When water (almost) burns down your shop

4nthony

4nthony

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2021
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772
As some of you may know, we've been getting a lot of rain in Southern California. After almost 4 days of heavy, non-stop rain, my old garage roof decided it couldn't take it anymore.


Needless to say, I feel I got really lucky with this. I had just jumped in the car to pick up my daughter and was about to take off. I stopped backing out to let a neighbor pass by. Then my ADD kicked in. I got distracted by a software update in the car, and spent a few minutes futzing around in the dash.

Had my neighbor not driven by and I had not gotten distracted, I would've been long gone when the garage door mysteriously opened.

Phew.
 
Yikes... good catch! Good, too, you have a camera in there in case it was much worse.
 
That would scare me to death. Both of my garage doors have the openers turned off from the inside and a padlock goes through the track. I can get them open, but it can't happen without my knowledge and participation.  [big grin] or from the outside. I can see one of them from the house, the other one, no way. I will have to get a couple of cameras out there before I get the shop up and running.
This is a side-effect of having my house broken into.....3 times over a period of only 6 days.
Ironically, I was at the alarm store during the 3rd one.  [mad]

There is quite some irony there too, water potentially causing a fire. One would hope it would just trip the breaker?
Now, not only a new roof, but a new opener too. That one is toast.....literally.
 
Lucky you!

Just another reminder that wind, water, earth and fire are four elements human beings must learn to respect!

Do you plan to fashion something to shield or make the new garage opener water-proof?
 
PaulMarcel said:
Yikes... good catch! Good, too, you have a camera in there in case it was much worse.
Click to expand...

A year or so ago, I had two false SawStops activations in the span of 2-3 months. I put the camera above the saw hoping to catch a false activation in case I needed to prove I wasn't cutting aluminum or skin. So yeah, glad it was there to record this.

Crazyraceguy said:
That would scare me to death. Both of my garage doors have the openers turned off from the inside and a padlock goes through the track. I can get them open, but it can't happen without my knowledge and participation.  [big grin] or from the outside. I can see one of them from the house, the other one, no way. I will have to get a couple of cameras out there before I get the shop up and running.
This is a side-effect of having my house broken into.....3 times over a period of only 6 days.
Ironically, I was at the alarm store during the 3rd one.  [mad]

There is quite some irony there too, water potentially causing a fire. One would hope it would just trip the breaker?
Now, not only a new roof, but a new opener too. That one is toast.....literally.
Click to expand...

Good idea to put a padlock on the rails. The motor appears to have seized and the belt no longer moves. The latch that pulls door up and open is stuck towards the motor so I had to disconnect the latch to close the door. I've temporarily placed a carriage bolt through the rails/tracks to prevent the door from opening.

I would think the breaker would trip but I don't know for sure.

ChuckS said:
Lucky you!

Just another reminder that wind, water, earth and fire are four elements human beings must learn to respect!

Do you plan to fashion something to shield or make the new garage opener water-proof?
Click to expand...

It would probably be a good idea to have something just in case. I never in a million years would've suspected a fire to start from a leaky roof.

Yardbird said:
Nice baby-blue Bronco!!
Click to expand...

Wanna buy it? [cool]
 
That is actually a bad design of the garage opener.

When on a look out for a new one, try to get at least IP x3 rated one. This was just a bad design that was only waiting for trouble.

Garages, and any un-heated places, over here, are installed at least IP 43. Even if no roof failure would be assumed, the condensation itself can cause enough problems during cold winters here for IP x3 being the baseline for anything part of the permanent install.

Also, I would have my breakers checked. That was some serious arcing for the breaker to not trigger.
 
mino said:
That is actually a bad design of the garage opener.

When on a look out for a new one, try to get at least IP x3 rated one. This was just a bad design that was only waiting for trouble.

Garages, and any un-heated places, over here, are installed at least IP 43. Even if no roof failure would be assumed, the condensation itself can cause enough problems during cold winters here for IP x3 being the baseline for anything part of the permanent install.

Also, I would have my breakers checked. That was some serious arcing for the breaker to not trigger.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mino. I didn't know there were garage door openers that were IP-rated. When I start looking for a new one, I'll see if they're available here.

I will definitely follow up with my electrician regarding the breaker.

 
Wow mate - that's terrifying. It must have felt like 'almost' being hit by a huge truck. I also can't believe the breaker didn't trip. I can't help imagining how you'd have felt if you'd lost the (is that a?) Bronco. Glad it ended well.
 
You were very lucky Anthony...you dodged a major bullet.  [smile]

I can't believe the breaker didn't shut it down. If that were GFCI or AFCI protected, it certainly would have tripped.

