When a door is manufactured, the complete door face including all of the metal hardware that is attached to the door face.....that moves as a unit when the door is raised and lowered is put on an accurate scale and weighed. Taking into consideration the width of the door, the height of the door, the weight of the door and the cable drums selected, charts are consulted to calculate the correct springs. The inside diameter of the spring, the diameter of the wire used to wind the spring and the length of the spring are then determined. There are other considerations such as how much "lift" or vertical travel the door face must make before it begins to become horizontal. Also, the life of the spring is also determined and the life is spoken about in "cycles". One cycle represents the door opening and then closing fully. Many residential door springs have an estimated life cycle of 6000. High usage industrial doors may use springs that will live for 100,000 cycles of operation. How well a door is balanced is relative to how good the person who calculated the springs was. It is also relative to how good the installer was when he put the door in. All too often, doors are slapped in on a flat rate basis. As long as the door goes up and down, the installer just rushes to the next job because the more doors he slaps in per day, the more money he makes. IF......the springs on your door were calculated properly and the door was installed properly, then the door should sit on the floor with about 5 to 10 pounds of weight max. If you lift the door 1 foot and let it go, the door should stop right there. It should not try to rise up nor should it try to fall lower. You should be able to do the same thing at any point in the vertical travel of the door. When the door is fully open, it should not rush up in the last foot or two of travel. It should sit just above the opening in a position that allows full clearance of the opening. In other words, if your opening is seven foot high, then the bottom edge of the door should be slightly more than seven feet off the floor. The door should not creep back down into the opening either. The door should move smoothly up and down. It should not rub the tracks, squeak, squeal or bind anywhere. Torsion springs should have a light coat of motor oil on them to prevent rust and keep the coils from binding on each other. The springs should have the exact same number of turns on them because they work in unison. If one spring is wound tighter than the other, then that shortens the life of that spring. All springs will settle in after installation and lose a bit of tension. Installers often put extra tension on the springs when they first put them in to compensate for this tension loss so they don't have to return on their own time to do a door adjustment under warranty. Over time, the springs will continue to lose a bit of tension but the biggest loss is within the first 6 months. And yes, if you don't know what you are doing, spring adjusting can be very dangerous.

Kudzu and Joseph Corlett, he said that when he dug down he saw gravel. He didn't dig into the gravel, but assumed it was surrounding a drain. That area of the driveway does have water that doesn't flow away well during heavy rain. Not tons of it, but it is definitely the least well-drained section of the driveway. The driveway was installed about 8 years ago and it is better than before, but still not perfect. So, if he digs down and finds the drain, would you expect it be clogged and need to be removed and replaced? Would it be possible to tie it back into the existing line to the storm sewer (assuming it currently is)? Also, what type of waterproofing product or process do you recommend when he digs it up? Thanks again for your advice.

^^what LK said. Did a structural engineer calculate the load and what would be needed to support it, or did your contractor make a “best guess”? We opened up a load bearing wall on our first floor and the engineer indicated that 2 LVLs were needed for a maximum span of 11.5’ - so that’s what our contractor put in. We have had no issues or cracks anywhere on the first floor or second floor in about the same amount of time as yours, so if an engineer did not calculate what was needed to support the structure and carry the load, it could be a big and costly issue to correct.

"How much floor sagging is normal for a 20X14 over the garage bedroom?" New construction? There should be no sagging at all. I would get a good GC out to look at it. Or find out what your floor joists are and have some calcs run. But I will almost guarantee that if this is a tract type home the joists are bare minimum as far as code is concerned. Is the flooring system wood I-joists?