I need to replace the extension springs in my garage door. I weighed the door (properly, a few times) and came up with 145 pounds. Do I use
140 pound springs, or 150?- posted
16 years ago
I need to replace the extension springs in my garage door. I weighed the door (properly, a few times) and came up with 145 pounds. Do I use
140 pound springs, or 150?
Well, you're going to use 2, so it would be half that each. Consider that it is trivial to add a little weight to the door if necessary, but a litlle harder to figure out what you're going to remove to lighten them a bit.
Nobody as clueless as you should do the job by themselves.
By HIMSELF. Singular.
Now, do you have an intelligent / factual answer, or are you just being a useless turd?
And you'd give him the rope to hang himself.
He does have a point, if not well stated. Those springs (not sure what kind you have) can be very dangerous to work with. Please keep that in mind. If you are not 100% certain what you are doing here, don't do it.
Are they expansion type springs (as opposed to torsion, mounted above the door)? There is some leeway but I would go for a slightly stronger spring. As stated they can be really dangerous. The door has to be blocked open when removing. I saw the results of an expansion spring that went through a garage roof when it broke.
I'd get the 150 pounders. They're going to get weaker as they age, not stronger.
And, if the present springs don't have "safety cables" running through them PLEEZE add them when you put in the new springs. They are very cheap insurance against what could be a tragic accident if someone is standing in the wrong place inside the garage place watching the door go up or down when a spring end snaps off.
Jeff
Very dangerous job. Consider hiring someone who does it full time.
Some jobs are worth paying for. Unless you don't mind loosing a hand or an arm... Depends I guess.
How would you lose an arm replacing a spring? There is no tension on them with the door raised. Note: he said EXTENSION springs.
or your head.
AAAAAAAAHHH! SHI#$%$T, MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD! AND I CAN'T SEE! OWWWWWW, MY HEAD MY HEAD!
Anyone know a good neurosurgeon? Oh WHY didn't I listen to that POS waste product internet troll? Just because he contributes nothing but belligerent OBTUSE remarks, I should have listened to the sewage THIS TIME! MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD MY HEAD!
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Actually it wasn't bad at all. The replacement springs at Home Depot are much smaller in diameter than the originals, and they're physically shorter, so I needed a little slack in the cables to balance the two sides. It looks like it stretches farther, which isn't possible because the geometry hasn't changed at all -- so it stretches exactly half the height of the door. Like always. The door balances at about waist height, which is about right.
When the original tore loose it also ripped the bracketry from the framing lumber, so that had to be reinforced and restored. That took more time than installing the springs.
The new springs come with safety cables, which is how it should have been all along.
It wasn't a difficult job, but it was a CREEPY job, especially after everyone's dire warnings of violent death and dismemberment. Closing the door the first time was a little unnerving, but it's sturdier than it was originally and now it has safety cables.
he SAID they were extension springs.
It SAYS right in his question "EXTENSION". Do you people read the fukin questions before spouting off?
What's dangerous about replacing an extension type garage door spring? Hell it only takes 5 minutes to learn how to do the torsion type safely.
how would he lose a hand or arm? Fall off the ladder? Hell you can do that painting.
So now he's losing his head? He's going to fall off the ladder onto a guillotine or something?
First one I replaced were on a very heavy solid one piece door. It had a mechanism on each side where the springs were fastened near the floor at the door and then slanted back from the floor at about a 45 degree angle.
They were about 2 inches in diameter. With the door braced open they needed to be stretched about three inches to get hooked up properly. Even with a long bar I was not able to stretch them that much. I was about ready to give up. Then got an idea. I hooked them up the best I could and closed the garage door. With the springs fully stretched I put nails between many of the rungs. Braced the door open again and now the spring was about three inches longer than before. Hooked it up where it should be, closed the door and took out the nails.
The next time they broke I replaced each big spring with two smaller ones that could be stretched by hand.
The spring on a neighbors door broke near the floor and it went through the garage roof and landed in his back yard.
The daugher of another neighbor was seriously injured when one broke while she was standing nearby.
MY ASS!
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