High lift garage door problems...

[bmwpower]

Had 2 high lift garage doors installed a little while ago...having some issues. The main problem is the company that installed them doesn't appear to know how to fix the problems.

First off, when opening the door the top weatherstrip gets stuck on the frame around the top row of glass. In winter, I can't even open the doors since the weatherstripping is so hard from the cold - the door merely stops when the weatherstrip hits the window frame.

The other issue is with the exterior handles. When the door is raised, the T handle hits the weatherstripping. Both doors now have ripped weatherstripping where the handles have torn through. The lower handle look like it will clear, however.

Any other people out there with high lift doors? How have you combatted these issues (if you have them)? How are your doors setup with weatherstripping?

 

[ChucksCrib]

Sue the bastiches.

Seriously, I can't help you however I'll be watching this one closely as my highlift doors were installed just yesterday

Chuck

 

[bmwpower]

Sue the bastiches.

Seriously, I can't help you however I'll be watching this one closely as my highlift doors were installed just yesterday

Chuck

I may have to. I've already disputed the charges on the credit card (only about 60% of the bill), so they're out some money at this point. I'm sure I'll be hearing from them soon...

What does the seal at the top of your door look like? I noticed you have glass, too.

 

[ChucksCrib]

I really haven't looked at it too closely. But IIRC it is the same as that which is on the sides. I can take some pics over the weekend

 

[sberry]

I think you need to make a couple of adjustments, not sure what the guys call it but the curved rail above the door needs to go back. Its sposed to pull the door panel away from the header as it opens.

 

[sberry]

Ok, here is one with the door opening, you can see how it moves away from the header and side gasket at the top. Then you can see the track turn, look at the bottom of the pic,, you can see how the relationship with the roller and the track works, the top roller mount on mine is special, different than the rest of the panels to kick the top one tight. I had to fiddle with them to get them to work right, I shimmed the top bracket out a bit to get it to go tight, there was no more factory adjustment. Just for sport there is a shot of the opener.

 

[DynoDave]

Hmmm...good topic. I'll be doing this too, so it's better to find the answers out now. That different top roller bracket looks interesting.

 

[Wile1Coyote]

Exactly! My guess is they have either the radius of the curve wrong or they have the start of the curve too high. Mine moves about an inch away from the opening as it is rasied about an inch. I do not have exterior handles though and wonder why you still do. Take em off! They don't do anything anyway at this point. Replace em with some nice flat plates.

 

[bmwpower]

Exactly! My guess is they have either the radius of the curve wrong or they have the start of the curve too high. Mine moves about an inch away from the opening as it is rasied about an inch. I do not have exterior handles though and wonder why you still do. Take em off! They don't do anything anyway at this point. Replace em with some nice flat plates.

If I want to be able to open the door from the outside, I need the handle since it's part of the locking mechanism. They adjusted the track all the way out and even put on different brackets on the top rollers...still catches.

 

[bmwpower]

Here's one of the doors

Excuse the weatherstripping that's bowed... I had taken it down to get ready for them to hopefully come back. I was so bowed, it popped a nail and pulled away from the header a good 2". I can thank the installer for not cutting it short enough to allow for expansion. I nailed it back up to take these picts for you guys....

You'll also see how the guy didn't quite drill the lock hole through the door straight, which, as you can see, makes the top o the handle stick out 1/2" more than it should.

 

[GearHead_1]

I don't mean to hi-jack your thread here but your pictures made me reply. I've just had the same jack screw Lift Master motor put on one of my doors (brand new house). I was putting some lights up and had the door up. My father moved some 2X4's around and put where the door comes down. I didn't see it and closed the door. It totally mangled the bottom panel. That motor has some serious torque. Can't imagine what it would have done to a car.

 

[ChucksCrib]

That handle install is real sloppy work. however even if it were square it appears from the pics that it would hit the weatherstripping anyway. I'm thinking that the track isn't positioned properly for your application.

Also I wonder if lowering the handle on the panel it is in would help. So when the top of the panel starts to hit the bend in the track and the handle moves up toward the weatherstripping it would clear it. As opposed to attaching the handle to the top of a panel which would cause the handle to hit the weatherstripping because the panel has yet to hit the bend in the track. (I hope your head doesn't hurt too much after that explanation)

Are the heights of all your panels the same?

 

[bmwpower]

I don't mean to hi-jack your thread here but your pictures made me reply. I've just had the same jack screw Lift Master motor put on one of my doors (brand new house). I was putting some lights up and had the door up. My father moved some 2X4's around and put where the door comes down. I didn't see it and closed the door. It totally mangled the bottom panel. That motor has some serious torque. Can't imagine what it would have done to a car.

