garage doors

[nscale56]

has anyone ever replaced an existing garage door? can it be done without me going to the hospital? by the way i know the BLUE GARAGE DOOR owner lives up here. i'd just want to know if i can do it my self. anyone with any experience?


kevin

[Moss Man]

I have hung 3 overhead garage doors, 2 were replacements, one was an initial installation. My first was one that came from 84 Lumber. Their instructions have you installing the tracks and then the door sections. I wound up having to move the tracks slightly. The next two were replacements, so out came the old door and tracks. These were Raynor doors, really good quality. When buying the doors, it pays to put out the extra bucks and get insulated doors. The Raynor instructions make the job a lot easier than the 84 Lumber instructions. With Raynor, you position the bottom section on the floor and make sure it is properly centered. Drive a nail in the adjacent wood on each side and bend the nails over the door, this holds the section in place. Put something over the door so you do not damage it when bending the nail around. Add the remaining sections on top of each other and hold with nails in a similar fashion. When finished, all of your sections will be in place exactly where they would be when the door is fully assembled and closed. Next, install your tracks at the proper distance from the door edge and overhead. This takes the guess work out of positioning the tracks.(watch the spacing overhead so that it does not vary from the spacing along the doors.) Then add the door hardware springs, rope and opener if you are using an opener. I added additional bracing to my top section on one Raynor door that has an opener. (The cheapos at Lowe's have just one small vertical brace to which the opener attaches.) Installing the Raynors was a breeze compared to the 84 Lumber door. The 84 Lumber door was my first venture into installing. Don.t forget the outside edges. Lowe's have nice aluminum strips with plastic edges to keep the cold air from getting in around the edges, see my posting on alternative heating. Good luck!