Garage door replacement
 

I’m gonna have to replace my rotten old garage doors one of these days. Is that a job that a guy that can build a hotrod handle, or am I gonna be wishing I just called a professional?
Single 8x8 size.
Thanks.

In my garage when I built it I ordered the door and installed myself. It is 8ft. high and 10 ft. wide. Easy to do yourself.

I've installed the kind with the long stretchy spring. Fairly easy if you have a good surface to bolt the tracks to.

The kind with the wind-up spring, not sure I'd try that myself.

Thanks guys, I will try to find a helper friend that has done this before.

I would get a price for a door installed and just the door. Do you have an opener on it now?

I would pay for the install. That way you get a warranty on the installation. I would also go with the torsion spring setup. They work much smoother than the cable springs. They also offer a lift that attaches to the end of the torsion spring freeing up the space between the rails to install a car lift.

I'll second that notion! The new openers that attach to the end of the spring shaft are great for clearing up your garage ceiling space. Especially when you only have an 8Ft ceiling in the garage. And it never hurts to have a pro come in for proper spring tensioning. The last time I had a torsion spring break, I went ahead and upgraded to a lifetime warranty spring that included readjustment if it was ever needed. That was more than 20 years ago.

My son owns a garage door company.

He has some pics of very bloody springs and floors where someone tried the DIY route.

hire it out.

I installed a 16' overhead garage door on my garage without help and thought it was pretty straight forward. My door came from Home Depot which was fine for replacement because no inspection required, however, no good for new construction because they dont have a wind rating. The inspector told me to take the panels off until after final inspection, which i did.
Good luck.

My brother in law has been doing these doors for 25 years at a local company. His phone is full of those pics. Effing disgusting.

Have it done. As stated, the torsion spring set up with wall mount openers is the way to go even though a bit pricier. Perfect time to put in rails that will bring the door closer to the ceiling also when open…

I think when the time comes, I will job it out. I don’t want to be stuck with an unusable garage if something goes wrong. And I have heard those springs come apart before, like a cannon going off, thankfully they were safety wired.

If you're handy, it's an easy job. Even with torsion springs, use 2 18" 3/8 extensions to tighten the springs.

If you've done mechanical work you can install a garage door with a torsion spring. You just need 2 rods to fit holes in solid end of torsion spring. Just take your time turning torsion spring. The hardest job is raising door without springs attached,then attach springs. I've done few over the years just none lately.

It’s gotta be easy doing one, the tolerance is huge compared to a reg door.
Remove the red pull string though when putting a new opener on.

If you can do the torsion rods on a Firebird trunk lid …..

You never raise the door on a torsion style garage door without the springs attached. The springs get wound while the door is closed and the cables attached.