Garage door and mouse

[Shipper50]

I know not many will believe this but, when I got home today and raised my garage door it went up fine. When I started to go into the house I pushed the control next to the back door and the door started to go down and then hit the limit and went back up.

I found a mouse was caught in the cable above the door and it caused the door cable to come off the spool. The worst part is it or I caused the door to start to close crooked and it caused all kinds of problems. I think the frame or track is bent and will have to be replaced or I might have to get a new door with all the metal out of whack.

As for the mouse, lets say he is in the field next to my house with his guts hanging out after being pulled up in the cable.

Anyone recommend a good insulated garage door that doesn't cost and arm and a leg? No pun intended. :-S

Shipper

 

[fossil]

Had to be one o' them evil ultra conservative Islamic zealot mice. Probably a suicide mouse. My guess is that the mouse slipped in from Pakistan, and was never put on the no-fly list because of bureaucratic bumbling. I gotta believe it's President Obama's fault, personally and entirely, that this unthinkably horrible thing happened to you. And right here on American soil! Where the hell was Homeland Security? If we can't keep track of a single known terrorist mouse, what can we keep track of? I really think you've got a case againt the US Government here, not only to be reimbursed for the replacement of the damaged components, but for a substantial settlement for your pain and suffering. Please give my legal office a call at your earliest convenience. Ira Shyster, ESQ.

 

[Jack Straw]

I did have a mouse get into my truck and chew up the main wiring harness and the dealer wanted $2700 to replace it. Luckily my car insurance paid for it.
As for the door I you'll just have to shop around. Can you do it yourself? Sometimes on old crooked garages its easier to have a pro install it.

 

[semipro]

I don't have a door recommendation but hope someone else does. I need one too.

My own mouse story...

Our Toyota Camry had been sitting for a while and the battery was dead so I opened the hood and jumped it off with one of our other cars. I got it started, disconnected the cables and was getting ready to close the hood when I noticed a mouse making his way across the top of the engine kind of slowly; I think I woke him up. Anyway, he was headed towards all the rotating belts and pulleys and although I really don't like what mice do to my house and cars I wasn't in the mood for carnage. I started looking around frantically for stick so I could re-direct the wayward fellow and quickly found one. As I looked back to locate him he stepped out onto a belt. Before I could react and move away I heard a short "pffft" and felt felt warm wet stuff hitting my face. I looked down to see a uniform stripe of mouse innards running from my belt all the way up my front side.

I hates mice!

 

[TreePapa]

Them garage doors is tricky and if not door right, dangerous. If you're a REALLY competetnt DIYer, go for it. Otherwise, hire a pro and shop around.

We got our door from Mesa Garage Doors (http://www.mesagaragedoors.com/), but I don't know if they travel quite far enought for you (they're in so. calif.). We paid about $1,000 (inc. opener) about 8 or 9 years ago. Our door had to be custom made 'cuz we have a 19' ft. door opening vs. the standard 16 or 18 ft. The door is not insulated 'cuz the garage is not attached to the house and while the cottage (former in-law quarters, soon to be rental after I finishing cleaning, painting, etc.) is attached to the garage, there is no door between the two. The former garage door was the original, 1947 wood one, clad with 10" western red cedar siding. I wish I could have salvaged that siding, but that would have meant not having Mesa haul away the old door and I really didn't want to deal with that at the time.

Some friends of ours rencently had Mesa replace the 16 ft. garage door on their condo for a little under $1,000. Again, base model door, but this one without opener (I helped our friends install the opener which they purchase separately from Lowes).

Since garage doors are so bulky, I'm purty sure it's a fairly localized biznez, even though the doors themselves are probably made in Mexico or China.

Standard advice applies: get at least three bids, etc. etc.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[Shipper50]

Lucky I got the local door company to come out today and after about 20 Min's its fixed and working OK. The service guy said he had never heard of a mouse causing this problem and said the mouse had to be running up the cable as the door went up causing it to come off. The cost is around $65- 75 and it works OK.

Will look into to a better insulated door next year. When one is on a pension, one has to budget for such. ;-P

Shipper

 

[billb3]

Can't imagine a mouse being that << -slow - and getting stuck.
Maybe he licked the cable and his tongue got stuck.

Now there's a Christmas story.


I've never backed into a garage door with a car. Or anything else.
Last snow storm I tried getting justa little bit closer to the garage door picking up snow with the front end loader.
Something must have been sticking out of the bucket.
It doesn't look pretty right now, but it goes up and down.
Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

 

[fossil]

Shipper, I added insulation to a garage door when I lived in Northern Virginia. Single garage, served as my workshop. Had a steel door with factory insulation, but that amounted to something like ¼" (or less) of foam. I bought sheets of ¾" foam insulation at HD...seems to me they came about 2' x 4', cut them to fit as necessary, and glued them to the inside of the door over the original. Added very little weight to the door (opener didn't seem to notice), and made a discernible difference in heat loss from the space. Make sure you've got a good bottom seal and some sort of flexible closures on the sides, as well. Rick

 

[smokinj]

I think shipper just make a better mouse trap...will they beat a path to your garage door? lol

 

[fossil]

...Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

Treat it just as you would a sheet metal repair on a car. One of my garage doors had a couple of dings in it, including a puncture wound, and we just use epoxy filler on them, sanded when cured, and repainted the door. Can't even tell where they were. Rick

 

[Shipper50]

I think shipper just make a better mouse trap...will they beat a path to your garage door? lol

You know how those Indiana mice are, I have killed at least 15/16.5 in the last few months with a trap and peanut butter and some have tripped the trap and got away. Got one more since I posted this and one who was in the trap alive, so I threw him out the door in the woods.

