Home Improvement Today?

Not in the pics, but it got everything (including springs) installed. Decided to ditch the overhead opener and go with a side mount. So, I'll pick one up tomorrow.
But, it now opens and closes. Even the rafters aren't square to the house, so that made eyeballing the alignment a PITA.

I need to get my tractor down there so I can run the grader over the driveway leading up to the garage. Years of neglect let grass and mud overwhelm the gravel and I was spinning my tires backing up to the door. It'll eventually get slabbed, or maybe paved, but I just need to get it down to gravel for now.

 

...^^^... Wow, that looks 100% better and looks professional ...

 

Thanks for the kind lies. I'm going to finish knocking off the 1/2" of siding above the opening on the header. Then I will paint the exposed wood to protect it until I get new siding installed.
Got the structural permit today to replace the sill plate at the front side of the house. So once the weather clears up for a couple days, I'll attack that mess. Going to have to sister in a few joists, and add a few pier supports as they are currently few and far between.

 

my old boss went with all side-mount openers like that in his house.

the one thing i learned is that EVERYTHING matters with those. where the overhead openers basically Popeye the door open/closed and literally nothing matters as long as the rollers stay in the track.

i think he finally got it sorted, but for quite a while, the garage door guy was making trips every 1-3 months to his house to adjust things on his two doors because they're so touchy. at one point there was speculation that just the cables stretching was enough to create slack in the system to wreak havoc on it and unspool off the rollers.

TLDR: as nice as a side-mount is, i'm definitely not ever changing because even if everything goes wrong, i can count on my overhead opener to just work...

 

looks great!

that's the unfortunate case with repairs-- it's not how it measures, but how it looks. and it looks square!

 

Professional Grade! Show some pics of the side mount door opener when installed, I'm curious.

 

Door is fully functional now.

I also added some lights. Tomorrow, I'll trim the rear supports after I go get my bandsaw.

 

I've got one of those side openers. Works great, after you get it dialed in. It took a few years to find the perfect limits and downpressure. Then the damn mice ate holes through the bottom seal!

 

Speaking garage doors, I bought some of this stuff last week. Waiting for it to warm up before installing. Hoping that solves my rain problem.

Even though the doors are new-ish and the seals are good, wind & rain usually hit the front of my garage dead on. I end up with a good amount of rain leaking around either side of the bottom seal during a big storm.

$42 Jin&Bao Universal Garage Door Threshold Seal Strip 20FT Kit, Bottom Waterproof Rubber Weather Stripping Replacement（Black, 2 Adhesive）

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDX24GHF?th=1

 

Re side openers: I had no choice but use one in my garage which is a converted carport as a lot know. There isn't as much headroom as needed for an overhead opener. I haven't had too many issues with it, but the initial setup was a PITA due to me being a dumbass. It has a cable sensor which I had put in the wrong position so it thought the cable snapped and kept stopping the door and opening it back up. After that was figured out it has been good. They are unnecessarily expensive though. In 2022 it was $500 and Menards had it priced the best so I ordered it online.

It's a Chamberlain model, but looks like there's a cross between brands and it looked almost the same as a Liftmaster back then.

 

Well could use some advice. Hopefully someone has some ideas at least lol. We (ok the wife) is wanting to put in gas inserts instead of our wood burning fireplaces. We have two fireplaces. One on the main floor and one in the basement. The main floor one is easy enough to run gas and electric to via outside the house and through the "ash box"/cleanout.

The basement one is....going to be interesting. It is below grade. My understanding of the Gas code is there can not be a penetration into the house below grade so getting the gas line in from the outside is a no go. One person I talked to mentioned you CAN NOT drill between the two fireplaces....ie i could not come in through the cleanout in the main floor fireplace and drill from the main floor fireplace to the basement one and run that way.

Anyways here is the basement fireplace. In between the red lines is the flues (think thats the name) of the chimney. Each fireplace has its own. The green line is ground level. The blue line is simply a steel post against the foundation wall.


The current gas line is running to the right of the steel beam (blue line) on the ceiling. There is room between the steel beam and rim joist that a flexible line could be run. Otherwise would have to drill through the beam.

My current thinking is it might be best to run along the floor joists and behind the drywall wall. Then have to remove some the rocks that seem to just be mortared in place. Then run the gas and power in that sort of "seat" part and up to where it needs to be. Then would have to put the rock back assuming it doesnt get to damaged.

Anyways...any advice/other ideas lol?

 

I dont think id run one through the outside ash cleanout. Our upstairs one had it along the floor joists up into the fireplace. Our basement one came in from the side like you are talking. Both wood burning/gas capable.


When we moved in they both needed relined which we didnt want to spend 10k doing. So we tried gas in our upstairs one and never jived with it. It didnt put out enough heat into the room at all. We have since done electric inserts into both of ours and are way happier. The rooms actually warm up and the inside of the fireplace can be insulated to prevent cold air from drafting down

 

Both the fireplace installer and one plumber we talked to mentioned using the ash cleanout was the only reason I'd considered using it. i figured Id have to drill through the brick.

Sadly theres no way to get to it from below so have to go the outside route.

Luckily? these arent so much for primary heat as just a look thing. And a "if the power goes out" or the central air dies backup of sorts. The fan will be on battery back up for that.

 

Leave the wood burning fireplace. Gas inserts are a downgrade.

 

I'd put a "wood-stove insert" in the basement fireplace and go gas upstairs for the mood fire.

 

Gotta set the mood.



Maybe they should consider an amish fireplace? Those were selling like hot cakes on the TV many years ago.

 

Hard to argue that homey atmosphere!

Quadra-Fire makes some nice fireplace inserts.

 

I'd go with wood in the basement. Allowing for any apocolyptic eventualities.

 

You offering to bring us wood then?

but really getting firewood is an issue where I am. Hence why basically nobody uses it around me. What is available gets trucked in and costs 3 times what it did back in WA state