Garage Door Safety and Style Tips
Vince Paxton
Is your old garage door really getting on your nerves? Not only can old garage doors be an eyesore, they can also be a real pain. Some of them require you to get out of your car and open the door before driving in (lots of fun on rainy nights - kind of defeats the purpose of a garage!). Some you need a jack (
http://www.insidewoodworking.com/compressors/index.html ) and air compressor to even get open. Others work with a garage door opener, but are so old you have to drive under them and cross your fingers, hoping this won't be that one time when the door finally gives up and crashes down on your car. If this sounds like your garage door, but you have been putting off replacing it because you think that it will be too pricey, there is good news. You can complete the garage door home repair project yourself, which means there is no outlay on labor costs. Translation - more money in your pocket at the end of the project.
Now, a caveat to the statement above. You CAN indeed handle the door replacement yourself, but that doesn't always mean that you should. You'll want to know your way around a tool box pretty well before you undertake this job. Installation, when not done properly, can be downright dangerous. If you don't want the last thing you see to be garage door falling at your head at great speeds, then make sure you know what you're doing, and make sure you have a few spotters around keeping you on track.
Whether you're going to do this home repair job yourself or you're going to bring in the pros, you're going to have to choose the new door. The world of garage door shopping is filled with more options than you might realize. Forget the standard wooden doors of old; today's door replacement projects can use doors made of steel, wood, fiberglass, strong plastics, and other synthetic materials. The garage door your pick is a matter of personal preference. Get one that matches the style of your home (and if you're going to go funky, you may have to get the thumbs up from the Homeowner's Association as well). If there are any special weather circumstances in your area, such as being prone to hurricanes and tornados or you live in a very damp area, take these factors into account when choosing your door.
Beyond picking a door you like, it is all about safety. Choose a door that has a sensor that makes it stop lowering when something moves past it. This way, if your child/dog/car is under the door as it is coming down, the door will stop releasing and wait for you to get out of the way. Another great safety feature is a door with a light. When you are coming home late at night, having a light snap on in the garage when you enter will put your mind at ease.
Vince Paxton pens for the most part for
http://www.insidewoodworking.com, an online publication about workshop compressors. His (
http://www.insidewoodworking.com/compressors/index.html ) work on air compressor are published on his site .
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