Garage Door Install Questions

[Stang65Fst]

I am getting ready to order my garage doors and hardware. I have two openings 9'wide 8'tall. I am looking at the carriage style doors with a jackshaft opener.

I have scissor trusses and the pitch inside is 3:12, the top of the roof is 6:12. I want my garage track/door to be as close to the ceiling as possible and I will have a lift.

My questions

1.Is there a special spring that I need to have in order to do a
jackshaft opener?

2. Is there any special track or hangers that I need to get?

3. I heard rumors that with a jackshaft opener you need to order and extra panel for the top of the doors, is this correct?

Any help, hints, tips, suggestions are welcome.

 

[Old Moparz]

I am getting ready to order my garage doors and hardware. I have two openings 9'wide 8'tall. I am looking at the carriage style doors with a jackshaft opener.

I have scissor trusses and the pitch inside is 3:12, the top of the roof is 6:12. I want my garage track/door to be as close to the ceiling as possible and I will have a lift.

My questions

1.Is there a special spring that I need to have in order to do a
jackshaft opener?

2. Is there any special track or hangers that I need to get?

3. I heard rumors that with a jackshaft opener you need to order and extra panel for the top of the doors, is this correct?

Any help, hints, tips, suggestions are welcome.

I can't help you with the jackshaft questions, but on getting the door as high as possible, there is an option called "High Lift Tracks" that have longer verticle tracks & will get your doors closer to the ceiling. I think the radius portion of the tracks may be slightly different too, but not sure. I have 2 doors 16' x 8' & a ceiling height of around 12' or so. I did this for the same reason, more room so the doors clear the car on the lifts.

Is your ceiling flat & parallel to the floor? If it is, no special items will be needed, but if the ceiling follows the angle of the scissor truss, you'll need a different radius track to keep the upper tracks parallel to the ceiling & out of your way. I installed my own doors alone & it was fairly simple. You will probably still need the steel 90 degree angles, lag screws, bolts. nuts, & some misc hardware to hang the tracks & harware that comes with the door.

One thing to consider after you're done installing the doors & before you install a lift, is clearance. My garage doors clear the cars when the doors are open, & the car raised to the highest point on the lift. The door is parallel to the car's hood or trunk, & about 12" to 18" above it. My pick up truck has a cap, & my wife's SUV would be a different story, as the door would not clear the rooflines.

 

[Stang65Fst]

My ceiling will follow the upward slope of the truss the 3:12 slope.

That is a very good point on the door being opened or closed.

I wonder if they have the proper radius for the angle I will need from the transition at the wall to the upward ceiling.

Did you have any issue with the torsion springs? Everyone has me a little freaked out about these things.

 

[kbs2244]

I want to watch the experts on this one.
It seems to me that an open door on a sloped vs. horizontal set of tracks will alwaysl have some tension on the cables and springs.
How do we compensate for this? Do we need to?
Is there any time when there is no tension?

 

[Old Moparz]

I'm not an installer, but I've done home improvements for years & built my garage myself. I've only put my own doors in & helped a friend install his, & I've never dealt with the other various types of radius tracks. I have seen them though, & I believe there is at least one member on this forum with the type you need. I've also seen garage doors that never go up to the ceiling, have no radius portion of track, & are simply positioned on the wall above the door opening. Of course that wall was extremely tall, like 30 feet or so.

Before I ordered & installed my 4 post lift, I knew I had plenty of headroom to the ceiling. I used the max lift height, added the tallest car height I had, then measured the distance from the floor to the backside of the door when it was up. I'm not using door openers so that wasn't an issue, but if you have them, don't forget to see where the opener is in relation to where the car will be. Same goes for lighting.

I had room to spare, & the high lift track also keeps the top edge of the door from going further back into the garage. The distance above the door allows one panel of the door to remain verticle on the wall, thereby shortening the door's travel distance in the horizontal position. That shouldn't be an issue if you keep it close to the ceiling with the truss angle.

As for the torsion springs, the ones I have seem fine. I like that they are on a steel bar on the wall above the door opening & won't go anywhere if they fail. I think I may have to adjust one, since it's been up just over 10 years. They were not hard to install, but they are a little intimidating when you're winding them up. take your time & it's not so bad. The doors I have are made by Fimbell & didn't come with directions. (Long story for another thread.....LOL) I borrowed my friend's directions from his Clopay doors & they were clear & easy to follow.

Check out the pic below to see:

 

[wickeral]

You need to do your homework on all of what you want to accomplish. The springs on the bar are Tensioned by wire size and length. The weight of your door will dictate the proper springs via a chart. I just installed a Liftmaster 3800C and am very happy with the results. Al W.

