A $3 tube of adhesive caulk along with a few screws and a little elbow grease was all that was needed to repair my garage door support bracket.
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I have a Wayne Dalton garage door and the bracket ripped from the door yesterday morning. Kind of surprising since the door bracket was hanging from a single screw. I thought that I was going to be in for a hard to find part and a difficult repair.
Here is a view of the bracket. You can’t necessarily tell, but the bracket (also known as an Operator Reinforcement Bracket) has a crack just below the black bracket piece. It was bending and that point and probably would have cracked completely with one more operation of the garage door.
I haven’t ever experienced this issue, so I did a bit of research. Immediately, I was able to come up with a replacement bracket for Wayne Dalton door for about $20. However, that was mail order and I needed my garage door today. I figured I would give Lowe’s a shot to see if they carried a universal bracket. They did not, however, the gentleman in the building materials department had an idea.
Flip it upside down and reattach!
Funny, but the simplest solution often passes us by when we are in the midst of a project or repair. He was right. The only part of the bracket that saw any strain, was where the bracket attached to the garage door motor arm. I simply created a paper template and copied the screw hole pattern on the opposite end. It was a mirror image.
To attach the bracket, I used the existing screws (4) plus the screws where the black arm bracket attaches. The original installation utilized 2 beads of adhesive to attach. I went a bit overboard in this department and used adhesive wherever I had surface contact. In addition to that I added screws wherever possible (why not over do it here?). After all, this door only has a 1/16″ aluminum skin along with a lightweight foam core. There isn’t much holding power for a fastener.
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$3 later (I had the 1/2″ screws laying around the shop) and I have a secure door bracket once again. Simple solution.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
10 replies on “$3 Garage Door Bracket Repair”
Same thing happened here and I have to repair the bracket. What glue did you use to reattach this to the door?
Wei,
I don’t recall the brand, but I am sure it was simply a high quality adhesive caulk. I believe it was a Polyseamseal adhesive caulk. They have a multi-purpose caulk. I hit any surface that made contact with the door skin.
This is holding up perfectly and we are about 9 months in right now.
Good Luck.
http://www.WNYHandyman.com
Came across the same problem and couldn’t figure how the bracket was attached to the door!……(single Mom)…Thanx!!! 🙂 🙂
Star,
There were just a couple of sheet metal screws and a nice bead of adhesive caulk. Adhesive caulk has an amazing ability to hold when used properly.
Good luck.
WNYHandyman.com
we bought a house that had the bracket pulled from the door & broken when someone tried to open it while locked down. any idea where we can get a new bracket? the repair done by the garage door company does not keep the door tight & air flows through the sides. any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated as it is quite cold in the garage. thanks!
Mark,
You should be able to order the bracket from any company that sells your brand of door. In my case, I could have purchased the bracket (via special order) from Home Depot. However, the bracket alone was about 1/3 the cost of a new door.
If your door is not “tight” and allows air to flow, that isn’t likely the cause of the bracket. It could be a few things. First the door closer will have a setting that determines how “tight” it will close to the ground. If you find it is loose, you might consider adjusting this. Proceed with caution if you aren’t certain that this is your issue. Adjusting this setting too much can put strain on the other parts of the door.
Another issue with a loose door could have to do with the door tracks. If the tracks are set too far away from the face, there can be an unusually large gap. This adjustment of the brackets can make a big difference. You just need to be sure that the door has clearance to operate without rubbing. Take a look at the following guide to adjust tracks:
http://www.home-repair-central.com/adjusting-garage-door-track.html
You mention that it is quite cold in the garage. Unfortunately, unless there is a heat source, that is to be expected. You could purchase a garage door insulation kit to help reduce some of the heat transfer from the garage. In addition to providing some heat benefit, a door insulation kit will also reduce the noise in the garage. The insulation can act as a damper on the door noise itself and also reduce the transfer of the noise from outside in.
Here are some garage door insulation kits at Amazon:
Garage Door Insulation Kits
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Thank you for the info.
Thanks for the tip. I had the same issue with my door. I flipped the bracket over and used additional sheet metal screws for support.
Mike,
I hope that you saved yourself a trip to Home Depot. I needed the building supplies rep to glance at it, turn it upside down, and hand it back to me. Kind of funny when you are a technically minded and can’t think creatively to spot a simple solution (talking about myself here, of course).
Can I buy this online?