Did you have sensors near the bottom of the door to keep it from closing on something or were the 2x4's not big enough to trip the sensors? I too had the solid shafts installed and ran electric so I can install commercial operators later down the road.

 

[bmwpower]

That handle install is real sloppy work. however even if it were square it appears from the pics that it would hit the weatherstripping anyway. I'm thinking that the track isn't positioned properly for your application.

Also I wonder if lowering the handle on the panel it is in would help. So when the top of the panel starts to hit the bend in the track and the handle moves up toward the weatherstripping it would clear it. As opposed to attaching the handle to the top of a panel which would cause the handle to hit the weatherstripping because the panel has yet to hit the bend in the track. (I hope your head doesn't hurt too much after that explanation)

Are the heights of all your panels the same?

All the panel heights are the same.

Believe me, my head can't hurt anymore after dealing with this to date. Keep in mind they originally installed this in February...

Putting the handle lower in the panel would probably look awkward. I'm seriously thinking about not putting the lock handles on the new doors (they're supposed to replace the lock panels on both doors because of the shoddy handle install) to avoid the handle hitting the weatherstripping, but I would still have the problem of the weatherstripping catching the window frame (hard to tell in the picture, but real annoying...in the winter the rubber is stiff and does not bend making the door impossible to open). The only solution I see, as you said is something with the track, but I have no idea what parts are available to cure my issue. I had hoped the company that installed it would, but they're proving to be useless.

 

[Rex Ruby]

If I want to be able to open the door from the outside, I need the handle since it's part of the locking mechanism. They adjusted the track all the way out and even put on different brackets on the top rollers...still catches.

The operator should lock the door in place so you really don't need the mechanical lock. If you move the door back so the handles clear it will be too far back for the weather stripping to be effective. Only solution I can think of with you being able to keep the handles is to have a piece of track fabricated (slight S shape) so when opening it pulls the door away from the top an extra 2 - 3". You'd have to also move out the vertical part above the door 2 -3" as well and space out the operator. It could be done easily if you weld.

I have a similar set up but no exterior handles

 

[bmwpower]

The operator should lock the door in place so you really don't need the mechanical lock. If you move the door back so the handles clear it will be too far back for the weather stripping to be effective. Only solution I can think of with you being able to keep the handles is to have a piece of track fabricated (slight S shape) so when opening it pulls the door away from the top an extra 2 - 3". You'd have to also move out the vertical part above the door 2 -3" as well and space out the operator. It could be done easily if you weld.

I have a similar set up but no exterior handles

I don't currently have operators. Even if I did, how would you operate the door from the outside? Do you have a remote?

 

[Rex Ruby]

Yes I have remotes.
Remove the handle and lock from the inside, maybe?

 

[Wile1Coyote]

Yep with a garage door opener you can get a keypad on the outside to make the garage go up and down and with an opener you cannot put the door up or down without running the opener which is why I said the handle was useless at this point. Sorry about that, I assummed you had an opener. Bad assumption on my part. Do you have a side door to the garage? If so you can lock the garage door from the inside by installing one of those lock bars on each side. You have to enter an exit the garge using the side door if you do that though. As far as the window frames, how far out to they stick from the face of the door? And how far are they from the bottom of the weatherstripping AND how far is the track away from the wall that same distance ABove the top of the door on the inside? Hope that makes sense. Looks to me like the track insn't far enough away from the wall or isn't at a great enough angle. Yours is a bit different from mine as my door is totally flat and the radius of the curve starts about one panel height away from the door unlike yours where clearly the radius starts several feet above the door.

 

[bmwpower]

Yep with a garage door opener you can get a keypad on the outside to make the garage go up and down and with an opener you cannot put the door up or down without running the opener which is why I said the handle was useless at this point. Sorry about that, I assummed you had an opener. Bad assumption on my part. Do you have a side door to the garage? If so you can lock the garage door from the inside by installing one of those lock bars on each side. You have to enter an exit the garge using the side door if you do that though.

I have a back door. I though about doing that at the beginning, but the thought of having to walk around to the back of the garage everytime I wanted to open the door from the outside was daunting. I guess I would only need to do that ocassionally, ie. if no one else was inside to open the door for me, etc.

As far as the window frames, how far out to they stick from the face of the door?

1/4" or so.

And how far are they from the bottom of the weatherstripping AND how far is the track away from the wall that same distance ABove the top of the door on the inside? Hope that makes sense.

They're (windows) not that far away from the weathersripping, maybe 3-4" with the door closed. I see what you're saying... 3-4" above the top roller needs to be away from the door more, so that when the strip is about to contact the windows, the door has pulled away enough to avoid them touching.

