Show me your garage door track setup

[mrbill55]

Our garage doors (2-8'H 10'W, 1-8'H 18'W) are on order, trying to decide on using a standard drop garage door opener and rail set up, or going high lift rail set up seeing we have 10' (flat) ceiling heights.

Wondering if I can still use a standard garage door opener for the high lift, or whether we will be forced to use a wall mounted opener. One we are pre wired for, the other will require running three new circuits, one for each door.

Would like to see both setups if possible so I can get my ducks in a row and order what I'll need.

Thanks in advance

Bill S.

 

[penright]

I went with a wall mounted if I kept the area above the door clear. Easy to install.

 

[racecougar]

I also went with wall-mount operators, as they're out of the way and nearly silent.

 

[Innovate1]

You aren't going to gain much with high lift tracks. You only have 2' from top of door opening to ceiling and the track bend will take up about half that. Then the standard opener has to be above that. You probably only gain 6-8 inches. What are you going to do that makes that small difference of any importance?

It's such a small adjustment you could probably just extend the top of the vertical tracks and the link to the doors. The balance wouldn't be perfect but guessing close enough to not cause issues.

 

[racecougar]

Re-reading the OP, Innovate1 has a great point. For a visual, the photo I posted above shows 8' tall doors and a 12'7" ceiling height. You can picture where a 10' ceiling height would land.

 

[Youngandfree]

I do high lift tracks and wall mount openers.

 

[jstroede]

I'd probably suggest 20" radius tracks and your choice of opener either way (trolley or jackshaft). 20" radius would put the bottom of the horizontal tracks approximately 9' from the floor.

 

[mrbill55]

You aren't going to gain much with high lift tracks. You only have 2' from top of door opening to ceiling and the track bend will take up about half that. Then the standard opener has to be above that. You probably only gain 6-8 inches. What are you going to do that makes that small difference of any importance?

It's such a small adjustment you could probably just extend the top of the vertical tracks and the link to the doors. The balance wouldn't be perfect but guessing close enough to not cause issues.

It's a matter of convenience for headroom as well as cosmetics when we are walking in from the house, or out from the house. See attached picture that shows the existing door in the old garage for what we are trying to overcome.



Bill S.

 

[driftpin]

Train traveling today, no access to the 'other kind of tracks,' sorry.

However I used a pair of wall-mount openers, leaving space to run some 1 x 4's across (perpendicular) the rails, using Simpson Strong Ties & some plywood scraps. Then I fastened 4 ft LED lighting to the home-made brackets. Pics of it are in another thread.

Benefit is, lighting in those bays where the door is, up or down.

Ok, added content:
my use of Simpson brackets and a bit of scrap plywood to hang lighting below the tracks but higher than the OG garage door header. I also made use of the gable end to make shelving above the track for lighter, bulky items like Christmas stuff.









Look at the pics and compare the views and you can see how the lighting is fastened to the one-bys, and how the hangers off the door track support the one-bys. The riveted Simpson brackets are used on the outermost points of attachment, not on the outside (closest to the side walls) OH door tracks, but on two-bys tapcon'ed to the block side walls. The Simpson Strong Ties using plywood sandwiched between the SST brackets are fastened to the inside OH door tracks.

 

[Innovate1]

The pictures help. It's a little hard to see the door opening with the plastic sheeting. It looks like it might have been a 7' door (and track) that is being refitted with 8'. If that's true then the track will be 12" higher. With an 8' door the track will be at about 9'. I see the cosmetics don't look great but it doesn't look like much of an actual limitation - maybe when moving tall items. I think I would be tempted to just cut some track from the horizontal part and splice it into the vertical section. If you have ordered doors they usually come with track and I would be talking to the supplier. Did you order doors without track? Installing yourself? You might give the place often recommended for replacement springs and high lift tracks (don't recall the name offhand) a call and see if they can help you.

 

[Innovate1]

Another option is to splice the rail extension at the center of the track curve. Seems like I have seen pics of someone doing that...

Found it
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/garage-door-opener-with-car-lift.236236/

 

[mrbill55]

The pictures help. It's a little hard to see the door opening with the plastic sheeting. It looks like it might have been a 7' door (and track) that is being refitted with 8'. If that's true then the track will be 12" higher. With an 8' door the track will be at about 9'. I see the cosmetics don't look great but it doesn't look like much of an actual limitation - maybe when moving tall items. I think I would be tempted to just cut some track from the horizontal part and splice it into the vertical section. If you have ordered doors they usually come with track and I would be talking to the supplier. Did you order doors without track? Installing yourself? You might give the place often recommended for replacement springs and high lift tracks (don't recall the name offhand) a call and see if they can help you.

Always a 8' door, what you are seeing in the pictures is when they converted the three sided open carport to a 2 car garage. I could have actually framed it for a 10' high door, but choose not to for the aesthetics of the neighborhood and to match my new garage, which would never have passed an HOA architectural approval with 10' doors.
Builder is handling things from start to finish, but stated on Monday evening that the garage installer was out and he had some "concerns" with my want for a higher track placement. Have not heard back from the builder yet on this, but not sitting around idle await their guy to come up with options, or an only solution scenario, if you catch my meaning.

Bill S.

