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We bought a 10 year old house five months ago with Craftsman garage door opener and it's worked fine until today. It needs a complete overhaul. The repair person came out and explained that the previous owner had called them out a year ago to put a band-aid on the system just to get them through until the house sold. Well, now the repair company wants to replace the entire system (except doors).
The've quoted an enormous amount. I've found the Chamberlain Whisper Drive may be purchased for around $250. We are not very handy, how expensive would it be to hire someone to replace the old system with a new one? I'm thinking it would be more than a clean install since removing the old one is involved. Also, where do I find someone to do the work? HD or Sears or Lowes, this garage door company (if they'll work on a system I'm not buying from them), or should I find a Handyperson? Thanks
Look in your phonebook (or Google search the Internet) for Chamberlain or Overhead Door in your local area. Also, I think either Lowes or The Home Depot also sells (and installs) Chamberlain.
The size of the opener you will need depends on the size and weight of your garage door. Installing or replacing a garage door opener is not that difficult. I suspect labor costs would be around $200. or so.
I had a local GD repairman tell me my two year old opener needed replacement, because he couldn't adjust it to work properly.
He chargeed me $50 bucks and it din't work as good as it did when he arrived, so I got as manual and studid it, followed the different tests, and ended up ordering a new circuit bord and replaced it myself. It works perfectly.
Loke all professions, there are a few god guys, and the quality tapers down from good to worthless. I don;t know if my guy was just stuoid or crooked, but he wanted hundreds of dollars for an easy repair.
I'd do a little investigating before replacing yours. 10 years isn't old for an opener...!
Sears openers typically have plastic gears in the motor and they wear out (I had one). They probably replaced the gears and it got them by for a while.
Mine was making a horrible noise so I took a look and saw the shredded plastic from the gears. I called a garage door company and the guy told me he could sell me the gears, and if I was handy, I could replace them fairly easy. He told me that it would be fine for a while, then they would go bad again. Has to do with the motor shafts, etc.
I chose to have them replace my opener. They came out, took out the old opener, balanced and adjusted the door and installed the new opener. My opener was about 12 years old at the time.
Many times the openers will go out because the door is out of balance and they have to work much harder.
I would call a garage door company. You could also call Lowes or Home Depot and they contract with garage door guys. I've just had better luck dealing with the principal vendors.
Balancing a door is not a normal home owner type job. The springs can be very dangerous.
Our double door has just one spring - the repair person said it's supposed to have two. We asked him to add an additinoal spring but he said EVERYTHING needed to be replaced. He suggested a complete replacement for $1500!!!
Our double door has just one spring - the repair person said it's supposed to have two. We asked him to add an additinoal spring but he said EVERYTHING needed to be replaced. He suggested a complete replacement for $1500!!!
Is it a double wide door with the spring wrapped around the shaft over the door ?
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Barking Spider
Balancing a door is not a normal home owner type job. The springs can be very dangerous.
Yeah. My dad tried to teach me some handymanliness when I was about 10 years old that had something to do with tensioning the garage door springs. It wound up being a lesson in dentistry. He was using a pair of vise grips to hold the "shaft" in position and tightening the springs with a 1/2" steel rod. The rod slipped out of his fingers and he had his face in exactly the wrong spot. Result: Spitting out teeth.
Bones...Yes it's a double-wide with a single spring just over the top of the door (on the right side-perhaps one is missing on the left)
Here's what's included...18x7 overhaul kit, 2 high cycle torsion springs,bearing, plates, cables, drums, rollers, svc call and time/travel. lifetime warranty
A double wide door will require 2 springs ( one on each side).They should be matched ( so the old has to be replaced also)
$1500 seems a bit much for what is being done and you still have to purchase and install an opener !!!!!
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