FWIW...I recently installed a LiftMaster 8500 garage door opener. It's "smart" so you can control the door with your phone, however better yet, it monitors the position of the door and will send you a notice anytime it's opened or closed. Combine that function with a camera and you can actually see who/what is opening the door. The door also has a deadbolt lock that engages after the door closes.

It also offers the ability to give someone a temporary opening code, that will only work for the amount of time you choose, so that packages or items can be placed in the garage if you're not around.

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ignore the last post-hit the wrong button
Yardbird said:
Nice baby-blue Bronco!!
Click to expand...

Wanna buy it? [cool]
[/quote]

I think it belongs on the beaches of California more than the salt roads of the midwest.  My 2005 Colorado's frame is rusting through-does not have the gauge of steel like the old stuff.  So no, that Bronco needs to stay in California.    But it is a beautiful looking vehicle.
 
Cheese said:
Snip.
FWIW...I recently installed a LiftMaster 8500 garage door opener. It's "smart" so you can control the door with your phone, however better yet, it monitors the position of the door and will send you a notice anytime it's opened or closed. Combine that function with a camera and you can actually see who/what is opening the door. Snip.
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I don't have a smart garage door opener, but I have a security camera in the shop that I can check through my phone when I'm away if my garage door is up or down. If needed, I can ask one of my neighbors to close it (by simply pressing the button on the remote mounted by the garage door). If I exit the cam app, (which I usually do after checking), I won't receive any alerts.

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I have a garage door that uses MyQ and that has a camera built in to it.

I get alerts most often when my wife takes the kids for a walk and forgets to close the door.  I'll usually text her to find out if they're playing in the front yard or out for a walk before I close it on them (there's a warning beeper before it closes for safety reasons).

You can set up instant alerts (that sort of work) or time-delay alerts depending on day of week and time of day.  Any open/close action between 9 PM and 7 AM alerts my phone immediately (when it works... I don't always get them when I go out for an early morning run or take out the trash late at night). Between 7 AM and 9 PM weekdays, there's a 30 minute alarm, with a 2-hour alarm on weekends.

I haven't enabled the camera because I don't have the time to secure it properly on the network.

There are a lot of complaints in the home automation community about Chamberlain as a company removing the API access to their MyQ systems recently.  I have some smart home stuff running, but not integrated as tightly as some, so it hasn't affected me, but I agree in principle with the complaints.
 
The MyQ opener I have came with the house. It's a model 8355W and was manufactured in 2018. It has WIFI, but the wireless radio stopped working a few months ago and after numerous unsuccessful tries to reconnect it, I gave up.

woodbutcherbower said:
Wow mate - that's terrifying. It must have felt like 'almost' being hit by a huge truck. I also can't believe the breaker didn't trip. I can't help imagining how you'd have felt if you'd lost the (is that a?) Bronco. Glad it ended well.
Click to expand...

I don't think I really grasped what had happened until I closed up the garage and was driving to pick up my daughter. I'm always pretty careful about unplugging chargers, space heaters, etc., whether it is in the shop or the house. This was just so unexpected, though I think most events of this nature are.

Hopefully, if anyone out there also works out of an old, unfinished garage with a roof that is past its sell-by date, this will encourage them to at least put a sheet of OSB or something over the opener to redirect any kind of leak that might find its way into the electronics.

And yes, it's a 66 Bronco, stock and unrestored. I've had it for almost 12 years and go through phases of keeping it or selling it. The pendulum is currently swinging in the sell direction...

Cheese said:
You were very lucky Anthony...you dodged a major bullet.  [smile]

I can't believe the breaker didn't shut it down. If that were GFCI or AFCI protected, it certainly would have tripped.
Click to expand...

I texted my electrician today about adding some GFCI and/or AFCI breakers to the panel. A couple years ago, he upgraded my service to 200A and added a 100A sub-panel to the garage. The outlet the opener was plugged into is still wired to the main panel. Who knows what kind of spaghetti wiring is in the walls of this old house.
 
4nthony said:
Snip.The outlet the opener was plugged into is still wired to the main panel. Who knows what kind of spaghetti wiring is in the walls of this old house.
Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting that you do that, but the simplest and cheapest solution ($35 Cdn?) is to replace that opener outlet with a GFCI and AFCI one.
 
4nthony said:
My electrician got back to me and said the arc probably should've tripped the breaker. We don't know why it didn't but I may put a couple of these in the garage just to be safe.
Click to expand...

The first thing I'd do is replace the breaker, it's kaput. [smile]

The nice thing about the GFCI's that Ron pointed out is that if you add any circuits downstream, they are also GFCI protected.
 
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