 

[Youngandfree]

It's a matter of convenience for headroom as well as cosmetics when we are walking in from the house, or out from the house. See attached picture that shows the existing door in the old garage for what we are trying to overcome.



Bill S.

High lift with wall mount. Extending wires is easy.

 

[tarmy]

You got options OP

Top pic is one garage O have where I built the track into the cabinets on both sides..

the lower pics are my other garage with 10’ ceilings where I wanted storage not higher doors.

 

[mrbill55]

You got options OP

Top pic is one garage O have where I built the track into the cabinets on both sides..

the lower pics are my other garage with 10’ ceilings where I wanted storage not higher doors.

That looks great, for me, it's going to be about headroom, the more we have, both for entertaining in the smaller garage, and for whatever comes later in the larger garage....Better to have the extra headroom and not need it, then to need it and not have it type of thought. Much easier to do it now, then later.

Bill S.

 

[mrbill55]

Discussed with the builder and garage door contractor, we opted to go with the 32" radius track vs the 12/15" track, enhanced torsion springs, drums, cable assemblies, and cones. This will essentially give us an extra two feet of headroom above the garage doors when they are open. In addition, this allows us to keep the garage door openers we already purchased, which will work with the electrical circuits/boxes we already ran for all three doors.

Thanks for everyone who reached out in this thread and via PM....All input and ideas were greatly appreciated.

Bill S.

 

[jstroede]

Discussed with the builder and garage door contractor, we opted to go with the 32" radius track vs the 12/15" track, enhanced torsion springs, drums, cable assemblies, and cones. This will essentially give us an extra two feet of headroom above the garage doors when they are open. In addition, this allows us to keep the garage door openers we already purchased, which will work with the electrical circuits/boxes we already ran for all three doors.

Thanks for everyone who reached out in this thread and via PM....All input and ideas were greatly appreciated.

Bill S.

How exactly are they going to handle this and make it fit? I didn't recommend 32" because unless something isn't what you said, the horizontal tracks are going to be in the ceiling.

32" radius is 24" of high lift with a standard vertical track. That means they should be 10' off the floor, which is what you said your ceiling height was.

Just curious...

 

[mrbill55]

How exactly are they going to handle this and make it fit? I didn't recommend 32" because unless something isn't what you said, the horizontal tracks are going to be in the ceiling.

32" radius is 24" of high lift with a standard vertical track. That means they should be 10' off the floor, which is what you said your ceiling height was.

Just curious...

Only thought is that they will cut down the straight vertical track,not exactly certain how they are going to make it work, just that these are the specs they told me. Tracks will essentially be as close as they can be to the ceiling while still allowing the use of a standard (not wall mounted) garage door opener. I'll make certain to document on my build thread as the installation gets rolling.

Bill S.

 

[mrbill55]

Follow up with the install of the high lift garage door tracks today show the before and after shots of what was installed (1967) and what was installed this morning. Standard Liftmaster (DC Motor, Belt Drive, Secure View) shown.
MrBill shown for scale

MrBill is now squeezed between the upper track and the ceiling

I question the ceiling light placement, but it works, and is not in conflict, so it's getting left where it is, for now.


Bill S.

 

[hometex]

Is there a rule on which radius to apply to the track for a particular door vs ceiling height? if you want the track higher, can't the vertical tracks just be lengthened, and use the same radius up higher? A bigger radius means longer horizontal track?
My doors are 7', and I have 9' ceilings. Im limited by a large beam perpendicular to the doors at 11' from the door opening. I'd like to raise the tracks slightly compared to normal AND have a conventional belt opener. Is my Clopay 7x9 able to accommodate a slightly raised track...is there enough of it in the kit?

 

[mrbill55]

Is there a rule on which radius to apply to the track for a particular door vs ceiling height? if you want the track higher, can't the vertical tracks just be lengthened, and use the same radius up higher? A bigger radius means longer horizontal track?
My doors are 7', and I have 9' ceilings. Im limited by a large beam perpendicular to the doors at 11' from the door opening. I'd like to raise the tracks slightly compared to normal AND have a conventional belt opener. Is my Clopay 7x9 able to accommodate a slightly raised track...is there enough of it in the kit?

There is always going to be some custom "tweaking" that you'll need to make it work for your situation, but there is nothing that says you can't make it work. As for the radius, you need a more gradual turn at the top or the garage door will bind.

Bill S.

 

[firebirdparts]

Is there a rule on which radius to apply to the track for a particular door vs ceiling height? if you want the track higher, can't the vertical tracks just be lengthened, and use the same radius up higher? A bigger radius means longer horizontal track?
My doors are 7', and I have 9' ceilings. Im limited by a large beam perpendicular to the doors at 11' from the door opening. I'd like to raise the tracks slightly compared to normal AND have a conventional belt opener. Is my Clopay 7x9 able to accommodate a slightly raised track...is there enough of it in the kit?

I guess this is obvious but there's an amount of extra vertical track where a normal opener wouldn't work. It's harder if you're trying to pull the door vertically with the opener mounted as close to the door as possible. Simple geometry reasons. As the j-bar rotates to 45 degrees it can pull equally well (equally poorly) up or horizontally. As the door comes up the j-bar becomes more horizontal.

The real limit is going to be pretty subjective. I don't know that I would give a number, but larger radius does help with this.