Garage Door Track Change....

[Junkman]

My garage door on one side is 7' high, but the garage itself has 11' ceiling height. I want to be able to use my 4 post lift in the bay, so I needed to have the garage door tracks raised. To add to the problem, there is a bathroom drain pipe that runs across the ceiling at this point. This is the picture of the track before it was moved.
In this picture, the springs have already been removed, and the door operator has bee relocated higher. Forgot to take the picture early in the morning... The change required the spring to be changed to a larger diameter spring, and I think that it was also longer.

 

[Junkman]

In this picture, you can see the additional panel installed, along with the section of track that was added. I thought that this was going to be a quick job for the installer, but it took a lot of "engineering" to get the tracks just right, so the door would go up smoothly. He added a 21" section on top of the original door, and had to make some hinge changes so the lower door sections were still tight against the opening, but they wouldn't scuff along the door opening header on the way up. As you can see, the tracks are now tight against the ceiling. The door operator had to be relocated to the garage ceiling also to give me the clearance that I desired. Then came the problem of lifting the door so it still gave me the full opening, but didn't go so far back as to hit the plastic drain pipe.
The next thing to move is a support column that is between the two bays, but is about 3' too far forward for me to be able to move the lift sideways. I have to have some engineering calculations done to check the weight load before I move it, and possibly add another lam beam to accomodate the change.

 

[christian]

Where is the motor mounted on there? I have 11 ft ceilings too and would like to possibly put in a lift. Have you looked at the side mounted motors? Could you post some more pics of the overall door/motor.

 

[bmwpower]

Lol..what's up with that drain pipe? Why isn't it in the ceiling?

I'm in the process of doing the same thing in my attached garage. No drain pipe in the way though.

What it run you for parts?

 

[christian]

Oh wow, that's a great idea. Maybe I'll just have this done to my garage doors instead of buying the side motor mounts. Too bad you have that pipe there. Thanks!

 

[Junkman]

In the picture on the right hand side, you can see the lift motor and track. It is a 1/2 HP Liftmaster that was relocated to within an inch of the ceiling. I already had the door operator, so it made no sense to purchase a new one. I also believe that the side mounted door operators are a lot more money.

 

[Anthony 98 GTS]

I also believe that the side mounted door operators are a lot more money.

They are a little more money...I just got quoted $500 installed each for mine.

 

[Junkman]

Lol..what's up with that drain pipe? Why isn't it in the ceiling?

I'm in the process of doing the same thing in my attached garage. No drain pipe in the way though.

When I built the house 25 years ago, there was nothing above the garage. I added a 14' x 18' dormer that houses the new master bath 15 years ago. The pipe could have been put into the ceiling, but it would have meant cutting open the sheet rock, etc. At the time, I had no idea that I was going to be buying a lift, so the ceiling wasn't an issue for me then. I toyed with the idea of raising it, but got over that quickly when I realized how much work was going to be entailed. If I knew that I was going to be getting a lift, I would have had the tracks raised when the new doors were installed 4 or 5 years ago.

 

[Junkman]

They are a little more money...I just got quoted $500 installed each for mine.

When I had the doors installed, two 7' x 9' and one 10' x 10' door, with the 3 door operators cost me $1600. I think that the operators were about $200 each back then. This last summer, I had a 9' x 8' and a 9' x 7' doors installed with operators and the price was similar. Costs have definitely gone up. All my doors are insulated and are a good quality.

 

[bmwpower]

They are a little more money...I just got quoted $500 installed each for mine.

They're about 2x....When comparing a ~$175 Craftsman to a ~$350 jackshaft Liftmaster.

 

[bmwpower]

When I built the house 25 years ago, there was nothing above the garage. I added a 14' x 18' dormer that houses the new master bath 15 years ago. The pipe could have been put into the ceiling, but it would have meant cutting open the sheet rock, etc. At the time, I had no idea that I was going to be buying a lift, so the ceiling wasn't an issue for me then. I toyed with the idea of raising it, but got over that quickly when I realized how much work was going to be entailed. If I knew that I was going to be getting a lift, I would have had the tracks raised when the new doors were installed 4 or 5 years ago.

That makes sense and was what I figured. I forgot you built your place.

Do the joists run perpendicular to the pipe?...either way that would be a tough job.

 

[Anthony 98 GTS]

They're about 2x....When comparing a ~$175 Craftsman to a ~$350 jackshaft Liftmaster.

Where can I get them for $350??

 

[bmwpower]

Where can I get them for $350??

Well, I had seen one on eBay for $350 plus shipping, but that was a little while ago. They're over $400 it seems now...

http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...=1&from=R8&satitle=3800+liftmaster&category0=

PM nova65ss. He's a dealer and might be able to get a deal. I'm working with him now on getting my doors lifted, but I cheaped out and went with 2 $170 Craftsman belt drives. Will do for now... The good openers will go in the detached garage...

 

[Anthony 98 GTS]

Sounds about right.....paying the extra $75 for the delivery and install isn't too bad.

 

[Junkman]

That makes sense and was what I figured. I forgot you built your place.

Do the joists run perpendicular to the pipe?...either way that would be a tough job.

The joists run parallel to the pipe, but the drains would prevent it from being tucked into the joists totally. Usually when you run a drain, you bring it down to the cellar between the walls. In this case, it runs into a closet and down the corner of the closet into the cellar. Same with the water lines... they also run in the corner of the closet. If you ever build a house, make sure that you put everything into it that you will want when building, because it is a lot more expensive to change it later on. I speak from experience. We have added onto the home twice since it was built, changed a lot of things internally, and have made many upgrades. I think it might have been easier to build another home than all the changes that have been made.

 

[Special55]

Just some food for thought.

For those of you that have wide doors and the opener is in the way, most can be installed as much as 4 foot off center. This is dependent on your door being properly balanced and operating smoothly. If not you will have major binding problems. I did this with my 16Ft. wide, 8FT. tall fully insulated door and it works great. I was able to move it over to the next set of hinge brackets (4FT) and it is now just out of the way of my hoist.

Rich

 

[1320stang]

Junkman, don't know if this will work with your situation, and I don't have any pics, but my chassis guy's first shop was in the last bay of an auto repair shop. It was a paint & body bay at one time I think. Anyways, it was about 30' wide and 40' deep, with one 16' wide door real close to one corner. He mounted his lift towards the wall opposite of the door, but he needed more room than he had for a office area and some storage, so he welded a 3x3 tube onto his lift and built a 14x16 platform using the corner of the shop to support two sides and the post of the lift to support the opposite corner.

Just a thought....