At Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Houston, TX, we know that a lot of work goes into installing a new overhead garage door. This is true of upgrading an existing door. But what about installing a new overhead door where there was none before? Well now, that gets a lot more complicated.
What size will your door be?
The first factor that has to be decided upon is the overall size of the door itself. You not only have to account for width (one car, two car, extended?) but also height. Standard garage doors used to be seven feet tall. With the rise in popularity of the SUV, more and more homeowners are opting for eight foot tall models. All the other measurements and adjustments will be made around this basic design spec.
Roughing in
Your typical door in your home has a smooth edge that fits snugly into a smooth doorway with a smooth jamb. Not so with overhead garage doors! Because they roll up, there’s no way to fit it quite so snugly on their own. Therefore, they use various jamb materials to create a tight fit. The width of the rough opening should be equal to the width of the door plus the width of your jambing material. After considering the door’s length and the weight it will bear, you may need double trimmers for the header.
Head clearance
Determining headroom and clearance is critical to making sure the door opens and closes properly without damage to the door, property, or people. You’ll need ten inches of clearance if your door manufacturer uses regular springs. If they use torsion springs, you’ll need a full twelve inches. If you simply don’t have that much clearance available, it can be reduced to four and a half inches by purchasing a kit.
You’ll also need to double check the rear clearance. The rear clearance should be twenty six inches for a manually opening door, forty inches for an automatic. The headroom should be between five to eight inches to prevent injury.
Headers and Jambs
Now that door measurements are in place, we need to get the headers and back jambs squared away, literally. Make sure that the header is on the same level with the back jambs, and flushed. With that in place, square up the back jambs, making absolutely sure that they are plumb as well as perpendicular.
Final tips
- To avoid wood rot, install the side jambs at least a quarter inch off the concrete floors
- After the wall is in place, be sure the side and head jambs are fixated in place
- Counter intuitively, you should avoid using treated lumber for the door jambs as it can lead to problems with rusting and holes in steel or aluminum
As you can see, prepping your garage door frame from scratch is a highly involved process. It should be a one-time process that requires no servicing later. This makes it incredibly important to get it right the first time.
With that in mind, if you’re feeling overwhelmed after reading this article, don’t worry! Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Houston, Texas is here to help you! Our professional garage door technicians can help you with just about any problem you have. Call us today for service.
