I’ve never had a legitimate garage door. What’s the point in installing a good door on the world’s worst garage?
But as I refurbished that garage into a minimally acceptable garage, I began to yearn for something more. And of course that meant research and a trip to Lowe’s.
Short attention span
Bringing home two large boxes diverted my attention from carpentry to mechanical things. Garage doors come in sections, with lots of hardware to be attached to the sections. This picture shows two sections installed and resting on the concrete curb. So far, so good.
On the inside, the two sections look like this—firmly attached and adequately aligned. I use the word “adequately” because it’s a challenge to align things with a garage that leans in several directions.
For want of a nail . . .*
Now’s a good time to criticize poor technical writing. The door’s instruction manual was almost impossible, with dense paragraphs of tiny text, referring to illustrations that were at least 50% accurate.
There were several red nuts and bolts that were allegedly important, never to be removed after installation. I ended up with several of these bolts still in the box.
Don’t you dare!
Also, I resent warnings like “Don’t attempt this operation by yourself.” It’s almost like a dare, so I had to try to lift the installed door (without its helper springs without the electric door opener) all by myself. On this issue, they were correct!
On the other hand, the Genie door opener had instructions that were almost perfect—maybe the best I’ve seen for such a product.
After two days I programmed the remote control and made this video.
Modified elation
My initial happiness with an adequate door was tempered when I realized the door opener didn’t work unless I first entered the garage and switched on the lights. Not a problem with a section of missing siding (on the right).
Unwelcome revelation
I’ve discovered that squeezing between studs is not as easy as it used to be. Maybe I measured wrong.
So my next step is to change the electrical outlet so that it is always powered.
*A proverb
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Next: Electrical work
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