garage doors-help me solve this...

[tech]

i built my garage with 9x8 door openings and cathedral ceilings so that i would have wide door openings and a place to "tuck the door up into". the reason i need the extra head room is for a lift. the lift is a 12' 2-poster and my the peak of my ceiling is 14'. here is my problem. only one local installer will even touch this job, as most just say "thats to custom for me". the one installer who will do it says its going to be expensive but has not given me a price yet because he and his partner have to figure out how to do it.

is it just me or does this seem pretty straight forward? does any have any info or pics that might help me or the installers? anyone have any alternitive ideas?(i'm thinking homemade carriage doors)

 

[Donzi4me]

Easy to do... If you have already purchased the doors, you can use most of that hardware. Just go out and get two new vertical pieces of track that are at least the height of the ceiling. Grab your curved section and temp. mount it the distance from the ceiling that you want. Mate the two ends of track and now mark for the cuts of the vertical track and the new radius of the curved track to follow the slope of the ceiling. You will probally need vertical lift drums on the torsion shaft to get the proper balance on the door.
I converted mine for less that $100.

 

[russlaferrera]

You have to mount the transverse spring above the door, at the top of the ceiling. (The curve track will allow you a nest to install this spring.) You will need longer cables because of the additional distance between the springs and the bottom of the door.

A door opener? Maybe a shaft type?

 

[Donzi4me]

Yes, I forgot about the longer cables. I bought the cables for an extension spring, which are longer and have the loop on one end, then cut to length and crimped a new ferrell on the end. Less than $20..

Pics included...

 

[nova65ss]

Donzi pretty much said it all only thing I would do different is not using one straight vertical track. Use the original 88" verticals and break the extension back several inches away from the header this will keep the top section from rubbing when it gets near the bottom. This is really important especially since you have barn style openings they tend to rub more because the top is angled off lower on the 45.

You also have alot more of an angle than the pic Donzi posted so it takes a little more of a cut to match the roofline. You can use a standard drawbar operator with this setup just make sure you leave 3-4" above the door between the ceiling. Or a sidemount opener will also work, the Liftmaster 3800 will work if you keep the drum under 6" in diameter.


One other note if you had a door company come out and say they need to figure out how to do it I would probably not use them. Just depends, they may be very good door guys that need to learn how to do it. On the other hand if you find someone that already does he likely won't be as expensive because of the labor and time he will save.

Jimmy

 

[toms73novass]

Jimmy,

you say that a regular drawbar opener can work in this type of setup. Is there any modification that would be needed over the standard setup? (becides mounting it parallel with the cealing)

 

[nova65ss]

Jimmy,

you say that a regular drawbar opener can work in this type of setup. Is there any modification that would be needed over the standard setup? (becides mounting it parallel with the cealing)

Hey Tom,

No mods just install it on an angle. With the high lift you will need to extend the arm down with angle iron or go with a dummy section. If you extend the arm down it usually has a slight hesitation or jerkyness to it, but not a huge deal if you don't mind it. The dummy section will not have this problem.

I forgot to mention also when going to high lift just changing the drums usually doesn't balance properly, the springs also need to be replaced. Not saying it will not work with the same springs but it probably won't balance perfect like it should.

Jimmy

 

[toms73novass]

Hey Tom,

No mods just install it on an angle. With the high lift you will need to extend the arm down with angle iron or go with a dummy section. If you extend the arm down it usually has a slight hesitation or jerkyness to it, but not a huge deal if you don't mind it. The dummy section will not have this problem.

Jimmy,

thanks for your experience and info!

 

[bmwpower]

Yea, I would say it wouldn't balance right either unless you got bigger springs. The door is always wanting to drop, unlike a horizontally mounted track. How you calculate which springs to get, I'm not sure, but they might be as big as mine.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2898&d=1132015860

 

[Junkman]

When a door is properly sprung, at what point in the opening should it be balanced between opening and closing? Should it stay open at the mid point or above or below mid point? How much effort should it require to open a door with out a door operator installed? thanks

 

[nova65ss]

It should hold its position at any point through its travel. If it slowly comes down that is fine, if it slowly comes up that is fine. It should not slam to the ground or shoot up off the floor. It should open and close with little to no effort, basically you should be able to open and close it with one hand.

 

[Donzi4me]

I could of used stronger springs also. But I tweaked it enough where the door will stay closed and will hold any position up until 3/4 open. One hand operation, but if the door is fully open, it will settle down to 3/4 open. It takes very little pressure to push it back to fully open. I figure once the opener is on, that will take care of it. With a 3/4 hp opener, it should not put too much stress on the opener.

 

[gboezio]

I worked for a garage door company as an installer for 3 months and learned most of the basics, I would qualify your setup as the most common uncommon install since I installed some myself. Since your setup is close to horizontal I would stick to regular pulleys but as other people mentioned, the springs need to be bigger and longer, the goal is that it must have the same force when the door fully support it's weight but when the weight of the door transfer to the track, the springs need to have more tension left to overcome the slope, so more turns on the springs but same force closed. The garage doors builders have books fulls of springs conversion tables and if they say they can't do this , they a bunch of sissies.

 

[tech]

thanks for the info guys, i will have to "see" if i will be hiring these door guys.