View ChannelsFeatured: Finance
View ShowroomsFeatured: Radiantec - Radiant Solar Heating

BobVila.com

Home

Garage Door Opener Installation

Bob meets up with Ryley, who is installing a Craftsman garage door opener. Ryley starts out by pointing out the best place to start a project is with the instructions. They begin by setting up the track and mounting it to the wall over the door on one side and to the rafters on the motor side. The opener has an infrared sensor that stops the door from closing when an object is in the garage door's way. This was a new feature when the show originally aired.

Get Adobe Flash Player to see this content.

Chapters from this episode

Garage Door Opener Installation Now Playing

Garage Door Opener Installation

New Hot Water Boiler Installation Now Playing

New Hot Water Boiler Installation

Blue Board Plaster Walls Now Playing

Blue Board Plaster Walls

Clip Transcript For:

Garage Door Opener Installation

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" When you sit together first. Thing I'm looking by the direction -- up. I think is tracked in a room off and it's not find out. Yep the track the track OK. All right so that is what that -- that the hero rail what's next -- the sprawling I asked them right on the end there. OK. Here and and I can attach it to the motor now all right tomorrow. The main thing is to make sure you think. The right fasteners right bolts and nuts in the right places that's right careful reading of the instructions. Her right that's been tight. Regretting it over ready to put it right up that. You're doing that all by its office off course comes in and the definite and how do you figure out exactly where to position. The the mounting bracket that is well have done -- I did is open up the door to find out its highest point when it's elevated so. -- malevolent and met a -- over here where that is and ends. But the mounting bracket two inches above that spot asked for moderate onto it until about -- nail on the spring okay. This just attaches to a mounting bracket with this -- and here. Which is if the steel pin goaded into the hall and in the holes in the bracket. -- elect about football. -- OK all right. And you secure that -- OK our read this thing. Do not bring a latter. Go ahead. Okay. Now is that a problem that they haven't put the the plaster up yet the feeling of the wallboard and not not it's gonna help us because we can see way to generate I mean -- should active. Properly okay let's get via the angles that. Hey Bob could you open the door -- Now the way around it's operative in recommend it would put -- two -- right on top of the bill up that that the space or as a -- exactly and that gives us the right pitch for the it's not. Where the motor wants debate. Now. It doesn't have to be perfectly level with the new graduates -- the of the door pitches back in the direction that it. Now just take these metal brackets that are gonna hold it up. And -- can -- that has to be cut. One goes on either side that's right it's right there."

" In this one. We've cut. Going to take two inches off of that that would -- OK. And we do that with a hacksaw."

" All right so the two brackets that haven't -- have to be cut and shaped to size depending on whether you're. Going right on to its ceiling joists run the strapping or how you're attaching it really. What's next spot what's that got this time limits we're ready to unchecked we -- It. That's going to take a little bit kind of equipment done. OK I think about half an ideal -- getting pickets ready should being given -- track. -- Success rate. Now the interesting thing about this garage door opener is that we have a new type of safety device which is a -- beam of light that really goes from this side to the other side if you break it you'd have a green light goes off. What you're doing is I'll bring it down. -- you're doing is sending that door back if a kid walks under it you don't have to come into contact -- that you break the beam of light and it automatically reverses."

[-]

More Videos »Related Videos

Hurricane-Resistant Garage Doors

Ernie Hutto from DAB Garage Doors explains that the garage door is the largest opening into any home. Hurricane winds can twist and shred a door, bringing wind force and pressure vacuums into the home and causing building failure. Hurricane Master doors are made of 24-gauge steel to make them more resistant to failure. DAB Hurricane Master doors are strengthened with their patented Interforce system that reinforces the top and bottom panels to prevent door twisting and blow-in. Denver Miller and his crew install the panels starting at the bottom. Reinforcing bars are integral to the design of these hurricane-resistant doors. The Interforce bars are added to the top and bottom panels to give more strength during high winds. The garage-door tracks are also reinforced with seven brackets, a flag bracket, and a 14-gauge steel track. This prevents the tracks from pulling, twisting, and blowing in during a hurricane. The garage door opener is also installed but, as Miller points out, it need not be heavy duty because the strength of the system relies on the torsion springs not the opener. An opener's job is simply to guide the door, not pull it.

Installing the New Garage Doors

Bob talks with Robert Rainey of PJ Overhead Door as the garage door panels and tracks are installed on the Norwell home. The installation of the springs for the garage door can be dangerous, so while it may seem that installing the garage doors is a do-it-yourself job, this may be a job that is best left to a professional. This garage-door installation shows how complicated it is to put a garage door in place. When complete, the new garage doors are a big improvement over the old ones.

Clopay Garage Door Installation

Bob gets together with Gary and Earl Raymond from Clairmont Glass as they prepare to install the Clopay garage doors. The openings for the garage doors have arched tops but the doors themselves are rectangular painted hemlock. The door comes in three sections - the bottom and the middle sections are plain and the top section has glass panes set in an arch to match the frame. The first step in the installation is nailing a rubber seal on the bottom of the bottom panel to keep the weather out. The door panels are pre-punched and pre-marked to indicate where the hinges go. Next they put the first panel in place and mount the vertical track. Then they add the second panel and fasten the hinges. With lengths of punched angle attached to the ceiling, they secure the track and put the top section of the door in place. Next they install the torsion spring which, when attached via cable to the door, uses tension to actually lift the door.

Heavy Duty Garage Door Opener and Features

Bob takes a look at a new Sears garage door opener — a 3/4 horsepower unit that's among the strongest on the market. The unit features a keypad that allows access if you need to get in the garage from the home's exterior without the remote control. To meet safety requirements, the opener has an electric eye that reverses the door's downward motion if it senses an object (or small child!) in the way.