Garage Door Rails - Close to ceiling

[antexity]

Hey Guys,

I am getting my doors installed as we speak and wanted them to be high lift. I came on site today and notice the rails on the first door are almost 20 or so inches from the ceiling. Not what I was hoping for.

Ceiling height is 11 ft, doors are 9 ft high and 8500 door openers.

I am not familiar with garage doors that much but they are stating there is not much they can do. The only thing that can be done "maybe" is to have a 20degree radius track that can bring it up 4 or so inches.

I asked about just extending the rail from 9 ft to 10ft before the bend happens and that's not possible as the top panel will rub on the opening?

Question is, is all this true, is there any way to have the rail less than 12" to the ceiling with any setup?

Thanks!

 

[grant00]

High Lift Garage Door Conversion

High Lift Garage Door Conversion- Step-by-step instructions on how to convert your garage door from a standard lift to a high lift.

ddmgaragedoors.com

Here's a great page I've looked at a lot regarding high lift doors. If it's a standard panel door and the rollers are near the corners of the top and bottom of the panels then I can't see how you would need 12" above. Especially with the 8500 opener you already have.

 

[TitusLloydPullo]

I had this discussion while bidding out my doors. Nobody had a problem with the rails close to the ceiling.
With high ceilings, I didn't want 90 degree turns and my rails sticking out into nothing.
This pic is before 1/2 sheetrock.

 

[ace10]

What does the quote call for?

If you wanted high lift, then you needed to spec that when you placed the order.

 

[FMB4]

My guess is that in today's world some GD installers don't have clue about what 'high lift' means.

 

[Walkers]

My guess is that in today's world some GD installers don't have clue about what 'high lift' means.

G@# D^#n, Or Garage Door? Either way it works

 

[ace10]

The crew could be the best, most experienced installers ever, but if they don't have the parts on their truck, they can't simply fabricate the proper tracks on site.

 

[nmk_61802]

Been down this road before:

High Lift Garage Door Questions

Last year I purchased 2 new Ideal Doors with High Lift Options to utilize the 10' ceilings in my garage to stack two of my cars on top of each other with a four post lift. Unfortunately work got in the way, as it usually does and I did not have a chance to finish the install prior to the...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[wssix99]

There is nothing they can do. You have to order entirely new tracks and springs. The springs and windings change as the height to the bend changes. You also don't want your field installers hacking together tracks.

Typically the track package is an option that is measured and ordered with the door.

 

[Innovate1]

When I ordered my doors I asked for high lift. I told them ceiling height of 14'8" but they still came out and measured the ceiling height to verify and get the rails as high as possible (they said something similar to that at the time). I don't remember how high they are as I just didn't want the small door (8' high) to have tracks at 9 or 10 feet. Think they ended up about 12" below the ceiling which was close to the standard tracks on the 12' high door and fine with me. High lift when you only have 2' between the top of the door and the ceiling isn't going to be much change from standard tracks but high lift requires cable pulleys with taper (changing diameter). There isn't much they can do once they have them on site. Sounds like the installers put in standard rise tracks. Did you specify high lift when ordering them? Did you tell them how close you wanted the track to the ceiling at that time?

 

[antexity]

Yup, I specified. They completed the shop (14' ceilings, same doors and openers) and did high lift for it. The tracks are about 5" from the ceiling. I requested the same thing for the house garage but they stated this is the only way. Latest news ATM is investigating to see if a 20" high lift track (not sure what that means) will work. Waiting to hear back. Thanks All for the replies. Will update you.

 

[Viper98912]

They didn't do what you requested. Don't pay/don't close/etc, and specify you want them as high possible, which at a maximum should be 8" from the ceiling (or closer).

20" track means they may try to do a 20" radius, effectively gaining you about another 8". There's a 32" track as well, which may work even better.

 

[u2slow]

Simple track extensions came with my door package. That's how I have a 14' high door that rolls over to horizontal at approx 18' high. I have 19.5' ceiling.

High-clearance track is different. It looks like double tracks for the horizontal portion.

 

[vrinner]

I got 14' doors and they did high bay rails. Here is what it ends up looking like.