Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Oct 16, 2017 13:05:39 GMT -5
It's time for a new garage door. We haven't bought one in 20 years. I tried looking at Consumer Reports for a primer on what to look for but nada. Would appreciate any helpful comments from someone who has bought one recently.
Also if anyone has used Costco's Garage Door contractor.
Many thanks! |
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Oct 16, 2017 14:06:51 GMT -5
We just got one a few weeks ago. Our door opener mechanism was cracking. DH just called up a local business that repaired the springs in our garage door and had them see what was what. They told us we needed a new opener within a week or two. We ended up getting a belt drive. The cost difference wasn't huge. Plus it had a few features we liked, mainly a really nice product guarantee and the opener can hook up to wifi. So, we can be alerted every time the garage door is opened/shut. Since we were looking at openers...we just replaced the door as well. (It was wood, and we were guessing original to our house). We asked for the products they install. The service man gave us pamphlets on the the different levels of products (ranged from no insulation to a metric crap ton). We picked the medium priced garage door, which was 16x7 Steel / Vinyl 6.3 R-Value, solid, white, torsion, 15" radius tracks with trim kit. I think it was this: www.homedepot.com/p/Clopay-Value-Plus-Series-9-ft-x-7-ft-6-3-R-Value-Insulated-White-Garage-Door-HDS/100037677 We declined getting windows/inserts on our garage door due to extra costs. We went middle of the road because we likely still will be living in our house in 30 years...so we figured we'll need to replace the garage door again before we sell. But, if we don't have to..we thought this would be a decent enough model when it was time to get ready to sell. (But, right now, everything we buy is middle of the road good enough..since we know we'll be replacing/remodeling the house in 15-18 years.) If we would have had more than a week's life on the garage door, we would have shopped around and been more careful with our choices. But, we needed easy and quick. Plus, we had used this business before and been pleased. |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 16, 2017 14:35:00 GMT -5
We just replaced the motor last year. Door was still good but we did have the springs replaced at the same time.
As we were trapped (ok, our cars were trapped) in the house, we needed the work done NOW. I want to say that the springs, motor, keypad and 2 remotes cost around $300. Previous motor was a touch system, but it was replaced with an electronic eye. We had a local company do the work.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Oct 16, 2017 15:20:05 GMT -5
Interested to see. in the past, I've just used angies list to find a couple of good ones and then gotten a couple of bids if it's going to be more than a few hundred bucks. Mich, you know that you can pull that rope hanging down and it will detach the chain from the catch on the door and then you can manually open/close the door like in the old days, right? But the door might be too heavy to lift manually - due to the size/type of door OR if the door is off the track(s) or if the springs/counterweight is off  Ask me how I know.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Oct 16, 2017 15:25:45 GMT -5
Interested to see. in the past, I've just used angies list to find a couple of good ones and then gotten a couple of bids if it's going to be more than a few hundred bucks. Mich, you know that you can pull that rope hanging down and it will detach the chain from the catch on the door and then you can manually open/close the door like in the old days, right? But the door might be too heavy to lift manually - due to the size/type of door OR if the door is off the track(s) or if the springs/counterweight is off Ask me how I know.
 On the list of things I'd like to avoid in my third trimester...lifting up a large wooden garage door nearly daily (or multiple times a day) is one of them. I'm not sure my kids should be trying to open up the garage door, either. And it gets old having them haul their bikes through the house (or keeping their bikes in the family room) so they get play outside before it's freezing out again. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2017 17:19:09 GMT -5
I used them last year. A small, family-owned business did the installation. It took 3-4 weeks to order and get the door in. I was happy with the product and contractor.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 16, 2017 17:19:45 GMT -5
Interested to see. in the past, I've just used angies list to find a couple of good ones and then gotten a couple of bids if it's going to be more than a few hundred bucks. Mich, you know that you can pull that rope hanging down and it will detach the chain from the catch on the door and then you can manually open/close the door like in the old days, right? Not when the springs are broken. Only when the power's off. |
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Oct 16, 2017 17:24:26 GMT -5
Interested to see. in the past, I've just used angies list to find a couple of good ones and then gotten a couple of bids if it's going to be more than a few hundred bucks. Mich, you know that you can pull that rope hanging down and it will detach the chain from the catch on the door and then you can manually open/close the door like in the old days, right? Not when the springs are broken. Only when the power's off.  BTDT. Bought a new spring two months ago. |
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tskeeter
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Joined: Mar 20, 2011 19:37:45 GMT -5
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 17, 2017 1:10:19 GMT -5
It's time for a new garage door. We haven't bought one in 20 years. I tried looking at Consumer Reports for a primer on what to look for but nada. Would appreciate any helpful comments from someone who has bought one recently.
