Garage Door Repair

Common Garage Door Problems We Fix

Your opener does very little of the lifting. The springs carry almost all of the door's weight, the lift cables carry that lifting force to the bottom corners, and the rollers and tracks guide the door up and down. When a door stops working, one of those parts has almost always worn out or broken.

Broken springs are the most common repair by far. Springs are rated for a set number of open-and-close cycles, and eventually the steel fatigues and snaps. Cables fray or slip off their drums, rollers seize, and a bumped track or a cracked hinge can bring the whole door to a halt.

What your door is telling you:

• A loud bang from the garage, then a door that won't lift: almost always a broken torsion spring.
• The door rises a few inches, then stops or reverses: something in the way, a safety sensor problem, or a binding track.
• One side hangs lower than the other: a lift cable has slipped off its drum or snapped.
• Grinding or scraping along the track: worn rollers, or a track that's been knocked out of line.
• The opener runs but the door doesn't move: a stripped gear, a broken trolley, or a disconnected carriage.
• The door slams the last foot on the way down: the springs have lost tension and the door is out of balance.

How We Diagnose Garage Door Problems

We start by disconnecting the opener and moving the door by hand. A balanced door stays put about halfway up and feels light through its whole travel. If it drops or shoots up, the springs are worn or broken, and no opener adjustment will fix that.

Then we check the whole system: spring condition, cable seating on both drums, rollers, track alignment, hinges, the top sections, and the opener's force and travel settings. Guessing at one part and swapping it is how homeowners end up paying twice. We find the cause, explain it to you, and give you a firm price before we start.

Garage Door Repair or Replacement?

If the door sections are sound, the fix is almost always a repair. Springs, cables, rollers, hinges, bearings, tracks and openers are all replaceable parts on an otherwise good door, and replacing them costs far less than a new door.

Replacement starts to make sense when the sections themselves are failing: rust through the bottom section, several cracked panels, an insulated door coming apart, or impact damage across more than a couple of sections. We'll show you which side of that line your door is on before you spend anything.

Compare with garage door replacement →

Why Spring and Cable Repair Isn't a DIY Job

Torsion springs hold a large amount of stored energy, even with the door closed. They're wound with steel winding bars, and a spring that slips during a DIY repair can cause serious injuries. Lift cables and bottom brackets are under the same tension any time the door isn't fully open.

Changing a remote battery, wiping the photo-eye lenses and tightening a loose hinge screw are fine to do yourself. Anything involving springs, cables or bottom brackets is a job for us.

Mighty Garage Doors is a family business run by a father and son, and the person who quotes your repair is usually the one who does it. As Bradley Crowder wrote in a Google review, "Roberto showed up and was able to fix our garage on the spot." Call us, describe what the door is doing, and we'll take it from there.