Creative Solution for Garage Door Opener

[djm1980]

I recently purchased a home with a garage door but no opener. It appears that I have 2 issues - 1. L Beam/LVL running across the middle of the garage 2. low clearance. From what I have been told the beam prevents a traditional overhead opener and the low clearance prevents a jackshaft opener.

Are there any creative solutions for this problem? I looked into carriage doors/swing out openers but that seems to be a last resort as it is cost prohibitive.

thank you

 

[Tools4Me]

Look into swing up garage doors, bifold canopy style, or side sliding garage doors.

 

[Walkers]

We would need a little more to go on, like a picture and some measurements.

 

[mikedodge]

Our garage has very low clearance, the ceiling isn't that much higher then the garage door when its opened. The opener has been on it since day 1.

I'm guessing that the beam is just beyond the door when its open and hangs down enough to be in the way of the opener. Otherwise I'm not sure why one couldn't be installed. If that's the case there are other styles of openers that mount at the door frame either right above the door or beside it. Maybe one of those would work for your situation.

 

[Old Fart]

Look at Liftmaster's jackshaft opener with their optional kit that lowers the drive unit about a foot and uses a chain drive and coupler to run the shaft. It's not much larger than the cable drum on the end of the shaft. Never used one, but had plans to on my M-I-L's garage which is similar to how you described yours. Good luck

 

[p00p]

i like that bifold canopy door design, but how reliable is it? Will it save any interior space for overhead shelving? Is it only a manual option or do those have a motor option?

 

[PoorUB]

and the low clearance prevents a jackshaft opener.

I have seen jackshaft openers adapted with a couple spockets and chain so the opener was above the door. Is there room to do something similar but mount a jackshaft opener lower on the wall?

 

[djm1980]

First let me thank everyone for their responses. Here are some more details and photos.

*Opening of garage door is roughly 106" w x
76" h.
*The ceiling height is 84"
*The beam is 94/95" from the front of the door.
*The beam is 9.5" h.


Pictures attached show the beam. From what the installers have said the jackshaft models state you're not supposed to install on low clearance as they will prematurely break.

Thank you

 

[mike93lx]

Do the tracks run all the way to the beam?

Have you brought a garage door company out to look at it?

 

[djm1980]

Do the tracks run all the way to the beam?

Yes, track does but as can be seen from the picture it stops short of it when pretty much fully open.

 

[djm1980]

Do the tracks run all the way to the beam?

Have you brought a garage door company out to look at it?

Yes, company came and said there wasn't enough room to run a standard opener due to distance from beam.

 

[mike93lx]

I bet if you lower the track a little, that there is vertical clearance for a opener. My last house had very little height just like yours, but I had more room to the beam

 

[Walkers]

You shouldn't have any trouble installing a jackshaft opener.

 

[mikedodge]

I can see why a normal one won't work. There should be room between the beam but there's not a lot of space for the run over the door. Lots of room on the right for the other style tho.

 

[djm1980]

You shouldn't have any trouble installing a jackshaft opener

That was my original thought, but the professional companies essentially told me not enough clearance and the units will fail. I'd love to do a jackshaft and then I believe I'd need to convert the track for torsion spring. I'll try and talk to a few more companies, I'm near Boston Ma. If anyone has recommendations?

 

[mike93lx]

That was my original thought, but the professional companies essentially told me not enough clearance and the units will fail. I'd love to do a jackshaft and then I believe I'd need to convert the track for torsion spring. I'll try and talk to a few more companies, I'm near Boston Ma. If anyone has recommendations?

When I was in the Acton area, I used lynch metro west. Not sure how far you are from them

 

[nadogail]

Many garage door opener installers are young and inexperienced; they only know what little they were shown when they were first starting out as helpers. Look for an installer who has gray hair.

 

[ScottsGT]

My old house had a real low garage and opener. Not sure if you could get away with mounting the opener on the beam itself or not. But here’s a pic of my old setup. Looking closer, I just don't see a way to do it. The chain or jack screw has to be higher than your beam will allow. Unless you want to mount behind the beam and drill a hole through it.