Shipper

 

[billb3]

...Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

Treat it just as you would a sheet metal repair on a car. One of my garage doors had a couple of dings in it, including a puncture wound, and we just use epoxy filler on them, sanded when cured, and repainted the door. Can't even tell where they were. Rick

I wish they were 'dings'.

 

[fossil]

...Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

Treat it just as you would a sheet metal repair on a car. One of my garage doors had a couple of dings in it, including a puncture wound, and we just use epoxy filler on them, sanded when cured, and repainted the door. Can't even tell where they were. Rick

I wish they were 'dings'.

Pics or it didn't happen! Ha!, just kidding...I don't want to see it. I think I get the picture. If you can find a dealer for the same brand door, maybe they can replace panels or the door without having to do the entire installation, rails and all. Maybe. Dunno. Good luck.

Way back when my wife's 1999 Mercedes CLK 320 coupe was about 2 weeks old, I was replacing windows in the house and had a little 10 ft³ ft dumpster parked at the top of my driveway. Needed to go to the store, and she had the Jeep, so I jumped in her brand new car and promptly backed it out of the garage right into the corner of the dumpster. The replacement trunk lid, paint, & misc. set me back $1800. The dumpster was unscathed. :red: :sick: :ahhh: Rick

 

[TreePapa]

...Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

Treat it just as you would a sheet metal repair on a car. One of my garage doors had a couple of dings in it, including a puncture wound, and we just use epoxy filler on them, sanded when cured, and repainted the door. Can't even tell where they were. Rick

I wish they were 'dings'.

I s'pose cutting out the damaged metal and rivettng on new stuff would look too "hillbilly" for you?

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[smokinj]

I think shipper just make a better mouse trap...will they beat a path to your garage door? ss="spellchecked_word">lol</SPAN>

You know how those Indiana mice are, I have killed at least 15/16.5 in the last few months with a trap and peanut butter and some have tripped the trap and got away. Got one more since I posted this and one who was in the trap alive, so I threw him out the door in the woods.

Shipper

I played that for a couple years, now we have one mean @ass cat in the house and one BAD @as cat outside not seen any in a very long time. lol

 

[billb3]

...Darned tin doors. A wooden one I could fix.

Treat it just as you would a sheet metal repair on a car. One of my garage doors had a couple of dings in it, including a puncture wound, and we just use epoxy filler on them, sanded when cured, and repainted the door. Can't even tell where they were. Rick

I wish they were 'dings'.

I s'pose cutting out the damaged metal and rivettng on new stuff would look too "hillbilly" for you?

Peace,
- Sequoia

right now I've got bare copper wire from 12/2 wiring going thru the holes where rivets used to be to lash/ hold the panels to the hinges so they don't get caught on the door frame trim going up and down. Should hold up better than tie wraps. Garage is being replaced. I've been trying to take pics of the progression of the new garage but the weather hasn't been nice, nor my work hours. We've had crazy amounts of rain , so all the heavy equipment has been sinking into ground trucks have had no troubles with for 75 or more years. Yard is a mess. Crumpled up like tin foil doors fit right into the picture right now.


In a year it will all be healed and an old memory.

 

[MNBobcat]

This past summer I was walking past my Dodge Ram Diesel truck sitting in the drive next to the pole building. I heard a noise and thought, "what the heck was that?" So I open the hood and something HUGE and gray darts down into the engine compartment and disappears. I didn't know what it was at first but it was way bigger than a squirrel. It took me about 10 minutes of searching before I found where he was hiding -- he had backed himself up inside of the shroud around the radiator. D*mn woodchuck! He had been sitting on the engine eating the fiber liner of the firewall.

I grabbed a heavy wire rod that had a hook on one end and started poking him trying to make him leave the truck. I yelled at my wife to grab my .22 rifle. He kept hissing and grabbing the wire but refused to leave. Nothing I did made any difference. Finally, I tried shoving the hook down his throat thinking at least I'd hook him like a fish and drag him out. That didn't work either. Finally he stuck enough of his head out that i was able to push down on the back of his neck and force him out the bottom of the truck. He ran one direction and I ran the other to get the gun. About the time I reached the gun he turned and ran back up under the rear of the truck and disappeared. I figured he was sitting on the top of the spare tire but I couldn't see him. I went for a drive to Menards and back. I never did see him leave the truck and never found him or saw him again.

We've had some mice in the house this year. I've been live trapping them and releasing them in the field. The kids give me grief saying they'll just come back but the little buggers are pretty cute and I don't want to kill them unless I have to. I've sealed up the hole where they got in.