I see my relatives with electric garage door openers. I see the elegant gates on TV open effortlessly and automatically. Why can't I have one? I have a chain-link fence and a gate that requires my getting out of the car to open it and to close it before I can drive off and after I drive into the property.
The Gate
The problem is not with the gate but with the slope of the drive-way. The problem begins about 3 feet from the fence and mainly on the left side. To have an electric gate opener, the solution was to raise the gate to clear the offending surface. It works but it looks bad.
What this means is that the concrete, which is about 4 inches thick, will have to be removed and the area resurfaced. This will allow the gate to be brought down in line with the rest of the fence.
My brother-in-law loaned me his sledge hammer. It took only a few minutes to find out that my dainty hands were not made to sledge anything. I quickly realized why people were likely to hire Mexican day laborers for this kind of work. I have not resorted to that. I will investigate the renatal and use of a Jack Hammer.
It's always something.
ReplyDeleteWe got an electric door opener for Christmas that we thought being two people with advanced degrees could put up in a day. Right.
When I went to cut the box I noticed half buried under a large bar code sticker was a warning that if the garage door was 8 feet high then an extension bar was needed so the door could open all the way. So, back to Sears and we buy the $25 extension bar...the actual machine was $299.
Ok we thought NOW we can begin, so we start to read the directions and put the thing together and then come to a page that says we need too attach two brackets so we can hang the machine. In the directions it says "(Brackets not included)"
Shit.
Okay go back to Sears, they don't sell them. Go to Home Depot, they sell them at $10.50 a piece, we need two. We get the machine hung, the pull track for the door up and all that is left is to attach the pull arm to the door. We need to attach the reinforcement bracket to the door first...not included. We also need to use 4 bolts also not included.
Shit.
Back to the Home Depot (we have up on Sears) another $10 and change for the brace and bolts.
We finally got the opener attached and we are happy again in Paradise, but honestly for $299 they can't supply all the parts needed?