New London is an old port city where the Thames River meets Long Island Sound, and its housing reflects that history: closely spaced homes, narrow driveways, multi-family buildings and plenty of detached garages built before sectional doors and electric openers were standard.
Those garages raise practical problems, from low ceilings that leave no room for standard track to wood frames softened by decades of damp air. Below are the problems older garages in New London tend to develop, which hold true in neighbors like Groton, Waterford and East Lyme too, and how to approach repair or replacement.
Fitting a door into an older garage
A standard sectional door needs a certain amount of headroom above the opening and side room next to it for springs and track. Many older garages in town have neither in full, and a door forced into the wrong hardware will bind, wear unevenly or jump its track.
Low-headroom track kits, rear-mounted springs and wall-mounted (jackshaft) openers solve most of these situations. An installer should measure headroom, side room, backroom and how far the opening is out of square before giving a price.
Sagging headers and rotted jambs show up often as well. Replacing a door without fixing the framing it hangs from only moves the problem.
Salt air from the river and the Sound
Damp, salty air travels a long way inland here. On steel doors it attacks scratches and the bottom edge first; on wood doors it shortens the life of paint and lets rot begin in the lower panels and at the joints.
A yearly walk-around catches most of it early. Run a hand along the bottom edge of the door for blistered paint, look for rust bloom on hinge screws and the lowest roller brackets, and check whether the cable ends at the bottom corners are still bright or turning brown. When parts are replaced, stainless or hot-dip galvanized fasteners and sealed-bearing nylon rollers are worth the small extra cost.
Getting ready for storm season
The city has a long record of hurricane and nor'easter damage, and a garage door is a weak point once the wind builds. Before the season starts in June, look for loose track brackets, cracked struts and worn hinges, since those are the parts that let a door flex or blow inward.
Know where your opener's emergency release is and how to lock the door by hand. If you are replacing the door anyway, ask about wind-rated models with reinforcing struts.
- Pull the emergency release only when the door is fully closed.
- Never stand or walk under a door that is partly open.
- After a storm, don't run a door that looks bent or has left its track.
Choosing a residential installer
Price matters, but so does what the price includes. Line quotes up on the same terms before deciding.
- A current Connecticut home improvement contractor registration
- Measurement on site before the final number is given
- New track, springs and weatherstripping, or reuse of the old parts
- Removal and disposal of the old door
- Written terms for the parts warranty
Multi-family buildings and rentals
In two- and three-family houses, a shared garage door cycles far more often than a single-family one, and nobody quite owns its upkeep. Owners should set a maintenance schedule, test the auto-reverse monthly and change keypad codes whenever a tenant moves out.
Tenants who find a door stuck, noisy or failing to reverse should report it instead of trying to fix it; springs and cables are never tenant repairs.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.