Old Door Removal and Disposal

Purpose

Removal is the half of a changeout that gets treated as demolition, and it is where the injuries and the arguments both live. The injuries come from taking a door apart while the counterbalance still holds energy. The arguments come from a rotten jamb or a bowed header that was there before you arrived and that nobody photographed, so it becomes the new door's problem the first time it binds.

This procedure guarantees three things: the counterbalance is dead and proven dead before any fastener comes out, the pre-existing condition of the opening is recorded before it is hidden by new trim, and the old materials leave in the right streams rather than in whatever bin the customer has.

Scope

Covers removal of an existing residential or light commercial sectional door and its counterbalance hardware, condition documentation of the opening, and disposal or recycling of the removed materials.

Does not cover the new door installation, which the new door install SOP owns and which begins once step 8 hands over a documented opening. Does not cover commercial rolling steel curtain removal, where the barrel comes down as an assembly and is a rigging job. Does not cover structural repair of a header or jamb, which the customer contracts separately - this procedure documents the defect and stops.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Kill the counterbalance first, and prove it is dead. Nothing else happens until the springs hold no energy. On a torsion system, run the winding bar and tool inspection gate, then unwind the springs in counted quarter turns and record the turns removed. On an extension system, raise the door fully, secure it in the open position with clamps in both tracks so the springs are at their slackest, and only then release them. Acceptance: torsion springs unwound with zero residual tension confirmed by hand on the cone, or extension springs slack with the door clamped open. Wrong looks like a technician pulling a cable off a drum with turns still in the spring. Stop rule: any doubt about residual tension stops the job - re-check rather than assume. Hazard: this is the stored mechanical energy step, governed by 29 CFR 1910.147, and it is the one that maims people on this procedure; nobody removes a bottom bracket fastener, a drum set screw or a cable at any point before this step is complete.

2. Establish whether the coating on the door is a lead concern before you cut, grind or break anything. Ask the build year and look at the door. Acceptance: either the structure is confirmed post-1978, or the removal is planned with no cutting, sanding, grinding or torch work on painted surfaces, or the customer has arranged a certified firm. Wrong looks like a sawzall through painted wood panels on a 1950s house to make the load fit in the trailer. Stop rule: where the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart E applies - pre-1978 target housing or a child-occupied facility, and whether a detached garage falls inside that definition is a question for your state's lead program rather than a call to make in a driveway - the work stops until scope is confirmed. Hazard: dry sanding, grinding and torch cutting of lead-bearing paint generate an inhalation exposure that gloves and eye protection do nothing for; if any of those operations are unavoidable, they need the respiratory control and the written program required by 29 CFR 1910.134, not a nuisance dust mask.

3. Photograph the opening and the door before anything comes down. Shoot the header, both jambs top to bottom, the floor across the opening, the track mounting points, and any water staining, rot, insect damage or cracking. Acceptance: a photo set that lets someone who was not there see the pre-existing condition, with a tape in frame for scale on any defect. Wrong looks like four wide shots and no close-ups. Stop rule: no photos, no removal - once the old door is off and the new trim is on, the shop cannot prove a rotten jamb predated the work, and that is the argument this step exists to win.

4. Strip the cables and drums with the shaft captured. With the counterbalance dead, unhook the cables from the bottom brackets, back off the drum set screws, and support the shaft before it is free at both ends. Acceptance: the shaft is held or lowered under control, cables are off, and no fastener has been removed that was carrying load. Wrong looks like a shaft dropping onto the floor or onto a section still standing in the tracks. Stop rule: if a cable is seized to a drum, cut it after confirming zero tension rather than fighting it. Hazard: the bottom bracket is the last place cable tension hides, so treat every bottom bracket as live until this step has visibly confirmed slack cable on both sides.

5. Take the door down section by section, from the top. Remove the top section's hinges and rollers and lift it out, then work down. Acceptance: each section comes out intact, the remaining stack stays in the tracks, no section left standing free without support. Wrong looks like removing a middle hinge and letting the stack hinge open. Stop rule: two people on any insulated or double-wide section, including the last one when everybody is tired - that is where the back injuries land. Hazard: sections trap fingers at every joint and older doors carry glass lites that break inward when a section flexes, so this is a cut-resistant glove and eye protection step with bystanders out of the bay.

6. Remove track, brackets and the operator connection, and leave the wiring safe. Take down vertical and horizontal track, rear hangers, center bearing plate and end bearing plates. If the operator is being reused, disconnect the door arm and leave it supported; if it is being removed, unplug it and confirm it is dead before pulling the head. Acceptance: all door hardware down, fasteners out of the jambs rather than bent over, operator wiring either intact and unplugged or made safe. Wrong looks like a cut low-voltage run left hanging, or a hardwired operator disconnected at the head with the branch circuit still live. Stop rule: hardwired removal that requires opening a junction box is electrical work under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) - isolate at the branch circuit and verify dead before the box is opened, or hand that portion to the electrician.

