When I was younger we had one of the older-style “2 big springs” doors and needed to replace the springs. The new ones were a bit shorter, so we had to close the doors a little harder. No problem.
About 20 minutes later there was a sound like an explosion in the garage. One of the new springs broke where the hook went into the door from the strain of being stretched so tight, and it shot across the room and was sticking out of the man-door on the other side of the garage.
I had my grandparents’ house inspected before buying it, and the inspector said that a couple of the springs (same type) were not installed correctly; that the extra cable coming from the door to the track was supposed to be routed through the spring to hold it in place in case there was a failure. The garage doors were already concerning me, so I hired a garage door company to take a look, and update the springs.
The technician told me that an inspector pointing that out is really strange, because that’s an incredibly niche detail for an inspector to know. The tech looks at the spring, checks out the garage door, etc. All the while, I’m standing under the track. The tech was about to open the garage door, and said, “hey, take a few steps back. No reason to risk standing under that, in case it fails.” I took three steps back, and then there was a loud bang, and the spring suddenly whipped across in front of me, bounced back once, and then lazily swung back and forth in front of me.
I still sometimes panic walking under my garage door tracks.
I’m glad to know that! I’ve only inspected and purchased my grandparents’ home, and I hope to live here the rest of my life, so I don’t really know what to expect from inspectors. I only know what I’ve been told.
When I was younger we had one of the older-style “2 big springs” doors and needed to replace the springs. The new ones were a bit shorter, so we had to close the doors a little harder. No problem.
About 20 minutes later there was a sound like an explosion in the garage. One of the new springs broke where the hook went into the door from the strain of being stretched so tight, and it shot across the room and was sticking out of the man-door on the other side of the garage.
Don’t fuck with garage springs.
I had my grandparents’ house inspected before buying it, and the inspector said that a couple of the springs (same type) were not installed correctly; that the extra cable coming from the door to the track was supposed to be routed through the spring to hold it in place in case there was a failure. The garage doors were already concerning me, so I hired a garage door company to take a look, and update the springs.
The technician told me that an inspector pointing that out is really strange, because that’s an incredibly niche detail for an inspector to know. The tech looks at the spring, checks out the garage door, etc. All the while, I’m standing under the track. The tech was about to open the garage door, and said, “hey, take a few steps back. No reason to risk standing under that, in case it fails.” I took three steps back, and then there was a loud bang, and the spring suddenly whipped across in front of me, bounced back once, and then lazily swung back and forth in front of me.
I still sometimes panic walking under my garage door tracks.
That’s not at all a niche detail. An inspector who fails to call that out is completely incompetent.
I’m glad to know that! I’ve only inspected and purchased my grandparents’ home, and I hope to live here the rest of my life, so I don’t really know what to expect from inspectors. I only know what I’ve been told.