 

[mike93lx]

My old house had a real low garage and opener. Not sure if you could get away with mounting the opener on the beam itself or not. But here’s a pic of my old setup. Looking closer, I just don't see a way to do it. The chain or jack screw has to be higher than your beam will allow. Unless you want to mount behind the beam and drill a hole through it.

That's what my last garage looked like, popcorn and all.

You don't need a lot of clearance, but maybe more than the OP has

 

[p00p]

could you recess the ceiling above the door with a channel for the motor & parts to tuck in to?

 

[DrinkMan]

It looks close but there appears to be enough room on the side to use a Wall Mount opener. Liftmaster, Chamberlain, and Genie all have versions. Just look up Wall Mount Garage Door Opener.

https://store.geniecompany.com/products/wall-mount-garage-door-opener

https://www.chamberlain.com/wall-mount-garage-door-opener/p/RJO20

 

[mikedodge]

My old house had a real low garage and opener. Not sure if you could get away with mounting the opener on the beam itself or not. But here’s a pic of my old setup. Looking closer, I just don't see a way to do it. The chain or jack screw has to be higher than your beam will allow. Unless you want to mount behind the beam and drill a hole through it.

Your door is lower from the ceiling. His just has room for the initial angle bracket at the ceiling and that's it.

 

[hd54kh]

I had a Sommer brand side rail opener installed. It is a DC motor and very silent. Has been in service about 8 years and no issues.

Second bay last year had their top rail installed, but will not help with your headspace.

If I had this on an attached garage and use plastic wheel it would be silent.

Sawyer

 

[Tman]

It looks close but there appears to be enough room on the side to use a Wall Mount opener. Liftmaster, Chamberlain, and Genie all have versions. Just look up Wall Mount Garage Door Opener.

https://store.geniecompany.com/products/wall-mount-garage-door-opener

https://www.chamberlain.com/wall-mount-garage-door-opener/p/RJO20

Yup, that was going to be my suggestion, easy solution

 

[LeonardY]

Here's a couple of guys who adapted a regular opener to one side.

 

[JRichard]

Look at Liftmaster's jackshaft opener with their optional kit that lowers the drive unit about a foot and uses a chain drive and coupler to run the shaft. It's not much larger than the cable drum on the end of the shaft. Never used one, but had plans to on my M-I-L's garage which is similar to how you described yours. Good luck

100 % that’s the cheapest and most efficient option !

 

[selectedgrub]

100 % that’s the cheapest and most efficient option !

A wife.

 

[JRichard]

Liftmaster 8500 only needs 4 inches from ceiling to top of shaft I sometimes cut out swatch of drywall to fit up inside hardly noticeable, but you are correct as warranty void if installed on low headroom door. If the door works easily manually you shouldn’t have issues and is better than having no opener .

 

[larry4406]

Liftmaster 8500 only needs 4 inches from ceiling to top of shaft I sometimes cut out swatch of drywall to fit up inside hardly noticeable, but you are correct as warranty void if installed on low headroom door. If the door works easily manually you shouldn’t have issues and is better than having no opener .

Careful - if the garage is an attached garage, you have breached the fire barrier by cutting a hole in the drywall if not then sealed.

 

[andyvh1959]

The Genie Intellicode screw drive door opener barely fits to the ceiling in my attached garage because the ceiling is so low. I just adjusted the track mount at the header as high as I could to keep the top edge of the door contacting/bending the track. Whoever 1st installed it didn't care and either had notched the top panel door flange to clear or it just wore through it after so many years. The door now barely clears contact to the screw drive track, but it works much better and is getting quieter as I get more tacky red grease into the screw track. To get the door to clear the track, the track is now not level, but higher at the header versus at the power unit. But it has the power to easily push the door from fully open to closed.

I still plan to convert it to a jackshaft style opener. Pretty certain I can mount the power head in a way to access all the adjustments, and mounted so down is still down, up is still up. I'll still use the Genie microswitches mounted to the ceiling and door header to set the travel limits. I'll add an L-shaped arm onto the door top panel rib to contact the travel limit switches. I have an idea to make the sprocket on the power unit shaft free-wheel, but engaged with a notched "collar" (like the shifting dogs in a motorcycle transmission) to transmit power to the torsion bar tube. If the door needs to be disengaged from the power unit, just pull the release to cause the notched collar to disengage the free-wheel sprocket and the door stops, just like it does now with the release lever on the track shuttle.

