Garage door repair, symptom by symptom

What happens

What is actually going on

A sectional garage door is a simple machine with a small number of failure points: the springs that counterbalance the weight, the cables and drums that transfer it, the rollers and track that guide it, the hinges that let the sections fold, the opener that drives it, and the sections themselves.

Diagnosis matters more than it sounds, because several of these fail with the same symptom. A door that will not lift could be a spring, a cable, a stripped opener gear, or a door that has racked out of square. Guessing wrong means paying for a part that was never the problem.

This is why the site is organised by what the door is doing rather than by what we sell. Describe the symptom and the right repair follows from it.

Signs

What you would notice

• The door will not open or close at all
• It moves partway and stops or reverses
• It is noisy, grinding, or shuddering through its travel
• It hangs crooked, binds, or will not seal at the bottom
• A panel is bent, cracked, or has come away from its hinge
• The opener runs but nothing happens

What we do

What the visit involves

1. Diagnose before quoting. We check the balance of the door by hand with the opener disconnected — that one test separates spring problems from opener problems.
2. Tell you what failed and what it costs before the work starts.
3. Repair with parts already on the truck wherever possible, so it is one visit.
4. Rebalance the door and reset the opener limits afterwards.
5. Test the safety reverse before leaving. Every time.

What it costs

Priced before the work starts

You get the number before we begin, not after. What moves it is the size of the door, the parts it needs, and whether anything else came apart when the first thing failed.

Questions

What people ask

How do I tell if it is the springs or the opener?

Pull the release cord to disconnect the opener, then lift the door by hand to about waist height and let go. A correctly balanced door stays roughly where you put it. If it drops or flies up, the springs are the problem and a new opener would not have fixed anything.

Do you repair the door itself or only the hardware?

Both. Individual sections can often be replaced without replacing the whole door, which is worth checking before anyone quotes you a full replacement.

Is it worth repairing an old door?

Frequently, yes. Hardware is inexpensive relative to a new door, and a sound door with tired hardware is a repair. We will say when a door is genuinely at the end of its life rather than defaulting to the bigger sale.

Where we work

Service area

Related

Other things that fail

• Broken torsion spring replacement A snapped spring is the single most common reason a garage door stops working, and the one repair nobody should attempt themselves.
• Garage door opener repair and installation When the opener runs but the door stays put, the opener is usually not the part that failed.
• Cable, roller and track repair The hardware that guides the door is cheap. What it costs to ignore is not.