Also if anyone has used Costco's Garage Door contractor.
Many thanks! Depending on whether the door is for your home, or a rental, you might consider an insulated door. Friends had an uninsulated door on a garage in Hemet. A combination of summer heat and sun on the garage door in the afternoon drove the garage temp to 120 or so. Insulating the door reduced the temp by about 30 degrees. Because the wall between the garage and the house was cooler, they saw a noticeable reduction in their A/C bill. Another consideration would be the number of springs on the door. When the single spring on our double wide door broke, the door was too heavy for me to lift. Fortunately I was able to use a couple of 24 inch pipe wrenches to wind the door part way up so that I could finish opening the door to get the car out. With a two spring door, you would still have some spring assist if one of the springs breaks. When I replaced the broken spring on our door, I installed two springs that provided the same combined lift as the old single spring. |
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Oct 17, 2017 5:32:09 GMT -5
I'm fortunate we still have the old hubs that can fix and do anything person. How
many more years he can is to be seen, I can't imagine calling people to do things like
that. But its coming one day.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Oct 17, 2017 10:00:48 GMT -5
It's time for a new garage door. We haven't bought one in 20 years. I tried looking at Consumer Reports for a primer on what to look for but nada. Would appreciate any helpful comments from someone who has bought one recently.
Also if anyone has used Costco's Garage Door contractor.
Many thanks! Depending on whether the door is for your home, or a rental, you might consider an insulated door. Friends had an uninsulated door on a garage in Hemet. A combination of summer heat and sun on the garage door in the afternoon drove the garage temp to 120 or so. Insulating the door reduced the temp by about 30 degrees. Because the wall between the garage and the house was cooler, they saw a noticeable reduction in their A/C bill. Another consideration would be the number of springs on the door. When the single spring on our double wide door broke, the door was too heavy for me to lift. Fortunately I was able to use a couple of 24 inch pipe wrenches to wind the door part way up so that I could finish opening the door to get the car out. With a two spring door, you would still have some spring assist if one of the springs breaks. When I replaced the broken spring on our door, I installed two springs that provided the same combined lift as the old single spring. It looks like all of them have some level of insulation. We're in a mild climate and the garage door is away from the ocean side of the house. I also posted to the Bogleheads forum and a couple of posters referred to insulation as well although in their specific situation they were referring to keeping the garage warmer.  Our situation is a little unique in that our house is an elevated rancher with the MB over the garage. Parking a hot car in the garage makes the bedroom warm and I'm a cold sleeper. DH and I were debating the merits of insulation. Would the garage cool off FASTER with no insulation? Or is more important to insulate the garage to keep its southeastern exposure from warming up during the day?
Decisions, decisions! 
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2017 10:44:14 GMT -5
My door is insulated. It keeps the garage at a steady temperature. An added bonus is that it is super quiet on opening and closing!
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Oct 17, 2017 12:21:58 GMT -5
Depending on whether the door is for your home, or a rental, you might consider an insulated door. Friends had an uninsulated door on a garage in Hemet. A combination of summer heat and sun on the garage door in the afternoon drove the garage temp to 120 or so. Insulating the door reduced the temp by about 30 degrees. Because the wall between the garage and the house was cooler, they saw a noticeable reduction in their A/C bill. Another consideration would be the number of springs on the door. When the single spring on our double wide door broke, the door was too heavy for me to lift. Fortunately I was able to use a couple of 24 inch pipe wrenches to wind the door part way up so that I could finish opening the door to get the car out. With a two spring door, you would still have some spring assist if one of the springs breaks. When I replaced the broken spring on our door, I installed two springs that provided the same combined lift as the old single spring. It looks like all of them have some level of insulation. We're in a mild climate and the garage door is away from the ocean side of the house. I also posted to the Bogleheads forum and a couple of posters referred to insulation as well although in their specific situation they were referring to keeping the garage warmer. Our situation is a little unique in that our house is an elevated rancher with the MB over the garage. Parking a hot car in the garage makes the bedroom warm and I'm a cold sleeper. DH and I were debating the merits of insulation. Would the garage cool off FASTER with no insulation? Or is more important to insulate the garage to keep its southeastern exposure from warming up during the day?
