Ye Ole Garage Door

Hello?
"Honey, the garage door just fell"
Are you OK?
"Yes"
Is the car OK?
"Yes.  Do you know the name of the garage door company we used last time?"
I'll be home in a minute...

The issue wasn't as bad as it sounded.  One of our garage door rollers had broken, and only one part of the door had fallen.  Lucky for us, the other rollers were holding.  Did I call the garage door company?  Nope, just fired up YouTube for a quick how-to video and then drove to Lowe's.

The round thingy is supposed to stay on the metal rod.

The last time I called Overhead Door, a very unusual situation had rendered a giant hole in my garage door that a white Ford Taurus could drive through.  (Note: bourbon was not involved, and Big B was not at the wheel.)  The Overhead Door guys was great and showed up at 8:00 AM the next day to install a new one.  They're great when you need a new door or a broken spring needs to be replaced.  For this job, all you need are channel locks, the biggest screwdriver in your garage, pliers, and a good radio station.

The day of the incident, Lowe's had a 2-pack of replacement steel rollers for $5.  The door was back in business quickly, and your friendly neighborhood IT Pro was back at work without even changing clothes.  Fast forward to today.  Amazon shipped me a 10-pack of nylon rollers for $15, and the job was to replace all the rollers before the next one blew out.

Nylon Rollers

Here's all you need to do to get them installed:

1.  Get all the cars out of the garage.  You don't want a misstep to bring the garage door crashing down on your brand new Lexus.

2.  Find a spot in the garage door where all the rollers pass by when the door comes up and down.  On mine, this place was in the curve marked with the black sharpie.

3.  Yank the cord on the garage door opener.  Make sure that someone is holding the door, or you have it secured in some way.

 

3.  Pry open a spot in the rail.  For me, big channel locks did the trick.  Make sure that you bend the rail enough for the rollers to pass in and out.

4.  Using the biggest screwdriver in your garage, pry out the old roller from the rail, and manipulate the door to a spot where the old roller will come out.

5.  Slide out the old roller, and pop in the new one.  You might need the screwdriver to get the door in the right spot to push the new roller back in the rail.

6.  Move the door down to the next roller, and repeat 4 more times. 

7.  Using a big set of pliers, close the opening you just made on the rail.  Make sure that the rail looks somewhat like when you started.  Don't worry too much.  The rail doesn't need to pass the ball bearing test on the BMW assembly line.  Just shape the metal so the new rollers don't either get stuck or fall out.

8.  Follow the same steps on the other side of the door.

9.  Reattach the garage door to the opener.

10.  Test, test, test.

From everything I've read online, garage door rollers last about 15 years.  If yours are old, go ahead and buy a new set on Amazon and put them in.  It's much cheaper to do it now than after your garage door has smashed up one of your cars (or even worse, hits a person).  If one breaks, replace them all.  They were installed at the same time, and the old rollers will all break at approximately the same time, too.  Tip: Nylon rollers are much quieter than steel.  My door hums now, where it used to rattle like a roller coaster at Six Flags.  Install took about 30 minutes, and even a wanna-be home improvement guru like me can do it with the simplest of tools.