Looks to me like the track insn't far enough away from the wall or isn't at a great enough angle. Yours is a bit different from mine as my door is totally flat and the radius of the curve starts about one panel height away from the door unlike yours where clearly the radius starts several feet above the door.

Agreed. I just hope the company has an idea of how they will fix this, either with new track or something else.

 

[Wile1Coyote]

I have a back door. I thought about doing that at the beginning, but the thought of having to walk around to the back of the garage everytime I wanted to open the door from the outside was daunting. I guess I would only need to do that ocassionally, ie. if no one else was inside to open the door for me, etc.

I agree I wouldn't do it either but realistically if you are using the garage every day and going in and out why not get an automatic opener? Then you can either use the remote inside the car OR use the wireless keypad outside. It's great too when you have kids (or in-laws) etc cos you don't need to give them a key they can loose, they just need to use the code. Unless the power goes out of course then there is trouble but a hide a key solves that and in the case of a power outage you would just get out of the car, go in the back door, disengage the auto opener and open the door by hand. Just a thought for ya. I redid mine this year and got a really nice liftmaster for about $300.

 

[bmwpower]

I agree I wouldn't do it either but realistically if you are using the garage every day and going in and out why not get an automatic opener? Then you can either use the remote inside the car OR use the wireless keypad outside. It's great too when you have kids (or in-laws) etc cos you don't need to give them a key they can loose, they just need to use the code. Unless the power goes out of course then there is trouble but a hide a key solves that and in the case of a power outage you would just get out of the car, go in the back door, disengage the auto opener and open the door by hand. Just a thought for ya. I redid mine this year and got a really nice liftmaster for about $300.

I might need to go this route, at least to fix the handle problem. Where did you get a liftmaster for $300? What model?

 

[DynoDave]

Well that really *****. This equipment is way to expensive to be having these kinds of problems. Now, if "I" had done the install, I could understand. And I was hoping to hang all 3 of my doors myself!

I know what you are saying and having an outside handle. I have one on mine, and use it all the time. When I'm working on a car in the driveway, doing yardwork, whatever, I dis-engage the opener, and open and close the door by hand.

 

[Wile1Coyote]

Same thing here Dave but now you would just open and close with the keypad instead. Easier actually as you don't have to disengage the opener. OH and you don't want to install Garage springs yourself unless you have a ton of experience doing it, if that thing uncoils suddenly .........

BMW I got mine from the local installer Guy, Wasn't anything special. Liftmaster is pretty much the same as Craftsman except Liftmaster uses one piece poles for the tracking and thus are only avail from Prof door installers as they don't breakdown for shipping. So yeah that $300 price is installed in my garage.

 

[bdaz442]

I really hate it when you pay good money to have something done, and then you realize that it was done wrong, or very poorly, and that you could have did the job yourself.
I installed my door, 18' x 10' ,all by myself and it works great. BTW. Those springs are a pain to install. Two peices of rebar, Vicegrips, and determination , got it done.

 

[bmwpower]

Update

Since I've first posted, my credit card company has gotten involved. Had them remove the $1300+ for the remainder of the work to be done. Long story short, the door company came out to replace:

- The 2 lock mechanism panels with new panels.
- They installed the side locking (commercial) mechanisms on each side of each door (on the inside).
- They installed a new bottom panel to replace the panel they drilled with incorrectly spaced holes for the bottom white handle.
- They also replaced all of the weather stripping and moved it out a little bit from before so as to not catch the window frames when opening the door.

Still waiting for them to call and replace the lower panel on the other door and to provide me 2 kick plates (I think that's what they're called - put your foot on it to enable you to hold the door down while locking) for each door... I don't think they're going to show.

My CC company called me to let me know the door company's bank agreed to drop the remaining charge of $1300+ because it shouldn't take anyone this long to fix problems like this.

So basically I got 2 high lift doors for $1K installed ($1K was the deposit I gave them way back in December ). I still have to replace the lower panel on the one door (or just live with the handle holes or plug them up) and get some kick plates. Hopefully this won't be too much.

Word to the wise... try not to go through what I did. Get a reputable installer who has done high lift doors on a daily basis.

 

[muddy]

In talking with the installer I'll be using on the doors for my new shop that I am just starting to build, he indicated that for the two doors I am making hi-lift that you can't just use any type of opener and he hasn't seen enough of the i-drive types to believe in them yet but specified that they must be used with doors and hardware setup for i-drives.
I'll be involved on it so will make sure they do it right.......maybe I should pay by credit card,too...............just in case.