# Garage Door Struts - problem for garage haunt walls



## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

The struts on my garage door hang inconveniently low when it's open. How risky would it be to remove them for the next few weeks? Are there alternative pieces with a shallower profile?

I can work around them of course, but life would be infinitely simpler if I didn't have to. (This is my first year with a garage haunt. I'm not sure what the usual practices are.)


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## Kelly_A (Sep 24, 2013)

Need more info. Can you add some pictures?


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## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

I don't have any photos handy but this is what I'm talking about. Overhead space is low with the garage door open. It's manageable though, except that the struts hang down a good three inches lower than the rest of the door. So anything at that level or higher will get knocked over when the door opens and closes. It wouldn't be hard to temporarily remove the struts and get my overhead space back. But I'm not sure what that might do to the door itself.

As I said, I've never done a garage haunt before. Do people just work around the struts by making their walls shorter? Or do you leave the door up after building the walls? My plan is to put the whole haunt together beforehand and open it up on Halloween, rather than madly throwing it together at the last minute. But the struts are forcing me to leave a three-inch gap at the top of everything, which looks kinda lame.

What am I missing here?

(Not sure why this qualifies as off-topic, but oh well.)


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

I think making your walls shorter would be the best way to go.

Can you drape a fire retardant material over the top?


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

I would hesitate to take those off. Those are the stiffeners so that your door doesn't sag in the middle and pop out of the track. I mean, maybe it would be ok for a night or two, or if you could get it up in the air, and support the middle with a wall, but sheesh, seems like the hard way to go. Can you cut pink foam to fill the gaps left on the tops of the wall? We left our door down, and entry was through the man door, then a hallway along the garage door and a person to pound on the the door.

I do see what you mean though. I can't think of a lower profile way to stiffen the door.


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## Kelly_A (Sep 24, 2013)

Yeah, those need to stay in place for sure. They're less critical when the door is closed, but I'd be afraid the door would bow and buckle Without them, when open. 
You might be able to slide some foam pipe insulation over the rib edges for padding in case anyone bangs their head. Most of the ToTs aren't going to be tall enough for it to be an issue.


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## Drago (Sep 5, 2011)

I've done my haunt last year using my garage, only thing I removed was the garage opener bracket that attaches to garage, I build walls to basically 2" below the open door and than placed cloth on door streched it nice and tight for each section of garage.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Possibly make the walls a bit shorter and hide everything else with scenery and lighting? Less lighting generally = better for a haunt.

How low are these things anyway? I'm 6'4 Frankenstein type and have never had an issue walking under my garage doors when open. They are probably 6'8 or so above the ground. 

Most kids would be well under six feet. In the worst case, maybe set up some sort of 'max height' rule...ie over 6' stay out.


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## Epic (Oct 3, 2013)

Mine are just under 7 feet... I use a string to attach to the railing for the garage door then drape over some black plastic. This still allows the garage door to open and close and provides enough support for the plastic... the rest of the garage is done with walls... 2x4's 8 feet tall.


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## ezekiel (Jun 8, 2009)

*High Wind Load Struts (HWL)*

According to what your describing the struts on the back of the door (span the entire length look like a heavy gauge metal channel) are High Wind Load struts (HWL). I'm guessing you live in an area where code requires the garage door to be rated to withstand a certain wind speed and this is achieved by reinforcing the steel door with the struts.

Could you remove them? Sure, but I would advise against doing so because that each time you take them up and down odds are you probably will strip a few holes out and or mix up which strut goes to which panel and create more new holes. Additionally if you have a garage door opener and operate it without the struts on I suspect you could run into problems, because the opener is calibrated to pull the door with the extra weight. Just something to consider before taking them off.

I have them on my garage door and they are a bit of a pain. I ended up building all my panels inside for 80" which fits under them. My exterior panels are 84" which can also be used interchangeably in areas not directly under the garage door.

Good luck on your haunt!


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## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

In the end I decided just to shave off an inch or two from the tops of a couple of panels. I haven't worked out yet how I'm going to fill the empty space (I have bigger fish to fry before I get to that) but I have lots of partial wall panels that I can probably set in place once the garage door is up for good..


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## VIGILANTE (Sep 19, 2010)

Build the front section of the walls shorter and tape a strip of black plastic or cloth to seal the gap when the door is open. You can also hang threads, like spider webs, to make people duck under the lowest section.


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