HELP - garage door openers NOT center-mounted | FerrariChat

HELP - garage door openers NOT center-mounted

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by Doody, Feb 1, 2004.

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  1. Doody

    Doody F1 Veteran

    Nov 16, 2001
    6,099
    MA USA
    Full Name:
    Mr. Doody
    gents:

    my architect and i are very close to finalizing the plans for my new garage/office addition to the house. we're having a bear of a time getting the ceiling height i want due to attractive integration with the existing structure and surrounding grade issues.

    at this point he's gotten me 11'0" clear of the overhead door equipment. i'd like to be at 11'2" minimum. i'd be happier with 11'4" or 11'5".

    i'm trying to find out if side-mounted openers are (a) for real and (b) what sort of opportunity they provide to really minimize the space the door and opener and tracks consume. i'd very much like to see some pics of same. anybody got any? i had NO luck searching online. in fact, all i found were folks saying "don't do this" due to high fail rates of openers and whatnot.

    any data you've got to share i'm ALL EARS FOR.

    my fallback at this point is to say **** the overhead doors and go wtih overhead coiling doors, at which point i've got basically 12'0" clear, but they are BUTT UGLY (not to put too fine a point on it). i can't find anybody (online) who sells NICE overhead coiling doors. if anybody has pointers to these, i'm ALL EARS as well.

    thanks guys.

    doody.
     
  2. Ontogenetik

    Ontogenetik Karting

    Nov 2, 2003
    149

    looked at this

    http://www.garagedetailer.bizhosting.com/idrive.html



    bought this due to simply european

    http://www.marantecamerica.com/html/products.html
     
  3. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 28, 2003
    75,380
    Texas!
    Doody, I'm not sure that I understand what you are trying to do. Is the problem that the doors are going to be too big and ugly? I'm currently doing a lot of work for a home builder and can get you some product catalogs, if that will help.

    DrTax


     
  4. whart

    whart F1 Veteran
    Honorary

    Dec 5, 2001
    6,485
    Grandview NY
    Full Name:
    Herr Prof.
    Dood: not sure about "coiling" doors, and have no info on side mounted openers, but i am using the doors shown here, custom built, to look like a series of barn doors, but will open as a conventional overhead door would: http://www.designerdoors.com/
     
  5. Doody

    Doody F1 Veteran

    Nov 16, 2001
    6,099
    MA USA
    Full Name:
    Mr. Doody
    my goal is to minimize the amount of space taken up at the ceiling by the door, the tracks, and, most importantly, the electric opener which traditionally is mounted in a crappy position relative to putting cars up on lifts.

    there are two ways to accomplish this:

    (1) don't use traditional overhead sectional doors. instead, use coiling overhead doors (ugly, bad insulation), sliding doors (weird, expensive, maintenance issues), or outward-opening barn doors (not snow friendly, weird, sub-optimal for my exterior layout).

    (2) use traditional overhead sectional doors, but put the motor/opener somewhere non-traditional. historically, this has meant a "side-mount" but i can't find any data on this online. now wayne dalton has this new iDrive unit that mounts with the torsion spring - very slick, but i can't find any technical specs on it (clearances, etc.).

    i'm trying to make #2 work.

    a coiling door is basically a steel door with 2.5" or so slats that coils into a box at the top of the door. it's generally a commercial thing, though some folks use them for residential garages for just these sorts of reasons.

    i know there are guys here with side-mounts (and coils), i'd love to hear from y'all.

    doody

    ps: designer doors makes some GORGEOUS stuff. my architect wants to use them, but i'll probably end up with something more modest - the house is very modern-clean-lines sorta stuff.
     
  6. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 28, 2003
    75,380
    Texas!
    I'll see what I can find for you.

     
  7. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
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    Jim Glickenhaus
    Doody
    All of this can be done BUT it involves alot of engineering. My lifts lower from the ceiling on cables and are one touch computer controled. My large door splits in the middle and rides straight up on parallel tracks. The inside of the doors are Mahagony surrounded by Stainless. The smaller door has a side mounted mech which we made.
     
  8. Doody

    Doody F1 Veteran

    Nov 16, 2001
    6,099
    MA USA
    Full Name:
    Mr. Doody
    thanks for all the info, guys.

    i spoke to the guys who did my last doors, and they tell me the best option is to go with a commercial grade "jackshaft" that mounts at the wall of the door and operates with the torsion bar right there (presumably this is the theory the iDrive is based on, though my guys say that thing is a POS). they're recommending a LiftMaster LGO commercial jackshaft unit.

    this would in theory solve my problems. the door and tracks can be shoved up against the ceiling pretty damn close and gets me the few extra inches i need with no worry about the opener being in the way of the lifted car.

    still researching......

    doody.
     
