Issue with new garage door install

[gomdolyi]

Hello,
I just got my garage professionally installed and I need some opinion from others in the community (professional one would be nice). If you look at the first picture there is hardly any gap between garage door and the garage opening frame. However, if you look at the second one (drew red circle around it), there is a noticeable gap on the top and narrows as it goes down. Also if you look at the picture taken out side, one side has the seal covering all the way to the pattern and second one has about 1 inch gap on top and the gap narrows as it moves down. I brought this up with the person who was installing the garage door and he told me that this is caused by the floor not being leveled and the garage door opening not being plumb. So I took the vertical and horizontal measurement of the garage door. Looking at the garage opening from the inside the vertical measurement of the right side is about 3/4 inches longer and the the top is about 1/4 longer than the bottom measurement. The installation guys told me that this is best they can do with floor not being leveled and opening not being plumb. Any more adjustment could've made the installation worse. I can't believe the current status of garage door opening would make the gap this wide. Also I feel like they could've done better job. What do you guys think?

 

[The Cobbler]

I am siding with the installer on this one. if the floor isn't level and the jambs aren't plumb it likely is the best they could do

 

[wssix99]

Looking at the garage opening from the inside the vertical measurement of the right side is about 3/4 inches longer and the the top is about 1/4 longer than the bottom measurement.

This is really bad, but garage doors don't care too much. (They slide around and adjust to the opening) When the door opening isn't square or plumb, you need to pick your poison. In this case, the installers made some choices...

It also looks like your "issue" includes a threshold or floor that isn't level from left to right. The door appears to be sitting solidly on the floor but leaning to side, compared to the door tracks, which are probably plumb. If you raise the door off off the floor a bit and stop it, I expect the door will square up and look parallel to the tracks once it is off the floor.

I would start by putting a long level on your floor where the door rests on it. See what is going on there and how far out of level it is. You might end up with a better result by just grinding the floor flat.

 

[gomdolyi]

So I had a chance to look more closely and seems like something doesn't add up. The right side of the wall is not plumb so the rail is also not plumb causing the door to lean toward inside. If you look the picture that was taken from inside, right side of the door is leaning toward inside and creating about 1/2 gap. You see that the light is coming in more at the right side. My question is, couldn't the installer fasten the rail on the adjustable hole on the rail bracket (3 pictures of the bracket) and make the rail plumb? If you see the third picture installer didn't even fasten the bottom one. This feels like to me installer didn't do a proper job. What do you guys think?

 

[Tools4Me]

The rail isn't supposed to be plumb, it's supposed to be further away from the wall at the top. That's so the door itself doesn't drag along the back side of the wall the entire way as it goes down. A well adjusted track should make it so the door doesn't seal with the wall until the door is almost completely closed. The door should seal well with the wall once it is fully closed though. Your door might not be doing that and that's why you see so much light coming through. The light could also just be emanating through that thin vinyl seal trim, so the problem might look worse than it is. It would help to see a picture of the top of your door and the vinyl seal along the top of the garage opening from the outside with the door down. If there is an air gap, that could be an issue with the door track being a little too far away from the wall at the top, the door rollers not having enough extension off the back of the door panels, or it could be a result of badly placed vinyl seal trim around the door opening frame. I don't know which it is.

Fixing the light issue is usually simple if there is an issue, but your slab and/or door opening being out of square can't be fixed by the installation guy. What I would do is look at your door while closed from the outside and see if all the door panels look level and square with the framed opening and the rest of the house. Maybe post a picture of that view for us as well. That's what you are going to be seeing every time you drive in and out of your driveway. It might not look level if your floor slab isn't level left to right, but the important question is "is it bad enough to notice easily when looking at it?". It might not be. The only way to really fix that issue if it bothers you would be to add a small long shim along the bottom of the door to compensate for the slight slope of the slab. That would allow all the door segments to sit level while still sealing with the slab. If you had a wood garage door you could possibly taper the bottom of the door itself (if it doesn't need much) to match the slab, but you can't do that with a metal garage door. The other recommendation of cutting a perfectly level slot in the concrete itself for the door to rest down on is an option as well, but how that turns out for you would be entirely a result of the quality of the guy doing the work. You could also possibly do a little bit of shimming behind the wood trim that frames the garage door opening. Shim from behind just like you would do when installing an interior door into a rough opening. You might be able to get rid of much of the out of square tilt to the framing that way.

I see a door that was installed by someone who tried to make it all work, but there was only so much they could do without turning it into a bigger and more expensive job than a standard garage door installation would entail. I don't see malice or imcompetence, I see someone who tried their best with what they had to work with and the time they had allotted to do it before they had to get to their next job. Installation guys can't afford to keep adjusting things here and there to see how it changes over and over just to try and get it as perfect as they can when nothing else is perfect. It takes too much time to do that, and they only usually come with the tools needed to install a door and that's it. They can't modify any other parts of the house structure to make the door fit better. The mistakes that were made in the process of building that garage are not the fault of the garage door installers. They didn't make the slab slope to the side or the door opening out of square.

