Garage door torsion spring winding bars

[ray66v]

Ten years sounds very short to me...

It's very short to everyone. But, it's the reality. If you don't use the door excessively, they can go much longer.

You can buy a real wood door, with commercial track, hardware, and springs. Which, with some paint and minor maintenance, will duplicate your 50 year result.

But, it will cost you lets say more than $5000.

In the same 50 years, you could have a decent steel door, replaced the springs, tuned it up, replaced the door, replaced the springs, and tuned it up, for lets say $3800. And you would never have had to paint either of them. The steel doors are also insulated.

That's why, except for high end homes, where the look is desired, wood doors have pretty much become extinct.

On those high end homes, the doors are generally stained, and varnished, which is a lot of maintenance. But, I guess if your paying someone else to do it you don't mind as much.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I expect the average door last much longer than 10 yrs., although there are some cheap ones out there.
I have residential on the house and commercial on my barn. They are exactly the same except for the spring winding. Same track, same door type and spec. same company.
I think it depends on the brand. Some are made cheap. i'll be installing another ez torsion soon.

 

[KennyG]

I think garage doors are more or less permanent with reasonable maintenance. The last house I sold had moderate priced doors, 20 years old, and they were fine. I did replace the extension springs on one door at about 15 years. My current house has the original doors, wood frame with fiberboard panels and they are 40 years old. I did replace the cables and the openers last year. They have obviously been kept painted. Not sure if the springs are original.

 

[ray66v]

Sure, the door panels themselves can last, if you don't damage them.

But, people do run into steel overhead doors. Hit them will baseballs, and yard equipment. And, have accidents like, the opener bends the top section, trying to open the door, when it is frozen to the ground.

With steel doors, you either replace the damaged section(s), or you don't. There isn't much else you can do as far as repairing them. Then, maybe you find out you can't get replacement section(s) anymore, (they discontinue them all the time). Or, it costs so much for the parts you need, you may as well spend a little more, and get a new door, with new springs, and rollers.

Some people don't care if their door has a dent in it, or is bent, as long as it opens.

There are exceptions, but, the days of people keeping their garage doors 40-50 years are pretty much over.

Standard springs are where you hit the 10 year expectancy I was referring to. I forget the numbers, But, my friend told me they design for a certain number of cycles per day. And, expect an average user hits that in about 10 years. Some get more, and some get less. The springs only are rated for so many cycles, and at some point they reach that. Then, one of the tiny fractures in it, from manufacturing, becomes the failure point.

That's why, if you have two springs, replace both, when one fails.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Standard spring is 10,000 cycles. Opening twice a day gives you almost 14 yrs of life. I can see 10 yrs as a reasonable life estimate.
You can order higher cycle springs if you use your doors a lot.

 

[ultrarunner]

It's very short to everyone. But, it's the reality. If you don't use the door excessively, they can go much longer.

You can buy a real wood door, with commercial track, hardware, and springs. Which, with some paint and minor maintenance, will duplicate your 50 year result.

But, it will cost you lets say more than $5000.

In the same 50 years, you could have a decent steel door, replaced the springs, tuned it up, replaced the door, replaced the springs, and tuned it up, for lets say $3800. And you would never have had to paint either of them. The steel doors are also insulated.

That's why, except for high end homes, where the look is desired, wood doors have pretty much become extinct.

On those high end homes, the doors are generally stained, and varnished, which is a lot of maintenance. But, I guess if your paying someone else to do it you don't mind as much.

The doors I have run from run of the mill 1950 tract homes to a custom 18' cedar raised panel door in Washington from 1977...

I will never have a metal door at a rental... tried a few and they don't abuse well... even kids hitting the panels enough times with a bicycle will make the door ugly in no time.

My only commercial door is a roll up in the hay barn it is the worst... the company that built the barn had been out so many times they gave up when the warranty was over.

Still at the stage where I do all my own work... roof replacement, remodel the bath, new kitchen, copper re-pipe, electrical service upgrade... same on my vehicles... thankfully, have not had to do a motor rebuild in a long time... the ones I have done are still all on the road...

It's not that I am averse to paying a fair price for a job done right... it's just by the time you fool around getting estimates and working around a contractor's time schedule... I can be done and on to the next project...

I've been told many times my problem is I can fix things and for some this is a problem... hey.... I still have the $800 car I bought in High School and drove it daily for 20 years.

The internet is a wonderful thing when it comes to do it yourself... the springs my overhead door dealer wouldn't sell me were here in 3 days for 60% of what the local guy wanted... same for the overpriced $40 remotes for one of the apartment buildings I managed... $12 online.

My best metal roll up doors and opener are the ones I installed in Austria... quality throughout and almost silent in operation... also no pinch points... of course everything costs more there except Chocolate!

This is the US website for the Hörmann company that made my doors in Austria...

USA

Pinch Points

Taurus

Silent Opener

SilentDrive® Openers

 

[LD1]

Since pictures are now uploading

 

[ray66v]

Where's the opener?

 

[LD1]

Where's the opener?

Soon. It will be up soon.

Just trying to prioritize what I have remaining to do to the building.