NOTE: This is a long post that includes three (3) photos with captions. Photos taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
MONDAY 10 and TUESDAY 11 June 2024 — Property maintenance and new garage doors
Monday 10 … Property maintenance continues
As previously noted, we have been quite focused recently on property maintenance. Our specific focus has been trimming branches from evergreen trees up high enough that we can clear the area underneath of weeds and saplings and so those areas can be mowed on a regular basis. I (Bruce) am mostly doing the pruning and Linda is mostly doing the weed removal. She does most of it by hand, but is also using an Ortho spray product that is designed for Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Poison Sumac, etc. We had a cool streak of weather, and were trying to take advantage of it.
As part of the tree work, we end up with a lot of limbs and brush, and the only practical way for us to dispose of it is to have a burn pile. We wait until we have enough material to make it worth starting a fire, and have reason to believe we will generate enough additional material over the course of the day to make good use of it. We had enough to make this worth doing, so a fire it was.
Tuesday 11 … Work begins on new garage doors
Today was an unusually busy day, that started with best wishes for our daughter’s 43rd birthday (1981).
I got a text message from Dan indicating that he could be here between 9 – 10 AM to start installing the new garage doors. Outstanding! That meant I had to get the vehicles out of the garage and then move anything that might be in his way. We moved the vehicles in front of the barn and all of the stuff, and there was plenty, to the back of the garage.
We moved the vehicles in front of the barn because it was also grass-mowing day. Keith would be showing up sometime late morning to do that, so I wanted to leave the driveway in front of the house open for his truck and trailer.
We had breakfast earlier than usual to get an early start on the yard work, which included another go at the burn pile. We got all of the existing cuttings burned, and generated a lot of additional material, which also got burned.
The new top rails for the small garage door hanging from their ceiling supports. The door panels are individually wrapped for shipping and sitting across a pair of sawhorses. Dan (left edge of frame) is working on the right-side vertical guide rail. The old Chamberlain chain drive operator is still attached to its ceiling supports.
Dan showed up at 10 AM and got right to work. I checked in with him periodically, but tried not to take up too much of his time. As it turned out, there were a few decisions to be made. He started by removing the old doors, along with all of their associated hardware, including the Chamberlain motorized door operators.
He started the installation of the new door for the smaller (single vehicle) bay and then needed a consultation. It’s an 8’ wide opening, but the door company (C.H.I./Nucor) had sent a door for a 9’ opening. Ugh. It turned out that the door they sent had the same size inset panel features that the 16’ door had. If the door had been the correct size, the panels would not have been quite as wide but the reveal on either edge would match the reveal on the 16’ door. We decided that we liked the panels being the same size and that the smaller reveal on the 8’ opening was acceptable. This meant that Dan could go ahead and install the door rather than return it, reorder it, and wait as much as month (or more) for the new one. It also meant that he did not have to re-install the old door.
The long door panels for the 16’ (2-car) garage bay. Dan has a support system for his pickup truck that allows him to transport these long pieces. Each panel is individually wrapped for shipping.
With that decision made, Dan did a partial installation of the tracks for the smaller door so he could put in the panels and have the opening sealed. He then turned his attention to the larger door, with the objective of getting it fully installed and operational before he left for the day. And he did!
As I mentioned, the doors are from C.H.I./Nucor. They are nice looking and appear to be well made. They are also 2” thick and insulated. One of the reasons for this update/upgrade was to get better insulated doors that would seal better when closed. I think these will accomplish that goal, but we won’t know that until winter.
More garage door parts. The long black thing with the red top end is one of the counterbalance springs. The boxes contain the LiftMaster (by Chamberlain) direct drive motor operator kits, which included the deadbolts, LED light fixtures, and the remotes, both wired and wireless.
One of the other things we did with the project was specify direct-drive motor operators rather than they usual ceiling mounting chain-drive mechanism. The Liftmaster operators were very impressive, mounted on the front wall at one end of the spring shaft. The system also features a remote-controlled deadbolt, mounted on the track below the operator about half way to the floor and hardwired back to it. The deadbolt can be moved manually, if needed, and there is a pull cord on the bottom of the operator to release it. The two things together allow the door to be unlocked and moved manually from inside the garage.
Each door has a wired controller. Dan set those up side-by-side near the entrance door from the library, and just above the light switches for the shop lights. One of their features is a temperature display. Very nice! He also wired up the safety beam, as the doors will not operate without them installed and aligned correctly. Each operator also came with a ceiling light; a low-profile integrated LED fixture about 9” x 9”. Interestingly, while the fixture has to be plugged in to a 120VAC receptacle, it is controlled wirelessly from the operator. Dan indicated that he can add additional light fixtures if needed/wanted, but each fixture can only be paired with one operator.
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