New Garage Doors (and openers)

One of the two garage door openers has been acting up.  Checking, it was because the limit switch (which determines how far down the doors go before the opener stops) was broken, and not really in a repairable way.  It being 30 years since the garage doors were put in when the house was built, it seems like a good time to get new doors and openers.  For both sides.

Start by checking Angie's List for local companies to replace the garage doors.  Got a list of 3 or 4, and started calling to get prices and types.  The Home Depot web site actually has a good presentation of the various types and options and going thru that helped me understand what was involved.  We got two bids, one for $4288.67 and another for $4391.17.  Then I noticed that Costco also provides garage doors, thru a local company, and called them.  They took the information, and said someone locally would call me.  A short time later, it was Cedar Park Overhead, which was the 3rd company on Angie's List that I had been meaning to call.  Their estimate came in at $3877.52.  Being the lowest cost, and a good recommendation from Angie's List, we went with them.

This was for two 9 foot by 7 foot doors.  I went with a steel door with polystyrene foam insulation (R 9) in it.  The technology has changed from the cables and springs that we had to a torsion spring bar.  Torsion bars are common on larger garage doors, and now on ours too.  Linda wanted a pre-painted to look like a stained wood (Walnut, Faux wood), with windows (clear Stockton) along the top.  Long panels.

We started the process in mid-January, had made our decision and signed a contract by 26 Jan.  The order went in.  A month later, we got a call saying the doors had arrived and they were ready to install them.

The first problem was to clean out the garage, so that they could work.  We removed the rack over the one garage door that used to hold the off-season solar screens, and then moved all the stuff from the sides of the garage back into the garage temporarily so that the walls were clear.

A crew of two guys showed up at about 1:00 pm and started removing the old doors and openers, then installing the new doors and openers.  They were done by 4:00 pm.

The color match with the outside (freshly painted in November) trim is quite good.

Both doors have seals all around them.  The windows have a plastic insert on the outside that makes them look like they are 12 small panes, but it's really one double-paned window.

The openers are both LiftMaster LM8160 chain drive 1/2 HP units.  Both are driven off the one remote keypad, and we have two remotes -- one for Linda's car and one for mine.