Garage Door Opener

[Captain Ron 13128]

Not to long ago I bought a new place in the suburbs of Boston. One great thing is the garage. It's only a single car, but that's ok.

The only issue with it is that it has a low ceiling. The cars fit fine, but the door has very little clearance to the ceiling. It's so low that they had to install a double track low clearance kit for the door, so it would close (like this one - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Clopay-Garage-Door-Low-Headroom-Conversion-Kit-4125477/100021966 ). The door is also small, it's a stretch to call it 7'x7', it might be 6'6" high and 7' wide.

So now I want to put a garage door opener in. The first problem I see is that the lack of clearance won't allow the track to fit above the door. I haven't taken the time to measure it, but at the smallest point I think I am looking at around 1/2" of clearance.

Next is that there isn't a jackshaft on the door. The tension springs are all mounted along the side via cables (1st video 0:35 mark). So that takes out the possibility for a jackshaft garage door opener.

So I wanted to ask the Surly masses if they have an idea of how to tackle this one. Maybe we have some garage door gurus here. If not, I might just call a professional on this one, to see what can be done.

 

Otherwise I might have to go with one of these contraptions:

This is the Miracle Garage Door opener (I would note this guys garage best demonstrates how mine is installed, it has the double track system and the side mounted tension springs). 

 

And while this might be possible, I wanted to know about the safety of an install like this.

 

[52-80 19377]

2 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

 

The only issue with it is that it has a low ceiling. The cars fit fine, but the door has very little clearance to the ceiling.

 

maybe trade in your lamborghini for a normal passenger car.

[CooterBrown 18287]

You have two solutions in your post. Without raising your ceiling, you need to go with one of those two.

 

Surly 1% answer: Just hire a doorman to stand there and open and close the door as needed. What are you, poor?

 

 

 

[Loco 3754]

or roll up garage door