I've a Henderson vertically tracked garage door (ie standard fitting in early 80's) and the wire has snapped on one side. I've had a look at spares on the internet and I can get new wires / cones / roller spindles
and track to repair it all (track looks battered so better to replace at the same time).

Is it an easy job or should I get the professionals in? The neighbour who helped me close the garage door said local companies wanted £80 just to reattach a wire which wasn't broken so I'm not too hopefull that it'll be a VFM job getting anyone local to me to fix it.

tks

My mum got a man in to replace both cones/wires after one side snapped and it came to about £60ish a month ago. I offered to get the bits to do it, but for the sake of £30 it was probably easier to get someone in who wouldn't take their hand off taking the tension out of the roller 😉

Call and ask for price. £30 for bits plus time for chap maybe 2 £80 isn't that bad.

or

You could waste a couple of hours scuffing your knuckles, swearing, bodging it, only to break something else end up calling the garage door repair man anyhoo.

How important is your time?

Tks. The prices quoted wasn't £80 for parts and labour both sides – that was £80 to refit one non broken cable on one side that a neighbour needed doing. Am phoning around as I would prefer to pay someone if I can get a decent price.

For the record, the job itself should take one guy less than an hour, so anyone charging more than 30-40 quid labour is taking the piss.

I replaced a wire – no problem at all think I used garage door spares:

http://www.garagedoor-spares.com/

Good online guide also.

I've tried to do this job and I am reasonably good at DIY and repairs.

Whilst it's easy to see what has got to be done retensioning the system can be tricky and if you don't get wire correctly positioned on the rollers it can be painful.

Having not got it quite right when I did this, the garage door closed on my hand with the new cable wrapped round my fingers. At the time I said out loud "this is going to hurt" and I was right.

Most jobs round the house I deal with, however paying £50.00 for someone who knew what they were doing was good value and I would highly recommend this.

You can't ride very well with a handfull of fingers that look like jumbo sausages.

Jamie – Member

For the record, the job itself should take one guy less than an hour, so anyone charging more than 30-40 quid labour is taking the piss.

yes that's to fit the parts not to view the job order the correct parts if he doesn't carry spares drive there and back twice? Also have to factor in stock levels insurance and other sundries.

Feed and clothe his family and maybe a wee holiday at some point.
or are you expecting charity work.

bruneep:

or are you expecting charity work.

Yes I am expecting charity work….or alternately I could be relaying what it actually cost to get the work done when my mum had her door fixed.

Tks for all the advice. Now got a price of £45 plus parts to fit wires, cones, spindles (if needed), tension spring (if needed), straighten the rollers and get it all working so am happy with that – they said it's 3/4's of an hour labour for one person so with travel time I reckon it's not too bad.

Dave
I may need this soon
Who did you get a quote from?

Ta

I looked in yellow pages – Syro – they can do it tomorrow and I will see how good a job they do. With hindsight I'd have got someone in to replace the cables etc. and make sure the door was working OK a few years ago. That way I could have got it done at a time to suit me (and spent longer getting quotes) or even attempted it myself.

Dave Ta
I will have a look at what will need doing when i own it later this week (hopefully!)

Piece of cake job if you have any sort of DIY ability.

OK, two of them turned up. One sat in the van while the other did the work. Half an hour to – replace the wires / cones, realign the runners, add tension to the spring and oil up the runners, wires and spring. Watched some of what he was doing and it's not difficult – IMO there's nothing that a competent DIY'er or home bike mechanic shouldn't be able to manage so long as you follow a logical approach and the online instructions. In the future I would do it myself with parts bought off the web (see link above).