Decisions, decisions!
Have you considered getting an insulated door to keep it from getting too warm due to southern exposure, and then just installing a simple exhaust fan high on a wall to pump out the warm air from a hot car?
The garage would level off with the outside temperature (hot or cold) with no insulation.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 17, 2017 12:32:43 GMT -5
Depending on whether the door is for your home, or a rental, you might consider an insulated door. Friends had an uninsulated door on a garage in Hemet. A combination of summer heat and sun on the garage door in the afternoon drove the garage temp to 120 or so. Insulating the door reduced the temp by about 30 degrees. Because the wall between the garage and the house was cooler, they saw a noticeable reduction in their A/C bill. Another consideration would be the number of springs on the door. When the single spring on our double wide door broke, the door was too heavy for me to lift. Fortunately I was able to use a couple of 24 inch pipe wrenches to wind the door part way up so that I could finish opening the door to get the car out. With a two spring door, you would still have some spring assist if one of the springs breaks. When I replaced the broken spring on our door, I installed two springs that provided the same combined lift as the old single spring. It looks like all of them have some level of insulation. We're in a mild climate and the garage door is away from the ocean side of the house. I also posted to the Bogleheads forum and a couple of posters referred to insulation as well although in their specific situation they were referring to keeping the garage warmer. Our situation is a little unique in that our house is an elevated rancher with the MB over the garage. Parking a hot car in the garage makes the bedroom warm and I'm a cold sleeper. DH and I were debating the merits of insulation. Would the garage cool off FASTER with no insulation? Or is more important to insulate the garage to keep its southeastern exposure from warming up during the day?
Decisions, decisions!
Since you’re working on your Bay Area house, I agree that insulating a garage door is unnecessary. Given the other considerations you describe, insulating the garage door would be undesirable because it would prevent the garage from cooling off after a hot car is parked in it. One thing you might try to cool off your garage full of hot car engines would be to vent your garage. Our So Cal garage had a passive vent system built in to help cool it. An air intake vent through the exterior wall near the floor and an exhaust vent at ceiling level. These vents would work best if they were offset from one another. On opposite walls of the garage, or one in the front of the garage and the other at the back. If you experience prevailing wind patterns, putting the intake vent on the side of the garage that the wind hits and the exhaust on the side of the garage that is protected from the wind could be helpful. The up wind side of the garage would be subject to air pressure, while the down wind side would be under a slight vacuum. These pressure differences can be used to help move air through your garage, as the vacuum on the down wind side of the garage will draw air through the intake vent, across the garage, and out the exhaust vent. It would work a lot like your kitchen or bathroom exhaust fan, without the need for a fan. Passive cooling at it’s best. Low installation cost, no operating cost, no maintenance cost, self sustaining, and self regulating. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2017 20:11:51 GMT -5
Back to the original question of whether anyone has used Costco's contractor, Bonny. We need new gutters so I have been doing some research about companies including Costco. It turns out (at least in the case of gutters) that these are just local companies who pay Costco to let them advertise in their stores. They pay Costco a percentage of the sale. Costco does not guarantee the work although they will sometimes intercede if you have problems with installation, etc. since their customers associate them with the project. The price is pretty much a wash for the consumer whether you use Costco or contact the company on your own. Sometimes the Costco project is more expensive simply because you can't qualify for manufacturer's rebates if you use a third party, which is what Costco is functioning as. I decided to skip contacting them since I didn't really see a lot of advantages. |
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Oct 21, 2017 9:32:29 GMT -5
Back to the original question of whether anyone has used Costco's contractor, Bonny . We need new gutters so I have been doing some research about companies including Costco. It turns out (at least in the case of gutters) that these are just local companies who pay Costco to let them advertise in their stores. They pay Costco a percentage of the sale. Costco does not guarantee the work although they will sometimes intercede if you have problems with installation, etc. since their customers associate them with the project. The price is pretty much a wash for the consumer whether you use Costco or contact the company on your own. Sometimes the Costco project is more expensive simply because you can't qualify for manufacturer's rebates if you use a third party, which is what Costco is functioning as. I decided to skip contacting them since I didn't really see a lot of advantages. I used Costco contractor services for a couple of projects at our AZ house and thought they were better than the folks I used when I went through Home Depot. I think Costco probably does a pretty good job of vetting these folks because they don't want to deal with complaints or the Costco name being dragged down by an unscrupulous contractor. Cost savings are probably in line with industry standards.
