Author Archives: 1st United Door Technologies
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]
Spring Into Action
If your garage door opener isn’t in operating properly, you could be setting yourself up for an expensive repair down the road.
Examine your spring for a break in the coiled metal. Another sign of a broken spring is if the steel cables that run along the wall near the door jambs are loose.
Is your garage door operating at full capacity, or is it poised to malfunction? It’s recommended that you regularly check the real muscle of your automatic garage door system: the spring.
Few homeowners realize that it’s the spring (or springs) that do 90 percent of the lifting when an automatic opener lifts a garage door. The garage door opener’s motor is only designed to handle 10 percent of the lifting.” Over time, the metal coil that makes up the spring becomes weak and loses some tension, causing the motor to work harder than it should. If the motor becomes overtaxed, the plastic gears inside may break and you’ll be facing an expensive repair.
How to Test a Garage Door Spring
To check to see if your spring is no longer doing its fair share, conduct the following test.
First, disengage the J-arm (the J-shaped lever) from the carriage by pulling on the [more]
A Buyer’s First Impression: The Garage Door
Folks in the remodeling mood often consider many parts of their homes for overhauls, but they might overlook one change-out that could increase curb appeal significantly. The garage door is becoming one of the main focal points of the house. Garage doors often make up more than one-third of the front facade of many homes and should be considered in home-improvement plans.
A recent study released by Remodeling Magazine found that homeowners who replace their garage doors are seeing an average of 84 percent return on investment. This means homeowners can expect to recoup about 84 percent of the cost of the new garage doors in selling price should they place their property on the market. This ranks higher than a kitchen or bathroom remodel. It’s one of the least-expensive home-improvement projects, and it can greatly improve curb appeal that can affect buyer first impression.
One door style in particular has become very popular. Carriage-house doors are big right now. They’re a design that comes from an older time period. Carriage doors, often compared to barn doors, come in both wood and steel and often have windows on the upper section. They can simulate the swing-out style with decorative strap hinges added.
Consumers [more]
A Story: A Day in the Life with a Non-Licensed Contractor
This is a true story and the names of the individuals have been changed to protect the innocent.
XYZ Garage Door Service isn’t a store or office-based business. It’s really just a man trying to earn his living via service, repair, and installation of garage doors. I believe he works out of his home with his wife. When we hired Mr. Johnson, we knew there was an element of risk involved. He wasn’t licensed, but he had the price we wanted. When he came out to do measurements, answer questions, and give us options, he was extremely nice.
He seemed just like a really good guy. We hired him and he installed our garage door. He did an okay job, though probably not as good as a licensed contractor would have done.
Our issues with XYZ Garage Door Service, however, were with the follow-up. Part of our agreement with him was that he would haul away the old door and its remnants. He also said he’d be coming back to do a check after a week, to make sure everything was fine. Unfortunately, there was no follow-up.
Numerous, and I do mean numerous, calls were never returned. He did not come and pick up [more]
Garage Door Isn’t Behaving
Troubleshooting garage door problems isn’t anyone’s favorite weekend activity, but it’s a task that pretty much every homeowner has to deal with at one point or another. Probably the most common issue you’re likely to encounter with your garage door is that it doesn’t close correctly. Maybe it stops and starts, or goes all the way down only to bounce back up. Or, it might not close at all, and you have to tug with all your might to get it to close manually. No matter what the scenario, it is more than inconvenient! Fortunately, in the majority of cases, there’s a relatively easy answer to be found, with an associated quick fix.
Problem 1 – Blocked Sensors
If you have an electric garage door and it’s simply not responding to the door opener, either for opening or closing, then check for the simplest problem first: blocked sensors. On the roof of your garage, usually in the middle of the tracks that the garage door runs on, is an electric sensor that receives the waves from your garage door opener, and that also senses potential obstructions in the path of the garage door, in which case it will keep the door from [more]
Anatomy of a Garage Door
Here’s the inside look of a sectional door:
1. Torsion Spring
Counterbalances door’s weight so that it can be lifted easily.
2. Track
Guides door up to ceiling and back.
3. Roller
Rides inside track. Steel ones are noisy; nylon is quieter.
4. Hinge
Connects horizontal sections.
5. Section
6. Lock Bar
Engages with track to prevent door from opening.
7. Weatherstripping
Seals door edges against air infiltration.
Friday Funny: Funny Garage Door Story
At least I think it’s funny. Probably funnier if you were there.
So, this guy’s renting a room from a classmate. He has a garage door opener that he occasionally has a bit of trouble using – nothing major. He’ll just double click it and the door starts up or down then for some reason stops and he then has to repeat the process. Sometimes he almost drives thru the garage door thinking it should be open by now.
So last night, he came home at 1:30 AM from work and hit the garage door remote and nothing. He stopped before plowing into the door and hit the remote again. It rises about 8″ and then begins to go back down. Weird, he’s sure he didn’t double click, so he hit it again. It stops. He hits it again and it begins to rise just to suddenly stop and begin to go back down.
Now he’s wondering, “what the heck?”. This thing is definitely not working and he’s going to have to call and wake up his friend to let him in. He tries it one more time and it begins and continues to open up. YEAh!
Inside he see’s someone moving – [more]