How many engineers does it take to install a garage door? Well apparently at least two, and they better have two days to do it...
My wife and I recently purchased a brand new home, just finished in February. This house is bare bones... nothing in it except the bare necessities. This week I have spent my free time hanging shades and mini-blinds. Today, my friend Mike from Maui and I started to install a garage door opener.
This should have been an easy installation for two guys who used to, or currently, install telescopes for USAF. Well let me tell you, it was not that easy. First, the opener did not come with all the necessary hardware. Then, when we finally got everything together that we needed and started to make some real progress, disaster struck.
Mike went to open the door, and it hit the trolley mechanism that pulls the door up or pushes it down once it is fully installed. The jolt was enough to actually rip the mostly mounted opener right out of the wall! Luckily for me I was holding it up and the time, so it didn't go crashing to the floor, it did wake us up a little though.
We went to Home Depot for the third time to get some longer lag bolts to ensure that we hit the studs this time. We reanchored everything, and started to go from there. Things were going great until it came time to install the wiring.
You see when the house was built, they prewired the garage for the opener. The only problem was, they did not mark anything. So Mike and I were standing there wondering how the heck we were going to figure out which wire goes where. Well good thing for us we are both fairly intelligent men. All we had to do was wire the controller, and then hook the other end of the wires into the opener until we found the set that turned the light on and off. That only took an extra half hour or so.
Once we overcame not having the right hardware, the opener falling out of the wall and the builders not marking the pre-wires things started to run smoothly again. Nothing fell out of the wall, and Mike and I managed to walk away from the experience relatively uninjured. We spent about 8 hours today working on this dang door opener, and it is still not completely installed. We should be able to get the rest done tomorrow though.
So, it took two of us twice the time it took my brother to do his... Funny thing is my brother is a chef and has very limited experience installing things. Goodness... it was so funny for me to have to go to him for help and input... It really has been a humbling week.
Prayers,
Pisio
My wife and I recently purchased a brand new home, just finished in February. This house is bare bones... nothing in it except the bare necessities. This week I have spent my free time hanging shades and mini-blinds. Today, my friend Mike from Maui and I started to install a garage door opener.
This should have been an easy installation for two guys who used to, or currently, install telescopes for USAF. Well let me tell you, it was not that easy. First, the opener did not come with all the necessary hardware. Then, when we finally got everything together that we needed and started to make some real progress, disaster struck.
Mike went to open the door, and it hit the trolley mechanism that pulls the door up or pushes it down once it is fully installed. The jolt was enough to actually rip the mostly mounted opener right out of the wall! Luckily for me I was holding it up and the time, so it didn't go crashing to the floor, it did wake us up a little though.
We went to Home Depot for the third time to get some longer lag bolts to ensure that we hit the studs this time. We reanchored everything, and started to go from there. Things were going great until it came time to install the wiring.
You see when the house was built, they prewired the garage for the opener. The only problem was, they did not mark anything. So Mike and I were standing there wondering how the heck we were going to figure out which wire goes where. Well good thing for us we are both fairly intelligent men. All we had to do was wire the controller, and then hook the other end of the wires into the opener until we found the set that turned the light on and off. That only took an extra half hour or so.
Once we overcame not having the right hardware, the opener falling out of the wall and the builders not marking the pre-wires things started to run smoothly again. Nothing fell out of the wall, and Mike and I managed to walk away from the experience relatively uninjured. We spent about 8 hours today working on this dang door opener, and it is still not completely installed. We should be able to get the rest done tomorrow though.
So, it took two of us twice the time it took my brother to do his... Funny thing is my brother is a chef and has very limited experience installing things. Goodness... it was so funny for me to have to go to him for help and input... It really has been a humbling week.
Prayers,
Pisio
3 comments:
I can't believe that 2 engineers need 2 days to install a garage opener.
what kind of engineer are you guys?
Now that is funny. I can only imagine how much fun I will eventually have when I buy a house and go through the same thing because it will most likely be me doing the installing as I'm a do it yourselfer kind of gal. Every place I've been in I've put ceiling fans, among other work and have to start marking wires because they never do.
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