Garage Door Replacement Concerns

Hello,

Just a little background: I'm pretty handy and have renovated two of our prior homes, the last one very extensively.  I've done a lot of rewiring, wired a new 3-bedroom addition, installed roofing, vinyl siding, redesigned and installed hot a zoned hot water heating system, hung and finished drywall, and installed a replacement garge door, etc etc.  I say all this not to brag, but just to drive the point home that I can handle replacing our current garage door.  Also, I am very aware that torsion springs can be very dangerous, which is why I'm seeking advice before I proceed with this project...

I am replacing our current 16' single layer garage door with a new double layer door.  

The current door has one 33" torsion spring.

The new door has two 22" torsion springs and an S3 Winder.

My concern is regarding the existing spring pad.  The installation instructions say that the spring pad should be attached with 5/16" x 4" lag bolts.  My current spring pad is attached with what appear to be 16d nails.  See pic:

Can't figure out how to get a pic to display here, the "host" and "insert" don't seem to work.  I've attached a pic to the post, and a larger version can be viewed here on Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KSI69gLdpJkRWIk1Cb5h-34dcefu44mc/view?usp=sharing


I really do not want to replace that spring pad, as I see that leading to drywall patching, etc.  BUT, I also don't want myself or anyone else injured due to an inadequately attached spring pad either.

Our house was built around 2003.  Were the codes different back then?  Would I be okay to do the install without any changes to the spring pad?

Thanks for your help!

That's a larger than normal spring pad and I don't think that replacing it would be necessary. You may want to throw a couple of new screws into it just to make sure it's secure. Nails won't hold the spring pad in place as well as lags would but if the nails are secure in the wood behind the drywall it should be fine.

I have seen spring pads that were secured with nails (and lags) that have pulled out of the wall because the fasteners missed the mark & weren't fastened to anything but drywall. It's always best to use lags but nails should work fine as long as it's secure.

GDZone wrote:That's a larger than normal spring pad and I don't think that replacing it would be necessary. You may want to throw a couple of new screws into it just to make sure it's secure. Nails won't hold the spring pad in place as well as lags would but if the nails are secure in the wood behind the drywall it should be fine.

I have seen spring pads that were secured with nails (and lags) that have pulled out of the wall because the fasteners missed the mark & weren't fastened to anything but drywall. It's always best to use lags but nails should work fine as long as it's secure.

Thanks for your reply, Brian.

I'll definitely take a look at adding a couple of lags.  There is no drywall between the spring pad and the framing, looks like it was in place before the drywall, then the drywall was installed.

It's been there as old as the house is (15+ years), and hasn't come loose yet, but with the new door I'm installing using two (vs one) torsion springs, I just want to be extra sure that I'm doing it right.

Thanks again!