 

[nova65ss]

Do a search for "high lift garage door" and you will find enough info here to keep you busy for a week.

 

[Stang65Fst]

Do a search for "high lift garage door" and you will find enough info here to keep you busy for a week.

Thanks

Any other input is appreciated

 

[nova65ss]

In my opinion it is much easier to hire someone to install a high lift door. The guys at the DIY places have no clue when it comes to things like this and even I have to often times lay it out on the floor to figure out exactly how much lift you can use given a certain ceiling height.

A jackshaft opener works with a standard torsion spring like any other door opener. Often times it is a larger diameter to compensate for the high lift and tapered drum. The good thing about a JS opener is that you do not need an extra section when going with a lift. The extra section is only needed with a standard opener so the opener arm does not have to be so long to reach the door.

 

[comp]

how much more is a "roll" door ?

 

[Worsedog]

how much more is a "roll" door ?

Assuming you are talking about the ones that roll up on themselves like a coil, like you'd see on a warehouse, the ones I had were cheaper than the high quality sectional doors I replaced them with. The biggest problems I had with them was that they sucked for keeping my a/c in. The were dark brown, non insulated, and had a huge gap at the top when the door was closed, of course that let the bugs in and the air out. So long ago that I forgot where, I priced insulated roll up doors. I think they were about 6K each for 8x10's. And they were about 3 feet in diameter when open.

 

[comp]

Assuming you are talking about the ones that roll up on themselves like a coil, like you'd see on a warehouse, the ones I had were cheaper than the high quality sectional doors I replaced them with. The biggest problems I had with them was that they sucked for keeping my a/c in. The were dark brown, non insulated, and had a huge gap at the top when the door was closed, of course that let the bugs in and the air out. So long ago that I forgot where, I priced insulated roll up doors. I think they were about 6K each for 8x10's. And they were about 3 feet in diameter when open.

forgot about a/c and heat

 

[79Sleeper]

Thanks

Any other input is appreciated

Depending on how tall your walls are and where the lift is, may not need to go high lift. If you choose this route your top tracks would go at a steeper slope then the 3/12 slope to put the garage door near the ceiling when it is up. The tracks aren't hard to do, you can pretty much cut a little off the curved part and make whichever slope you want. Getting the drums, cables, and springs right is where you will want some help from the experts.

You can go jackshaft on the opener, or you can recess the opener and track into the ceiling between the trusses if you want to get creative. Keep in mind that with a torsion spring door the opener doesn't have to be perfectly centered on the door either.


Troy

 

[JohnZ]

Here's a friend of mine's setup in Texas with sectional doors that follow the pitch of the ceiling; the opener tracks run at an angle above the doors.

 

[comp]

Here's a friend of mine's setup in Texas with sectional doors that follow the pitch of the ceiling; the opener tracks run at an angle above the doors.

nice

 

[kbs2244]

That is my idea JohnZ.
Did he have to do anything special about the springs?
With a horizontal track they and the cables are relaxed with the door open.
But I would expect they are still under tension with that setup.

 

[nova65ss]

That is my idea JohnZ.
Did he have to do anything special about the springs?
With a horizontal track they and the cables are relaxed with the door open.
But I would expect they are still under tension with that setup.

All of them have some tension when up if they didn't they would come off and cause problems. Granted not much tension but some.

 

[ebarber]

If wanting a jack shaft opener to do it properly you should have at least a little bit of high lift or you will throw your cables off of the drums when operating the operator. Ive seen it done by "cheating" and using bumpers on the end of the horizonals and letting the door hang slightly below the radius but you will loose some of the opening height. Its no big deal if you dont need the full opening height but you will see the first panel or so when the door is completly open. Having roof pitch track will also help with using the jackshaft. My dad owns a local garage door company. All of my brothers work there too. I would contact a local garage door professional to discuss it with. They can come out and measure and discuss your options. If the garage is in the planning mode you can construct it to accomidate. I know we...The family business...locally would order you a door and sell it over the counter for pick up for you to install yourself. I would expect where you are there is a garage door company that would do the same. High lift isnt to much harder to install than a conventinal door but normally (depending on brand) you have to go with a commercial door because of the highlift option even if it is a residential size. If you have questions you can call our shop (Newark Overhead Door) Newark Ohio and they can steer you in the right direction. I didnt look at where you are from but they will help you anyhow. 740-366-2782

Eric

 

[ebarber]

Oh and forgot you definitely want to use a real garage door company who specializes in garage doors only especially for a job like that. Those goons at the box stores would have it screwed up pronto