What's In Your Garage?

Do you use your garage for vehicles, storage, or a combination of both? Have you ever thought about how much room a garage door repairman needs to perform needed repairs, especially in an emergency? If your door can not be opened from the outside and there is so much stuff inside that there is not a clear and wide walking path to the areas that need service, like tracks, springs and the opener, it won’t get repaired, at least not inexpensively, especially if your repairman has to make a return trip after the garage is made clear. Sometimes that is impossible, especially if the main door is the only access and cannot be raised from the outside.

We’ve seen it all, much worse than these photos. Many homeowners never think about what happens when they put too much stuff too close to the tracks that the door rolls on. When a wheel comes out of the track and the lifting cables become de-spooled, the door becomes inoperable, even manually. A repairman must have adequate access to the areas in need of attention, especially with his ladder. If he can’t get there, he can’t make the repair. We like to say that we can work a little magic, but not miracles.
And what’s in front of your exterior side entrance door? Got stuff in front of it? Too many times people block those all important emergency exit doors. Keep your stuff far enough away to allow for your door to swing fully open.

Well, if you cannot walk to the area needing repair and a 6’ step ladder (not a stool) cannot be set on the floor in that area, it cannot be repaired. We like to use the following guidelines for proper access:1. If the sectioned roll-up door is closed, nothing can be on the floor within 3’ feet of the bottom of the door along its entire length, in other words, between the vertical tracks. We need to be able to walk freely from one side of the door to the other.2. Enough room for the feet of a 6’ step ladder either under or directly adjacent to the overhead tracks along their entire length, such that the repairman does not have to lean over the edge of his ladder for access to the tracks, rollers and rear track braces at the ceiling. Anything stored between the outer walls and the tracks is okay so long as it does not protrude beyond the tracks by more than a foot.3. A 4 foot wide walking path directly under and evenly split by (2 feet on each side) the opener rail. This path must be clear from the door to 14 feet into the garage so that a 6 foot step ladder can be stood under the entire length of the opener.