It was only $300 more to order and have a company install my new door than to DIY

[Goose_NC]

Needed to replace my 8x16 workshop door. After 38 years it was time.

I priced buying from various sources. But could not beat the price a local company offered, complete with install and taking the old (very heavy) door away. Plu I am recovering ang currently limited in lifting. I have a camera in my shop, and was watching them remove the old door. It made that $300 very worth it. Installing the new door was not "standard" either as they had to replace the top panel with one slightly smaller because of the short distance between the door opening and the ceiling. In the end, the new door fits as it should, and raises and lowers as it should. This is the second door, and opener, that this company has installed for me at this house.

I also found that the rails the pros use for the openers are one piece, not two or three pieces as sold in the stores.

I installed a couple doors in the past, but those installs were simple to do, and I was 30 years younger.

 

[tinmanwpk]

Money well spent. As Malcolm Forbes said, "Money is nothing but a capitalist tool." Now you just have $300 fewer tools, lol.

 

[Goose_NC]

Money well spent. As Malcolm Forbes said, "Money is nothing but a capitalist tool." Now you just have $300 fewer tools, lol.

I've been good. Only ordered about $500 in new tools, for the newer motorcycle, in the past 9 months.

 

[The Cobbler]

Yeah I found that too. in around 1995 I even had a door company install a door opener that I had bought whuile they were installing a door . I would have been at it for a few hrs to get it all tuned right... they were done before I had my coffee done sort of thing . I think they charged $35

 

[PoorUB]

I replaced my 8x16 overhead door in my garage a few years ago. I shopped around and the better doors at the home stores were roughly $1,000. I stopped by a garage door sales that a guy I sort of know owned. He wasn't in, but I talked to a salesman and he gave me a price of $1100 installed. I stopped by there a couple days later and the owner was in and saw me. He asked what he could help me with and I told him I was in the other day and got a quote for a door. He looked it up in the computer and knocked it down to $970. I told him I would have bought at $1100!
It was funny as the salesman told me 2-3 weeks. The owner had a guy out there the next day.

So yes, installed and old door and hardware hauled out for the same price. I know since COVID this market went nuts, but I was door shopping with a friend and I see it is a bit more reasonable now.

 

[mike93lx]

$300 to just get two guys to show up is great, let alone to do a garage door install

 

[Bodj Built]

I had new tires put on the wife's car last week. The tech told me it needed a front end alignment (which I knew due to front tire wear pattern and crooked steering wheel lol. She tagged a curb...) and I told him "Do it." It was so freeing giving him $90 and having it done in, literally, 5 minutes. He showed me the alignment sheet and all looked good, and we went home. We got home and my wife asked if it was something I could have done myself (I build offroad trucks for fun), and I told her yes, but I'd spend far longer going back and forth, side to side, under, out, under, out, measure, adjust, measure, adjust, getting more and more frustrated being stuck under the Jetta without a lift, no working room... and it still wouldn't be as good as the shop with their system. It felt so freeing to not have to do something myself. One less thing off my to-do list.

 

[larry4406]

I recently spent ~4 hrs removing and installing a newish 8x8 garage door on our barn.

The door was a freebie from the day job.

Nothing wrong with hiring a pro to handle it and haul it away.

I had to then haul my old one to the dump, so another 1 hr round trip plus fuel.

 

[unslow1]

I found similar with my roof. The installed price was $600 more than I priced the materials at.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I found similar with my roof. The installed price was $600 more than I priced the materials at.

I've shingled a few roofs, it's a lot of work and takes a lot of time for a DIYer. The pros come out like an invading army and job is done in no time.

There are things where it's better to just pay the man and get it over with.

 

[brothernov]

I've always said that the best thing about having money isn't what you CAN do, it's what you DON"T HAVE to do.

 

[lolaetype]

I've shingled a few roofs, it's a lot of work and takes a lot of time for a DIYer.

I've always said, "Everyone should shingle one roof, no one should have to do more than one".

I helped my BIL shingle a roof maybe 50 years ago. That experience taught me the value of hiring people to do that job. I'll still do a shed or door awning, something under one square, but that's it.

 

[PoorUB]

I had a couple friends help re-shingle our house around 2004. no big deal, just work. I helped my neighbor do his garage around 2010, again, no big deal. My neighbor helped me do my garage roof a couple years ago. We both thought we were going to die before we got it done. I was 45 - 50 years old the first two, 65 the last one. Getting old *****!

 

[mike93lx]

I've always said, "Everyone should shingle one roof, no one should have to do more than one".

Same goes for drywall

 

[Higgins]

I've always said, "Everyone should shingle one roof, no one should have to do more than one".

I helped my BIL shingle a roof maybe 50 years ago. That experience taught me the value of hiring people to do that job. I'll still do a shed or door awning, something under one square, but that's it.

We just had our entire roof, gutters, downspouts replaced last week 3 BR plus 2 car garage.
Was done in one day! Nine people were involved in doing the project. Two guys to PU all the roofing that came flying off the roof! another individual was auto loading all the shingles to the top of the roof. Another was picking up miscellaneous stuff!
Two crew members spent two hrs. raking stuff up, the other was using a large magnetic bar for all the nails! Total time, 10 hrs.
Following morning i was looking for nails, or the plastic disks. Couldn't find a thing!!!

Couldn't be happier!!!!

AL

 

[driftpin]

I had installed a new shingle roof in hurricane country (Miami-Dade County FL), and also had installed new impact-rated (Miami-Dade County FL Product Approval) doors and windows. My involvement was signing the checks. In my mid-70's, as my doctor told me, "You're too-old to be climbing to the roof." I can safely get up there if I need-to, being a retired firefighter/paramedic, but I took the steps to not have-to get up there.