now that I know what to look for, I looked at my second (larger) garage door to find the wrong hinges installed, broken hinges, and even a badly cracked bottom corner (the wood is split in half!).
So, by way of update, here is a picture of what I'm dealing with, while I wait for the torsion spring to arrive from UPS.
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Thank you for your help. I've learned a ton and I now have the confidence to replace my own torsion spring, when it arrives.
Without a.h.r., this learning task would be nearly impossible.
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11 years ago
That's a bit strange. Wonder how that happened. I've only seen normal weathering and common joint separation with my wooden garage doors. Never a crack or serious wood splitting. Very old doors.
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11 years ago
The Taylor door is probably circa 1990'ish.
I wonder if the fact that more than a few of the black plastic (nylon) hinges had already been replaced put more stress on the bottom corner?
Also, the fact that the #1 and #3 positions on one side BOTH were prior replaced with #1 steel hinges ...makes me wonder about stresses applied.
Lastly, at least one #14 inch-long sheet-metal screw is missing from that bottom corner - so - I have to wonder what that means for the tremendous stress applied when the door is down.
From outside, it looks like the door had a major 'problem' at some point - based on these uneven gauges all along both jambs.
RIGHT SIDE GOUGES:
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LEFT SIDE GOUGES:
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11 years ago
Can you get the door to the fully up position? If so, you can probably lock it in place with a C clamp and then replace the spring. I'm more familiar with tension springs, but I have seen the torsion type with the shaft and pulleys. I think you install the spring, and then wind it up a bit and attach the cables to the pulleys. Then, remove the clamp and it should be back to working.
Jon
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11 years ago
The DDM door site goes into a whole bunch of reasons why installing a torsion spring with the door up is a very bad idea.
So does the Richard Kinch article.
Sure, it 'sounds' like a nice idea to install the spring when there is no tension and then just let the weight of the door going down wind the spring on its own - but they all say that's not the way to do it.
I'm going to have to believe them - and won't even try to put the torsion spring on at the point of no tension.