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Blog Archive: March 2011

Man Injured While Self-Installing Garage Door Opener

A Washington state man suffered injuries and was taken to the hospital this week after attempting to install an electric garage door opener at his home in the town of Medical Lake.

The man, who’s a medic with the Washington Air National Guard, was about to finish the project and move the torsion springs on top of the door. As he was loosening up the bolts on the springs, one of the springs shot out and struck his arm. Bleeding, he tried to remain calm as his roommate called 911. He eventually received 20 stitches to close a 3 1/2-inch gash.

The man’s actions are indicative of a nationwide trend. According to a Harvard University study, spending on home-improvement projects will increase by 9.2 percent over the previous five years.

Don’t do jobs like this yourself. Hire a trained and licensed professional!

Learn more about garage door safety!

Your AGDO

Your Automatic Garage Door Opener (AGDO) works just fine, you say. It’s opened and closed your door reliably for years. All you’ve needed to do is change the light bulb or the battery in the remote control once in a while. Replace it? What more could you want? What could be new in garage door openers? Plenty!

Safety First

If your opener was installed prior to 1993, you may be missing out on a great safety feature that is now required on all U.S. and Canadian openers manufactured since that time – photoelectric eyes or some other device that provides equivalent protection against entrapment.

Photoelectric eyes – mounted about six inches above the floor – cast an invisible beam across the door opening. If a door is closing and, for example, a child or pet were running underneath the door, they would “break” the beam, causing the door to automatically reverse 

Because your garage door is the heaviest and largest moving part of your home, a new opener with entrapment protection makes a great deal of sense, particularly if you have small children. (Note – It’s important, too, to teach children that the garage door system is not a plaything.)

 Your local professional door dealer [more]

Friday’s Funnies

“Timmy… time for dinner!”

Time for a Garage Door Makeover

Maximizing every inch of space within a home is a sound strategy for any efficient homeowner.

Garages, traditionally thought of as strictly a storage space, have evolved into a far more functional and attractive part of the house that can be enjoyed by homeowners and guests alike. The garage has typically been a junkyard. People have usually just hid stuff behind the door.

As budgets have tightened, however, garages have become an increasingly-popular spring home improvement project for homeowners looking for an upgrade instead of an overhaul. An effective way to de-clutter one’s garage is to install cabinets, which can be elevated off the floor and hung directly on the wall. Designed to have maximum strength and durability, cabinets are an effective means of storage and open up significant amounts of floor space, thus creating an opportunity for a flooring upgrade.

While many homeowners will continue to utilize the garage for automobile storage, others may find the garage to be an ideal place to create a work area or a workout space. As a result, rooms within the home that were previously used for such functions will now be available for use in other ways. ompleting the garage makeover with a new door [more]

Remodel with Garage Doors

As the real estate market continues to rebalance, an interesting shift is occurring among homeowners.

Not so long ago, a homeowner’s goal was to sell and move to a larger home. Now the priority for many appears to be shifting. More and more homeowners are remodeling and upgrading.

The main reason driving the remodel trend is a sluggish real estate market. Until the market turns around, many homeowners have turned their energy to maintaining the value of their current investment. However, the question is always what items to do first. To help you decide, here are a few ideas that we think will have the most impact.

• Consider replacing the entry and/or garage doors to enhance the exterior appearance with a fresh new look and create a great first impression on visitors. However, don’t just buy what is on sale. Make certain to complement the style and color of the home.

• If you work in the garage, consider a garage door with windows or with extra insulation. Windows will let in more light for increased visibility, and the extra insulation will help keep the garage warmer in winter. Also consider splurging a little more for a quieter door opener to reduce [more]

Protecting that Wood Garage Door

Natural wood garage doors can enhance the curb appeal of any home.

The beauty of natural wood with the random patterns of grain is not an easy look to duplicate with manmade materials. If you have a wood garage door, whether it is painted or stained to show the grain, routine care will keep it looking great for years to come.

