Renovating? Protecting Your Garage Door While Builders Are In

A renovation turns the whole house upside down for a while, and the garage usually cops more than its share. It becomes the site store, the cutting bench, the place where the plasterboard waits and where the tradies duck in out of the rain. Meanwhile the garage door and opener are expected to keep working every morning and night as if nothing had changed.

Most of the damage a garage door picks up during building work isn’t dramatic. It’s dust in places it shouldn’t be, a door that got bumped, a remote that went home in someone’s ute, or an opener that lost power when the electrician was working on the switchboard. A little planning before the builders arrive saves a lot of frustration later.

Before work starts: agree on how the garage will be used

Have a conversation with your builder about the garage early, ideally before the first delivery. A few questions worth settling:

• Will the garage be used for storing materials, and if so, where exactly will they be stacked?
• Will trades need to open the door themselves, or will someone at home do it for them?
• Is any of the work happening in or above the garage, such as new ceiling linings, lighting, a floor that’s being levelled or a room being built over the top?
• Where will the skip bin, the delivery truck and the trade vehicles park?

The last question matters more than people expect. Trucks and trailers reversing up a narrow driveway, say in Camberwell or Balwyn, don’t always have much room to swing, and a garage door or gate is a big target. Ask for deliveries to stop well short of the door.

If the renovation includes the garage itself, raise it with us before the plans are locked in. A change to the floor level or the ceiling can affect how a door sits in the opening and how much room the tracks and opener have.

While the builders are in: keep the door’s path and parts clear

The single most useful rule is that nothing goes in the path of the door. Stacks of timber, boxes of tiles, ladders and wheelbarrows have a way of creeping toward the opening when space runs short. Ask everyone on site to keep a clear strip along the door line and away from the tracks.

A few other habits help:

• Don’t let anyone lean ladders, sheets of material or tools against the door, inside or out.
• Keep anything from being hung off the tracks, the opener or its rail. They aren’t built to carry extra load.
• If your opener has safety beams near the floor, keep materials and offcuts well away from them. If one gets knocked, don’t try to line it up again yourself. Book a technician.
• Nobody should stand or walk under the door while it’s moving.

Dust is the quiet problem. Sanding, cutting and plastering throw fine dust that settles on everything, including the tracks and the moving parts of the door. Close the internal door to the house where you can, and ask trades to cut outside rather than in the garage. If it’s practical, keep the garage door either fully closed or fully open while dusty work is going on nearby, rather than stopping it halfway to let air through.

Power, access and remotes during the job

Electrical work often means the power is off for a few hours or longer. When that happens, an automatic door won’t run on the opener. Before work begins, find the manual for your opener and read the section on manual release, or look up your model on our manual release instructions page. Follow the steps for your exact model. If the door feels heavy, sticks or won’t move freely in manual mode, stop and call us rather than forcing it.

Please don’t let anyone unplug the opener to free up a power point for tools, or run an extension lead from the opener’s outlet. Any changes to power in the garage belong with a licensed electrician.

Access is the other thing to sort out. It’s common to hand a spare remote to the builder so trades can get in. That’s fine, but keep a simple list of who has a remote and when they got it. At the end of the job, collect them all. If a remote can’t be found, or you’d simply feel better starting fresh, ask us what’s involved for your opener. Our Merlin remote programming page has more on remotes, but follow the manual for your exact model.

When the dust settles: check before you settle back in

Once the builders have packed up, take a few minutes to watch the door run from a safe distance. Look and listen for anything different from before the job started. Things worth noting:

• Grinding, scraping or squealing that wasn’t there before.
• A door that moves unevenly, hesitates or reverses without an obvious reason.
• Dents, scratches or panels that look out of line.
• A remote or wall button that only works some of the time.

Any of these could have a few causes, so treat them as things to report rather than proof of a particular fault. A heavy layer of dust on the tracks doesn’t need you on a ladder with a rag. It’s better handled as part of a proper garage door service, where the moving parts are inspected, lubricated and adjusted by someone trained to do it safely. If you think something was damaged during the work, take photos and tell your builder.

Planning a renovation, or want the door looked over now the builders have gone? Contact Eastern Garage Doors and we’ll help you work out what’s needed.