Jenni and I had gone to bed and were sleeping soundly when there came a noise that stood us both up in bed. A noise like a Giant loosing an arrow from a massive compound bow. The thrum of the mythic bow woke us and we both said, "What the hell was that?!"
I said, "It sounded like it came from outside!"
She said, "No it was from the garage!"
I pulled on a shirt and went to look, she wasn't far behind me. I opened the door to the garage, and turned on the lights. At first glance nothing seemed amiss. I hit the opener switch and the opener pull the top panel towards itself, but the door did not raise, and the machine stopped after a second or s. It was soon obvious that the torsion spring above the door that assists the lift through two cabled pulleys on either end of the two car garage door had snapped into two pieces. There was nothing to be done that night.
This morning my first alarm went off at 5:35 AM,m I set the snooze timer for 12 minutes but didn't fall back asleep, instead I was planning my strategies on dealing with the massively heavy insulated two car garage door. When the alarm sounded I got up dressed and took the dog for his morning constitutional walk, then, back inside I went to the garage and started pulling out what I would need to get the door up and the car out. Three two by fours of varying length and a short four by four block, and my three ton floor jack and handle.
I wedged a short two by four under the hand lift handle right off the floor and put another two by four under it and levered the door up about 3 inches. Then I took yet another two by four and turned it sideways under the door, took the four by four and levered the door up another few inches. Now there was room to get the lifting plate of the floor jack under the door and I jacked it to it's maximum 20 inch height. I rested one of the two by fours that was about 4 feet long against my chest and shoulder, then I squatted at the knees, grasped the door base and did a weightlifting "clean and jerk" move to get it high enough. With one trembling arm and hand holding the weight I positioned the 4 foot two by four under the door at about chin height.
The two by four in place and holding the door I rested and caught my breath for about a minute. Then I did a squat move using my legs and "pressed" the door the rest of the way up the tracks, gingerly releasing my hands ready to stop it if it decided to heed gravities call. It stayed up. After another brief rest I moved the BMW and then backed the convertible out of the garage onto the snow dusted driveway. That accomplished I pulled and eased the massive weight of the door gently back to the floor and made my way back into the house and prepared for work.
By then Jenni was up and surfing the inter-webs for a garage door specialist to bring spring early to our vehicular storage space. She found just the place Garage Door Doctor only a couple of miles from our humble abode. I called and left a message, then kissed her goodbye and was off to work, to get some much needed rest.
Chuck Pace ©2010
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