Garage Door Header Installation

What you re seeing here is a header built with a 2 6 bottom plate 2 4 cripple studs and a 2 4 top plate resting on the adjacent block walls.

Garage door header installation.

Building a structural header for a garage door opening can be handled on the jobsite and will offer the same structural support as more expensive solid wood beams. The garage door opener mounting bracket also called the header bracket secures the carriage tube to the wall above the door. Torsion see above which mounts on the header above the door and extension photo 1 which floats above the upper roller track. Around the sides of your door add enough lumber to support the weight of the garage door header.

Start by clamping adjustable locking pliers onto the torsion spring shaft and wedging the pliers against the header wall above the door. Local and national building codes have specific structural requirements pertaining to beam sizes to span specific wall openings relative to the wall loads so consult your local building department before beginning this. Headers should be a minimum of 12 wide. You ll need to release the tension in the torsion spring before you begin working on the garage door.

Doubled 2 4 s at minimum should be at each edge of the garage door to allow for the mounting of the tracks and jamb brackets. The lowest point is at the middle and it sags down about 1 2. Attach lumber to the face of the garage wall to the edge of the garage door header. The longer the distance a header spans and the heavier the load it supports the more substantial it needs to be.

Lift the power unit. This piece of lumber will be used to attach the center bracket of your garage door spring assembly. You need at least 2 rows of wood to hold up the header on each side making up 4 studs on each half of the header. This header spans a 6 opening and supports 4 floor joists with 2 stories and a roof above it.

The exact location depends on the type of door. Together the headers king studs and trimmers act as a system that transfers weight from above down and around the window and door openings to the floor and foundation below. Last pull a measurement from the top of the 2 x 6 piece of lumber that you just installed to the ceiling of the garage. In the past extension springs were safer to install but didn t have containment cables running through the center of the spring.

Set it securely on top of a stepladder so it s conveniently close to the ceiling. Garage door springs come in two styles.