  9. jimpo1

    jimpo1 Two Time F1 World Champ
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Jul 30, 2001
    24,510
    Dallas, TX
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    Jim E
    Doody, my garage has two doors, one for each side, and I have a single door opener mounted between them. I only have one opener because that's all I CAN have due to the design of the garage. I've been in the house 5 years and replaced the last unit about 2 years ago. The first unit was at least 15 years old. Opening 2 doors does present some unusual strains on the unit, but I bought the heaviest one I could buy to hopefully get extended life. My doors are connected by two steel plates at the top and the bottom, and the opener pulls on the 'upper' plate. Mine may be different than what you need because I also open the second door and it's more 'balanced'.
     
  10. twinturbo

    twinturbo Karting

    Nov 10, 2003
    160
    Doody,

    I think KPV did a side mount for his garage over on 6speed so he could fit a two car lift ... you might want to PM him ?

    Dario
     
  11. teak360

    teak360 F1 World Champ

    Nov 3, 2003
    10,065
    Boulder, CO
    Full Name:
    Scott
    Among other things, I am also a builder. I am currently addressing a similair problem in my own garage. I decided I wanted room for a single pole lift so I could store three cars in the garage instead of just two. I have limited footprint for the garage.
    I designed the garage with a ridge beam and rafters. This gives me an open ceiling all the way up to the ridge beam, so I didn't want garage doors and tracks, etc. in the way.
    The best solution I found is a high quality roll-up commercial door with a side mounted opener. It is more expensive, about $ 3,500. It is also not too attractive, but my garage faces an alley that is only used to access garages so it isn't seen from the street.
    The rollup eliminates any tracks, motors, etc. from projecting into the garage. Even in the up position it's all in its nice little box above the door.
     
  12. Sean F.

    Sean F. F1 Rookie

    Feb 4, 2003
    3,059
    Kansas
    Full Name:
    Sean F
    Why can't you mount the door opener in the ceiling space between the joists? My garage is really low and that's how one of my openers was mounted. Of course, the joists run parallel to the direction the door opens (perpendicular to the door itself when down).

    This would allow you to lift the door clooser to the ceiling as the opener and it's mechanism's would be up in the ceiling.
     
  13. Doody

    Doody F1 Veteran

    Nov 16, 2001
    6,099
    MA USA
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    Mr. Doody
    teak360 - i REALLY like the compactness and simplicity of the roll-up, but i'm talking about three garage doors that you see when you come down the driveway, and man those things ain't gorgeous :)

    seanf - nice idea, but won't anyway work in my instance. i'll have i-beams running parallel to the door motion in between the bays, so the joists for the floor above will be running perpindicular to the door motion, whacking that option.

    impo1 - that's a very creative solution! but i've got (a) three doors and (b) i-beams in between them, so it won't really work (unless i mount the opener under the ibeam, which means the rails will need to be below that which means i'd lose a lot of ceiling clearance etc. - doesn't work).

    my door guys told me that to lift a 7' standard overhead sectional garage door up to the top of an 11' to 12' ceiling you can't use a standard garage door opener because of the extensive straight vertical pull (4' or more) that it needs to do before it gets to the horizontal part. they said the commercial jackshaft was in fact my only option. they said they do a couple of these a month - they knew exactly what i was talking about - storage lifts and the like.

    but i know i'm not the first guy to do this here, and i've never seen shots of nor discussion of jackshaft openers - hence my continued curiosity.

    doody
     
  14. tvrfreak

    tvrfreak F1 Rookie
    BANNED

    Mar 31, 2003
    3,879
    Arkansas
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    F K
    Can't you lower the floor of the garage by 4-6"--ought to be a pretty shallow grade/short ramp length from the driveway.
     
  15. Brianjonesphoto

    Brianjonesphoto Formula Junior

    Dec 2, 2003
    268
    Seattle Wa
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    Brian Jones
  16. Doody

    Doody F1 Veteran

    Nov 16, 2001
    6,099
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    Mr. Doody
    tvrfreak - yes, in theory we can lower the garage a bit more, but we've already lowered it quite a bit. we're as low as we can go right now without any worries of water. the front of my land slopes a good 5' or 6' down as it gets to the garage doors. and it's wetlands behind, another few feet down. so we've already pushed it as far as we're comfortable - anything else is playing with fire.

    mondial86 has a great garage. i have a full floor above, so can't do anything peaked like that.

    doody.
     
  17. CraigFL

    CraigFL Formula Junior

    Jan 17, 2001
    954
    Panama City, FL
    Full Name:
    Craig
    Since all the door opener does is rotate a chain sprocket, I don't know why you couldn't put sprocket(s) at the end of the door guide and do a right angle turn with the chain. Then you could just mount the opener itself close to the wall to get it out of the center of the garage.

    Of course this will get more complicated if you are using a belt or screw drive...
     

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