Unlike the siding of your home, garage doors move with every button push on your remote or lift with your arms. This movement can add stress to the door’s finish and to the panels themselves. Check to see if stress has caused cracks or gaps to form in the finish coat. These cracks are the inroads for water, which can lead to more damage.

The best way to protect wood is with a durable, weather-resistant finish. These can fall into two groups: film finishes, like varnish or paint; and penetrating finishes, like oils and stains. Film finishes are more susceptible to movement-induced stress and can crack and flake. Penetrating oil finishes, by comparison, are more flexible and therefore hold up better. One advantage to maintaining garage doors is that they are relatively small and accessible, compared to other areas of a [more]

Safety Comes First!

Maybe you have never given very much thought to the safety functions of your garage door, or just how unsafe a defective garage door can be.

Because as frequently as your garage doors are used it is vital to take into account all of the maintenance and basic safety features, because most people use the garage door at least a couple of times every day and there are numerous moving components that might be loose or fail resulting in property damage or for someone to get hurt.

Stop and think about this, the garage door may be the heaviest working component of the house. Your garage door is actually a motor-driven device that is frequently being opened and lowered over your car or truck as well as your entire family.

Through the years there have been a number of different kinds of garage doors placed in garages but the most frequently used style is most likely the panel garage doors. These types of doors really are standard panels hinged with one another that will be installed on tacks using a spring system to assist with raising the garage door. They can be manually operated but today most of them employ a garage door [more]

Faux Painting and Gel Staining to the Rescue!

Most garages are readily visible from the street. A garage door has great potential either to add or detract from a property’s beauty. Many garage doors share an architectural partnership with their houses. The garage door should harmonize with its house. Garage doors express the structure’s function more than any other element. It should incorporate or compliment decorative features that will enhance the front elevation of the home. 

Then why settle for a Plain Jane, white on white, garage door every time you pull up to the house? Want the rich look and feel of a thick wooden door, but don’t have the spare $10,000-$12,000 it would cost for the real thing. The idea is simple, take a boring, static garage door, and create something appealing and interesting that will make your garage, and home a statement of your own.

Taking garage doors and either faux painting or using a gel staining process, can give them the dramatic effect of a rich, beautifully hued wood door. The most common types of garage doors today, have a wood grain texture imprinted on them that runs across the entire door inviting the look of a real wood door. Faux painting or gel staining achieves [more]

Mysterious Garage Door Opening

There was a local news piece about a homeowner reporting to police about a possible crime working its way though her neighborhood. She told them that one of her garage doors randomly opened late one Saturday night. She was worried someone was driving around with a garage door opener, hoping to find a door that opened with it, and then perhaps break into the home at a later date.

Police checked on it, and here’s what they found.

When the homeowner saw her garage door open by itself, she first thought it was a family member.  She went to check it out, and once she got to the front of the house, she heard a car driving away very slowly.  She got a bad feeling about it, so she went back inside. 

The police told her that there were no other occurrences in her neighborhood. But that they would keep an eye on the neighborhood.

There are stories like this all over the country. Thieves are using old remotes and driving down neighborhoods to find garage doors that will open.

Is your home safe?

It depends on the age of your garage door opener.  If it’s 93 or newer, it has what’s called a rolling code.  That [more]

Why Replace My Garage Door?

Cracking and sagging, impossible to lift, and generally falling apart – these are just some of the common signs that will tell you it’s time to replace your garage door with a new one.

However, there are a few people who, in spite of the absence of any of these, still go for a replacement garage door. Why they do so? Here are a few reasons why garage door should be replaced.

1. Increase the value and improve the appearance of your home. Have you ever noticed that the garage door represents ¼ to 1/3 of the front of your home? If you have, then you will know exactly what a new stylish and maintenance-free garage door can do for the value of your home. Believe it or not, even real estate agents will confirm that when you decide to sell your home in the future, it will be easier to do so if its garage door looks good. Moreover, new garage door also boost the overall appearance of your home. Simply choose from a wide variety of garage door colours, styles, and windows to match the look of your home and voila – your home will look even better in no [more]