ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Where is everybody???

I check in two or three times everyday, but just haven't been posting, I've been pretty busy all summer.

Roger

Roger,
Ditto. I couldn't have said it better myself

It's been a busy summer for me too. I've been able to make it to the Chat often, but my early bedtime has cut that short as well.

Greg,
I'm having the same sort of dilemma with a garage here at the place I'm renting.
The landlord asked me to fix the building up during my hypothetical "free-time" and it's slowly turning into a nightmare!
The last guy that lived here, fancied himself as a bit of a carpenter, consequently, everything remotely made out of wood in this building (concrete block construction) has bent nails sticking out of it.
Not your ordinary nails either, big 6" flat-head ones.
The guy made some pretty scary looking shelving in here too, nothing is square or plumb.
I've got rid of the spiders-web of lamp cords that were in here when I moved in, that supplied all sorts of lights, an old 2-bar heater (!), the garage door opener and a couple of lamp-cord "sub-mains" that head out of the garage and I've yet to trace where they actually go to, I've disconnected them in the meantime.
The garage "tilt-a-door" itself has been struck a few times by a vehicle (from what I can make out) and is rediculously bent out of shape, the guy had tried to repair it with lengths of 4x1 timber and nails and has made it worse, I'm too scared to open it with the garage door opener unit, the door makes some pretty scary sounds even opening it manually.
I'm not going to tamper with the thing, I've heard that them springs they use are liable to kill you if they become un-attached and hit you.
One quick parting question, what is the best type of paint to use on concrete block (cinder block??) walls?, now that the weather is starting to warm up, I'd like to get some painting underway.

Cheers.

regarding the garage door springs. Are they torsion springs or extend / contract style? If they are extend / contract style, you can thread some steel rope, that is securely fasten to the wall, thru them to capture the spring if it breaks.

Larry C

Larry,
I'm going to leave it alone, I like having things like a head and internal organs.
I'm going to ask that the land-lord have it replaced by a specialist door installer, they aren't actually that expensive.

The springs on this monster are two big torsion springs about 4" in diameter and 3 feet long. They are wound up 7.75 turns each. On the end of an 18" rod it is a pretty good push.
If these babies ever let go it won't be safe to be in the room. Chips of the concrete tie beam will be missiles.
I did anchor the bracket with 5/8" read heads in the tie beam so it should stay there.
This is probably a 400 pound door. It is 150 MPH without supplimental bracing.