 

[Uncle murph]

Hello,
I just got my garage professionally installed and I need some opinion from others in the community (professional one would be nice). If you look at the first picture there is hardly any gap between garage door and the garage opening frame. However, if you look at the second one (drew red circle around it), there is a noticeable gap on the top and narrows as it goes down. Also if you look at the picture taken out side, one side has the seal covering all the way to the pattern and second one has about 1 inch gap on top and the gap narrows as it moves down. I brought this up with the person who was installing the garage door and he told me that this is caused by the floor not being leveled and the garage door opening not being plumb. So I took the vertical and horizontal measurement of the garage door. Looking at the garage opening from the inside the vertical measurement of the right side is about 3/4 inches longer and the the top is about 1/4 longer than the bottom measurement. The installation guys told me that this is best they can do with floor not being leveled and opening not being plumb. Any more adjustment could've made the installation worse. I can't believe the current status of garage door opening would make the gap this wide. Also I feel like they could've done better job. What do you guys think?

The installers did the best they could,the garage door is square from the factory ,the opening is not.The jamb could be brought in to plumb without to much aggravation but the floor is a whole different story.

 

[gomdolyi]

The rail isn't supposed to be plumb, it's supposed to be further away from the wall at the top. That's so the door itself doesn't drag along the back side of the wall the entire way as it goes down. A well adjusted track should make it so the door doesn't seal with the wall until the door is almost completely closed. The door should seal well with the wall once it is fully closed though. Your door might not be doing that and that's why you see so much light coming through. The light could also just be emanating through that thin vinyl seal trim, so the problem might look worse than it is. It would help to see a picture of the top of your door and the vinyl seal along the top of the garage opening from the outside with the door down. If there is an air gap, that could be an issue with the door track being a little too far away from the wall at the top, the door rollers not having enough extension off the back of the door panels, or it could be a result of badly placed vinyl seal trim around the door opening frame. I don't know which it is.

Thank you for the replies. I've accepted the slab and garage door opening would create weird side opening. However, would the slab not being level and opening not being square cause garage door to lean inward on the top side? My genuine concern is the opening at the top and top right side where cold air could enter (since there is no seal on the top side) during winder time. Is there anything can be done to seal the top side other than fix the slab and the opening? I'm able to easily push the garage door on the top right corner and light would no longer come in on the top side. Thanks

 

[wssix99]

The right side of the wall is not plumb so the rail is also not plumb causing the door to lean toward inside. If you look the picture that was taken from inside, right side of the door is leaning toward inside and creating about 1/2 gap.

As was pointed out before, this inward lean is proper and designed into the door so it "falls away" from the opening as it moves up. The brackets on the door should compensate for this. (The brackets at the top of the door holding the rollers should be larger so they hold the rollers a further distance from the door at the top vs. the bottom.) This will hold the door flat against the opening when it's in the shut position. Some of the brackets on the door are adjustable. So, if the door doesn't sit flat against the opening, the adjustment is in the brackets on the door. (Not the vertical tracks.)

The plumb problem you have is side-to-side in the opening, with regard to that opening not being square.

For the daylight - check how the rubber weatherstripping contacts the outside of the door. (from the outside) You won't get a perfect seal with a garage door, but those seals should keep most of the water and dirt out. If your new door is set back a little bit further than your old door, those rubber seals may not be contacting the door. If so, they may need to be uninstalled and then moved slightly inward so they contact the new door properly.

My question is, couldn't the installer fasten the rail on the adjustable hole on the rail bracket (3 pictures of the bracket) and make the rail plumb? If you see the third picture installer didn't even fasten the bottom one.

This is a problem. Look at the other tracks. They should be riveted to the brackets. It looks to me like your installer had a problem with that bottom track, drilled out the rivets holding the track to the bracket, and then forgot to fix it afterwards and button it up. I expect a proper fix would be to grind out the bottom of the track so it fits around that little concrete curb and then re-bolt the track to the bracket where the rivets were drilled out.

 

[mikedodge]

Like was already said it could be the outside seal that could be adjusted. If the door frame isn't plumb there's not much more you can do. If the door and track were installed square you can just move that one side of track in or its going to be twisted and cause other problems.
It is strange that there's a triangle of light coming in the door itself. That might be from it already being slightly off to compensate for something because usually the door panels are supported by themselves and not the hinges.

 

[yeldogt]

You can have a few things working against you.

When the garage door is closed (down) that is were you look at the overall gasket job ..... the top should be tight as the track is designed to allow door movement as it's going up and down and then push the top tight just as it hits the bottom. If the bottom is not level -- this can cause all kinds of problems as the door can only go down to the highest point. The track needs to be set to that level -- otherwise the door is racked and it will not close at the top. A really wacky floor needs to be fixed by cutting out and fixing the concrete at that point or there will be a gap at the bottom.

The left/ right track is basically fixed and the door can push each way -- I'm not sure why you have that big difference. If the full 3/4 is on one side that has to be made up on that side. Did the guy seem to know what he was doing ? Did he play with the door?

I'm a reasonably good DIY guy and I have to tell you that setting one of these doors can be a real pain -- tried it once and never again. I guess if everything is perfect they work .... I'm not good enough.

SO -- that said. I have adjusted older doors and added the "green hinge" to a couple ... my advise would be to mark the screw holes very nicely with a fine point sharpie before trying to see if any adjustments make it better.

You can always try to get the guy back --- people are busy and depending on location this may or may not work. People 1/2 hour from nowhere have little lock .... others in areas where people are all the time normally get some help even if it's just a better explanation.

 

[firebirdparts]

it looks good to me, but if you want to influence it, you can move the bottom of the left (viewed from inside) track to the right. that'll squeeze the bottom rollers only and it'll force the door to move over. That is a simple adjustment that you can easily understand and you can understand when you get it too tight.

It seems pretty good though, to me.

 

[FMB4]

Can you stand farther back from the inside and take/post more photos? Your photos are, imo, to close to the door for us to really see what you're dealing with.