Friday was almost a disaster....

MORNING SESSION: CENTURION SD04

a Colleague had too much on his plate, so he called and asked me to do him a favour. He needed us to go and install a Centurion SDO4 garage door for a friend of his. He wasn't gonna be able to fit it in.... I charged him a very reasonable R650 (Basic Call-out/Service fee), and we were off to Berg-and-Dal Estate in Chancliff.....

The arrangement with the owner was that I would do a thorough check on the garage door, before installation, including safety issues check, door balance check, check spring tension, check hinges, check lift cables, check nylon guide wheels. - I charged another R150 for the check. I should have asked more, because, i'd have to unwind, and re-tension the springs of a 80 kg wooden sectional door.

Whilst re-tensioning the springs, the left hand spring popped on 6.5 turns. Nobody got hurt, and I thank the Lord, because it could have ended badly. Garage door springs are very dangerous. I called the client, and explained what happened. It was a tense period, because you never know how a client will react - The thing is, I so often have to be the bearer of bad news. Nobody likes to incur unexpected costs. I told him the springs needed to be replaced, anyway, because the door became too heavy for it. - He was fortunately, aware of the heavy door. What would have been a mid size job, just turned into a big job. I charged him the standard fee of R 2400 for spring replacement, and gave R 200 discount because of the earlier charge of R 800, so that the total would be a round figure of 3 K.

The door came out very well, with perfect spring tensioning, balancing the door in the middle.

The Centurion S.D.0.4 is a significant improvement on the X-Track. It utilizes 2 x 3.4 Ah batteries, connected in series to form a 24 V / 6.8 Ah battery pack.

One more thing.... As a prospective client - Please don't buy the material yourself. It makes absolutely no sense. You aren't saving money, you're just allowing the wholesale supplier to make more profit on the item, than he would have, if he sold it to me/another installer, and you'll end up paying more for the installation, because, normally I would take into account, the fact that I was able to make something on the item, and therefore charge you less for the installation. Live and let live - Better to give the profit to a small business, where it won't go unnoticed, than to some big firm, where it just becomes a small part of the grand total.

AFTERNOON SESSION: CENTURION D3 RE-INSTALLATION

BREAKDOWN OF COSTS: R2930

REMOVAL, - R 250

REFURBISHMENT - R 2400

RE-INSTALLATION : - R 480

Hiccups, Hiccups and more Hiccups - Gate motor had us doubting ourselves at one stage, but the problem was with the internal D.o.s.s. I did a swap out, and voila. 16:15, and I called Chila!