The power unit load sensors and eye-beam sensors will still be used just like stock. The jackshaft conversion will eliminate the track, screw, shuttle, potential for track noise and greasing, but still maintain the safety switches and sensors. I'll mount lights on the garage ceiling, wired back to the power head so the lights come on when the door opener is powered just like it is now. I'll gain some overhead clearance in the attached garage, it'll be much quieter.

 

[andyvh1959]

Quite cold this morning in Green Bay. I had finally got the screw lubed up enough (with tacky red grease) to make it quiet. This morning it's squealing again, noisy as hell. Door went up no issue, then wouldn't go back down. The screw turned a bit then stopped. Pulled the release and the door went down easily with bit of a tug. The grease got thick in the cold, but also I had adjusted the up travel limit switch so the door traveled up more, but doing that caused the door to contact the track at fully open. The door is binding against the track at that fully open position. I adjusted the switch position to limit the up travel to not contact the track. I can't mount the power unit any higher without creating a recess into the garage ceiling to raise it up about 2". So at full up travel the door gets real close to the bottom of the screw drive track.

Time to replace this screw drive with a Liftmaster 8500 and get rid of the issues, or run the door as is until spring when I have the air compressor moved to my shop and I can do the jackshaft conversion.

 

[mike93lx]

I love belt drive openers and have had great luck with them. The only reason I would go with jackshaft is if I needed the opener out of the way

 

[racecougar]

To the OP: Provided you haven't already solved this problem (as this thread is months old now), I'd question the installers stating that a jackshaft unit would fail prematurely to get to a more in-depth reasoning behind that thought. From what I see in the photos, a jackshaft opener, like the Liftmaster 8500, would be my "go to".

 

[kbs2244]

I have seen more than one beam with a hoke drilled in the web for an opener rail

 

[Jagmandave]

OK, everyone will say this won't work, but I mounted a regular garage opener vertically on one side of the door and made a bracket to attach it to the lowest wheel at the bottom of the door. It worked perfectly for about 10 years till we increased the size of the door and put in a jackshaft opener......

 

[djm1980]

My apologies for lack of response, as I've been finishing all the other projects for the house. I did have two more companies take a look and both said the same thing and wouldn't take the job.

I did have one company say it could be done with a right angle bracket. I called him multiple times after but no luck.

If anyone knows of a good company in eastern mass that might be up to the challenge I'm all ears. I'm willing to splurge if they can make it work.

 

[mike93lx]

My apologies for lack of response, as I've been finishing all the other projects for the house. I did have two more companies take a look and both said the same thing and wouldn't take the job.

I did have one company say it could be done with a right angle bracket. I called him multiple times after but no luck.

If anyone knows of a good company in eastern mass that might be up to the challenge I'm all ears. I'm willing to splurge if they can make it work.

I had good luck with these guys the one time I needed service in Stow. Don't know if they will cover where you live

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[andyvh1959]

Well, $178 for a Chamberlain 1/2hp belt drive opener at Menards was too good not to pass (and it came with a camera system, Wifi able, phone app operable). Got it installed, added a remote for my wife's car and an outdoor keypad ($38). Plus I get an 11% rebate through Menards, so that drops the total price $22. So we can operate it with our smart phones, remote or keypad. I was able to tuck it up pretty tight to the low attached garage ceiling, the rail is less than an inch below the drywall.

In the instructions it says many times that the rail must not be level when installed, but it doesn't say how much not level, or which way the slope runs. So I installed it with about a 1" drop over the rail length, sloped down to the power head. I assumed the slope that way to assist the lift of the door when it opens.

The old Genie screw drive will go out to my motorcycle shop where I'll convert it to a jackshaft drive wall mount unit. That way I can maintain the 12' clearance from the shop floor to the ceiling under the scissor trusses.