We had our first local garage door guy come out yesterday. It was an educational experience as he brought up stuff that neither DH nor I had thought of. For example, we have a single large door for our two car garage with a center post in front. Because the garage spaces are slightly off the post is going to partially obscure one of the windows. Not a deal breaker, of course but something to keep in mind when picking out a design. Since the garage door is on the front of the house it's important that it looks good (to me anyway. Always keeping in mind resale!).
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 22, 2017 1:05:19 GMT -5
Back to the original question of whether anyone has used Costco's contractor, Bonny . We need new gutters so I have been doing some research about companies including Costco. It turns out (at least in the case of gutters) that these are just local companies who pay Costco to let them advertise in their stores. They pay Costco a percentage of the sale. Costco does not guarantee the work although they will sometimes intercede if you have problems with installation, etc. since their customers associate them with the project. The price is pretty much a wash for the consumer whether you use Costco or contact the company on your own. Sometimes the Costco project is more expensive simply because you can't qualify for manufacturer's rebates if you use a third party, which is what Costco is functioning as. I decided to skip contacting them since I didn't really see a lot of advantages. I used Costco contractor services for a couple of projects at our AZ house and thought they were better than the folks I used when I went through Home Depot. I think Costco probably does a pretty good job of vetting these folks because they don't want to deal with complaints or the Costco name being dragged down by an unscrupulous contractor. Cost savings are probably in line with industry standards.
We had our first local garage door guy come out yesterday. It was an educational experience as he brought up stuff that neither DH nor I had thought of. For example, we have a single large door for our two car garage with a center post in front. Because the garage spaces are slightly off the post is going to partially obscure one of the windows. Not a deal breaker, of course but something to keep in mind when picking out a design. Since the garage door is on the front of the house it's important that it looks good (to me anyway. Always keeping in mind resale!).
Move the post to center it? If it’s decorative, rather than structural, moving a post shouldn’t be that big a deal. Even if the post is structural, moving it a few inches may not be a big deal. |
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Oct 22, 2017 13:20:55 GMT -5
I used Costco contractor services for a couple of projects at our AZ house and thought they were better than the folks I used when I went through Home Depot. I think Costco probably does a pretty good job of vetting these folks because they don't want to deal with complaints or the Costco name being dragged down by an unscrupulous contractor. Cost savings are probably in line with industry standards.
We had our first local garage door guy come out yesterday. It was an educational experience as he brought up stuff that neither DH nor I had thought of. For example, we have a single large door for our two car garage with a center post in front. Because the garage spaces are slightly off the post is going to partially obscure one of the windows. Not a deal breaker, of course but something to keep in mind when picking out a design. Since the garage door is on the front of the house it's important that it looks good (to me anyway. Always keeping in mind resale!).
Move the post to center it? If it’s decorative, rather than structural, moving a post shouldn’t be that big a deal. Even if the post is structural, moving it a few inches may not be a big deal. It looks structural. In fact it looks like it's a replacement post. DH says he's too cheap to hire an engineer to actually determine if it is.
The house did have structural damage when we bought. It was disclosed and corrected and we hired an engineer to verify the fix. We've had no issues since buying it but we are sensitive to messing with anything that could affect it.
I can live with the design being off center by an inch or two.
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