New garage door

[428]

Got a situation here. Inherited a nice upper end house with 20 x 20 garage with 16 x 7 sectional door. Old heavy wood, rotten on the bottom. No opener. We're getting it ready to put on the market. I could go with cheap non insulated metal but for appearance and value I think insulated would be better.
The torsion spring and rails are fine. Door kits at the big box store come with all that. I just need the door with new rollers. And install an opener.
Trying to get as much done for the least money. It is for sell after all.

Suggestions on where to get just the door? Anyone replaced just the door? Save much?
Also the existing door doesn't have windows, the garage has two windows that face the street. Cul-de-sac. The door does not face the street. (see pic) would you bother with windows in the door? Think it would add anything?

 

[JasonK]

When you get an realestate agent, talk with them. My opinion, I would replace the whole shooting match. You can probably get a garage door for what 400 bucks or so, a opener will set you back another 125 or so. People nowadays expect garage door openers.

 

[428]

Replacement door

Talked to three door companies today. None will replace just the door. They all say the kit is cheaper than the panels seperate. They will sell me the panels but it's more than the kit installed.

16 x 7 door is $825 installed. Metal, raised panel and insulated but a pretty low end door price wise.
Opener is $270 installed. 1/3 hp, 1/2 is $25 more. Chain drive that they sell.
Cheaper at the Big Box store, but I'd have to install.
Different brands each company I called.
Extra (2nd) remote $35. Without keypad.

So phone call, complete and installed is about $1130 and I have to do nothing.

To add windows to the door is about $160

Looking at the pic, if you were buying this house, would garage door windows make a difference to you?

 

[trovato]

Looking at the pic, if you were buying this house, would garage door windows make a difference to you?

My vote: Given that there are two windows in the garage, I would say that garage door windows would not make a difference to me.

 

[nova65ss]

That's a reasonable price for a door and opener just make sure they are going to dispose of the old one. I agree on the opener most people want one but it probably won't be a deal breaker. Windows are usually a concern if they are facing the street or if there are no other windows in the garage. The springs and hardware for a wood door are much larger than they would be for the steel and it would never balance correctly. Plus the wood door is 1 3/8 thick and most mid grade steel doors are 2" thick so the tracks would need to be shimmed off the wall. Much easier to buy a door complete. I would stay away from the box store doors as well they usually sub everything out and if you run into a problem good luck getting them back out within a reasonable amount of time!

Jimmy

 

[JasonK]

You can install it yourself. I installed my 16' door myself. Do you have a Lowes or Home depot?? Check around, I think a door could be bought for 1/2 what you were quoted if not more!! If you don't do anything at least paint it and put on a opener, again, check around, I boought a Sears 3/4 hp for 150 and it was loaded with options. Again, You can install one in an evening. All these guys would be happy to walk you thru the install if you get in a jamb. Good Luck.

 

[river1]

To add windows to the door is about $160

Looking at the pic, if you were buying this house, would garage door windows make a difference to you?

my personal taste is no windows. it allows would be thieves so see if i'm home (car in garage), as well as case my stuff that is in the garage. that said windows in the door would prolly help (in a small way) sell the house as it would let light in the garage making it seem bigger and more airy. now if the garage is a mess with grease stains and the like more light would be bad.

have i confused you more yet.

later jim

 

[danski0224]

In your eyes, the rails and associated hardware, and the torsion springs are fine. From a door installation companies point of view, they are a souce of nuisance warranty callbacks, so it all gets trashed on a new install. The old springs are matched to a door that is much heavier than a new steel door.

If you inherited the house through a death in the family, the cost basis for the home is adjusted to current values when the home is passed on, which probably eliminates any capital gains tax for you. I certainly wouldn't be quibbling over $1100.00.

If I was looking at the house, those driveway cracks would cost you far more than a new garage door.

 

[D-Cal]

I would talk to your real estate agent before doing anything. Get a property inspection. Fixing weak points of the property can be an excellent idea to keep from giving buyers leverage to chisel your price down bigtime. On the other hand, if there are other weak points in the property, replacing the door might not be cost-effective.

If you have to replace it, I would put in the cheapest non-insulated door and opener. The odds are against new owners being "garage people" like us.

 

[D-Cal]

Incidentally, I had the same experience pricing & replacing the doors in my garage. I ended up buying the kit and having it installed for less then the individual components.

 

[chet]

all good points made above. Also for a 16' door do not go with a 1/3 HP motor. 1/2 HP min.

 

[428]

Ugh

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. We had a few tape joints that had pulled away on the garage ceiling. We glued them back up as best we could and Sunday re-painted over the pop corn ceiling as it was original 25 year old stuff. I knew it was a gamble but it was in pretty bad shape.

Got over last night, monday, to start painting closets and such. Walked into the garage and huge sections of the texture had fallen to the floor. Just competely released from the sheetrock.

Now I have to competely scrape all the remaining off, tape and mud some seams and re-paint. I'll go with a slick finish this time. Popcorn in an unheated garage should be illegal.

For now we've decided to wait on replacing the door until we get everthing else done. It's FSBO so giving an allowance for a new door is there if someone comes along before I get to it.

 

[Gregdoo]

Hey there 428, I hear you on the popcorn. We bought a house built in 1970 and it had smoke encrusted popcorn on every ceiling. I asked the home inspector about the best way to remove it and he said the first thing he would do is get it tested for asbestos content. Sure enough, the stuff in 95% of the house had over 25% asbestos content. There was a 1980s addition and the popcorn in there had less than 3% asbestos.

We had an asbestos removal company strip every ceiling before we moved in at a huge expense ($6000ish). Because we had the tests done before closing, we were able to use the removal estimate in our final purchase negotiations.

Bottom line, be careful. The tests were cheap - about $25 per sample, in your case, you'd only need one sample. If your garage has the "high content" popcorn, be very careful about how you protect yourself from the mess you are about to make. It's the tiny airborne fibers that you want to keep from breathing in. Knowing you are planning to sell the place and not wanting to invest much money in it, I'd look at wetting it down very well and wearing an appropriate respirator. The pros double wrapped every room with two layers of plastic sheeting and had large, filtered, high volume fans filtering all the air a couple timed a minute. And they had these "vacuum scrapers" that were connected to HEPA vacuums, etc. Once they got it all off, they coated the ceilings with some sort of clear coating that trapped everything they didn't **** off. A big PITA.