This post shows how we install a typical roller garage door. There happen to be two roller garage doors here.

We found the openings in need of garage doors in the vicinity of Cambridge.

It was a moderately gloomy and warm Summer day in England; it could have been winter, spring or autumn. We drove a few hundred miles to install these two doors, so I thought to make use of the day with an edifying and bloggable set of 73 photographs. I have also typed out some helpful comments, next to each photograph. My thanks to my photographer.

The manufacturer might deliver for you.

The HSS high speed steel combi drill is used for opening up circular holes into the steel or aluminium parts of the door. You need a selection of drill bit sizes - particularly 4.5, 8, and 13mm. The torque driver has the advantage of applying torque relative to the pressure of the finger on the trigger. The SDS slotted drive shaft drill is for hammer percussion rotary into brick or concrete. Use SDS drill bits for this machine.

Tools needed are relatively few in number, but should include saw horses, ladders, pop rivet gun, large screwdriver, spanner set, allen key set. Maybe an angle grinder or hack saw.

Don't lay it on uneven ground. This is 0.5mm aluminium, and it will buckle with pressure at specific points. It is said that the polyeurethane core is meant to insulate the door; but, actually, its chief purpose is to give body to the flimsy aluminium. It is soft. Meaning dents in the finish. After a few years you might get dents in this door, but not on the first day, when you hand it over - that will spoil your day! Slats can be replaced from the one or two hidden at the top, but it takes a bit of time and care to take a dented slat out and put it at the top of the roll. Lay it out carefully and don't unwrap until it's needed.

Keep the workplace orderly, so you can get the door(s) installed quickly and find your bits and pieces.

Measure the height from floor to ceiling - on both sides of the door, left and right. It is necessary to use a level of some kind. The sum is as follows:

Width: You wont' be able to change the overall width of the door. You have, rather, to make the guide channels lie symmetrically, with equal overlapp on both sides. So take the width of the opening, then the width of the door; take away one from the other and divide by two. The result is the distance from the opening to the back of the guide channels, for both sides.

Height: Draw a line across the lowest point of the ceiling. This line must be level. Run a tape down from this line to the floor on the left, and on the right (using a level again). Your highest point must not be different for both sides. But, your lowest point (the floor level) might differ from left to right. If the floor is not level, you must cut the guides down with an angle grinder.

Basically, the roll and shaft must be level, and must fit under the ceiling. If the floor is not level, then cut the guide channels so that, if the roller and motor shaft are to be level, and the floor is not level, then one leg must be longer than the other.

Ensure that you triple check your measurements and levels before proceeding.

Holes through the face of the guide channels, as shown (or, through the sides, for reveal fit). Space the holes for fixings at around 400mm; but space them so as to miss any mortar lines in the substrate you are going to fix into.

The other skin of the guide channels, onto which the fixing will make a clamp, should be left at 8mm.

The picture shows a door which does not have a full enclosure. These are just the end plates, and no enclosure has been supplied. Often, the endplates are affixed to a 1mm roll formed enclosure  - in which case, put the whole enclosure up and slotted into the guide channels.

Ensure you equalise the door over the opening, symmetrically.

Measure the width across the channels; should be the same at top as at bottom, and as per the manufactured size. If the guides are too far apart, then the curtain will perhaps come out during a strong wind. If the guides are too close, the door won't move properly. You generally only have a 10mm space for error in this matter, and every millimeter matters.

These are self-tapping wood screws with a Pozi head, so they go in without a pilot hole, and don't split the timber as they make their way in.

These have an 8mm outer diameter, and tap their way in. Drill with a 6mm SDS bit. These don't need rawl plugs, so once you put the guide channels up, simply drill through the holes in the guides, then screw them in.

If there is a gap more than a couple of millimeters, use shims or packers so that the guide doesn't collapse when you tighten the screws. Fill in the gaps later with silicone, or, a PVC trim or similar - to make the whole thing look nice.

Any loose fixings which won't tighten up will have to be dealt with creatively.. by removing the guide and thinking up another method of fixation: resin, rawl plugs.. etc.

If the guide channels or plates are not fixed on appropriately, the door might have some kind of catastrophic collapse or failure in future times.

The door's level of safety and security depends on the soundness of the fixings.

It should already be up at this point. Notice the fixings into the timber to clamp it onto the substrate. Fixings through the plate will share the load of the door. Note: a roller door load presses downward on to the guides; also, tries to fall forward since it is out of balance relative to the guide channels. So it must be pinned back with fixings.

If this is not done with care, the motor shaft and the whole door will come out one day, on some unsuspecting head! Take care here.

The motor wire is 4 core 230V 3A+. If the door rubs against it during operation, it will cut this wire. Fix it back as shown.

It is now time to drop the curtain over the motor barrel. So, some muscle and tender care are both required. Don't scratch the curtain while it is being dropped over the motor barrel. It will now be necessary to let it roll up and over the barrel, and then down through the guide channels. This will be done manually.

Plan the movement in advance and clear the area. Position the ladders below the motor barrel so that you can walk up the ladders and up to the position where the curtain can be unfurled slowly over the barrel and down into the guides.

Contact me if you want advice about what this means. Or how to do it. Generally, we are now going to make the door move and stop only at exact positions: fully closed and full open. If the door passes beyond the correct open position, it will travel around damaging itself; if it travels beyond the correct closing position, the top locks will break. So, set the limits to the motor run.

That's it. Some companies supply a CE mark to affix to the door, others don't. Sign a delivery note or something like that - and make your way home.. with no call backs, no claims on your 5 year warranty, and some word of mouth work off the back of it!

The job took around 4.5 hours. We drove through Cambridge on the way home, the photographer and I. I bought a book by Soren Kierkegaard (Concluding Unscientific Postscript) from the University Press bookshop; my photographer got some more photos and some souvenirs.