This weekend, the garage door opener was moving but the door wouldn’t open or shut. Alright, I figured either the manual release got triggered OR it finally broke because it has been acting wonky for about a week … after all it is at least 10 years old. Nope. The bracket holding the opener to the garage door tore out and took that section of the door with it. Yes, there is a 2" x 4" section of aluminum, clearly tore out of my garage door that is still attached to the bracket. I can fix it temporarily but its seems that sometime in 2025 I’m going to need a new garage door and might as well replace the opener at the same time.
Anyone ever even hear of something like this? With everything being aluminum, is there anyway of fixing the door permanently? I assume the aluminum door is weak in that area so attaching a larger bracket so it bolts in above and below the missing section may fix the situation temporarily but due to the loss of material it will warp at the attachment points or tear the door more.
If somebody bolted the opener arm to the thin sheet metal of the door panel that was ignorant negligence. It should have been bolted to the frame around that door panel.
My error for not being clearer. It was bolted to the frame not the panel. The frame is an L and not a box so that’s where the weakness lies. Structurally the frame is just like the panel.
ETA: I’ll post a picture later so all can see the failure
Can you tell anything about the manufacturer of the garage door? They may still sell repair parts. Though it if were me, I’d invite a local garage door contractor to stop by and provide estimates, both for repair and replacement.
I’d use metal flat stock, but same idea. Build a double-sided doubler maybe 2 feet across by 2 or 3 inches high if you have room, 1 inch if not.
Through-bolt the two doubler pieces to sandwich the original aluminum. Use several bolts; like 6 or 8 not 2 or 4. Then attach the opener arm fitting by through-bolting it through all 3 layers.
Garage door panels are, as far as I know, standard sizes. I would imagine a garage door company could just replace the top panel without much trouble. The bigger question, at least for me, is why it happened. If that section was already falling apart, that’s one thing, but I’m curious if a spring broke and/or something is jammed up. But a garage door company will be able to diagnose that as well.
It sounds to me like you have weak springs.
The opener isn’t supposed to exert much force on the door - the springs counterbalance most of the load. Once you fix the attachment, check the springs.
Yours might, many do, but not all of them. Mine looks more like this:
In any case, if OP can get to a solid part of the door, they might be able to attach a piece of wood or metal, spanning the broken section, that they can then mount the bracket to. But, again, I’d still want to know the root cause first. If you (OP) can’t easily open and close the door by hand, that needs to be addressed first. Broken spring, bad wheel, bent track etc.
I think most openers have an adjustment for the travel length. Maybe it’s adjusted incorrectly and the opener is trying to run too far, pulling on the door after it’s reached the end of its travel?
It’s not necessary for an opener to be centered on the door. It would take some time and labor but you could move the opener to the left or right a foot or two.
Looking at the images, its not the door panel itself that tore, its a bracket attached to the door? Can the bracket alone be removed/replaced? How does it attach to the door? It looks like a bolt or self tapping screw at the top and some brown adhesive further down. Is there another bolt/screw near the bottom?
You could do that, too - if you can find a piece of angle or box the right dimensions.
It just seems like a piece of wood might be easier to work with, and would (no pun) be plenty strong enough.