7. Assess and report the opening condition against what the new door needs. Check the header for bowing, both jambs for plumb and for rot at the base, the floor for level across the opening, and the framing for anything that will not hold track fasteners. Acceptance: a written condition note per element, with the measurement or the observation, and a clear statement of whether the opening is ready for install. Wrong looks like "jambs a bit soft" with no location and no depth. Stop rule: a jamb that will not hold a track fastener, or a header that is bowed enough to bind the top section, is reported and the install does not proceed on it - a new door hung on bad framing comes back as a warranty call the shop cannot win, and the customer needs the choice while the opening is open.

8. Separate the removed materials into their disposal streams and haul them out. Acceptance: steel sections, track, hardware, springs and cables to scrap metal; wood sections to the wood or construction stream your transfer station takes; glass separated where the facility requires it; the operator's motor and control board to the electronics or scrap stream, not to household trash. Wrong looks like the whole door in the customer's roll-off, which is a disposal violation in some jurisdictions and fills a container the customer is paying for. Stop rule: if the local facility will not take a stream that day, the material comes back to the shop rather than being left on the customer's property. Hazard: sections loaded on edge in an open trailer become airborne on the highway, so lay flat, strap, and check the load before leaving the driveway.

The record this produces

A removal record attached to the changeout job, which is the install crew's starting document:

• Counterbalance data before removal: spring type, count, turns removed, wire size and length if legible, drum size. This is the cross-check on the new door's spring selection.
• Photo set from step 3, with each element named: header, left jamb, right jamb, floor, track mounts, defects.
• Lead determination from step 2: build year, method used, and whether any prohibited operation was avoided.
• Condition note per element from step 7, with the readiness statement.
• Disposal record: what streams the material went to and the facility, plus what came back to the shop.
• Any customer decision made on the driveway, and who made it.

The install lead reads the condition note and photos before hanging anything. The estimator reads the counterbalance data against what was quoted, because a door that carried two springs where the quote priced one is a scope conversation to have that day. If the customer later attributes a rotten jamb to the installation, the photo set answers it in a minute.

Worked pass: 16 ft by 7 ft steel double, 1968 house, changeout

Work order carried the build year at 1968 and flagged painted wood trim around the opening, so step 2 was in play before the truck left.

Step 1 ran the winding bar gate, then unwound two torsion springs at 7.75 turns each, recorded on the sheet, with residual tension confirmed zero by hand on both cones. Step 2 confirmed the door itself was steel and unpainted on the interior face, but the jamb trim was painted and the structure predates 1978, so the removal was planned with no cutting, sanding or grinding of any painted surface - track fasteners were backed out rather than cut, and the trim was left in place entirely.

Step 3 photographed the opening: header, both jambs top to bottom, floor, and four track mounting points, with a tape in frame on the base of the left jamb where water staining was visible from the driveway side.

Step 7 failed. The left jamb was sound at the top and soft through the bottom roughly 14 in, with a screwdriver going in under light pressure at two of the three lower track mounting points. That is a jamb that will not hold a track fastener, and step 7's stop rule was taken: the install did not proceed. The customer was shown both failed mounting points with the framing exposed, which is the one moment in the job when that conversation is easy, and chose to have their carpenter replace the lower jamb first.

Steps 4, 5, 6 and 8 completed as planned: shaft captured and lowered, four sections removed top-down with two people on each, track and hardware down with fasteners backed out, steel and springs to the scrap metal stream, operator retained by the customer and left unplugged and supported. The changeout became two visits instead of one, the second one short because the opening was already stripped and documented. The alternative was a new door hung on a jamb that would have let go at the lower track mount within a season, on the shop's warranty, with no photograph of what that jamb looked like before anyone touched it.

References

• 29 CFR 1910.147, control of hazardous energy, governing the counterbalance unwinding in step 1. Operator branch-circuit work in step 6 falls under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) instead, per the electrical carve-out at 1910.147(a)(1)(ii)(C).
• 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart E, the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which gates step 2 for pre-1978 target housing and child-occupied facilities; your state may administer an authorized program with its own scope.
• 29 CFR 1910.134, the respiratory protection standard, which governs any operation in step 2 that would generate airborne lead-bearing paint dust or fume.
• See related: the winding bar and tool inspection SOP gating step 1, the new door install SOP that takes over at step 8, and the door balance test standard used to accept the finished changeout.