Garage door installation

[yaofeng]

Replaced one of my garage doors this weekend. This one got stuck a few months ago. I kept increasing the door closing and opening force not realizing a pulley went bad. It eventually bent the top panel before I found the culprit and replaced the pulley. I fixed the bent top panel. But it did not look the same. I finally relented this past weekend and bought one from Home Depot, a standard stock fully insulated door for a mere $414.

Brough it home Saturday morning. I was all gong-ho with my air wrench starting to remove the closed bad door.

Now if any of you have not removed a garage door before, please, please do not do it with the door closed. Do it only with the door open and when there is no spring tension. I was lucky I didn't get killed. When I removed the last bolt on the bottom roller attachment on the bottom panel, the bracket, hooked on the cable pulled by one of the springs, flew up and made a big hole on the celing plaster in the garage. God had mercy on me. If I were a few inches closer to the door, it would have taken out my face.

After the near miss there were no more hair raising incidents. Except I made the usual mistake of just dove right in without looking at the installation instructions first. The second panel from the bottom where there are prepunched key holes ended up being installed at the top which I had to redo. I also got lazy not wanting to remove the old tracks only to find out the old tracks were shorter than the new ones. So the top panel of the new door would not close to seal the opening, which I also had to redo.

Overall I think I still did a fairly decent job. The installation instructions say it takes 9 to 12 hours to install one door. Despite of my blunders, I came in just under 12 hours. It included two trips back to Home Depot first asking them why the door won't fit (because I used the old tracks), and then why the door won't close (Which they do not have an answer for. The new door closes and come back up. My younger son suggested hooking the opener attachment to the second hole on the top panel which solved the door coming back up problem.)

Still I am not clear how the two adjustment screws on the opener functions if I had to troubleshoot again. Could someone explain to me?

[oren]

The spring most likely has a kill warning tag....

Oren

At this moment I do not have a personal relationship with a computer. Janet Reno, Attorney General 24 May 1998

[Richard J Kinch]

You and your advice are mistaken. You didn't know what you were doing. You still don't know. You should not be giving advice on how it is properly done or what the hazards are.

[Greg O]

He still did it wrong! With the door closed remove the tension from the springs first. Then disassemble the door, starting with the top panel. assemble in reverse order! Greg

[yaofeng]

Is there a decree that there is only one way to remove and install the garage door? Even a Communist country wouldn't do that.

[yaofeng]

There was nothing like that. No labels at all. My house is 34 years old. The garage door is at least 15. That's how long I lived in the house. The doors and openers were there when I moved in.

[Rich]

Raise the door to remove the spring tension then lower to remove the door. Except in the case of torsion springs where the tension is removed from the springs while the door is in the down positon.

[Sherman]

Good Post.

Thanks. You did good. (much better than finch could ever do).

[Greg O]

Do it your way then! The easy way, little or no chance of getting killed by a spring, or your way.....well, read your first post! Your way takes 12 hours, the easy way 2-4 hours.

I installed a 16'x8' door a couple of years ago. Remove old door, track, everything. Install new door, track, electric opener, four hours, by myself. Knock yourself out! Greg

[trader4]

"He still did it wrong! With the door closed remove the tension from the springs first. Then disassemble the door, starting with the top panel. assemble in reverse order! " Greg

And how is one supposed to remove the tension from the springs with the door closed? The standard way is to raise the door which takes most of the tension of the springs, use some channel locks in the tracks to make sure it stays there, then remove the springs. After that, with someone helping you, remove the channel locks and you can slowly lower the door, which can be a couple hundred pounds, depending on type and size.

[Greg O]

If you are by yourself, use a rope and pulley to release the springs if they are pull springs mounted beside the rack. I have used nylon motorcycle tie down straps to help remove the springs too. Safer than trying to lower a heavy door by yourself. Depending on what springs you have opening the door , removing the springs then lowering the door for disassembly is reasonable. With the pull springs mounted on the sides of the track, opening the door first would work. Torsion springs mounted above the door generally you will need to release tension first as there is no room to release the springs because the door is in the way!

The OP did not remove the springs until he darned near got killed by one because he removed the bracket with full spring tension on it! Greg

[Rick F.]

I've dad several garage doors replaced (in separate houses) and they always close the door and then unwind the coil spring above the door (you can't even get to it when the door open). They use two pieces of rebar to use as a set of spokes to unwind the wheel.. Works great and they then remove the top panel and work their way down to the ground. Assembly is in the reverse as indicated above.

[Richard J Kinch]

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Richard J Kinch]

Do not use rebar; it is not the proper size for the sockets on the winding cones.

[Rich]

He would be wrong if he were referring to torsion springs. But "yaofeng" did mention a bad pulley which would clearly make his door counter balanced with extension springs unless he has rear mounted torsion springs which I strongly doubt. In the case of extension springs you should raise the door and clamp it in the open position first. Then undo the springs to remove the tension. Take off the clamps, then lower the door and disassemble.

Removing spring tension with the door in the closed position is normally done with torsion springs.

Although there has been times that I've had to cut the cables to remove the tension from a door with torsion springs while the door was in the open position (newbies don't try it).

Rich

[Goedjn]

And it's designed to bend.

[Richard J Kinch]

The material is OK. The problem is the shape.

[Rick F.]

Ok.. Maybe it wasn't rebar.. It *was* something that looked like it and was ~12 inches long.. I do know that it was straight and not bent obviously.. Sorry for the misdirection.