Installing garage door openers - quick question

[silverMD]

I have a question about mounting garage door openers to my 10 foot wide garage doors. My doors are insulated and have the typical vertical metal braces visible on the inside of the door but there's no brace at the vertical center line of the door. The instructions call for attaching the opener on the center of the door which makes the most sense. I see my options as attaching the opener off center on the support that has the handle used to manually lift the door, or get a piece of angle and attach it across the two existing off center braces so I have a solid center mount point. I attached two pictures showing the inside of the door. What's the right way of doing this?

 

[roketa36]

What's the width of your door. It looks like it's a single car so it might not matter. But if it where me I would build a mount and do it in the middle.

The bigger the door the more chance you would have that the door will bind.

 

[gball]

angle iron across the top is what my door manufacture wanted... keeps the opener from V-ing the door while pulling back on it to open.

 

[Matt M PA]

I installed Sommer brand openers on two of my detached garage's doors. Sommer said that I could mount them at the end of the door to allow for overhead clearance because I had the torsion spring as opposed to extension springs.

Perhaps having the torsion spring could allow you to mount slightly off center.

 

[finn]

I have a couple of ten foot doors on my shop. I used the jackshaft Chaimberlain 3800 for my heavily used door, but had a new, spare conventional unit hanging around that I installed on my secondary door. The doors are from Menards (Ideal?), I think, but a local installer is also a dealer for this door. He set me up with a top rail and a bracket for a pretty reasonable price, but told me that the perforated (punched) angle stock is ok. He uses both, but the "stock" bracket and reinforcement rail look better, and didn't break the bank.

 

[upndown]

You can mount your opener to either vertical style, doesn't matter! Possibly go with the one closest to your ceiling outlet. It appears you've got a reinforcement strut on the top section.. so good to go.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

To make life easy go to depot and grab some thin steel lengths and attach to your channels in the middle of the door. Once those are in you can attach one of these in the center.

 

[MonoxieChild]

I just went through the exact same thing on my garage. It was built in the 80's, and never had a opener installed.

I had to get a bracket from the hardware store. It needs to be mounted in the center of the door. I think i spent like $13 bux on the bracket itself, and they are universal.

 

[MonoxieChild]

Here's a pic of a few different mounts. Just to give you an idea of what your looking for.

This specifically is the one i used on my install.

 

[DeliveryGuy]

Just mount it off of center, onto on of those vertical steel pieces. There's absolutely nothing wrong with mounting it a foot off center, and don't listen to anyone who says otherwise. Any of the vertical operator brackets that others have suggested will not work as intended, because they are meant to screw into a hinge location at the top and bottom edge of the panel. You door obviously does not have this in the center.

 

[kbs2244]

I have seen many mounted off center.
Even 16 footers all the way to the edge.
If the springs are adjusted right there will be no racking to worry about.

 

[silverMD]

Hey thanks for the all the answers on here guys, I saw all of them earlier and didn't get a chance to reply. I didn't have a lot of time to work on the openers today but I got started on them and decided to mount it slightly off center. I tested out opening and closing the door from this point and there's no binding whatsoever. I also found a note in the installation instructions saying it could be mounted up to 4' off center if needed but on center was recommended. Now I can move on to the next project of running the electric out there.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one other reason for deciding to go with the off center location, I found that the end of the torsion spring at the top of the door would interfere with where I'd need to mount the open track.

 

[ADCS]

Just mount it off of center, onto on of those vertical steel pieces. There's absolutely nothing wrong with mounting it a foot off center, and don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.

There are a million reasons not to mount it off center if you are OCD. The previous owners of my house mounted the opener off center and it drives me nuts. I will be fixing it tomorrow.

 

[kbs2244]

I guess it depends on if you consider function more important than fashion.

It will work off center.
But if that offends your sense of symmetry, move it.