Captain Tropic's
Garage Door Track Bracing
Garage doors are one of the weakest links in your fight with wind damage. During recent hurricanes many garage doors failed allowing hurricane force winds to enter and destroy quite a few homes. The best way to tell if you need to add extra track bracing is to grab the track and try to twist it. If it turns more than 10 degrees or 1/4 inch, you need to add them.
Mark track and mount new braces adjacent to where rollers come to rest in the down position
This is what I did to brace the garage door tracks in my home. With the door all the way down and closed I marked the garage door tracks (both sides) where each door roller came to rest inside the track. Then with the door all the way open I added a brace to the track where each mark was. I also left the original track braces in place.
While in the process of adding the track braces I found that the original installer used screws that were too short! The screws penetrated the door trim but failed to reach the jack studs or king studs that form the rough opening of the garage door! When choosing the screws you will use to mount your track braces keep in mind the trim board is 3/4" thick and the wallboard or dry wall is 1/2" to 5/8" thick. Your braces will be about 3/16" thick, 1/16 for a washer and you need at least a 1 1/2" bite into the studs. This means the screws should be at least 3" long.
Use flat headed screws to attach braces to track.
The screws I pulled out of my original braces were no more than 1 1/2" long, way too short, and would have blown right out. I would have had a major failure and hurricane force winds in my home. This is the kind of thing that hides unnoted and seems to work well. The screws were just fine for holding the braces under normal conditions and would have lasted the life of the system, but would have failed during a storm.
Use three inch screws to mount braces so they bite into the studs.
Also make sure the screws you use to attach the angle to the track have flat heads, that won't rub on the rollers as they pass by in normal use. I made my bracket out of scrap aluminum. Also good quality angle iron, would work very well here and can be found in a well-stocked hardware store.
In the diagram above the new track brace is red, as are the new mounting screws. Take note of how the screws bite into the studs in the wall. The drawing isn't to scale, but you can see how the positioning of the stud and jack studs it will be easy to to find them with the screws.
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