Three Expensive Mistakes: Garage Door Opener Installation Failures You can Fix: How to identify and correct three of the most common causes of expensive ... Door Advice from a Professional Book 1)

Book Synopsis: Is there anything more stressful than a big, unexpected bill? Try to make a list of likely places that you will suddenly have to drop $500 or more without any warning. The car comes to mind. Or your dishwasher could quit. Don’t forget the dog. Have you ever thought about the garage door? You should. It is a ticking time bomb. All garage doors are lifted by a spring system that counterbalances the true weight, which is usually hundreds of pounds. All springs break from use, usually after about 10,000 lifts. The result is a door that will not lift off the ground. You are already looking at a repair between $200 and $400 depending on how many springs your door requires. This is just a fact of having a garage door—if you use it regularly, you will have to replace springs from time to time. But what should be a simple spring repair can turn into a full-blown replacement of your entire door and opener system in an instant. And most of the time it had worked perfectly every day for a decade. There was no indication that something was VERY wrong with your garage door installation. Or that today would be the day it failed. In this tutorial, I explain how to identify and easily correct the three biggest threats to your garage door system. Hundreds of homeowners around the country have their garage doors seriously damaged or destroyed every single day. The evidence is everywhere. Just pay attention to the other doors in your neighborhood and see how many have a bend, tear, crack or crease running up the middle of the top door section. If you live in a neighborhood with houses over 10 years old, at least 10% of the doors you see will probably show some kind of damage. Repairing damage like this will add at least $150 to your repair. Frequently, the damage is beyond repair, and the entire section must be replaced. Prices range from $200 for a small cheap door to $900+ if you have a big insulated door with windows. And if your garage door model isn’t made anymore, you may need a whole new door! You could easily be up to $2000 at this point. And if it needs to match your other doors? Well that may be impossible, so now you are buying three new doors and your bill is over $5000. Luckily, this kind of damage, which is essentially the result of a bad original installation, can easily be avoided. All you have to do is identify and correct the three common installation mistakes that lead to nearly all garage door damage. Most people can do it themselves for free in just a few minutes. Even if it costs you a service charge (usually around $100) for a professional to make these adjustments for you, it will be worth the money.