garage door openers, how to add?

[davemchine]

In another thread I mentioned that I have made an offer on a house. It has a great garage with a huge wide door on it, but it is manual. Great big spring on the side. Can I motorize this or will it need replacing? Where would I call? All premature questions but I'm wondering.
Dave

[BigGuynRusty]

I would replace it, those old style doors are deadly when the spring breaks.
I replaced mine with a multi-sectional, with two wall buttons, two remotes, and an external coded keypad, for only $650. It took one guy three hours to do the tear out, install, and trim. Great company, Mesa Garage Doors.:
http://www.mesa-companies.com/mesagaragedoors/

BGnR

[Filliam H. Muffman]

If the door is fairly well balanced and you are pretty good with hand tools, you can install an opener for about $200.

BigGuynRusty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I replaced mine with a multi-sectional, with two
> wall buttons, two remotes, and an external coded
> keypad, for only $650. It took one guy three hours
> to do the tear out, install, and trim.

That is a great price.

[BigGuynRusty]

Filliam H. Muffman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is a great price.

Yep, Mesa is a huge contractor out in SoCal (and other places), and they purchase the best hardware for the cheapest prices. They buy the doors in 1,000 piece lots, and the controllers in 10,000 piece lots. The installers are incredibly talented, and so fast that they are almost a blur!
The installer who works totally alone, took off the cantilever garage door, and all its attendant hardware and trim, in under 15 minutes.
They have a very cool rack on the trucks that they pull up under the door and it drops down and they fasten it there. No lifting, no lugging.

BGnR

[mick e]

mick e is a fan of the older, heavy duty, solid panel garage doors. They are much more secure. His neighbors with new doors have have had break-ins: (fiberglas (rammed in), vinyl (wedged w/ crowbar), multi-panel (panel kicked in). mick e's door is one of those older smooth, heavy composite wood jobbies and nobody has ever screwed with it. It has been retrofitted w/ an opener BTW. Works great.

[SteveJobs]

mick e : here is a doohickey you might be interested in. It's in UK, but it might be available closer.

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:Kcfv...ge+door%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=11&client=firefox-a

Here's a description: (they also say your type is easily overcome)
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:UVcv...r+security&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6&client=firefox-a

[cbelt3]

don't be afraid of the big spring, just put a safety cable into it (a steel cable that goes through the middle of the spring, keeps it from flying loose if it breaks). I had one break on me without the cable- put a nice dent in the garage wall. I just rigged it back up with a cable in it. No worries.

Openers are pretty easy to install, I've put in about 5 of them in my day. Some basic hand tools, a couple of ladders and you are good to go. The door DOES need to be pretty well balanced by the spring.

I would not replace the door unless it's damaged.

[OWC Jamie]

I'll vouch for garage door openers being rather easy to install, too.
As long as the door opens and closes correctly, the opener will work fine.


The last two I did Christmas Eve afternoon on my parent's garage. About 45 minutes each. ( no sheetrock in their garage so it was easier).
Wrapped the remotes. Merry Xmas.

[SteveJobs]

I wish remotes would have encrypted passwords (numeric code) [at least OPTION] instead of just a button. Harder to steal and use that way.