Hi, I am New

[Jayly]

I have a 30 here old double wide garage door in good condition that is considered to be heavy. It is installed flush with the front façade. I was wondering if replacement with a one piece garage door looking exactly like the existing one is any better and lighter. The cost is $10,000 to replace my garage door with another one piece wood door that is custom-made to look like my existing door. I was wondering if replacing the garage door opener and Hardware with the safety features is do-able. There are heavy duty garage door opener‘s with a bid of only $2000. Only one company would do this kind of work and others refuse to just replace the opener. I was wondering if the new custom-made garage door is any lighter than the existing old door or if just replacing the door opener will not last as long because of the weight of the existing door?

 

[njhowie]

I would go with a better garage door opener and also consider replacing the torsion springs with the next size up.

We also have a double wide garage door which is quite heavy and have had work on it over the years. When we purchased our home 19 years ago, pretty soon after one of the torsion springs snapped and a piece of it flew across the garage...could have killed me if I were in its trajectory.

Anyhow, we had a garage door company come out, they replaced both of them with new stronger ones and everything was good again. A few years later, the old garage door opener began to clearly have problems. Instead of replacing with a similar 1/2 HP model, we instead purchased a 3/4 HP and it's been fabulous. It clearly had a much easier time lifting the door than the older model. I purchased online from Sears, and they included installation through some local installer. I'm quite surprised that you'd have trouble finding someone to just install the opener. Go to Lowes, Home Depot, or Sears (if there are still any near you) and talk with them about their openers - they always have local installers they work with that will do everything.

I did a quick check on Home Depot's website and they have some nice heavy duty models - even several 2HP models. Your $2000 price seems way, way high - the 2HP models at Home Depot max out at $300. It also says they have installation services.

 

[Mdlerth]

Most introductions here involve retirement considerations

Keep the existing heavy door and opener, but install stronger springs to assist opening.

Take the $10k you saved and invest it in accordance with your predetermined asset allocation. You'll be able to retire a bit earlier or more comfortably with the additional savings.